Hay fever sufferers are facing misery this week as grass pollen is now in peak season with very high levels across parts of the country, including the North West.
According to the Met Office grass pollen is now in peak season.
Fungal spores are at medium risk and there is lots of weed pollen, mainly nettle.
For the north west on Monday, the pollen count is high and it is very high on both Tuesday and Friday this week. It remains high throughout the rest of the week.
London and the South East see "very high" levels of pollen between Monday and Wednesday as it falls to "high" from Thursday onwards.
Only northern Scotland is recording low levels of pollen all week.
Meanwhile, a thunderstorm warning has been issued covering much of England and Wales between 6pm on Wednesday and 6am on Friday.
The Met Office said there is “significant uncertainty” about the location and timing of the thunderstorms but they are expected to move north-east across parts of England and Wales from late Wednesday through to Friday morning.
A spokesman said: “Whilst not all locations will be affected, some intense thunderstorms may occur during this period with torrential rain, hail, frequent lightning and strong gusty winds possible.”
Rainfall totals of around 30mm could fall in an hour. Some locations could potentially get around 50mm in two to three hours, but these would be fairly isolated occurrences, forecasters said.
