2023’s Worst Cities for Grass Allergies This Summer

Where is your picnic on the grass most likely to trigger a stuffy nose and itchy eyes?

To mark Allergy and Asthma Awareness Month this May, Lawn Love ranked 2023’s Worst Cities for Grass Allergies This Summer.

We compared 131 metro areas based on allergy risk, exacerbators, and access to detection and treatment resources. More specifically, we looked at grass pollen forecasts, allergen intensity, and lawn mowing frequency, among nine total metrics.

Here are the 10 worst metro areas (and the 10 best) for grass allergy sufferers, followed by key stats from our report:

Worst Metro Areas for Grass Allergies		Best Metro Areas for Grass Allergies
Rank	Metro Area	Rank	Metro Area
1	Springfield, MA	1	Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
2	Wichita, KS	2	Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL
3	New Haven-Milford, CT	3	Naples-Marco Island, FL
4	Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT	4	North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL
5	Modesto, CA	5	Lafayette, LA
6	Lancaster, PA	6	Charleston-North Charleston, SC
7	Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY	7	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
8	Syracuse, NY	8	Lexington-Fayette, KY
9	San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA	9	Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC
10	Toledo, OH	10	Tucson, AZ

Key insights:

Seaside Safe Havens: Beachy, sandy Florida metros are particularly ideal for grass allergy sufferers. Three of our best-performing five metros are located in the Sunshine State. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL, metro (No. 130) is tops in Florida overall and in both Allergy Risk(No. 129) and Allergen Severity (No. 125).
Test vs. Treatment: The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI, metro offers the most grass allergen tests, 26. However, getting treatment might require a trip to Madison, WI, which boasts the third-best access to allergists and immunologists per 100,000 residents. Greater Chicago ranks just below average (No. 62) in that metric.
Un-Fantastic Four: The four metros with the worst grass pollen indices in 2022 landed in the same spots this year. They include Corpus Christi, TX; Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA; Richmond, VA; and Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC — in that order.
Mo’ Mows in Ohio: Residents of Buckeye State metros historically request the most lawn mows, which exacerbate grass allergy symptoms, over the summer. Ohio metros make up half of the worst 16 in this metric. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA, occupies the bottom spot with an average of over 2.5 mows per home.
Gusty Golden Grasses: The San Francisco Bay Area swept the top spots in average historical summer wind speed. Modesto (part of the larger combined statistical area) landed at No. 1, followed by the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara and San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metros. The three least windy also are in California.
Game Changers: Climate change is likely to worsen grass allergies for sufferers in parts of Connecticut that are already among our five worst metros overall. They include New Haven-Milford, CT (No. 3 overall and No. 2 in climate change risk), and Hartford-East Hartford-Middletown, CT (No. 4 both overall and in risk).

Helpful links:

See where your city ranks
Full study article
Expert insights
Methodology
Media resources (hi-res images and 2022 ranking results)

Please email with any questions you have about our study or if you would like to interview one of Lawn Love’s editors.

Grass already getting to you? Avoid grass pollen altogether by hiring a local Lawn Love pro to mow your lawn.

2023’s Worst Cities for Grass Allergies This Summer

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