Ragweed Season in Full Bloom in North Texas

Ragweed season is here, sending allergy sufferers to their doctors looking for relief.

"For me, it's just that my sinuses completely shut down and I just can't breathe at night through my nose, so makes it hard to get a good night's sleep," said Louis Frisbie, of Dallas.

The long, wet spring followed by a hot, dry summer could make this season worse than most.

"It's growing in all the fields, you know all the fields we drive by every day, it's just everywhere," said Kimberly Poarch, a nurse practitioner with Allergy & Asthma Specialists in Dallas.

In North Texas, ragweed season starts about the same time kids go back to school.

"So, a lot of times a kid develops sneezing or drainage and congestion and it's hard to say, 'Is it the cold that's going around or is it allergies?'" said Dr. Dania Wierzbicki, at the Dallas Allergy & Asthma Center.

"But especially if there's red, itchy, watery eyes or if perhaps they have asthma and that's flaring, too, then it's more likely allergies," said Wierzbicki.

"It can be confusing because the beginning of school also brings back a lot of infections that kids share back and forth," Dr. Drew Bird with Children's Health said. "So, with an illness, if there's fever, that's not an allergy, if it's something that comes for just a few days and resolves, that's not an allergy."

"But if you particularly see symptoms of itchy, watery eyes, a bit of sneezing, you're more concerned about allergy symptoms and then see your physician to see if further treatment needs to be performed," said Bird.

Allergy shots and prescription medications help a lot of people, and rain that clears the air offers some relief, but not for long.

"When we get a rain, it relieves symptoms temporarily. But plants like rain, so with the rain will come more ragweed growth and more flowering and pollination," said Poarch.

Ragweed season normally ends about the time it starts getting colder in November.