h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The other day I woke up feeling quite scarily ill. I suffer from mild asthma, but normally this amounts to nothing worse than an occasional mild wheeziness that can instantly be fixed with a quick squirt on my Ventolin inhaler. On Thursday morning, however, I woke really struggling and labouring for breath. I quickly got myself to the doctors, where an examination confirmed that overnight I'd gone down to one-third of my normal lung capacity. Fortunately, my condition was easily treatable with steroid pills, which seem to have fixed things very quickly. I now feel, if anything, a little better than normal, since the pills have the pleasant side effect of making me feel slightly speedy and giddy.

But here's what seems to me to be startling bit: the blamed my condition on the weather. I am affected by hay fever, and there was an exceptionally high pollen count. In addition to that, though, there were highly unusual atmospheric conditions around in West Yorkshire, and these had affected my breathing. This I could well believe: we'd had very heavy humidity and the most spectacular electrical storms I've ever seen during the week.

So can I blame this on climate change? Is it likely to happen again? And were any other Researchers similarly affected?

Traveller in Time remembering hay fever
"I had serious effects last years, change of job seems to have cured most of it .

Exceptionally heavy thunder storms, hmm think we have about one each year. We were shaking for an hour illuminated by flashes last Quick. "

The pollen count, pollution & generaly yuckiness was as bad on the right side of the Pennines too Ormy, I was bad & a girl I work with ended up in hospital Don't know if we can blame 'global warming' tho, I'm old enough to remember what the atmosphere was like before the Clean Air Act & this time of year used to be almost as bad then. We seemed to get more thunderstorms then, but that may just be because of where I was living.

Dang, Ormy. That's rather rough - being allergic to England! Any chance of an arctic front moving in to give you some relief?

My niece, Lady C's daughter, was allergic to Kansas when she was a child, which was inconvenient since that's where she lived.

Allergies are a bother and a half. Hope you feel better soon.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure an Arctic front would make much difference - the weather conditions and pollen count are equally bad here in Sweden. For several weeks now my eyes have been full of 'grovel' (as we call it in Sweden) when I wake up in the morning *sighs*

, everyone! I'm feeling much better now - the tablets are still working. I'm now on a seaside holiday in Lytham St. Annes on the Lancashire coast, and the reason I'm in a library typing away is that the rain is lashing down outside. But I suppose that was bound to happen in England on the opening day of Wimbledon.

and the second, and the third, and the fourth.................