For the past month, oak pollen has been in the air in greater numbers the the past year. Students across the school feel the effects in runny noses, itchy eyes and sore throats.

“Allergies have affected me on a major scale,” sophomore Connolly Moore said. “My nose is running 24/7 and my eyes have puffed up as if they were filled with water and allergens.”

According to allergy experts the polar vortex has caused pollen producing trees to release more pollen across the nation to compensate for the cold winter of 2014.

“If it warms up quickly, and it gets really warm, that may mean everything starts pollinating all at once,” professor of biology at the University of Tulsa Estelle Levetin said in an interview for TIME.

Locally, the unseasonably warm temperatures have started spring early, so live oak pollen has higher counts than mountain cedar pollen.

“The spring tree season typically runs from mid- March through late May,” allergist Jeffery Hallett said.  

Until the count dies down, everyone can take precautions to avoid pollen.