MINNEAPOLIS— Without all that warm sunshine, you might mistake all the floating cottonwoods in Minnesota for snowflakes.
“The weather was beautiful, so I didn’t think it was snowing, but it was a little shocking,” Jessalee Simonson said.
Video of Tuesday’s Twins game at Target Field, showing cottonwood rain, is spreading on social media.
The poplar wood may have prompted Charles Barkley to make a joke about the Dallas Mavericks.
“I’m just going to show them the Minnesota weather — that snow and say, ‘You guys don’t want to come back here, do you?’” Barkley said.
All jokes aside, the poplar wood is having an impact on the daily lives of some Minnesotans, with pollen levels causing some allergies to go into overdrive.
“We were just walking around the lake and I was…my throat was dry and she said, ‘I think you just got a little poplar in the windpipe.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, it feels like it’s a little piece of cottonwood.'” Steve Langlois said.
According to Allergy Insider, keeping your windows closed is a good way to keep pollen out. Washing your clothes and yourself after being outside will keep pollen out of your bed, which you should also wash regularly during the pollen months.
“I just close the windows and turn on the fans. We take honey because that’s supposed to help with allergies, but that’s about it,” Claire Barczak said.
Stronger winds could also stir up more of that pollen.
