[A relationship between birch pollen counts and meteorological factors in Sapporo]

Occurrence of airborne pollen in Sapporo has been studied for 19 years during the period between 1995 and 2013. There are wide year-to-year variations in the quantities of birch pollens. A simple linear regression with the least squares method was used for studying correlations between the annual quantities of birch pollens and the meteorological factors. A significant positive correlation was found between the hours of sunlight in June of the preceding year and the annual birch pollen concentrations with the correlation coefficient, R = 0.667. Also, we found the significant positive correlation between the hours of sunlight in March and the annual birch pollen concentrations with the correlation coefficient, R = 0.684. These results suggest that the atmospheric birch pollen counts can be predicted from meteorological factors.