MILWAUKEE — For Wisconsinites dealing with allergies this time of year, the only consistency, thanks to Mother Nature, has been change.

“It has been a challenging spring season because we had some early defrost of snow, which allowed those soil molds to start to come out,” said Sarah Rudie, a family nurse practitioner at Allergy Associates of La Crosse. “Then we had a really quick warm-up with trees that started to bloom and even flower, and patients were miserable pretty early on. Then, here in La Crosse, we did have a very late snowfall which gave people a little bit of a reprieve, but now we’re full into spring— we have our trees pollinating, our grasses as well, so if people are going to have some allergy symptoms and spring is typically a bad time for them, they are starting to notice that right now.”

Another challenge when it comes to allergies this time of year is knowing whether one’s suffering from them, or might be dealing with the common cold or another type of virus.

“Some of the symptoms can be very similar,” Rudie said. “Typically with allergy symptoms, patients tend to have itch associated with it, so itchy, watery eyes, itchy nose, runny nose, increased nasal congestion, sometimes a scratchy throat and sometimes the skin can even be itchy.”

Watch the full interview above.