AUSTIN (KXAN) – Cedar season is just beginning. Cedar pollen showed up Friday with a medium count of 53 grains per cubic meter of air.

That falls on the low end of the medium range, but it’s a far cry from a year ago when there were several days when the count went well in the thousands.

Dr. John Dice at Allergy and Asthma Consultants said cedar season is a little delayed this year because of the lack of rain.

“It’ll probably be a little delayed in its start and the rain we’ve seen recently has probably held it down a little bit too,” Dice said. “But once it gets cooler and dry, that’s when the cedar starts to bloom.”

The good news is he doesn’t expect it to be as bad as last year.

“Last year was really bad,” said Dice. “We had some really high record pollen counts last year because of good rainfall. I expect it won’t be quite as bad this year but the thing with cedar is even mild levels are still pretty bad for people who are cedar sufferers.”

Cedar season peaks in January and wraps up in February. That’s when symptoms like sneezing, congestion, running nose and itchy eyes will be at their worst.

Dice said to start with over-the-counter remedies like antihistamines, decongestants and saline nasal rinses.

“Once those things aren’t quite strong enough, you usually have to go see your doctor and get some prescription treatments for short term or to cover you for the whole season,” said Dice.