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Avaibility of data and materials: Available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Thunderstorm-triggered asthma TA can be defined as the occurrence of acute asthma attacks immediately following a thunderstorm during pollen seasons.
Outbreaks have occurred across the world during pollen season with the capacity to rapidly inundate a health care service, resulting in potentially catastrophic outcomes for allergic patients. TA occurs when specific meteorological and aerobiological factors combine to affect predisposed atopic patients with IgE-mediated sentitization to pollen allergens. Thunderstorm outflows can concentrate aeroallergens, most commonly grass pollen but also other pollens such as Parietaria and moulds in TA, at ground level to release respirable allergenic particles after rupture by osmotic shock related to humidity and rainfall.
Inhalation of high concentrations of these aeroallergens by sensitized individuals can induce early asthmatic responses which can be followed by a late inflammatory phase. There is evidence that, during pollen season, thunderstorms can induce allergic asthma outbreaks, sometimes also severe asthma crisis and sometimes deaths in patients suffering from pollen allergy.
It has been observed that changes in the weather such as rain or humidity may induce hydratation of pollen grains during pollen seasons and sometimes also their fragmentation which generates atmospheric biological aerosols carrying allergens.
