A wet winter has provided the perfect atmosphere for allergens, with high moisture and rainfall thought to contribute to increased pollen production.

Cyprus pines, some of the first to produce pollen at this time of year, have already begun dispersing "dust clouds" into the air.

Simon Haberle, Director at the ANU School of Culture, History and Language, said monitoring has picked up abundant levels of pollen on several recent days.

Professor Haberle said it seems to be an earlier season than what is typical for Canberra.

He said the wet winter and increased CO2 in the atmosphere has contributed to a worse environment for allergy sufferers.

"All these things associated with climate change tend to produce a kind of environment in which pollen is much more abundant and can be actually more allergenic for people as well," Professor Haberle said.

"I would predict it's going to be another fairly bad year for hay fever sufferers."

Canberra has the unfortunate recognition of being the allergy capital, with the highest rates of hay fever of any city in Australia.

Nearly a third of Canberrans suffer some form of allergy to pollen, which is thought to cost the ACT economy at least $170 million a year through sick days and impacts to productivity.

Professor Haberle said pollen levels are bad in Canberra because it misses out on the sea breeze that clears the air in other capital cities.

"We also have this very beautiful urban landscape which is filled with lots of native trees but also has lots of introduced northern hemisphere trees, such as cypress pine and ash and birch plane trees," he said.

"We're one of the hotspots in Australia because we're landlocked, but we also have a lot of allergenic trees in our landscape."

Tree pollen season typically runs from mid-July, with grass pollen season adding to woes from October.

After the pines kick things off, olive, alder, birch, elms, and plane trees follow.

From spring to summer, hay fever sufferers contend with ryegrass too, with northwest winds spreading spores, particularly after a few clear, sunny days.

Professor Haberle leads a team of researchers who track daily pollen and spore counts, using a monitoring device atop a university building rooftop.

The level is reported each day on the Canberra Pollen website and data is compared with pollen monitoring places around the world.

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Researchers have also been developing spatial maps of pollen allergy risk across Canberra, using surveys of garden and street plants.

Professor Haberle said there's a significant effort going into reducing the number of allergenic trees in the ACT landscape.

He said an important outcome of their research will be to provide a clearer understanding of what the main allergenic trees are and how people are responding to them.

"Hopefully, that can be built into future planning for trees and planted landscapes in the Canberra region," he said.

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