Cedar Fever in Austin (2026 Guide to Symptoms, Season & Relief)

Feeling wiped out, stuffy, and itchy-eyed in the middle of an Austin winter, but you don’t quite have a cold? You almost certainly have cedar fever, an intense allergic reaction to pollen from the mountain cedar (Ashe juniper) trees that blanket the Texas Hill Country. It is not contagious, it will not put you in the hospital, and it is not actually a fever. But from December through February it can make you feel genuinely awful. Here is the fast version. It peaks in January, it flares hardest right after a cold front, a non-drowsy antihistamine plus a steroid nasal spray is your best over-the-counter defense, and a temperature above 101.5°F means it is probably not cedar and you should see a doctor.

That is the emergency answer. Below is the complete one. It covers how to tell cedar fever apart from the flu or COVID, exactly how long it lasts, how to read Austin’s live pollen count, the treatment ladder that actually works, how to predict your worst days before they hit, and what visitors and new arrivals need to know before they land here in winter.

This guide is general information from a longtime Austin resident, gathered from medical and forestry sources cited throughout. It is not medical advice. For diagnosis, medication decisions, or any symptom that worries you, see a healthcare professional. Last updated July 2026.

Cedar Fever, or a Cold, Flu, or COVID?

This is the question that brings most people here, usually at 2 a.m. with a box of tissues. The single most useful tell is simple. Cedar fever makes your eyes, nose, and the roof of your mouth itch, and it responds to antihistamines. Colds, flu, and COVID do not itch, and antihistamines do nothing for them. Here is the full comparison.

The clearest dividing line is temperature. According to the Texas A&M Forest Service, cedar pollen can cause a slightly raised temperature in some people, but a fever above 101.5°F is not caused by cedar and points to an actual infection. Colored (yellow or green) mucus and body aches also lean away from allergy and toward a virus. When in doubt, especially during flu and COVID season, test and check with a doctor. The two can overlap, and you can be unlucky enough to have both at once.

How Long Does Cedar Fever Last?

There are two answers, and people conflate them, which is why cedar fever feels like it drags on forever.

• A single bad stretch lasts as long as the pollen stays airborne, typically a few days, spiking in the dry, windy hours right after a cold front and easing when the wind drops or rain washes the air.
• The season itself runs from mid-December into February, sometimes lingering into early March. If you are allergic and unmedicated, you can feel symptomatic on and off for six to ten weeks.

The good news is real. Once you start the right medication, most people feel meaningfully better within a few days to a week, and steroid nasal sprays reach full effect after about a week of daily use. That is exactly why starting early, before the peak, matters so much. If your symptoms are still severe after two weeks of consistent over-the-counter treatment, or they outlast the season entirely, that is a signal to see a doctor rather than wait it out.

Cedar Fever Symptoms

Cedar fever is a form of allergic rhinitis, so the symptoms overlap with hay fever, but because Austin’s pollen counts get so extreme, they often hit harder than allergy sufferers are used to elsewhere. The Cleveland Clinic and Texas A&M list the common ones.

• Sneezing, often in long fits
• Runny nose or heavy congestion (frequently both, alternating)
• Itchy, watery, red eyes
• Itching in the nose, throat, and roof of the mouth
• Sore or scratchy throat, sometimes from post-nasal drip
• Fatigue and a foggy, wrung-out feeling
• Partial loss of smell and taste
• Headache and facial or sinus pressure
• A slightly elevated temperature in some people (but not a true fever)

Can cedar fever cause a rash or itchy skin?

Occasionally, yes. Direct contact with pollen, or histamine released during a heavy reaction, can leave some people with itchy skin or hives, and constant eye-rubbing and nose-wiping irritates the skin around them. A widespread or persistent rash, though, is more likely something else. If it spreads or does not settle, have it looked at.

Can cedar fever cause a real fever?

Despite the name, cedar fever usually does not cause a true fever. Some people run slightly warm, but the Texas A&M Forest Service is explicit that anything above 101.5°F is not the pollen. It is a sign of a cold, the flu, COVID, or a sinus infection, and worth a doctor’s visit.

What Cedar Fever Actually Is (and Why It’s Neither)

Cedar fever is neither a fever nor caused by a cedar. It is an allergic reaction to pollen from the Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei), a scrubby evergreen that locals call “mountain cedar” even though it is a juniper, not a true cedar. The Texas Hill Country is carpeted with them.

Here is the twist that makes Austin special. Ashe juniper pollen is not unusually toxic or aggressive. It is just produced in staggering volume, all at once, in the dead of winter when nothing else is pollinating. As the Forest Service puts it, the pollen “isn’t particularly allergenic” on its own. It is simply so concentrated that it overwhelms people who are not normally allergic to anything. The male trees release visible clouds of gold pollen, and on a bad day you can watch it smoke off the hills in the wind. Your immune system reads that flood of pollen as a threat and dumps histamine, and histamine is what produces every miserable symptom above.

The Cedar Fever Season, Month by Month

Cedar is a winter allergy, the opposite of most of the country. It fills the exact window when everyone assumes any congestion must be a cold.

Why cold fronts make it so much worse

This is the piece almost no allergy blog explains, and it is the key to predicting bad days. According to the Texas A&M Forest Service, Ashe juniper releases its pollen in response to weather, not the calendar. Right before and after a cold front, the air turns cold, dry, and windy and the barometric pressure swings fast, and that combination pops the trees’ pollen cones open and launches the pollen into a stiff north wind. That is why you can feel fine one afternoon and be floored the next morning. A front came through overnight.

Why Austin Gets Hit Hardest

Austin sits on the eastern edge of the Hill Country, right where the dense Ashe juniper stands begin. West and northwest of the city, out toward the greenbelt, Lakeway, Dripping Springs, and the whole limestone belt, the hills are thick with cedar. When the prevailing winter wind blows out of the north and west, it carries that pollen straight across town.

Roughly speaking, the closer you are to the Hill Country, the worse your exposure. The western and northwestern suburbs and anything near the greenbelt tend to get the heaviest loads, while central, south, and east Austin are somewhat, only somewhat, better off. “Somewhat” is the operative word, because this pollen travels absurd distances. A 2017 study published in PLOS ONE used molecular analysis to trace Texas Ashe juniper pollen all the way to Ontario, Canada, well over a thousand miles. So while your neighborhood matters at the margins, there is nowhere in Central Texas you can fully hide from it during a peak.

How to Read Austin’s Live Pollen Count

Once cedar season starts, checking the daily count becomes a survival habit, because it tells you whether to pre-medicate and whether today’s misery is you or the air. Counts are reported in grains per cubic meter of air, averaged over 24 hours. For cedar in Central Texas, the rough scale local allergy trackers use looks like this.

To put that ceiling in perspective, on December 29, 2020, an Austin count hit 29,745 grains per cubic meter, as reported by KXAN. That is one of the highest cedar readings ever recorded here. A hard peak day routinely blows past 10,000. For comparison, a rough grass-pollen day in spring might read a few hundred. Cedar is in a different league, which is why it flattens people who have never had allergies in their lives.

Where to check the count today

• KXAN Allergy Tracker for live Central Texas counts, updated frequently via an automated sensor.
• AustinPollen.com for a local daily count of cedar, oak, ragweed, and mold, with season history.
• KVUE Allergy Forecast and Pollen.com for forecasts plus current conditions.

How to Treat Cedar Fever

Two rules matter most. Start early and be consistent. Allergists broadly agree that daily medication can work noticeably better when begun about one to two weeks before your symptoms usually start, late November or early December for cedar, because it heads off the histamine cascade instead of chasing it. Here is the ladder most people climb, from first line to last resort.

A note on the “cedar drops” you will hear Austinites swear by. Sublingual (under-the-tongue) immunotherapy is a real, evidence-based treatment, but it is prescribed and dosed by an allergist after testing. It is not the same as an off-the-shelf homeopathic “cedar relief” tincture, which has no proven effect. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or already take other medications, talk to a clinician before starting anything on this list.

Getting Through the Day

Medication is half the battle. The other half is managing sleep, work, and the small exposures that keep you symptomatic.

• Sleep. Congestion is worst lying flat. Do a saline rinse and take your nasal spray before bed, prop your head up on an extra pillow, and run an air purifier in the bedroom with the windows shut.
• Work and brain fog. The fatigue is real, and sedating antihistamines make it worse, another reason to stick to Claritin or Allegra on work days. Hydrate hard, because the fog is partly dehydration from mouth-breathing.
• Driving. Itchy, streaming eyes and drowsy medication are a genuine hazard. Keep antihistamine eye drops in the car, and don’t drive on a new medication until you know how it hits you.
• Kids. Children get cedar fever too. Use only child-formulated, age-appropriate doses, and check with a pediatrician before starting nasal steroids or decongestants for a young child.
• After being outside. Pollen rides in on your hair, clothes, and skin. On a high day, change clothes and shower when you get home, washing your hair especially, so you are not marinating in it all evening.

How to Cedar-Proof Your Home or Hotel Room

• Keep windows and doors shut during cedar season, however tempting a mild Austin winter day is. One open window on a high-count afternoon fills the room.
• Run the HVAC fan and upgrade to a higher-rated (MERV 11 or better) filter, changed more often than usual.
• Add a HEPA air purifier in the bedroom, the room where relief matters most.
• Set your car to recirculate rather than pulling in outside air, and keep the windows up.
• Wipe down pets that go outside, because they track pollen in on their coats (more on pets below).

Visiting or Moving to Austin During Cedar Season

Cedar fever blindsides newcomers and winter visitors more than almost anything else about Austin. People arrive for a December or January trip, start feeling terrible on day two, assume they caught a bug on the plane, and spend the trip miserable. If you are prone to allergies anywhere, assume Austin’s cedar will find you.

• Pre-medicate before you fly. If you know you are sensitive, start a daily non-drowsy antihistamine about a week before a December–February trip. Pack it, and do not count on finding your brand at 11 p.m.
• Consider where you stay. Exposure is generally heavier the closer you get to the Hill Country on the west side, and somewhat lower in the central, downtown, and east-side core. A modern downtown high-rise with sealed windows and strong central air is an easier place to ride out a peak than a cabin in the western hills.
• Time it if you can. If you have flexibility and severe allergies, the back half of March onward is dramatically easier than January.

Planning a winter trip and weighing neighborhoods? Our guides to visiting Austin and where to stay without a car can help you land somewhere central and well-sealed. And once cedar season passes, the same Hill Country that tortures you in January turns into the best swimming holes near Austin come summer.

Can Dogs and Pets Get Cedar Fever?

Yes. Dogs and cats can be allergic to cedar pollen too, though it usually shows up differently than in people. Instead of sneezing and runny noses, pets tend to react through their skin, with itching, scratching, licking or chewing at their paws, and red, irritated ears. If your dog gets suddenly itchy every December, cedar is a prime suspect.

Wiping your pet down after walks helps keep pollen off their coat and out of the house. But do not give a pet human antihistamines on your own. Some are toxic to animals, and dosing is entirely different. Ask your vet, who can recommend a safe product and dose.

When to See a Doctor

Cedar fever is miserable but rarely dangerous. Still, see a healthcare professional if any of these apply, since they suggest something beyond a pollen allergy.

• A fever above 101.5°F, body aches, or chills (points to a virus, not cedar)
• Thick yellow or green mucus, or facial pain that could be a sinus infection
• Any trouble breathing, wheezing, or chest tightness, since cedar can trigger or worsen asthma
• Symptoms that don’t improve after about two weeks of consistent over-the-counter treatment
• Symptoms severe enough to disrupt sleep, work, or daily life, where an allergist can prescribe more and test you for immunotherapy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is cedar fever contagious?

No. Cedar fever is an allergic reaction to pollen, not an infection, so you cannot catch it or pass it to anyone. Several people in the same household often feel sick at once simply because they are all breathing the same pollen-heavy air.

When is cedar fever season in Austin?

Mid-December through February, with the peak in January. Ashe juniper starts releasing pollen around mid-December, usually triggered by cold fronts, climbs to its worst in January, and tapers off through February, occasionally lingering into early March.

Why do I feel worse right after a cold front?

Cold fronts are the trigger. The cold, dry, windy air and rapid pressure change that come with a front pop the juniper’s pollen cones open and blast the pollen into the wind, so counts spike in the day or two around a front’s passage. Pre-medicating 24 to 48 hours before a forecast front is the single best way to stay ahead of it.

What is the best medicine for cedar fever?

For most people, a daily non-drowsy antihistamine (loratadine or fexofenadine) plus a steroid nasal spray (fluticasone), both started a week or two before symptoms begin, is the most effective over-the-counter combination. Add saline rinses and antihistamine eye drops as needed. For long-term relief, an allergist can offer immunotherapy. There is no single right answer for everyone, so ask a pharmacist or doctor about your situation.

Do the homeopathic “cedar drops” sold locally work?

Prescription sublingual immunotherapy, meaning real allergy drops dosed by an allergist, does work over time. Over-the-counter homeopathic “cedar relief” tinctures are a different thing entirely and have no proven benefit. If you want a treatment that actually reduces your allergy, see an allergist about tested immunotherapy.

Can you build immunity to cedar fever by living in Austin?

Not reliably, and it often goes the other way. Many longtime residents find their cedar allergy appears or worsens after several seasons of exposure, a pattern regulars grimly call “paying your Austin dues.” The dependable way to reduce the allergy is medically supervised immunotherapy, not waiting it out.

Sources

• Texas A&M Forest Service, Cedar Fever Explained (season timing, cold-front trigger, 101.5°F guidance)
• Cleveland Clinic, Cedar Fever (symptoms and treatment overview)
• PLOS ONE (2017), long-distance transport of Juniperus ashei pollen
• KXAN, record Austin cedar pollen count (Dec 2020)