Video of trees giving off ‘smoke’ in Tennessee woods is bad news for allergy sufferers
Trees are seemingly giving off “smoke” in the hills of Middle Tennessee and a video shared on Facebook shows it looks as strange as it sounds.
The phenomenon was spotted this week by officer Mark Vance of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, who investigated with expectations of seeing a large wildfire in rural Cannon County.
Instead, he found a group of trees producing something akin to puffs of cigarette smoke.
“I thought the woods was on fire, but ... that’s pollen coming off these cedar trees,” Vance says in the video.
“The hillside literally looks like the woods are on fire up there, but that’s pollen being turned loose. Craziest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen (cedar trees) turn loose, but not at all in unison like this.”
Vance’s minute-long video pans across the horizon, showing cedar trees on all sides of him giving off billows of pollen.
The smoke is seen merging into what he called a “smoggy haze” over the hilltops, the video shows. It was recorded off Roach Hollow Road in Cannon County, about 50 miles southeast of Nashville.
Cedar trees generate “one of the most potent allergens” in the early spring, resulting in something called “Cedar Fever,” according to Aspire Allergy and Sinus.
“Although the pollen itself is harmless, your immune system generates an inflammatory response to block what it sees as a potentially dangerous intruder. This is similar to how it protects you from viruses and bacteria,” Healthline.com says.
Vance’s video was shared Thursday by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, which added: “No wonder we are all stuffy!”
The video has gotten hundreds of reactions, shares and comments. Some commenters reported they had seen the same phenomenon in the area for weeks.
“I thought thousands of acres were on fire,” Ben Newman wrote on the wildlife agency’s Facebook page. “The whole sky a hundred feet up was hazy with the oddest looking color.”
“My eyes are burning just watching this!” Beth Marks posted.
“Nature is trying to take out the humans,” Theresa Milton said.
