What is thunderstorm asthma?

During grass pollen season, there’s an increase in asthma and hay fever cases. Thunderstorm asthma happens when many people suddenly experience asthma symptoms due to high pollen levels and a specific type of thunderstorm. This is called epidemic thunderstorm asthma.

Melbourne saw the world’s largest thunderstorm asthma event on 21 November 2016, when thousands of people had breathing problems in a very short time.

Who is most at risk?

People most at risk of thunderstorm asthma include:

Those with asthma
People with undiagnosed asthma (experiencing symptoms but not yet diagnosed)
Those who had asthma in the past
People with hay fever, with or without asthma

How can you prepare?

Improving asthma and hay fever diagnosis, treatment, and self-care is important to reduce the impact of thunderstorm asthma. This will help during thunderstorm asthma events and improve health overall.

Health professionals can access thunderstorm asthma training and resources, such as:

A thunderstorm asthma flowchart for pharmacists
Emergency and urgent care resources to help assess preparedness
Information for community pharmacies to prepare for thunderstorm asthma

Additional resources are available from the National Asthma Council.

Translated resources

Consumer materials in different languages are available on the Thunderstorm Asthma – multicultural resource page.

You can also visit the Vic Department of Health for a toolkit to raise public awareness about thunderstorm asthma, who is at risk, and asthma first aid.