When newscasters talk about typical Bank-Holiday weather they are not referring to the idyllic spring that we have been having recently. The fates seem to ensure that most Bank Holidays are spent on rain-soaked beaches peopled by desperate, mac-clad families huddled behind wind-breaks as they nobly look as if they are trying to enjoy soggy sandwiches. They may feel as cold as the ice-cream that is dribbling down their children’s faces and clothes, but they are determined not to complain.

Either way, we are told that this year will be one of the hottest ever. We are assured that the weather on Brighton beach will rival, if not surpass, the drizzle-soaked sands of Port Grimaud in the south of France.

Hay-fever and asthma sufferers may be the only people who will not open their curtains and look out with pleasure as another bright day dawns. They will bravely accompany their family as they pretend to ignore the pollen-drenched air that is already causing them to cough and sneeze. Their only hope is to put on a monster-sized pair of sunglasses – the 1970s retro style is, I am told, in all the shops this year – and use their steroidal antiinflammatory nasal inhaler. If life becomes really desperate they can dream of the pleasant, warm, dry, pollen-free days spent on previous Bank Holidays in museums or galleries before they had a family to consider.

Last weekend, at a meeting in Italy, I noticed that the wild spring flowers in the meadow behind the conference centre were alive with butterflies and it was possible to see the haze of pollen drifting like a fine mist over the grass. I noticed that many of my colleagues who ventured to walk in the field later had red eyes and runny noses.

The first rule of treating allergic rhinitis, the runny eyes and nose, is to consider avoiding the allergen. Each sufferer will have to work out for his or herself whether the pleasure of walking in the field, or watching the local cricket team play one of its early matches, compensates for the symptoms. The decision may depend on whether the person suffers only an itchy, runny nose and red eyes, or whether he or she also sneezes, coughs, develops a husky voice and feels generally unwell.

Many people who have colleagues or members of their family who suffer from allergic rhinitis, a form of which is hay fever, are not aware that there are systemic ill-effects from it. Often the sufferer will also notice that they are unusually irritable and even that their intellect is not as sharp as usual. Remembering how sufferers feel should stop those around them from being impatient of their sneezing fits.

This year the hay-fever season is predicted to be especially virulent. The wet weather last year, and the warm but moist winter, has ensured a bumper crop of flowers. Unusually in the South, these have been totally unpruned by late frosts. Where there are flowers there is pollen in the atmosphere, and where there is pollen there is asthma and allergic rhinitis. Long-term sufferers from hay fever develop cross-resistance so that those who are allergic to birch pollen may find that they may also become allergic to other allergens.

Antihistamines remain the standard treatment for hay fever. Last time I wrote about hay fever a medical reader from Cambridge wrote to say that a recent large research project carried out by the US public health service suggested there were no consistent differences between the sedating and nonsedating antihistamines as far as the local symptoms – the runny eyes, congested and runny nose and the coughing and spluttering – were concerned. The usual belief is that the older, first-generation antihistamines that are available from the chemist, without prescription and reasonably cheap, reduced the runny nose, but were not so efficient at easing the associated congestion.

The great advantage of using the second-generation of antihistamines is not so much any difference in their ability to ease the nasal and eye symptoms, but that they are less likely to cause daytime sleepiness. It is thought that as the second generation of antihistamines don’t so readily cross the blood/brain barrier they are not likely to cause drowsiness while driving. It is said that only alcohol or cannabis is more often a pharmacological cause of falling asleep at the wheel than a first-generation antihistamine.

It is always questionable whether patients should rely on an intra-nasal steroid spray, such as Flixonase, rather than taking nonsedating second-genera-tion antihistamine tablets daily throughout the hay-fever season. Our medical reader prefers the regular use of intra-nasal corticosteroids. This will of course depend on how prolonged and serious a patient’s symptoms are. It is also possible to get Flixonase nasal (single drops) but steroidal antiinflammatory eyedrops are usually avoided for fear of the complications that they may induce.