Cedar season pool care calendar for Austin

Ashe juniper typically begins releasing pollen in mid-December, though the exact date varies with temperature and moisture. Early cedar weeks produce lower pollen counts than January peaks, but the cumulative filter loading begins. Cartridge filters that were cleaned in fall should be checked in December even if they are not yet visibly dirty.

December is also when Austin temperatures drop enough that pool use slows. The combination of lower use and the start of pollen season means chemistry drifts more quietly than in summer, and the filter load is the main concern heading into the new year.

January and early February are the highest-intensity weeks of cedar season. Pollen counts in the thousands of grains per cubic meter are not uncommon on still, dry days. During peak weeks, skimmer baskets may fill with a thin pollen film more than with debris chunks, and the filter pressure gauge climbs faster than any other month of the year.

Chlorine consumption rises during peak pollen weeks because pollen is organic matter. Free chlorine working to oxidize pollen debris is depleted faster, and a pool on a fixed weekly dosing schedule may not be getting enough sanitizer through the middle of the week. Breakpoint shock after heavy pollen events is sometimes warranted.

Pollen counts begin declining in February, though the pattern is not linear. A warm dry week in February can trigger another pollen surge before the season fully winds down. Filter loads from January accumulation may still be elevated, and a thorough filter cleaning in early February is worth doing even if one was done in January.

Water temperature is still typically cool in February, which slows algae growth but also means the pool may not have had a swim session in weeks. Pre-swim chemistry checks are worth doing before the first spring use.

Cedar season typically ends by mid-March in most Austin years. However, oak pollen season begins in February and overlaps into April. Oak pollen particles are larger than cedar pollen and more visible on the water surface, but they load baskets and filter media in their own way.

March is the transition month where filters should be thoroughly cleaned from cedar season accumulation before the spring oak pollen load builds. A clean filter heading into spring swim season is the preparation that makes April and May easier.

Fine cedar pollen suspended in the water creates a hazy, slightly yellow-green tint that does not respond to chlorine addition alone. The particles are too small to be caught efficiently by the skimmer and too light to sink quickly. They need to be captured by filter media.

When a filter is loaded with pollen and cannot turn the water over efficiently, the pool may look persistently hazy even with correct chemistry. Cleaning or backwashing the filter is the fix. Adding more chemical to a loaded filter is a common mistake that wastes product and does not resolve the clarity issue.

Austin winters occasionally include freeze events during cedar season, most commonly in January and February. Freeze prep, including running equipment during below-freezing temperatures and managing circulation, coincides with the highest pollen weeks. A service provider managing both freeze protocols and cedar season filter loads has more to address during winter visits than at most other times of year.

The combination is one of the reasons winter service continuity matters. A service gap during a cedar-plus-freeze week can create both chemistry and equipment problems simultaneously.

A general cedar-season filter schedule for Austin pools: clean or inspect the filter in mid-December as cedar begins, plan a full cleaning in early to mid-January during peak pollen build-up, clean again in February if pressure is elevated, and do a full end-of-season cleaning in March before spring swim season.

This is more frequent than the fall-and-spring cleaning schedule that works fine in lower-pollen environments. Austin cedar season is its own maintenance event on the calendar.