The weather in Vancouver has been giving us some ups and downs lately, often within the same day. We wake up to the rising sun shining on us and three hours later it is cloudy with pouring, heavy rain creating puddles all around. I couldn’t help but wonder, can we start to literally feel “under the weather”? Can those weather fluctuations cause us to be moody, or affect our mental health in more serious ways?
There is a type of depressive disorder associated with the weather known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). SAD is a type of depression that starts and ends at the same time every year. Some people experience it in the fall going into the winter and some (although fewer) experience symptoms in the summer.
According to Hsiang et al (2013), who examined the effect of changes in climate on human conflict, climates characterized by extreme heat or extreme rain fall showed an increase in interpersonal violence and conflict.
According to a psychcentral article, the changes in weather do not affect everyone. People actually have different weather personalities that are affected by the weather in different ways. Klimstra et al (2011) were able to recognize four different weather personalities and gave them names that indicated their tendency to prefer one climate over another:
- Summer lovers.
- Summer haters.
- Rain haters.
- Unaffected by weather.
Their research, however, was only done on Dutch teenagers, so the results may not be applicable to adults or people living in different countries. It does, however, at least partially explain why findings in research results connected to the weather and our mood may be conflicting.
Another study on the link between changing weather and our mood found that men and women respond differently to such changes. Connolly (2008) found that men are more likely to change their plans according to the weather (for example, staying inside instead of going for a hike when it’s raining). Women, on the other hand, weren’t as likely to modify their plans, which made their moods more vulnerable to weather fluctuations.
In conclusion, weather can affect our mood if we’re not the “unaffected by weather” personality type. But the extent of its effect seems to depend on a number of factors. The good news is that most weather related mood changes make up small percentages compared to other events that can alter our mood.
Written by Maryam Alsadiq
References:
Grohol, John.“Can Weather Affect Your Mood?”. Psychcentral. Web. 22nd Feb, 2016.