Studies confirm barometric pressure drops increase migraine and joint pain risks. Photo / The Washington Post
Some people don’t need a weather app – they feel the forecast in their bones.
A storm rolls in and so do throbbing heads, aching joints and mood drops. For years, this phenomenon was dismissed as imagination or coincidence.
Now, with sharper tools and larger datasets, more researchers are taking weather-related symptoms seriously. As former United States Agriculture Department (USDA) chief meteorologist Albert Peterlin put it: “It’s not the weather. It’s the change in weather that causes stress.”
Sudden swings in atmospheric pressure, humidity and temperature can lower blood oxygen saturation, the amount of oxygen your red blood cells carry, while also triggering hormonal fluctuations and cardiovascular strain – biological changes many people experience before a storm breaks, according to researchers.
Falling pressure activates the autonomic nervous system and heightens pain sensitivity in people with chronic conditions, according to studies in the Brain Research Bulletin and PLoSOne. The nervous system’s fight-or-flight response has been linked to increased anxiety and disrupted sleep.
The term for this emerging field is meteoropathy: the study of physiological reactions to environmental changes, especially barometric shifts, that disrupt circulation and rattle the nervous system.
Meteoropathic illness is not yet a formal diagnosis, but more scientists are finding evidence for it.
“Doctors have long minimised these complaints as subjective,” Sarah Mulukutla, a neurologist and adjunct professor at Yale, said. “But that doesn’t mean imaginary.”
Evidence shows that atmospheric instability influences hormone levels, shifts that affect how pain is processed and may explain migraine attacks, joint stiffness and fatigue.
Pain doctors are witnessing these effects first-hand. Pavan Tankha, who leads pain recovery at the Cleveland Clinic, said chronic discomfort often worsens during weather instability. One of his patients experiences intense pain flare-ups during spring storms. “We’re observing a weather-sensitive pain phenotype,” or patients who are sensitive to atmospheric swings, Tankha said.
“These effects aren’t random. They’re cumulative,” Vincent Martin, director of the University of Cincinnati’s Headache and Facial Pain Centre, said. His team found that lightning within 40km of a home increases migraine risk by 31%. Both rising and falling air density can provoke migraines and tension headaches.
A 2023 Japanese study using a barometric pressure-tracking app analysed over 336,000 headache events alongside weather records. It found that pressure drops, spikes in humidity and rainfall are strongly associated with increased headaches, confirming what many long suspected.
Thanks to apps, symptom monitoring is getting smarter. Users log symptoms alongside atmospheric data and the app learns their storm signature – a unique pattern of weather changes, such as rising pressure or dropping temperature, linked to how their body responds. The personalised approach is catching on in the United States. Peterlin built on that model, creating three-day forecasts and collaborating with pharmaceutical teams on weather-based treatments.
Wearable fitness and health technology products such as the Apple Watch and Whoop help researchers map the body’s invisible reactions to weather in real time. According to the Artificial Intelligence Review, wearable sensors can now detect early signs of cardiovascular strain, stress and even mood instability.
So, what’s happening inside the body? As storms approach, air weight declines and humidity rises. Pain receptors, or nerve endings in joints, muscles and tissues that detect stress, pressure or temperature shifts, send signals through the spine to the brain, where pain and emotion register.
The receptors may fire in response to shifts in intracranial pressure sensed by the brain, sinuses and carotid arteries. “Even slight shifts disrupt balance,” UCLA neurologist Alan Rapoport said, especially for migraine sufferers. (Some 12% of people in the United States, primarily women, are said to experience migraines.)
A broader view reveals just how much these fluctuations affect us. The State of Global Air report connects climate-driven changes in air quality, temperature and humidity to increased health risks across systems. The bigger the change, the stronger the body’s response.
“I don’t need to check the forecast. I feel it in my head,” Susan Cucchiara, a New York-based naturopathic doctor, said. She hydrates, walks and supplements with magnesium. “It’s about supporting your whole system.”
Others echo that sentiment. Laurie Krupa, a patient of Cucchiara’s in New Jersey, said that before storms, “pain would flare in my knees, hips and whole body, not just my head”. Today, she finds relief through movement, minerals and nutrition.
Weather can hit us hard. Cold fronts, low pressure and damp air may cause tissues to swell and joints to stiffen. The Arthritis Foundation notes that many people with arthritis experience flare-ups during weather changes, particularly when humidity rises or air pressure drops. The Annals of Medicine linked these shifts to increased osteoarthritis pain. Animal research also indicates that high humidity increases inflammatory cytokines, exacerbating joint discomfort.
“Stress, mood and inflammation all interact,” Terence Starz, a retired professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said. He noted that tools such as the Weather & Arthritis Index help patients anticipate and manage pain episodes.
Even the brain isn’t immune. The Journal of Physiology reports that high altitude can alter cerebral blood flow. Changes in air density also occur in pressurised flights and incoming storms. “When air gets lighter, the brain can swell,” which contributes to headaches, Rapoport said. Those most vulnerable usually have a family history of migraine, often compounded by insomnia, stress or hormonal shifts.
Baltimore psychologist Andy Santanello offered a deeper insight: “Weather used to mean danger: cold, scarcity, stress. Our nervous system evolved to react.”
The body still carries that ancient imprint.
The weather-health connection isn’t new. In 1947, physician William F. Petersen proposed that environmental stressors could cause headaches – a theory once dismissed is now supported by neuroscience, real-time data and artificial intelligence (AI).
“Even Hippocrates wrote about this,” Peterlin, the former USDA meteorologist, said. “Now science is finally proving it.”
The weather may be unpredictable, but your body can learn to move with it. Experts recommend:
These days, when the weather turns and my body knows it, I stretch, hydrate, rest – and check flights to somewhere sunnier.