The idea that the weather and people’s moods are connected is quite old. Do you agree? If yes, how does the weather affect your mood?

The weather sometimes has a big effect on my moods.  Although I usually don’t mind  wet weather and usually enjoy hearing the rain pouring down when I’m snug inside  several days of constant rain can get me down a bit. I start to feel trapped in the house  when it’s so wet I can’t even walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail because it’s become a sea of mud. Days when there is no sunlight certainly do depress me. I hate dark rooms and having to put the light on during the day. Many people are severely affected by lack of sunlight and suffer a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

There are two types of weather that really affect me though. Windy days and extreme heat.

When I was a child hot weather didn’t bother me as much but now I find that it does. In South Australia where I used to live the summers have become hotter and longer. The last few summers we lived there we would sometimes have temperatures of forty degrees celsius (104 fahrenheit)  for days on end. At night the temperature would only drop by a few degrees and after a few days of this I’d become tired and irritable. I’d hardly have the energy to do anything. It wasn’t just the physical discomfort. I would start to feel as if I had no enthusiasm for anything any more. I also felt anxious about bushfires. I didn’t live in a bushfire prone area but in a climate like that you know that  every summer it’s not a case of if there will be fires but when and how bad. I still worry about that today, although it’s not as hot in Tasmania in summer we do get bushfires. and have had some bad ones  over the years so there is always that tinge of fear in very hot weather.

Twelve-monthly highest maximum temperature for South Australia