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Can a Change in the Weather Alter Your Health?

This link is far too rapid to be explained simply by virus transmission or the effect of extreme cold lowering people’s immunity.

It is possible that either the cold changes the virus or how it spreads in a way that has yet to be explained.

Then there are the studies which hint that a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure can trigger not just migraines but the onset of labour in pregnant women.

There is also convincing evidence that thunderstorms can trigger asthma attacks and even epileptic fits, although no one understands the mechanisms involved.

Can thunder storms really bring on an asthma attack?

Sometimes links between weather and health seem more obvious and clearcut. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is now a well-known condition in which low light levels can trigger depressive-like illnesses in some people.

The Met Office this month started a pilot Brighter Outlook scheme in Cornwall, in which people who suffer from SAD can be given forecasts of gloomy weather by text message or email.

The idea is that they can then take pre-emptive action by using sunlight-mimicking lightboxes to stave off the dreaded blues. Even with SAD, the effects are not always obvious. Dr Laing-Morton says a few SAD sufferers have the opposite reaction, becoming depressed in bright sunny weather rather than in gloomy conditions.