Posted by medlib on July 8, 2001, at 20:05:36
In reply to stormy weather, posted by lissa on July 7, 2001, at 17:13:55
Lissa--
You might enjoy this article on weather and health from Intellicast, which also has a US and world Mood Index.
http://www.intellicast.com/Health/Articles/WxHealth/
Storm fronts are lines of low barometric pressure and high humidity. (The lower the pressure, the worse the storm.) These fronts push a curtain of positive ions ahead of them; when 2 fronts collide, positive ion concentration is *really high*. An excess of positive ions is correlated with a downward trend in mood. Some people are more sensitive to ion concentration changes, but large changes affect most people.
Other weather conditions associated with higher positive ion concentration are hot winds blowing from desert areas (called Santa Anas in Los Angeles), and full moons. (Did you know that large ERs regularly staff more heavily on full moons? Patient counts are invariably higher.) Los Angeles police staff more heavily when Santa Ana winds blow (and they blow for days, sometimes weeks); people become much more violent. 9 million people in a bad mood is an awesome phenomenon.
In "olden days", before we could track weather fronts on tv, people who could forecast storms were looked upon with suspicion. I think they were just particularly sensitive to small changes in barometric pressure and positive ion concentration.
Well wishes---medlib
poster:medlib
thread:7162
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010706/msgs/7212.html