The Psychology Of Weather

Do you take the weather for granted? Just regard it as a ho-hum minor detail? Like if it’s cold, should I wear an extra layer of clothes, a heavier coat? If it looks like rain, bring an umbrella? If it’s snow, time to break out the real heavy cold-weather gear, maybe some warm boots? I used to be that way too.

I remember one particular weather event that got me to thinking, though. One day a while back was a beautiful, warm sunny day in San Francisco, unlike the day before when it was cold, blustery, and rained hard early in the morning. The temperature was in the high 60s, and the sunshine was brilliant and warm.

The small storm we had the day before had cleared the air of all the pollutants and irritants that our industrialized society produces, and when I looked towards the majestic Pacific ocean, I could see for miles!

I remember thinking, what a difference a day makes. Not exactly an original observation, but it struck a chord in my heart, and made me feel different mentally, and psychologically. It made a real difference in my attitude, my outlook on life, and the way I greeted, chatted and generally related to my friends and neighbors. It completely improved my mood from the day before.

I am all too familiar with the extremes of snow and ice in the Midwest and the eastern part of the country, having grown up in Chicago. But I’m talking about not only the physical drudgery of this extreme weather but also the psychological aspects of how the weather affects our daily outlook on life in general. It affects different people in different ways.

It is amazing to me how very much the weather can affect a person’s attitude and well-being. I read somewhere that people in Oregon, a very lush green state, especially when you fly over it, are among the most depressed people in the United States. They feel depressed because it rains there all the time, the price they pay for their verdant greenery.

I have relatives currently living in Seattle, who were born and raised in California, and they swear the people up there are way more grouchy and grumpy than Californians. Probably again because of the gloomy, rainy weather they have to endure all winter long.

Pleasant weather can markedly alter my own mood, and most other people seem to be the same. I don’t especially like hot weather but most people love it and it cheers them up, like at the nearby beach where I can see hundreds of them tanning and laying out on their blankets on a hot day.

Actually, we never get that many really hot days here. I should say, we never used to, but now because of all the climate change, we get more of them than ever before.

I have also observed that the really hot weather is not at all that pleasant when I go back inside, because nobody in San Francisco that I know of ever invested in air conditioning. It’s simply unnecessary.

As a result, it’s very hot in my apartment during a rare heat wave, and that affects my mood adversely. I feel grumpier and more uncomfortable. I have fans and they help, but everything else is the same except for the weather. So it definitely is the weather that affects my mood, like it or not. There is no escaping it.

Being born and raised in Chicago and suffering through their harsh weather back there, summers and winters, it is an unpleasant flashback. The thing is, I never noticed it when I was growing up, I just thought it was like that everywhere. Hot in the summer, freezing in the winter. That’s it, that’s all.

But what I discovered by watching all those Pasadena Rose Bowl parades every New Year’s Day growing up and shivering in Chicago every winter was the illuminating revelation that there were actually people who were basking in the sun. They were having fun, and wearing shorts and tee-shirts or tank tops instead of sweaters or sweatshirts at the same time I was freezing!

That’s when the proverbial light bulb went off in my head. That Ah-Ha moment! Eureka!

The weather was one of the main reasons I moved from Chicago to San Francisco in the first place. I found out to my chagrin that San Francisco was not Pasadena, but it still beats the weather in Chicago.

Scientists have studied this phenomenon a lot and came up with a label called S.A.D. for Seasonal Disaffective Disorder. There is a lot of scientific chatter and theories about it but basically, it just means what we all know already, that people respond markedly to the sun.

This is especially evident in the spring, because most people, like me when I lived in the Midwest, are sick and tired of being cooped up inside all winter and are very happy when they can finally go out in the spring.

I still have lots of relatives in Chicago, including my mom, sister, and too many nieces, nephews, and cousins to count who love the pageantry and solemn procession of the traditional four seasons as they traverse the calendar in their certain, inexorable, inevitable yearly procession.

That is ok with me, I understand it all too well. But I have come to prefer the two seasons I now enjoy, basically wet and dry, winter and summer. Because it never gets too cold in the winter, or too hot in the summer in San Francisco.

I will admit it, my first Christmas in San Francisco was bleak. I really missed seeing snow and had a hard time capturing the “Christmas Spirit” without any visual cues like snow or ice to prompt me. But I got over that after my first Christmas, and now I am quite content to watch it snow on tv.

It has snowed only once since I moved to San Francisco, and the reaction by the locals was ecstatic, especially the children. Like it was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. And as it turned out, it was.

It was only a snow day that lightly dusted cartops in 1976. But to me, it seemed like an inordinate display of reverence, awe, and wonder. But then, I grew up shoveling snow and driving on icy roads every single winter. Snow is definitely about what you are used to. We all see it through the prism of our own lenses of memory and feelings.

My reaction was consistent with what I have heard over the years on Seasonal Affective Disorder, or S.A.D., which basically suggests that pleasant weather improves mood and broadens feelings of relief and pleasure in the spring because people have been deprived of such weather during the long cold winters.

I am not making light of this. S.A.D. is a real thing and it can affect your entire outlook on life. People that suffer from it often become inordinately depressed and can eat and sleep more in the winter than most people. I asked my doctor about it and he suggested Vitamin D was often a good supplement to counteract the relative lack of sunshine.

Wherever you live, in sunny California or Florida or snowy frigid Minnesota or Maine, the weather and the sun will impact you more than you may realize. Some people even prefer the snow and winter sports like skiing over the summer heat and humidity.

But there is no longer any doubt in my mind that the psychology of weather is much more deeply ingrained in our basic genetic codes than most people realize. It affects different people differently, but we all respond in varying degrees to the presence or absence of the sun.

If you have the choice available to move to a state where the weather is more to your liking, take it. Snowy states or sunny states, it’s all up to you.

Life is too short to be miserable if you can help it.