Weather maybe?

I have been doing somewhat better lately with my daily headaches - not as bad and quite manageable. I thought things were getting better until this past weekend when both Sunday and yesterday I was hit by bad scotoma (flashing zig zags) followed by powerful headache and nausea. I was only at work yesterday for 90 minutes when I had to come home. I havent had the scotoma in months - the headache and nausea too was the worst it's been in years. I diarize every day trying to find some sort of pattern. We've had 4 days of rainy, damp weather and that's the only thing I can find that might have caused it. I havent eaten, slept differently or had an increase in stress. I've been through rainy periods before and it's never been that bad. Here in Canada we have weather changes all the time but these migraines were SO severe.

Does anyone else go through this or had such a change in their severity of headache? I'm scared today it'll be the same. Yesterday was brutal - scared of what today will bring!

Yes, Tamsha, I am also very affected by the weather changes, especially windy, stormy days almost guarantee worse migraines.
Sadly, here in UK the weather is very unsettled this summer, and my migraine are more frequent again on the days like this.

On the other hand in my experience, migraines always change patterns, so it is possible that there are some other factors involevd, as well.

Let's just hope for a better break - they do tend to come too, often for no apparent reason, either. Strange, strange condition. And then, just when we think we are winning the battle, it is back to the drawing board again.

Same here, about a week ago I got a raging migraine and I looked at my husband and said "I think it is going to rain" and within about 8 hours it was pouring so I definitely notice a change in my my migraines with the weather. The wind effects them a lot too. This correlation didn't start for me until about 2 years ago. We live in a very windy town and the wind or storms never used to bring on migraines for me until a couple years ago. I have been trying to find a reliable barometric pressure reading website so I can keep track of my pain level and the pressure reading but its hard to find one for my small town but I know there has to be a link.

one good site is wunderground.com, and you can type in your location or zip. dianne

Hi There,

Yes, weather patterns affect my migranes. High and low weather patterns will trigger migraines for me. I have read that this is the case for others too.

Cup of Coffee

Me too, but usually after the build up to a storm, so when it is raining , or when the humidity goes up.

Di

I have been keeping a log for almost two years. I have been comparing it to http://www.wunderground.com but been frustrated with the lack of constant charts. The charts are scaled to the max and min of each day or week, depending on your view.

I found a new site weatherspark where the graph is at a constant scale. Some sources even offer a bit of barometric pressure forecasting! I haven't found it real accurate, but it is the first place I found a forecast!

So my suggestion is to document every time you feel pain, then at the end of each week or month, compare it to the different weather sites and see if there is a pattern. Oh, my pattern is dead on; EVERY time there are quick increases or decreases in barometric pressure I feel pain. My current migraine started almost 50 hours ago and hasn't let up yet. We are having "afternoon and evening thunderstorms" daily at present. At least I can stand the LED screen at present!

Good luck!

I find any change in the weather can trigger a headache. Especially high to low pressure does it. I think I relax so much in the heat, and when it suddenly turns cold again, foggy and windy, it tenses me up again. Also, I feel disappointed when the warm weather goes away. A doctor I saw once while on vacation said that migraineurs don't like change, and a vacation is a change in routine and level of relaxation. I wonder if this change is what causes HAVOC in the brain and the migraine is telling us something is wrong- too much change, too quickly?
Also, rainy, cloudy weather will change my mood quickly, and that seems to go along with the migraine, but I don't know what comes first---mood decline or pain...