Is the Weather Making Quad Citizens Cranky?

Weather has more of an impact on a person's negative mood, as opposed to someone's positive mood. Higher temperatures tend to make someone whose depressed feel better. Not enough sun or wind can make a depressed person's symptoms worse.

SAD, or Seasonal affective disorder , is a depressive disorder connected to seasonal patterns. Most sufferers experience this in the winter months when there's less sun, more clouds and a generally gloomy atmosphere.

Heat makes us more aggressive. The hotter it gets the more conflicts we experience and violence tends to rise. Rain, especially in areas that don't get a lot of rain, has been shown to make people more aggressive as well.

Surprisingly suicides peak during the spring and summer months.

Some people have a weather personality type. These types are:

• Summer lovers. People who love the sun and heat. Rain makes them less happy, more prone to anxiety and more angry.
• Summer haters. These people tend to be more happy when it rains. They're more angry and fearful when it's hotter and sunnier.
• Rain hatters. People who are less happy and angrier when it rains, compared to when it's warm and sunny.

Limited research show 52% of people had a weather personality type, while 48% of people were unaffected by weather.

It seems pretty clear to me weather can affect our mood. If it can have this big an impact on how people feel, then I have no problem blaming my grumpiness on clouds and rain. My irritation on the heat. And my good mood on a beautiful, perfect, sunny, spring afternoon.