You’ve probably uttered it on a hot day — “This heat is driving me crazy!” Well, there’s a lot of truth to that statement. Dr. Dennis Driscoll is a bio-meteorologist, and he says that the weather can affect your personality. For example, strong winds tend to make people irritable……Why? Because wind alters the number of positively and negatively charged molecules in the air — and in turn that affects your brain’s biochemistry. Here are some other ways the weather can affect your mood: • First: Let’s say there’s a cold snap. Dr. Lawrence Palinkas studied the impact of extremely cold temperatures on Antarctic researchers……He found that people tend to get angry and irritable after prolonged exposure to cold. Also, it can alter your thyroid hormones and cause depression and short-term memory loss. • Another way weather affects us: Heat waves can make your TEMPER boil. According to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the number of assaults over a 45-year period went up during the hotter years. Researchers say uncomfortably high temperatures increase “annoyance-provoked” crimes, in which the primary goal is to hurt someone. • And our last weather/personality link has to do with spring fever. Dr. Matthew Keller is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. And after studying 600 people, he found that sunny spring days and warm weather seem to boost mood, and makes us more open to new ideas.
