Science says: this is why you often get headaches during thunderstorms

Seriously, I didn't know this was a well-known phenomenon. Because yes, I do often suffer from headaches with thunderstorms (although fortunately it's never so bad that I feel completely sick), but for a long time I dismissed it as coincidence. Because it sounds a bit like an urban legend, that you have more headaches when there's a thunderstorm. A bit like Mean Girls: ‘My breasts can always tell when it’s raining.’

But it's not a myth at all. The University of Cincinnati researched it in 2013 and the participants indicated that they experienced up to 35 to 45 percent more headaches during thunderstorms. Side note: these participants already had more frequent migraines anyway, but still.

The explanation for this is actually quite simple: the air pressure changes just before the thunderstorm breaks out, and that happens quite rapidly. That could cause headaches. Just like, for example, when you're on a plane (I always really suffer from that): besides the possibility that your ears start to ‘pop’, you can also experience a lot of headaches. That's again that changing air pressure. Although it's a bit more worthwhile because hopefully you're going to a nice place; during a thunderstorm, you're just at home.

On the plane, you would mainly experience discomfort during landing, because then the air pressure increases. The cavities in your forehead can't really deal with that. Result: pounding headache. The differences in air pressure are actually much smaller during a thunderstorm than during a flight. But during thunderstorms, there are even more factors at play that could cause headaches.

For example, during a heavy thunderstorm, particles of ozone and nitrogen gases come down, and they also cause too much headache if you inhale a lot of them. Add to that the fact that there's a lot of moisture in the air and that the temperature fluctuates enormously — it's always stuffy before it breaks — and before you know it, you're sitting with a washcloth against your head and a few ibuprofen on the couch. And unfortunately, there's nothing to be done except to endure it. I wish I had better news for you.

Source: Quest