I always know when a storm is coming and the potential severity of that storm. Sometimes the warning I get is hours ahead and sometimes minutes. This is a sign I've learned to trust and I can say I've virtually never wrong. People come back to me after my typical weather forecasting pronouncement and can't believe how I knew sunshine would turn to hail. I just know.
Before my more scientific/medical/meteorlogically inclined friends here at LP read this and say to themselves that there is a perfectly good scientific reason for what I experience - let me say - I agree with you and so does the neuro guy who sees me every 6 months to a certain extent. As with everything brain-concerned, it is a little more complicated than a simple explanation of shifting water on the brain with the ebb and flow of tidal motion. The degree to which this affects me would make me virtually a vegetable if barometric pressure were the only answer.
When a storm is approaching, my head hurts. The degree to which my head hurts is commissurate with how bad the approaching storm is. My head hurts differently for different kinds of storms, i.e., brief intense thunder storms, longer-lingering storms, severe weather like tornadoes and, the granddaddy, tropical depression/hurricane. I can tell people reliably not to spend lots of money to charter fishing boats or simply to stay off the water on any given day. If I'm actually near the ocean, I know the soonest what's coming. Once whatevers coming gets here, the pain usually relents. Unless what's coming is a TD/Hurricane - my personal headbanging nightmare.
The pain is question is specific. I get vascular headaches to die for. Approaching bad weather sets off a different kind of sensation. It can be a perfectly clear pristine day and bam the pain comes and within a hour or so things have turned ugly.
Every once in a while, the message will sneak up on me. Like this weekend. While I live on a peninsula surrounded by water (ocean/bay), we are in severe drought with no sustained rain for months. Despite all the surprises to our more southern neighbors, no rain has been forecast here for a while. For the last 2 days, I've had a building headache that no med is helping (and yes, they've tried me on every drug known to man and a few known only to Native American Shamen). I didn't get the message or make my usual pronouncement that "it's going to rain" but the pain has been fairly relentless. About 1:30 a.m., it started to rain here and it continues to pour. Thank goodness.
This also works for snow, especially snow storms that come from the SouthEast - which we EastCoasters know are second only to Noreaster's in intensity and volume.
It just so happens that I love rain. Everyone who spends any consistent time near me knows my love of the dark, dreary days of monsoon. In fact, I become so happy with bad weather that sometimes people wonder what's wrong with me. I would rather live where it rains nearly every day, and I become depressed if sunshine is relentless. I dread summer and am well known for my whining about summer from start to finish. It does not hurt my case that I am extremely light sensitive and must always do the sunglasses thing because bright light just plain hurts.
Following this sign for me is truly a gift, albeit a painful one. I live in an area where we are prone to severe bursts of weather that really slams us and forewarned is forearmed. Not everyone shares my love of bad weather, especially the animals and the older. I'll bet the majority of people you know live for the summer months to arrive and can barely stand the rain. For the minority of us that revel in it - a salute to us!
I had to learn to accept the messages and listen. This aspect of the gift could easily be construed as a total negative but I do not see it that way. Knowing in advance when to take cover is, after all, a good thing.
Sometimes just knowing is exactly how it happens with the numbers - a story for a different day.
Today I must work but I will revel in the rain. I hope your day brings what you need!
Keep It In until It Wins!
