Cold, Air Pressure and Humidity With Bipolar Disorder: What to Log

Updated 3 October 2026

Cold feels different from falling pressure, and both feel different from a humid day. Yet most weather notes say only "bad weather" or "stormy day". A note that names the reading and the mood words can be compared across weeks.

This guide covers three weather readings, what small studies counted, seasonal patterns, why individual weeks matter, the mood words to use, when to get help first, and a one-page summary for a visit. Every medical statement comes from a cited source.

Cold, air pressure and humidity with bipolar disorder: three readings, three notes

People often describe weather as one feeling. A weather log works better when it separates the readings, because each one changes on its own schedule and each can feel different in the body.

For each reading, write the body and mood words for the day: energy, irritability, concentration, mood, and anything that felt out of the ordinary. Write the same words on days without a weather change, so the comparison has a baseline.

From Bipolar Journey (by Health Journey Labs), we recommend one line per day with the three readings first and the mood words second, kept in the same order every day, so a week of lines can be read in seconds by a clinician.

Weather belongs under external factors in the Daily check-in of Bipolar Journey, which also records physical symptoms, emotional state, sleep, nutrition, exercise and meds. With Custom symptoms, you can add your own labels, such as cold day, falling pressure or humid day, and each label joins the same dated history as the rest of the entry. For a first setup, see starting a sleep and mood record.

What two small bipolar disorder studies counted for temperature, pressure and humidity

Findings from two small daily weather studies in bipolar disorder

Few studies follow weather and mood day by day in people with bipolar disorder, and the ones that do are small. Two of them, the 2017 PLOS ONE study and a rapid cycling study, rated mood at least daily. The PLOS ONE authors say their pressure finding must be considered questionable until replicated, and that all the findings are preliminary.

Two daily weather and mood studies

Bipolar Journey reviewed two small studies and compares them here.

Read together, the two studies point at heat more than at cold, at pressure only weakly, and at humidity not at all. Both stress that their samples are small and that people differ.

Because the studies cannot say what holds for you, a record of your own days is the useful part. The Flare Tracker in Bipolar Journey flags a day clearly worse than a usual week, including a mood rise, a wired short-sleep stretch or a low-energy day that stands out, and the Daily check-in adds the weather under external factors. Insights and correlations strengthen as the history grows.

Winter, the solstice and the fall equinox: what seasonal studies show for bipolar I and bipolar II

Seasonal patterns are better documented than daily weather effects. A long-term cohort study followed 314 people with bipolar I (202) or bipolar II (112) disorder for at least 10 years. Both groups had the lowest frequency of depressive symptoms in summer and the highest around the winter solstice, though the winter peak was statistically significant only for bipolar I disorder. Hypomanic symptoms in bipolar II disorder peaked in the months around the fall equinox.

A systematic review of seasonality covered 51 papers. It reports that depressive episodes peak in early winter, that a seasonal pattern was frequent for manic episodes (15%) and depressive episodes (25%), and that there is emerging evidence climatic conditions may trigger symptoms or episodes. NIMH says many people with bipolar disorder experience seasonal worsening of depression in the winter.

Cold and winter are linked by the calendar, yet the seasonal findings describe months, and the daily studies above describe single days. A log can hold both: the weather of the day and the month it fell in.

Winter, solstice and fall-equinox days

Bipolar Journey notes mood and energy around seasonal turning points.

• The month and the type of day (cold, humid, falling pressure, none).
• Mood words, energy and irritability on that day.
• Whether a similar stretch appeared in the same months of earlier years, from your older notes.

The calendar view in Bipolar Journey colors each day by intensity, and the monthly view shows whether the darker days gather in particular months. The Learn topics on mood and routines give short background to read alongside your own weeks. For what to keep logging in the quieter stretches, see what to log between hard weeks.

Rain haters, summer haters and unaffected days: why your own weeks with bipolar disorder matter more than a group average

Weather does not affect everyone. The 2017 PLOS ONE paper describes a Dutch study that sorted people into four types by how weather changed their mood: Summer Lovers, Summer Haters, Rain Haters and Unaffected. The Unaffected group, who notice no mood change with the weather, was by far the most populated, which goes some way to explaining why average effects across large groups are often not found. (Source: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.)

The bipolar studies also point to individual differences. In the 15-person rapid cycling study, the temperature model fit the largest number of people, yet it was not the best fit for everyone, and the authors describe substantial individual differences between participants. (Source: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.)

For a log, this has a practical meaning. A single hard day during a storm proves little. A pattern needs the same condition to appear on several days, with the same mood words recorded on days when the condition is absent.

Testing your own weather pattern

Bipolar Journey writes a mood line every day, including ordinary ones.

1. Pick the readings you will write each day.
2. Write a mood line on every day, including days with no change.
3. Mark days clearly worse than a usual week.
4. After several weeks, compare each type of day with the days without it.

In Bipolar Journey, My Assessments adds structured check-ins beyond the daily scores, with onboarding life and social context read against ongoing history. The history of the Daily check-in and the Flare Tracker then lets a clinician compare weather days with all the others. For the hardest days, see getting through a loud mood day without losing notes.

Mood words to record on a weather day with bipolar disorder: elevated, irritable, slowed, wired

NIMH lists the signs of the two kinds of episode. For a manic episode: feeling very up, high, elated, extremely irritable or touchy; feeling jumpy or wired, or being more active than usual; racing thoughts; decreased need for sleep; talking fast about many things. For a major depressive episode: feeling very down or sad, or anxious; feeling slowed down or restless; trouble concentrating or making decisions; trouble falling asleep, waking too early or sleeping too much; lack of interest in almost all activities.

Those lines are a vocabulary. A weather log gains from using the same words each time, because "off" and "wired" mean different things to a clinician.

A weather-day mood line

Bipolar Journey lists the fields of a single weather-day entry.

The same fields on a clear day gives the contrast that makes the stormy day readable.

The Daily check-in in Bipolar Journey carries emotional state, sleep and external factors in one guided form, and the Daily Journal accepts free-text or voice notes about what the short night cost or what the day limited. Both read together with the rest of the logged history.

Bipolar disorder: call your local emergency number first for thoughts of suicide

Some changes need a person, not a note. NIMH says to call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 if you or someone you know is in immediate distress or is thinking about hurting themselves, and to call 911 in life-threatening situations. The same page lists thinking about death or suicide among the signs of a major depressive episode.

In your own words, the order is: call your local emergency number (911 in the United States) if there is danger, or a crisis line where you live (988 in the United States). A clinician can assess a sudden change in mood or energy, a stretch of days with very little sleep and an unusual surge of activity, or any thoughts of hurting yourself. If symptoms change fast or worry you, contact a clinician the same day.

The log comes after the immediate situation has passed, and the notes go to your clinician.

Notes after urgent help

Bipolar Journey writes these notes once you are safe.

• What happened, in a few words.
• The date.
• What came before it.
• Who you contacted.

Once things are steadier, one Flare Tracker entry in Bipolar Journey can hold the clearly worse day and the weather of that day, with a few words about what came before.

Weather lines, mood words and dates for a bipolar disorder clinician visit

A clinician has a few minutes. A page that shows the pattern in the first glance is more useful than a month of notes. Build the page in this order:

Weather and mood items to show your doctor

Bipolar Journey puts the weather question in one line.

1. The weather question in one line: which reading, if any, seems to go with changes.
2. Three or four example days, with date, readings and mood words.
3. Days with the same reading and no change, to show the contrast.
4. Sleep hours around those days, as numbers.
5. Any clearly worse day, flagged.
6. Medicines you take, as a dated list.

Visit questions take the form: Is it worth reviewing the cold days together with the sleep hours? Is it worth reviewing the falling-pressure days together with the mood words? Is it worth reviewing the medicine list together with the seasonal months?

NIMH describes mood episodes as lasting a week or two, or sometimes longer, with symptoms every day for most of the day. A page that notes how many days each change lasted lets a clinician see whether a weather day was a single day or the start of a longer stretch.

The Doctor Report in Bipolar Journey exports a one-page summary from the logged history, with dates, sleep and mood context and how you functioned. My Care Team keeps your clinicians and short visit notes for what to ask and bring, notes during the visit and review afterward, and My Meds lists medicines you already take as dated facts.

How Bipolar Journey can help

A notebook handles a few weather days. When weather, sleep, mood and medicines need to be read together, a tracker saves the cross-referencing. Best Bipolar Apps 2026 compares the options.

Bipolar Journey is a personal bipolar disorder tracker from Health Journey Labs on the App Store and Google Play. It lets you attach weather labels to the daily check-in, flag clearly worse days and compare each kind of day with the calm ones. The history shows which readings repeat with changes in mood and which do not, so a visit starts from dates and mood words. Below is what you can use and how each part helps.

• Daily check-in — A guided daily form for physical symptoms, emotional state, nutrition, sleep, exercise, meds and outside factors, which is where weather readings go.
• Daily Journal — Free-text and voice notes on what a short night cost, what partners asked, visit debriefs, guilt after canceling and fear around a fast day, to give each score context.
• Flare Tracker — Flags a day clearly worse than a usual week, such as a mood rise, a wired short-sleep stretch or a low-energy day that stands out.
• My Meds — Names and timing of medicines you already take as prescribed, read against sleep hours, next-day mood and the rest of the history.
• My Assessments — Structured check-ins beyond daily scores, plus onboarding questions on life and social context that feed ongoing history.
• Learn — Short education topics on sleep, mood, routines and visit preparation, to read alongside your own logged weeks.
• AI companions — Clara for general chat plus specialist companions on knowledge, fitness, nutrition and relationships, all of which already see your logged history.
• Weekly Goals — One small aim for the week, checked against real check-ins to see whether it held.
• Doctor Report — A one-page summary exported from the logged history, with dates, sleep and mood context and how you functioned.
• My Care Team — Clinicians and short visit notes, used for preparing what to ask and bring, notes during the visit and review afterward.
• My Labs — Result dates for blood counts, levels and other tests, read against sleep, mood and function.
• Period Tracker — Start and stop dates, flow and how heavy or light bleeding felt, read against sleep, mood, energy and everything else logged.
• Food Tracker — Meal and drink lines with caffeine and alcohol, read against sleep and mood.
• Weight Tracker — Scale readings or body notes.

Everything you log builds one history, and insights get stronger as it grows. Custom symptoms let you add your own labels.

Sources

• PLOS ONE (PMC) — Highs and lows, ups and downs: Meteorology and mood in bipolar disorder
• PMC — Mood oscillations and coupling between mood and weather in patients with rapid cycling bipolar disorder
• PMC — Seasonal variation of manic and depressive symptoms in bipolar disorder
• PubMed — Seasonality and bipolar disorder: a systematic review
• NIMH — Bipolar disorder

FAQ

The answers below draw on the sources cited in this guide, and the app they mention is Bipolar Journey (by Health Journey Labs).