Was this you? You picked up on Sunday night that a storm was rolling in on Monday because your hands and knees decided to tell you before the meteorologist did. Then someone told you it was “all in your head.” It’s not.

For people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), ankylosing spondylitis (AS), or psoriatic arthritis (PsA), the shoulder seasons: the months that stretch between summer and fall, or winter and spring, when temperatures swing and storms roll through, can bring a noticeable uptick in joint pain, stiffness, and fatigue. This isn’t a coincidence, and it is not a sign that your treatment has stopped working. Here’s what the research actually says, and what you can do to help feel better.

Is it really true that weather can affect RA, AS or PsA pain?

Yes. The connection is real, even if it’s smaller and more complicated than “rain equals pain.” The most rigorous test of this came from a 2019 UK study, Cloudy with a Chance of Pain, which had over 2,600 people with chronic pain conditions log daily symptoms through a smartphone app matched to their local weather via GPS. The researchers found that on humid, windy days with dropping air pressure, the odds of a painful day rose by roughly 20% compared with an average day. That relationship held up even after accounting for mood and activity level.

A 2023 meta-analysis pooling multiple studies on weather and osteoarthritis pain came to a similar conclusion: the effect is real, but modest, and it shows up more consistently for barometric pressure and humidity than for temperature alone.

What’s actually happening in my joints when the weather shifts?

The leading explanation involves barometric pressure, or the weight of the air pressing on your body. When pressure is high, it presses in on your tissues, including the capsule surrounding each joint. When a system moves through and pressure drops, that outside pressure eases up, and tissue around the joint can expand slightly.

In a joint that’s already inflamed or has lost cartilage cushioning, that small shift can be enough to irritate nearby nerves. Cold weather adds another layer: it can thicken the fluid that lubricates your joints, making them feel stiffer, and it often means less movement overall, which tends to make stiffness worse.

 

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Is barometric pressure-related pain just an osteoarthritis thing, or does it happen with autoimmune arthritis, too?

Both. This is one of the more reassuring findings in the research: weather sensitivity isn’t unique to “wear and tear” arthritis. Older studies comparing rheumatic conditions found that people with RA and osteoarthritis both reported more pain with pressure and temperature changes, and a 2025 Swiss study following patients with RA, AS, and PsA found that close to half described themselves as weather-sensitive, with pain tracking modestly with dropping air pressure across all three conditions.

So if your hands ache the same way your mom’s OA-affected knees do when a cold front rolls in, that’s consistent with what researchers are seeing, not a red flag that something else is going on.

Does a seasonal transition mean my RA, AS, or PsA is getting worse?

Not necessarily. And this is the important distinction. That same 2025 study, along with a 2024–2025 analysis of psoriatic arthritis patients, found that weather explained only a fraction of the variation in actual disease activity scores (the measures your rheumatology team uses to judge inflammation).

In other words, weather-related aches tend to move independently of the underlying disease process. It can feel like a flare in the moment, but it’s usually not the same thing as your immune system ramping up its attack on the joint.

If it’s not a flare, why won’t adjusting my medication help?

This is exactly why your care team may tell you that changing your biologic, DMARD, or other immunosuppressive medication isn’t the right tool here. Those medications work by calming an overactive immune response. They’re built to reduce inflammation and disease activity.

Weather-related pain, as the research above shows, largely isn’t being driven by a spike in inflammation. It’s a mechanical and nerve-sensitivity response to pressure and temperature change. Turning up immunosuppression to treat it would mean taking on more medication risk to address a symptom it isn’t designed to fix. The more effective approach is treating the pain itself, directly.

 

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So what can I actually do about seasonal-related symptoms for RA, AS or PsA?

A few low-risk, practical tools tend to help most:

    • Give it time. Weather-related pain typically eases once conditions stabilize, often within a day or two of the front passing through.
    • Hot or cold packs. Cold can dull pain and calm swelling; heat relaxes muscles and loosens stiff joints. Many people find alternating between the two works better than picking just one. Try 15–20 minutes of cold, or up to 20–30 minutes of heat, always with a cloth barrier between the pack and your skin.
    • Warm baths or showers. A warm soak (roughly 92–100°F) is an easy way to loosen up multiple joints at once, especially in the morning or before activity.
    • Tylenol (acetaminophen) as needed, if your liver is healthy. For adults without liver disease, staying at or under 3,000 mg per day (and never exceeding 4,000 mg from all sources, including combination cold/flu products) is the general safety guidance. If you have liver disease, drink alcohol regularly, or take other medications that affect the liver, check with your care team on your personal limit before using it.
    • Light to moderate activity, as tolerated. It’s tempting to hunker down when you’re achy, but gentle movement: walking, stretching, swimming, helps keep joints from stiffening further. You don’t need a big workout; short, frequent movement breaks count.

When should I call my care team instead of just riding it out?

Weather-related aches are usually familiar, and tend to track with the forecast. Reach out to your rheumatology team if you notice new joint swelling or redness that doesn’t settle down, fever, pain that’s sharply worse than your usual pattern, or symptoms lasting well beyond the weather event itself. Those are signs worth having your provider take a closer look at, separate from a routine weather ache.

A quick note from your AndHealth care team: If the in-between seasons are consistently rough on you, reach out to your care team via text or phone. Tracking your pain alongside the weather over a few months can help your care team tell the difference between a weather-related pattern and a true flare, and build a plan for you that fits your specific joints, your specific triggers, and your daily life.

Want to learn more?

Tracking your health is one part of AndHealth’s whole person care. We also give our patients living with autoimmune rheumatology conditions access to a full care team that includes a specialist, clinical pharmacist, health coach and patient care navigator. AndHealth is accepting new patients in Ohio and Indiana, with appointments available soon.

We’re in-network with Medicaid, Medicare, TRICARE, and most commercial health plans. For patients without insurance at this time, we can help you access care.

 

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About the Author

Dr. Heitsch cares for adults living with rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and psoriatic arthritis, among other rheumatology conditions. Her approach centers on listening first: understanding how a condition actually shows up in daily life before building a treatment plan around it with her patients.

Her training reflects that same whole-person lens: a combined residency in internal medicine and pediatrics, followed by advanced fellowship training in both adult and pediatric rheumatology through The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. For Dr. Heitsch, good rheumatology care comes down to communication and trust: making sure patients understand their options, feel heard in the decisions being made, and leave every visit knowing what comes next.

References

1. Dixon, W.G., Beukenhorst, A.L., Yimer, B.B., et al. (2019). How the weather affects the pain of citizen scientists using a smartphone app. npj Digital Medicine, 2, 105. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-019-0180-3
2. Wang, Y., et al. (2023). Associations between weather conditions and osteoarthritis pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Annals of Medicine, 55(1), 2196439. https://doi.org/10.1080/07853890.2023.2196439
3. Walker, U.A., Nettermann, K., Walker, S., Streeter, A., & Jaeger, V.K. (2025). Meteorosensitivity of patients with rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases. PLoS One, 20(10), e0333022. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41052077/
4. Joly-Chevrier, M., Coupal, L., Choquette Sauvageau, L., Movahedi, M., & Choquette, D. (2025). A real-world analysis of weather variation on disease activity and patient-reported outcomes in psoriatic arthritis. The Journal of Rheumatology, 52(1), 33–37. https://www.jrheum.org/content/52/1/33
5. Arthritis Foundation. Taking Acetaminophen Safely. https://www.arthritis.org/drug-guide/medication-topics/taking-acetaminophen-safely
6. Cleveland Clinic. Ice or Heat: What’s Better for Soothing Arthritis Pain? https://health.clevelandclinic.org/heat-or-ice-for-arthritis

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