Monitoring Barometric Activity

[Taikoen 0]

I thought DZ.com might be a good place to post this since I'm sure someone out there has an idea on how often barometric changes occur. There's got to be a weatherman + pilot + skydiver out there somewhere. Migraines run in my family, so I'm trying to record various points of data to determine as many factors as possible. I'm sure I could check the barometric pressure for where I am every two hours and eventually find out the best times to check, but does anyone have a good idea of how often these changes really occur? If I consistently check once a day is that enough? I was originally considering checking once in the morning and once in the early evening (like 8am and 5pm, which corresponds with my typical work hours, too). I know it fluctuates throughout the day, but I'm not sure to the extent of those fluctuations, especially somewhere like North Texas.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks,
John

[Bum 0]

An ex-girlfriend used to call me "mister barometer-head" as I'd often get headaches while the barometer was falling.

High pressure and Low pressure areas can sit still for days, but usually are moving around. As a High pressure area (usually associated with clear sunny weather) moves away from your location and is displaced by a Low pressure area (usually associated with clouds and rain), that's usually when people and critters start feeling restless and irritable. So it's potentially not so much if you're in a High or a Low, but the rate of change between the two.

Sooo, if you're going to measure rate of change then I think every couple of hours would be a minimum. Plot them out and then look for days with a big downward spike; those just might be the days when headaches are more common.

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Doug the DZ Bum

[quade 3]

Have you ever gone to the top of the Empire State Building? Did that cause you to experience a migrane?

The reason I ask is that the range of pressure difference from the ground floor to the observation deck is roughly the range of barometric pressure difference you'd ever experiece by staying at one place.

If you really wanted to find out, you could carry around a portable weather tracker such as the Kestral 4000 and also keep a diary of your migranes and see if there is any real correlation, but to be honest I'd be very surprised if there was. For the most part, barometric changes happen so slowly that the body equalizes the pressure pretty darn well. An activity, such as skydiving, where the pressure changes are HUGE over the course of a minute can cause issues with sinuses, but unless that in turn triggers the migrane the two issues aren't usually tied to one another.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[cocheese 0]

Get a watch that has barametric graphing. Casio has some good stuff. Soon you'll be predicting the weather just as good as your grandma's arthrits.