Giving Compass' Take:

• The Guardian writes about why wet weather and rainfall affects our mood, our inclination to commit crime and how hungry we feel.

• Can rain also be a cause of depression? What more can we learn about how weather affects moods? 

• Learn more about health benefits from the outdoors. 

It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring. He bumped his head when he went to bed, and he couldn’t get up in the morning. This was possibly because in the absence of sunlight his body was still producing the hormone melatonin, which makes you sleepy. There are many ways that rainfall affects human behavior. Why do crime levels drop when the heavens open? How much does rain really affect people’s moods and behavior?

In 2008 university researchers published a paper proposing that weak summer monsoons were influential in the downfall of three dynasties in ancient China. By analyzing stalagmites from a cave, they were able to match periods of significantly decreased rainfall with periods of social upheaval and the demise of the Tang, Yuan and Ming dynasties. This is thought to be related to reduced rice cultivation.

Read the full article how wet weather affects human behavior Jamie Flook at The Guardian