https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/migraines-climate-change-weather-heat-pressure
By Stacey Colino
Excerpt: A systematic review of medical research published in May of last year found a growing trend of more frequent and worse migraine attacks. While the review found that migraines in the U.S. are as common as they were three decades ago, the severity and level of impairment from migraine attacks nearly doubled between 2005 and 2018.
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One of the leading theories behind this mysterious rise is that climate change may be playing a role.
“Climate change appears to be contributing to more frequent and severe migraine flare-ups by amplifying environmental conditions that are already known triggers such as higher temperatures, wider temperature swings, worsening air quality, and changes in barometric pressure,” says Danielle Wilhour, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
Marin has noticed that his recent increase in migraine attacks has coincided with these environmental changes. “It’s not just heat, either,” Marin says. “Storm fronts, humidity shifts, and sudden pressure changes also seem to trigger symptoms. It’s like my body has become its own weather barometer, warning me that something’s changing before the forecast even updates.”
How scientists are investigating this link
So far, most of the evidence for this link is correlational. It’s difficult to prove climate change is directly causing more migraines partly because “we cannot ethically conduct randomized controlled trials that expose people to environmental risks,” Wilhour says.
But the growing number of correlational studies is adding weight to the theory that climate change is amplifying migraine triggers.
Research presented at the 2024 American Headache Society’s Annual Scientific Meeting found that for every 10°F increase in outdoor temperature, there was a six percent increase in the occurrence of any headache on that day (based on headache diaries kept by 660 migraine patients).
In a study in a 2025 issue of the journal Headache, researchers
spent 12 years following 407,792 people in the U.K. who didn’t initially report experiencing migraines. That paper found that more migraine cases occurred among people who had higher exposure to nitrogen dioxide levels (a form of air pollution caused by burning fuel) and exposure to more extreme temperatures in the summer and winter.
“If you have global warming and higher temperatures to begin with, you’re going to have more headache,” says Vincent Martin, coauthor of the 2024 study, a professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati, and president of the National Headache Foundation.
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Rather than causing migraine attacks directly, the rising temperatures, barometric pressure swings, and other weather shifts that are associated with climate change seem to be lowering the threshold for migraine attacks to occur in those who are susceptible to them, says Dawn C. Buse, a psychologist and clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
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Climate change is making all these variables more common or extreme, which means that more migraine attacks are likely to follow, experts say.
