A drop in barometric pressure precedes rain or other precipitation.

I know pain is worse for me as well (not just for PN, but joint pain too) when the pressure drops.

Last winter, there were FIVE major LOWS on the US map, at the same time.

That is not typical, but that time period was very painful for me.

If you watch the Weather Channel online, or on cable, and or CNN every day, you will get an inkling or at least a warning of sorts. Sometimes a LOW pressure area will be near and there won't be the rain/snow. You can still feel awful, however.

I have noticed the pain is worse the last few days since this bad weather in midwest USA. I would not use the term flare, however, as I do have pain every day.

I understand - I have pn pain everyday, but mostly just very light pain that I can live with easily. What I term a flare up is when it gets notably worse over a period of hours or days.

This is always when a storm is approaching or during one and the pain becomes more intense and more frequent. No flare up has ever lasted more than a week for me, as it slowly returns to my normal level of slight pains, but when the flare ups do occur, it is horrible! The only other times I have flare ups of pn pain is when I get sick with a flu or something.

Thankfully though, I notice that I'm feeling better as every month passes and the flare ups that occur every month are getting less painful than the months before it. I thank God for that.

My dad who had very bad rheumatoid arthritis for 50 years until he died. He felt much worse when a low came in. In his waning years he moved to Arizona and said how much better he felt.

Low pressure is an area of unstable warm air. It does not always mean rain or precipitation, but is associated with clouds and general bad weather.

Consult the weatherman or a barometer to know since it can slide in slowly.

Spending time in AZ for a number of years during the winter I still knew when the pressure changed. Didn't feel any better that way. I believe that Louisiana has the least pressure changes. I read that somewhere.

I am a lot worse on stormy, damp, dark days. I almost always need extra medication on those days. Not sure that I want to move to louisiana though!

My husband travels there on business a lot and he loves it because everyone can pronounce and spell our last name (he is French-Canadian). We would both miss the seasonal changes too much to move.

I remember when weather forecasts always made a big deal of mentioning the barometric pressure. They only seem to do that during hurricanes now. Too much high tech stuff with all the moving maps, etc. obscuring the information.

Nope, I would not want to move to Louisiana either. (No offense to anyone who is from there). I like the four seasons but winter less and less as CMT has taken so much from me so I cannot enjoy winter anymore.

Not only do my wrists crack I hurt all of the time but much more when there are pressure changes. I can always tell when rain, snow, you name it are coming.

I kind of think that moving to dry warm areas would be better for pn victims, since less humidity and less rainstorms are the norm. But don't know if the heat has an effect on temperature either.

What seems odd is that lots of older people retire to Florida, but Florida, (from what I see on TV) seems plagued by ravishing rainstorms and high humidity -not ideal weather for old folks I would think.

Yes, there is less humidity in the warm dry areas. However, the dry conditions, and they are dry, suck the moisture right out of a person. There is a T-shirt I saw which had two skeletons sitting next to a rock and it said, "But it's a dry heat". How true that one is. In those warm dry areas there still are pressure changes and so they do cause aches and pains and hurting for some people.

As far as Florida, I guess some people like it and others don't. And it depends where you are in Florida. Whatever works, works.