Rheumatoid Arthritis and the weather - how does it affect you?

Last night was the first night in many that the house was cool enough to sleep properly - and after turfing the cats from the bedroom sometime before dawn (when THEY thought it was time to get up) I slept until the garbage trucks woke me just before 9.30 - most unusual for me to sleep that late... Today is blessedly cool after many days of extreme temperatures. And I ache.

I had fairly usual pain levels during the heat wave, although the lack of sleep and general lethargy extreme heat brings made the days and nights difficult. And probably by tomorrow, I'll be back to my 'normal' pain levels again. But it's the big, sudden temperature drop that is making me very uncomfortable today. My brain is with me - courtesy of the extra sleep last night - but my body is most unhappy.

It's something I've been struggling with since the interstate move, and has brought memories of similar ups and downs that were my norm last time I lived this far south, prior to the move to Sydney. Sydney can, and does, get very hot - and extremely humid. But it tends to build up gradually to extremes, and drop a little more gradually back to normal too. There are odd drops, but they're less frequent. Here in Melbourne, it's quite normal for the daily temperatures to shift ten to fifteen degrees from one day to the next and that plays havoc with my RA. 

People say to me, fairly constantly, through the winter, "This cold weather must make your arthritis so much worse, you poor thing," and in summer, "You must be feeling so much better now it's hot." Thing is, as long as the temperature is reasonably consistent and any shift from hot to cold happens gradually, I'm fine. In general, I prefer the winter to hot summers - it's relatively easy to keep warm, but it's much harder to stay comfortable in the heat. The extreme and abrupt changes, particularly those that go from hot to cold by a big margin, are what give me the most grief. The next week, while not getting as hot overall, will give me two big drops, so I'm guessing it's going to all stay a bit uncomfortable as there won't be enough days in a row where it's consistent enough to really adjust.

What happens with everyone else? How do you manage with weather changes and temperatures RA-Wise?