A couple of small earthquakes hit the Coachella Valley, the temperature jumps, and suddenly your social feeds light up with people declaring that it’s “earthquake weather.”

You’ve seen the posts. You’ve heard the tone. Someone swears they felt it coming.

So let’s settle this calmly, rationally, and without yelling at your aunt on Facebook.

What People Mean When They Say “Earthquake Weather”

When someone says it’s earthquake weather, they’re usually pointing to a few things happening at once:

• It’s hot or suddenly warmer than usual
• The air feels heavy or still
• An earthquake just happened, so the brain goes looking for a cause

Our brains are very good at spotting patterns. They are less good at understanding geology.

Add in the fact that Southern California residents experience a lot of small earthquakes, and it’s easy to connect dots that were never actually related.

What Science Says (And This Part Is Not Very Exciting)

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the people who have spent their entire careers studying earthquakes, there is no such thing as earthquake weather.

There is no such thing as “earthquake weather.” Earthquakes happen in cold weather, hot weather, rainy weather, and dry weather at roughly the same rates. Large storm systems can sometimes influence very small fault movements, but these effects are rare and not statistically significant.

In other words: earthquakes do not care if it’s hot, cold, humid, windy, or a “weird vibe day.”

Why the Myth Won’t Die

The idea sticks around because it feels intuitive.

Hot days feel tense. Still air feels ominous. And when an earthquake happens, the human instinct is to look backward and assign meaning.

This is the same reason people swear they “always know” when one is coming, even though those predictions only get remembered when an earthquake actually follows.

The Real Relationship Between Weather and Earthquakes

To be fair, there is a tiny, highly technical connection that sometimes gets oversimplified.

Massive pressure changes from things like hurricanes or typhoons can slightly influence stress on faults. But these effects are:

• Rare
• Extremely small
• Not useful for prediction

They do not translate to “it’s hot today, so an earthquake is coming.”

So… Is Earthquake Weather Real?

No.

It’s a phrase people use to describe a coincidence between uncomfortable weather and normal seismic activity in an earthquake-prone region.

Southern California gets earthquakes all year. We also get hot days, cold days, windy days, and days that just feel off.

Sometimes those overlap. That’s it.

The Practical Takeaway

You don’t need to worry more about earthquakes just because it’s hot out.

You should be generally prepared for earthquakes because you live in Southern California. That advice applies whether it’s 65 degrees or 115.

And yes, you can still like the post about “earthquake weather.” It costs nothing, keeps the peace, and doesn’t change the geology either way.

The ground will do what it wants. The weather is just along for the ride.