Originally Posted by Wilbur Bud

Sometimes it's a real effect with a reason. I notice changing wind at sunup and sundown, but I also always felt like nature was working against me on the commute because I go almost due west in the morning and then back east in the evening, and it was generally beneficial in the summer and working against me in the winter. Then I found this site where you can query local weather stations for wind speed and direction and obtain seasonal plots of same, and in my case it turned out nature was against me, not just a conspiracy theory.

Wind history map

You can see that I am receiving significantly more eastbound wind in the face during winter (February) than summer (August). I don't generally mind more work at night on the way home, but in the bottom image you can see I suffer from a sort of cold-weather slow-down effect and so those winter mornings when my nominal commute time of 60 minutes becomes 75 minutes, I have no legs in that final 10-15 minutes and of course every now and then when nature gangs up with low temps plus high winds in the face and I get 85-90 minutes on the clock, I just want to go back to sleep after arriving at work, having a shower and breakfast, etc. Nothing worse than a sustained strong headwind !