Newbie here, recently diagnosed

It's not too late to start your Asacol again. 800 mg /day is too little. I assume you were told to take it 3 or 4 times/day?

Don't start the prednisone again without your DR's knowledge.

Where is your inflammation? What are your symptoms?

You learn from your mistakes. We've all been there, done that. Unfortunately UC is a lifelong disease. You can't ever stop taking your maintenance meds such as Asacol, even when you're 80 years old. You should restart your Asacol right away but you should get an OK from your doc to restart the pred so he knows what's going on. I'm assuming you know you can't just stop pred cold turkey. It's hard to say if the seasons are effecting your UC because you stopped your meds. Often times each flare gets harder and harder to treat, requiring you to take worse and worse meds. The best way to avoid that is to continue your maintenance meds forever so you never have another flare and never have to move to much harsher meds.

I think you may have misunderstood me a little. While it's not smart to just quit maintenance meds, stopping prednisone cold turkey can kill you, literally. It has to be tapered down or your body can go into adrenal shock. Some have literally died.

You're alive, so you didn't mess up too bad :)

But prednisone is a strong dude that will kick your ass, so take it with caution and also stop taking it with the same caution.

Some people can go on and off the meds when their flares go away. You can totally start up again on the Asacol and see if it works for you by itself. Hopefully it helps you but if it gets worse make an emergency appointment with your doctor! There's no reason to suffer with those symptoms for days, life is too short.