The Effect of Weather Pattern on the Second Wave of Coronavirus: A cross study between cold and tropical climates of France, Italy, Colombia, and Brazil

Abstract

This study aims to explore and understand the common belief that COVID infection rate is highly dependent on either the outside temperature and/or the humidity. Thirty-six regions/states from two humid-tropical countries, namely Brazil and Colombia and two countries with temperate climate, France and Italy, are studied over the period of October to December. Daily outside temperature, relative humidity and hospitalization/cases are analyzed using Spearman’s correlation. The eighteen cold regions of France and Italy has seen an average drop in temperature from 10°C to 6°C and 17°C to 7°C, respectively, and France recorded an addition of 2.3 million cases, while Italy recorded an addition of 1.8 million cases. Outside temperature did not fluctuate much in tropical countries, but Brazil and Colombia added 4.17 million and 1.1 million cases, respectively. Köppen–Geiger classification showed the differences in weather pattern between the four countries, and the analysis showed that there is very weak correlation between either outside weather and/or relative humidity alone to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 spreading under the influence of environmental factors and strategies to tackle the pandemic: A systematic review

“…Hence, other such studies also provided considerable evidence that temperature was a crucial factor that plays a vital role in spreading the virus (Y Han et al, 2021 . ; Islam, 2021 ; Rume & Islam, 2020 ) Eslami & Jalili, (2020) . observed that rising 1°C ambient minimum temperature decreased COVID-19 cases by 0.86%.…”

“…Hence, many other studies confirmed RH's negative association with COVID-19 cases ( Qi et al, 2020 ; Xu et al, 2020 ). In some of the southern hemisphere and humid tropical regions such as Bogota and Antioquia in Colombia, it showed a steady record of COVID-19 even at 72 to 82 % humidity with a temperature range 13−27°C during October – December 2020 ( Islam, 2021 ). Similarly, in some regions of Brazil, such as Rio de Janeiro, the weather changed to hot humid at the end of October, but SARS-CoV-2 kept spreading, indicating a weak correlation between humidity and COVID-19 cases ( Islam, 2021 ).…”

“…In some of the southern hemisphere and humid tropical regions such as Bogota and Antioquia in Colombia, it showed a steady record of COVID-19 even at 72 to 82 % humidity with a temperature range 13−27°C during October – December 2020 ( Islam, 2021 ). Similarly, in some regions of Brazil, such as Rio de Janeiro, the weather changed to hot humid at the end of October, but SARS-CoV-2 kept spreading, indicating a weak correlation between humidity and COVID-19 cases ( Islam, 2021 ). Humidity is also measured as absolute humidity (AH) (a water vapor measurement in the air without considering temperature) Bukhari and Jameel (2020) .…”

Results of a Study on the Impact of Surface Ozone Concentration on the Spread of COVID-19 in Tbilisi

“…A significant number of papers are devoted to studies of the influence of various meteorological factors (included surface ozone) on the COVID-19 pandemic [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”