Humidity
levels
We
have
found an inverse correlation between humidity levels and
absolute death counts.
●
March
average relative humidity % (-0.63, significant at 0.01)
●
January
average relative humidity % (-0.58, significant at 0.05)
●
February
average relative humidity % (-0.56, significant at 0.05)
A similar trend is also confirmed in the
study from Beihang University in Beijing, China that R0 is
lowered by 0.0225 and 0.0158, respectively for absolute
temp in C and relative % in humidity. Both factors use the
real line centering at 0 C and 0%:
●
1
degree increase in temperature in Celsius in a 3-day average
●
1%
increase in relative humidity
This is highly
correlated with studies with influenza, too. Read the paper
here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3551767
This
humidity correlation may contribute to explain why coastal
cities often faired better. Londo, Madrid, Brussels, Milan,
Paris were
hardest hit in Europe in that order whilst none is coastal.
Hardest hit coastal cities would be Barcelona, Stockholm,
and Amsterdam. The latter had either no lockdown or a very
mild lockdown.
Humidity
is only a factor as cities like Frankfurt or Berlin were
mostly spared whilst New York was hit hard. These cases
maybe explained by factors exposed further in this paper and
related to context, policies and urbanism.
Solidity:
Correlation and consistent with other studies
Impact : 2 (Significant)