Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin carried out the study to find the role played by weather in changing the dynamics of the coronavirus pandemic.

Their findings indicated that temperature and humidity do not play a pivotal role in coronavirus spread.

This means the transmission of the virus solely depends on human behaviour, regardless of the weather.

Dev Niyogi, a professor at UT Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences and Cockrell School of Engineering, who led the research said: “The effect of weather is low and other features such as mobility have more impact than the weather. In terms of relative importance, the weather is one of the last parameters.”

The research was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

The study defined weather as “equivalent air temperature,” which combines temperature and humidity into a single value.

Other factors

The scientists then analysed how this value tracked with coronavirus spread in different areas from March to July 2020. The researchers also looked into the link between coronavirus infection and human behaviour, using cellphone data to study travel habits.

Their findings revealed that the weather had nearly no influence. Considering other factors as well, the weather’s influence on the pandemic could be less than 3 per cent, with no indication that a specific type of weather promoted spread over another.

In contrast, travelling (34 per cent) and spending time away from home (26 per cent) were the top two contributing factors to the Covid-19 transmission rate. The next two significant contributors were population (23 per cent) and urban density (13 per cent).

One of the researchers wrote: “We shouldn’t think of the problem as something driven by weather and climate. We should take personal precautions, be aware of the factors in urban exposure.”

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