Will a change in South Florida’s weather forecast this week slow coronavirus?
Tuesday’s forecast calls for a heat index of 90 in South Florida — along with a hazardous warning for “fire weather” given the weeks-long heat and dry conditions.
But is all of this heat, and more of it to come Wednesday, good enough to kill, or at least slow, the spread of the coronavirus in Miami-Dade and Broward counties — the state’s “hot spots” for COVID-19?
Too soon to say, according to current studies like one recently released by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. And it’s still unknown for certain how the novel coronavirus will behave come the official start of summer on June 21.
Besides, it’s been hot in Florida for weeks and the state is still sixth in the nation for the most COVID-19 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“While influenza virus has been shown to be affected by weather, it is unknown if COVID-19 is similarly affected. Even though currently available data is skewed by minimal testing per capita in many tropical countries, it is possible that weather plays a role in the spread of [COVID-19] which warrants an investigation,” the MIT study said.
However, the study also said “it is extremely unlikely that the spread of COVID-19 would slow down in the USA or Europe, due to environmental factors, because a large number of cases have already been reported in the range of absolute humidity and temperature experienced by these regions for most part of the year.”
“Our results in no way suggest that COVID-19 would not spread in warm humid regions and effective public health interventions should be implemented across the world to slow down the transmission of COVID-19.”
In other words, as you swelter in Tuesday and Wednesday’s high South Florida temperatures of mid- to upper 80s and sunny skies, continue to practice social distancing and stay indoors in the AC.
According to the weather center in Miami, a cold front moving across South Florida on Wednesday could bring a slight chance of thunderstorms — about 30% Wednesday — along with rip currents. “Unsettled weather could return for the weekend.”
But the front will be mild, with lows of 70 degrees Thursday to Saturday nights and otherwise warm upper 70s days with lots of sun.
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 10:22 AM.
