ArticleEnvironmental research2021
Did anomalous atmospheric circulation favor the spread of COVID-19 in Europe?
Article in Environmental research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spatiotemporal dynamics and influencing factors of land carbon stock in Chengdu Plain using an integrated model.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Data analysis evidence beyond correlation of a possible causal impact of weather on the COVID-19 spread, mediated by human mobility.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Environmental predictors of SARS-CoV-2 infection incidence in Catalonia (northwestern Mediterranean).Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Application of distributed lag models and spatial analysis for comparing the performance of the COVID-19 control decisions in European countries.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- An overview of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and engineering strategies to mitigate risk.Journal of building engineering · 2023Review
- Peculiar weather patterns effects on air pollution and COVID-19 spread in Tokyo metropolis.Environmental research · 2023Observational
- Work accidents, climate change and COVID-19.The Science of the total environment · 2023Review
- The ecosyndemic framework of the global environmental change and the COVID-19 pandemic.The Science of the total environment · 2023Article
- Does COVID-19 impact on financial markets of China-evidence from during and pre-COVID-19 outbreak.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2023Article
- Latitude and longitude as drivers of COVID-19 waves' behavior in Europe: A time-space perspective of the pandemic.PloS one · 2023Article
- Cumulative effects of air pollution and climate drivers on COVID-19 multiwaves in Bucharest, Romania.Process safety and environmental protection : transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Part B · 2022Article
- Influence of weather factors on the incidence of COVID-19 in Spain.Medicina clinica · 2022Article
- Influence of weather factors on the incidence of COVID-19 in Spain.Medicina clinica (English ed.) · 2022Article
- Impacts of exposure to air pollution, radon and climate drivers on the COVID-19 pandemic in Bucharest, Romania: A time series study.Environmental research · 2022Observational
- Effects of environmental parameters and their interactions on the spreading of SARS-CoV-2 in North Italy under different social restrictions. A new approach based on multivariate analysis.Environmental research · 2022Article
- Estimating changes in air pollutant levels due to COVID-19 lockdown measures based on a business-as-usual prediction scenario using data mining models: A case-study for urban traffic sites in Spain.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Assessing the impact of air pollution and climate seasonality on COVID-19 multiwaves in Madrid, Spain.Environmental research · 2022Article
- The COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on the environment.Environmental research · 2021Review
- Distinct weather conditions and human mobility impacts on the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Colombia: Application of an artificial neural network approach.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2021Article
- The role of airborne particles and environmental considerations in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.Geoscience frontiers · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The current pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is having negative health, social and economic consequences worldwide. In Europe, the pandemic started to develop strongly at the end of February and beginning of March 2020. Subsequently, it spread over the continent, with special virulence in northern Italy and inland Spain. In this study we show that an unusual persistent anticyclonic situation prevailing in southwestern Europe during February 2020 (i.e. anomalously strong positive phase of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oscillations) could have resulted in favorable conditions, e.g., in terms of air temperature and humidity among other factors, in Italy and Spain for a quicker spread of the virus compared with the rest of the European countries. It seems plausible that the strong atmospheric stability and associated dry conditions that dominated in these regions may have favored the virus propagation, both outdoors and especially indoors, by short-range droplet and aerosol (airborne) transmission, or/and by changing social contact patterns. Later recent atmospheric circulation conditions in Europe (July 2020) and the U.S. (October 2020) seem to support our hypothesis, although further research is needed in order to evaluate other confounding variables. Interestingly, the atmospheric conditions during the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 seem to have resembled at some stage with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
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