Every cloud has a silver lining, and the ones that are bringing excessive snow and rain to the Western hemisphere right now are also keeping seasonal flu at bay. Flu seems to flourish in winters that are dry and humid, researchers have discovered, which is why numbers have remained low this season.
A research team from Oregon State University studied weather patterns for the past 31 years, and discovered that around 60 per cent of all flu outbreaks started during a humid winter, and when the weather was drier than normal for the season.
(Source: PLoS Biology, 2010; 8: e10000316).