  A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is sweeping the world and has taken
away thousands of lives. As the current epicenter, the United States has the
largest number of confirmed and death cases of COVID-19. Meteorological factors
have been found associated with many respiratory diseases in the past studies.
In order to understand that how and during which period of time do the
meteorological factors have the strongest association with the transmission and
fatality of COVID-19, we analyze the correlation between each meteorological
factor during different time periods within the incubation window and the
confirmation and fatality rate, and develop statistic models to quantify the
effects at county level. Results show that meteorological variables except
maximum wind speed during the day 13 - 0 before current day shows the most
significant correlation (P < 0.05) with the daily confirmed rate, while
temperature during the day 13 - 8 before are most significantly correlated (P <
0.05) with the daily fatality rate. Temperature is the only meteorological
factor showing dramatic positive association nationally, particularly in the
southeast US where the current outbreak most intensive. The influence of
temperature is remarkable on the confirmed rate with an increase of over 5 pmp
in many counties, but not as much on the fatality rate (mostly within 0.01%).
Findings in this study will help understanding the role of meteorological
factors in the spreading of COVID-19 and provide insights for public and
individual in fighting against this global epidemic.
