Weather has been linked to health since the time of Hippocrates (yes, the same person involved in the medical Hippocratic oath.)  Studies of the effect of weather on health have been conducted for years, as can be seen in major summary works by Petersen, Huntington, Burton and Edholm, Tromp, Licht and Sargent:

• Petersen, W.F. (1938), The Patient and the Weather (4 Volumes), Edwards, Ann Arbour, Michigan

• Huntington, E. (1945)  Mainsprings of Civilization, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 660 pages

• Burton, A.C., O.G. Edholm (1955) Man in a Cold Environment, Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd, London, 273 pages

• Tromp, S.W.  (1963) Medical Biometeorology, Elsevier Publ. Comp., Amsterdam, 991 pages

• Licht., S. (ed) (1964) Medical Climatology, Waverly Press Incorporated, Baltimore, Maryland, 733 pages

• Tromp, S.W., J.J. Bouma (eds) (1974) Progress in Biometeorology, Divs A Part 1, Effects on Basic Physiological Mechanisms of Man, Swets & Zeitlinger, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 726 pages

• ----------, (1977) Progress in Biometeorology, Divs A Part 2, Pathological Biometeorology,, Swets & Zeitlinger, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 416 pages

• Sargent, F. (1982), Hippocratic Heritage, Pergamon Press, New York, 581 pages

However, converting this knowledge into practical information to be used on a daily basis had hampered scientists for years. Twenty years ago, based on several decades of work, German researchers developed a sophisticated technique to accomplish this.  We have adopted their method.