The aim of this paper is to develop a detection algorithm, based on the estimates of WCR for expected influenza pandemics, to facilitate sensitive, specific and rapid detection of a pandemic outbreak at a regional level based on existing surveillance systems. Using the influenza surveillance data from Scotland, we first sift through the spatiotemporal patterns in the historical data by calculating WCR and N HB , the number of health boards (HBs) that show increases in the weekly ILI cases. The joint probability distribution of WCR and N HB is then contrasted with expected and observed patterns in the presence of pandemic influenza. As described in the next section, the expected patterns for pandemic cases are obtained from a previously published mathematical model [29] . Observed patterns for pandemic cases are based on records from the 2008-09 season when influenza A(H1N1)v was circulating in Scotland.