The exploratory nature of this analysis was necessitated by the lack of an underlying theory of influenza seasonality, sociobehavioral factors, and inherent variability in disease transmission and virulence. The time between infection and a resulting mortality event (i.e. ''latency'') varies between individuals depending on age, overall health, co-morbid conditions, and other factors. Thus, lags must be estimated to best fit the overall data structure. Similarly, the high frequency variability in the variables requires some smoothing to elucidate relationships, and the selection of appropriate smoothers is somewhat subjective. Nevertheless, our findings are consistent with several others. For example, there is evidence supporting a two-week lag between rising influenza virus and pneumonia mortality [28] . Other research showed fairly convincingly the existence of a 2-4 week lag between laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza and increased incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease [43] . The weather variables used in this study do not directly account for the ambient conditions experienced by the influenza victims while indoors, but cold and/or stormy weather could result in the decedents spending more time in heated indoor environs with low humidity, thereby enhancing infection opportunities [8] .