WELL if no one has connected the 40 days with 'Its going to be Biblical' yet I will. Noah was in the Ark for 40 days and nights, after that the problems of the 'sin filled world' had been cleansed!! Maybe this will be the equivalent wave of cleansing evil, since God promised not to flood the earth again !! WAITING FOR THE RAINBOW after the 40 days haha

ALSO the Israelites wondered 40 days in the wilderness before entering what God had for them.

40 DAYS seems to have a significance for GOD.

1. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.Genesis 7: 4, 5

2. Mentioning 146 times in Scripture, the number 40 generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or probation. During Moses' life he lived forty years in Egypt and forty years in the desert before God selected him to lead his people out of slavery.

3. Moses was also on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights, on two separate occasions (Exodus 24:18, 34:1 - 28), receiving God's laws. He also sent spies, for forty days, to investigate the land God promised the Israelites as an inheritance (Numbers 13:25, 14:34).

4. The prophet Jonah powerfully warned ancient Nineveh, for forty days, that its destruction would come because of its many sins. The prophet Ezekiel laid on His right side for 40 days to symbolize Judah's sins (Ezekiel 4:6).

I am sure there will be more, but these are what I found.

EDIT: P.S. Its my optimism, they are just comments and thought out loud. At least we can still voice our own......at this moment in time anyway.