Boy, it’s been cold here in Baltimore. Just in the past week, I’ve run out of firewood, replaced the battery on my wife’s car, and learned that “summer gas” doesn’t work in a snowblower when the temperature is below 10 degrees.

This record-breaking cold snap reminds me of a fascinating presentation I saw at Esri’s International Business Summit last year in (sunny) San Diego. It was titled “Beer, Beards, and Batteries: Leveraging Weather to Maximize Profitability.” Rosemary Radich, a Senior Research Analyst for AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions, demonstrated how consumer buying habits vary based on seasonal weather conditions and geography.

In a nutshell:

• Warmer weather = light beer and shaving.

• Colder weather = dark beer and beards.

• And he who proactively stocks car batteries before a cold blast, wins.

Location analytics at its finest. And the kind of work we get to do every day here at Datastory.

Check out the video below for Rosemary’s full presentation (15 minutes):