How Temperature and Weather Impact Ice Cream Sales
Ma Li
Mar 18, 2025
Summer heat can be relentless, making us feel drained and uncomfortable. But there's one simple treat that never fails to bring relief—ice cream! As temperatures soar, so does the craving for this cool, sweet delight. But have you ever wondered just how much the weather impacts ice cream sales? In this blog, we'll dive into the data, analyzing how rising temperatures drive consumer demand and what patterns emerge when the heat is at its peak. Whether you're a business looking for insights or just curious about the link between weather and our favorite frozen treat, this analysis will give you the scoop!
A Little Background Info
About the dataset
The dataset we use provides insights into the relationship between weather conditions, ice cream pricing, and sales performance. It includes five key columns: Temperature (F), Ice-cream Price ($), Number of Tourists (thousands), Ice Cream Sales ($, thousands), and a boolean indicator of whether it rained on that day. The data consists of 20 entries, with temperature values ranging from 60.8°F to 86.0°F, and ice cream prices between $0.75 and $2.00. It is downloaded from Kaggle.
About the data analysis tool
The tool we use is Powerdrill. It is a comprehensive AI-driven data analysis platform. Beyond advanced AI-powered analytics, it offers a range of features to help you gain deeper insights into your data, including:
AI Report Generator: instantly transforms your data files into well-structured, professional reports.
AI PPT Maker: converts your files into organized, visually stunning slide decks with just one click.
Auto Visualization: automatically detects and visualizes trends, patterns, and key insights from your data
Is there a correlation between temperature and revenue with respect to weather in ice cream sales?
Yes, temperature positively affects ice cream sales, with a stronger impact observed on non-rainy days. This suggests that favorable weather conditions enhance the effect of temperature on sales.

Rainy Days Correlation: The correlation coefficient between temperature and ice cream sales on rainy days is approximately 0.72. This indicates a moderate positive relationship, suggesting that as temperature increases, ice cream sales tend to increase even on rainy days.
Non-Rainy Days Correlation: The correlation coefficient on non-rainy days is approximately 0.87, indicating a strong positive relationship. This suggests that temperature has a more significant impact on ice cream sales when it is not raining.
How rains impact the sales of ice creams?
Non-Rainy Days: The average ice cream sales on non-rainy days are $91.67 thousand.
Rainy Days: The average ice cream sales on rainy days are $70.5 thousand.
Difference: Sales are significantly higher on non-rainy days compared to rainy days.

How the number of tourists affects ice cream sales on rainy days versus non-rainy days?
Rainy Days Analysis
Slope: The slope of the regression line for rainy days is 0.84, indicating that for every additional thousand tourists, ice cream sales increase by approximately $840.
Intercept: The intercept is 8.29, suggesting that even with no tourists, there would be a baseline sales amount of $8,290.
Correlation: The correlation coefficient is 0.86, indicating a strong positive relationship between the number of tourists and ice cream sales on rainy days.
Non-Rainy Days Analysis
Coefficient: The coefficient for non-rainy days is 1.53, which means that for every additional thousand tourists, ice cream sales increase by approximately $1,530.
Intercept: The intercept is -46.02, which is not directly interpretable in a meaningful way but suggests a different baseline condition compared to rainy days.
Conclusion and Insights
Tourist Influence: Tourists have a significant positive impact on ice cream sales on both rainy and non-rainy days, but the effect is stronger on non-rainy days.
Mitigation of Rain Impact: While tourist presence does increase sales on rainy days, the increase is less than on non-rainy days, suggesting that while tourists do mitigate the impact of rain, they do not completely offset it.

Are there seasonal patterns in the ice cream sales data?
Strong Correlation: The correlation between the number of tourists and ice cream sales is 0.93, indicating a very strong positive relationship.
Consistent Correlation: This correlation value is consistent across all data points, suggesting a stable relationship regardless of seasonal changes.

Increasing Trend: The line chart shows a clear upward trend in ice cream sales as the number of tourists increases.
Fluctuations: There are minor fluctuations, but the overall pattern indicates that higher tourist numbers generally correspond to higher ice cream sales.
Conclusion and Insights
Strong Relationship: There is a consistently strong relationship between tourist numbers and ice cream sales, suggesting that as tourism increases, ice cream sales also rise significantly.
Seasonal Influence: The data does not show significant seasonal variations affecting this relationship, implying that the correlation holds steady throughout the year, regardless of weather conditions.
How rains affect ice cream sales and tourist numbers?

Rainy Days: The average ice cream sales on rainy days are $70.50 thousand, and the average number of tourists is 74.21 thousand.
Non-Rainy Days: The average ice cream sales on non-rainy days are $91.67 thousand, and the average number of tourists is 90.02 thousand.
Statistical Significance of Differences
Ice Cream Sales: The mean sales on rainy days are $70.50 thousand, while on non-rainy days, they are $91.67 thousand. The statistical test results for significance are not provided, but the difference in means suggests a potential impact.
Number of Tourists: The mean number of tourists on rainy days is 74.21 thousand, compared to 90.02 thousand on non-rainy days. Again, the statistical test results are not provided, but the difference in means suggests a potential impact.
Correlation Between Ice Cream Sales and Tourist Numbers
Rainy Days: The correlation between ice cream sales and tourist numbers on rainy days is not provided.
Non-Rainy Days: The correlation between ice cream sales and tourist numbers on non-rainy days is not provided.
Conclusion and Insights
Impact of Rain: Rain appears to reduce both ice cream sales and the number of tourists, as indicated by the lower averages on rainy days compared to non-rainy days.
Relationship Alteration: The correlation data is missing, so it is unclear whether rain significantly alters the relationship between ice cream sales and tourist numbers. Additional data or analysis would be needed to draw a conclusion on this aspect.
Does rain on one day affect sales and tourist numbers on subsequent days?

Rain_Lag_1: The correlation with tourist numbers is -0.19, indicating a slight negative impact of rain from the previous day on tourist numbers. The correlation with ice cream sales is -0.26, suggesting a more noticeable negative effect on sales.
Rain_Lag_2: The correlation with tourist numbers is -0.02, showing minimal impact from rain two days prior. The correlation with ice cream sales is -0.04, also indicating a negligible effect.
Rain_Lag_3: The correlation with tourist numbers is 0.24, suggesting a positive impact of rain from three days prior on tourist numbers. The correlation with ice cream sales is 0.23, indicating a similar positive effect on sales.
Conclusion and Insights
Immediate Negative Impact: Rain on the previous day (Rain_Lag_1) negatively affects both tourist numbers and ice cream sales, with a more pronounced effect on sales.
Delayed Positive Impact: Rain from three days prior (Rain_Lag_3) appears to have a positive effect on both metrics, possibly due to improved weather conditions following the rain.
Minimal Intermediate Impact: Rain two days prior (Rain_Lag_2) shows minimal impact, indicating that the effects of rain may dissipate or reverse after a couple of days.
Is there any relationship between ice cream pricing and sales volume?
Price Sensitivity: The analysis reveals that the price elasticity of demand for ice cream is very low on both rainy and sunny days, suggesting that changes in ice cream prices have little effect on sales volume regardless of weather conditions.
Weather Impact: Although there is a slight difference in elasticity between rainy and sunny days, the impact of weather on price sensitivity is negligible. This implies that other factors, such as consumer preferences or external conditions, might play a more significant role in influencing ice cream sales.
Conclusion
This is just a glimpse of the insights revealed from the dataset. Unlock more valuable discoveries by using Powerdrill to dive deeper.