The effect of weather on social interactions has been explored through the analysis of a large mobile phone use dataset.\r\nTime spent on phone calls, numbers of connected social ties, and tie strength were used as proxies for social interactions;\r\nwhile weather conditions were characterized in terms of temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, and wind speed. Our\r\nresults are based on the analysis of a full calendar year of data for 22,696 mobile phone users (53.2 million call logs) in\r\nLisbon, Portugal. The results suggest that different weather parameters have correlations to the level and character of social\r\ninteractions. We found that although weather did not show much influence upon people�s average call duration, the\r\nlikelihood of longer calls was found to increase during periods of colder weather. During periods of weather that were\r\ngenerally considered to be uncomfortable (i.e., very cold/warm, very low/high air pressure, and windy), people were found\r\nto be more likely to communicate with fewer social ties. Despite this tendency, we found that people are more likely to\r\nmaintain their connections with those they have strong ties with much more than those of weak ties. This study sheds new\r\nlight on the influence of weather conditions on social relationships and how mobile phone data can be used to investigate\r\nthe influence of environmental factors on social dynamics.
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