Weather's impact on consumers isn't negligible. Bad weather means fewer customers may walk through your entryway. Good weather can mean more customers but fewer sales for businesses selling disaster gear.

Planning your inventory around the season's weather can be an important step in the success of your business. From retail to manufacturing to market analysts, understanding weather data and how it affects your business can make a significant difference in your company's success.

Keep weather sites bookmarked on your computer -- from weatherplus.com to the National Weather Service, you will find a wealth of information about the seasonal outlooks as well as the daily and weekly forecasts. This can help you avoid planning a sidewalk sale on a rainy weekend, or keep from having to stack newly-manufactured products outside during a downpour.

Another way to learn to analyze the weather for business purposes is to subscribe to a weekly weather newsletter that discusses the prior week's weather and the impact it had on business. One such service is FlashWeather^SM by Planalytics®, a complimentary e-newsletter distributed across North America and Europe.

You can also use the Web to research conferences in your area that focus on weather and business, or long-term forecasts.