Are you sick of tuning in to the weather forecast before going out only to find the predictions almost always inaccurate?

According to Ebay, the best way to determine the course of the weather is not by closely watching the forecast, but by instead diverting your gaze to the nearest hemline.

Sales analysts at the online marketplace have, after studying the purchasing trends and meteorological conditions, claimed in all certainty that the demand for skirts of different lengths rises and falls at least three days prior to any major weather changes.

Though a bizarre claim, the EBay team are adamant that as the temperature rises so to do skirt lengths, and suggested that looking downward rather than to the skies is the best way to gauge conditions. As they air begins to cool, hemlines correspondingly fall.

The sales boffins have identified a number of cases when online shopping trends have been more accurate than weather forecasters, and in some cases the dress length insights seemed to predict weather patterns even before the Met Office had made its long-range forecasts.

The phenomenon, claim the analysts, was even able to correctly predict much of the temperamental weather which affected the UK last year, and the lead-up to the recent heat wave also saw skirts rise with temperatures. Demand for miniskirts rose by 200 per cent – a week out from the actual event. The trend has been dubbed Mini Skirt Meteorology by the EBay team.