It’s well known that summer weather is more likely to cause people to take – or fake – a sick day than colder temperatures.

But is there an exact set of weather conditions that makes playing hooky more likely than it is on the average summer day?

One University of Waterloo economics professor says there is.

Mikal Skuterud compared weather records with Statistics Canada data on sick days taken across the country, and says he’s figured out which conditions correlate to more employees claiming a summer sickness.

“When the weather reaches a certain point, the probability that you’re outdoors is much higher,” he says.

Before meeting up with Skuterud, CTV News asked patrons of Kitchener’s Victoria Park what they considered to be the best weather for which to skip work.

“Anything over 26 degrees, very low wind, sunny,” suggested Nicola Thomas.

Tricia Summerfield suggested higher temperatures, slightly over 30 C with a bit of humidity, but admitted that most people might not share her taste in summer weather.

“I’m a little odd and I love the humidity,” she said.

As it turned out, they were both very close to Skuterud’s findings.

According to the study, the perfect weather for playing hooky is a temperature of 27 C, with clear skies and a light breeze blowing at around 15 km/h.

But Skuterud cautions that the results should be taken with a grain of salt – not because the temperatures may be off, but because it’s impossible to tell how many employees who called in sick on those 27 C days were really playing hooky.

“It’s not quite clear how much of this absenteeism is not legitimate,” he says.

The study also looked at which workers are most likely to call in sick on a perfect summer day – and found that the more likely an employee was to be on shaky ground with their employer, the more likely they were to take summer days off.

“That’s not what you would expect to find,” says Skuterud.

“People are most responsive to the weather when it’s most risky to do this.”

Specifically, Skuterud points to employees on probation, employees who don’t belong to unions and employees in climates with high unemployment as more likely to avoid work on the perfect summer day.