Tldr: bad weather (especially if too hot) impacts applications.
It may also impact yield but the paper didn’t find any correlation wrt eventual attendance (despite much anecdotal evidence from Admission officers, perhaps because other factors, such as finance, confuse the direct conclusions).
Which means that prospective students need to have a clear idea of what they want to find out on a visit, so that the random chance of the day’s weather does not have an excessive influence.
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When my elder kid toured colleges, I made them fill out a quick 1-10 survey at the end (campus vibe, feel about major, etc…). At the end, kid also had to rank current hunger, sleepiness, and the weather. Later, when we discussed schools I’d point out “well, you noted you hadnt slept well and the weather was awful. Want to hold off and saying they are a no just yet?” It’s amazing how much that stuff can impact the feel of a visit.
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Both my college bound kids wanted warmer weather (being from the upper midwest). They toured southern schools. Both decided “out of state” was a non negotiable. In the end, money and overall college vibe/fit won over weather. I have one in MI and one in upstate NY. Both schools have the exact same weather as home.
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My D26 ruled out a couple of colleges because… “reasons”. Come to discuss this later and find out that one was because it was pouring all day and the other was because it was really cold. After realizing how important weather was, I actually suggesting canceling a visit we had planned because it was supposed to be on the hottest day of the year. D26 happily obliged, but did still ended up applying. My D26 seems better off not visiting at all unless it’s a pretty nice day for the trip. And if she’s not hungry, tired, nervous about school work, etc… 
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I don’t know whether or not I agree with the article; after all, is there really any difference between the University of Hawaii and U Alaska at Anchorage ?
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I toured my upstate NY alma mater in high school on a picture-perfect April day with sunny, blue skies, no clouds - trees on campus were blooming, 80’s music was playing, students were laying out on the shore of the beautiful, calm Great Lake…It was hands down a YES for me!
Little did I know that “Great Lake” would cause some of the most horrific lake effect snow from late October up until the week before I visited in April, my freshman year being one of the worst winters in recent history. The joke was on me!
My younger daughter thought that southwest Virginia would have similar winters to our relatively mild, mostly snow-free location a couple of hours away in NC. Little did she know that Blacksburg and the Little River Valley can get quite a bit of snow and ice and that the winter wind whipping across campus would make her question her sanity 
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true, and not just because of the weather.. lots of other tiny things can seemingly leave huge impressions on a, well, impressionable 16-17 year old on a tour. 
After about 18 tours, I have been unsuccessful in getting either of my kids to do this.
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