WEATHER LORE

ANIMALS

Do cows lie down before a storm? I suppose someone, somewhere will have had a grant to study this and may even have produced a detailed report and conclusion, but I certainly haven’t read it.

Travelling through the countryside recently on a fine summer’s morning I saw a herd of cattle lying down in their field. The old piece of weather lore came to mind and, would you believe it, later in the day we had thunderstorms and heavy rainfall.

Coincidence? Probably, but it got me thinking about the actions of animals and their relationship to the weather. There’s a great deal of weather lore that uses the reactions of animals to the weather, but how much of it is merely caused by a response rather than by prediction?

Can animals pick up on slight changes in pressure, temperature and humidity or combinations of these weather elements that allow them to prepare for coming weather? Have we, humans lost the ability since we have been able to insulate ourselves, through clothing and buildings, from a close relationship with the environment?

But, how much are the birds predicting the weather rather than just responding to the present conditions? They are probably following the movements of insects, which will be carried aloft be thermals in fine, calm weather, but kept low by wind and rain.

It’s well known that birds fly high with the onset of calm, fine weather:‘When swallows fly high the weather will be dry.’The reverse also appears to be true:‘If birds fly low expect rain and a blow.’

In the USA the Katydid, a kind of cricket, has always been rated as a very reliable thermometer. The number of chirps per minute was said to be related to the temperature; count the chirps per minute, minus 40, divide by 4 and add 60! The ordinary garden cricket requires less of a mathematical brain; counts the chirps in 13 seconds and add 40 (Fahrenheit of course). Wait a minute, as much as I love weather lore, some advice, buy a thermometer!

Perhaps it is no surprise that the actions of insects, which are of course cold blooded, should depend on temperature. A Harvard scientist spent some time comparing the speed of ants to the temperature and he found that he could estimate temperature to 1 degree Fahrenheit by using his timing charts.

What I’d like to know is the ant record time for the 100-yard dash!