WEATHER WISDOM

Some people watch ants for weather clues. Anytime you see ants industriously building huge mounds around their holes – prepare for rain. About two hours before a downpour, all kinds of ants – but especially large black and red ants – will break up their caravans, scurry into their nests, and begin building dams around the ant hill. These mounds, which are sometimes several inches in height, prevent rainwater from running into the ant hills.

Bees give weather clues, too. They are usually active several hours before it starts raining, but as the humidity increases, they return to their hives. Some American Indians say that the longer the increased activity lasts, the longer the rain will be.

Other insects are also good humidity indicators. Butterflies usually flit from flower to flower all day long. When they suddenly disappear and hide on tree trunks or on the underside of leaves, they are seeking shelter to protect their fragile wings from hard rain.

Fireflies fly very low when there is high relative humidity. But an old saying states: When fireflies are about in large numbers, the weather will be fair for the next three days.

And if you hear lots of locusts singing, you can be sure the air is dry, because locusts sing only when it is hot and dry.

Plants are also handy humidity indicators. They are affected in different ways. Just before a rain many flowers such as daisies, dandelions and tulips close their blossoms, and clover plants draw their leaves together. It is believed that the absorption of moisture from the air causes a change in the leaf stalk, making the leaves turn over. It may be that the rough underside of the leaf can absorb rain better than the smooth topside.

Animals are good at predicting the weather. Frogs croak when the air pressure rises. Before rain, ants move to higher ground and sheep’s wool uncurls.

Almost everyone knows what humidity does to hair. Curly hair gets curlier and straight hair gets limp. The reason is that hair absorbs moisture from the damp air. Straight hair actually gets longer. A Swiss geologist used this fact to invent the first hydrometer. In 1783 Horace Benedict de Saussure fastened some human hair to a needle. The hair expanded when the air was moist and contracted when the air was dry, moving the needle across a numbered scale. His instrument is called a hair hydrometer and is still used by meteorologists.

Some people are very sensitive to humidity. People who have arthritis are, in a sense, “living hydrometers”. High humidity causes the fluids in their tissues and joints to increase, making movement difficult and painful. That is why many older people say: “It’s going to rain. I can feel it by my bones”. They actually can.

By learning to read weather signs, you can get a few hours advance warning if a storm is in the air. It may keep you from getting your new shoes ruined in the rain, from having a family picnic spoiled, or your garden beaten down by a storm. If you are backpacking, camping, boating, or doing similar outdoor activities it might even save your life.

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