How Animals Can Predict the Weather

You might have heard people talk about animals predicting the weather, like rain, heat, or a storm. But how exactly our pets can detect these weather changes is an interesting question.

5-Minute Crafts decided to find out more about this and learned a lot of interesting facts.

Hearing

Many animals are far more sensitive to sounds, smells, and atmospheric pressure changes than people. For example, your house cat can hear very distant thunder while you may not suspect a thing. And right before a storm, cats’ ears can detect sudden atmospheric pressure drops, so it’s possible that cats have learned to link this feeling to weather changes.

Pressure

Scientists have noticed the same thing in groups of sharks when they watched them during extreme weather conditions. When the atmospheric pressure dropped, some sharks dove deeper where it was safer.

Birds can probably feel atmospheric pressure changes too. They use this ability to make various decisions, from deciding when and how to eat to whether they need to start a long-term migration or not.

Temperature

Finally, some animals can detect the slightest air temperature changes. For example, the heart rate of a cricket directly depends on the temperature of its surroundings. Crickets are cold-blooded, and increases in temperature rise the metabolism, providing them with more energy for muscle contractions or, in this case, chirping.