Just a few tips for answerers:
Some people predict the weather by watching birds and animals. For example they say that if a robin sings in the low branches of a tree, then rain is on the way. But if it sings high up in the tree the outlook is for fine weather. A bird called the Storm Petrel even got its name because it's thought to be a good weather-forecaster. It normally flies far out to sea, but when a storm is near it will come in closer to the shore. But don't rely on cows for your forecast. Apparently the old idea that they lie down when it's going to rain just isn't true. If cows lie down it means they've finished eating grass and need to spend some time digesting it.
A 'Tempest Predictor' worked by worms was put on show in London in 1851. The miniature forecasters inside this gadget were actually leeches, which are fat worms that look like slugs and have the nasty habit of sucking blood out of whatever they attach themselves to -including humans. Apparently leeches keep still in fine weather, but get much more active when a storm is coming, and have been used a lot in China for forecasting rain. The Tempest Predictor' was invented by the well-named Mr Merryweather and consisted of twelve glass jars, each with a leech inside. When bad weather was near, the leeches were supposed to climb to the top of their jars. This made a little bell ring, to warn the owner to take his umbrella when he went out. Mr Merryweather tried to persuade the government to set up a chain of 'leech-warning stations' around the country, but with no success.
If you don't have any leeches handy, you can try using other creepy-crawlies as your personal forecasters. Here are a few old rhymes that tell you what to look for: 'When black snails on the road you see, then on the morrow rain will be', 'When the glow-worm lights her lamp, the air is always damp', and 'If spiders their cobwebs forsake, the weather for certain will break'. And if you can't find any snails, glow-worms or spiders, try counting woodlice; another old tale warns that if you see a lot of woodlice running bout, it will soon be raining. There's often a rain of truth in these old sayings - people in he old days lived much closer to nature than we do, and were better at noticing small signs hat warn of changing weather.
When you want to know the temperature, ask a cricket! Crickets are insects similar to grasshoppers, often found in warm places. They make a regular chirping noise, and the hotter it is, the faster they chirp. One type, the snowy tree cricket, is so reliable it's sometimes called a 'thermometer cricket'. To find the temperature (in °C), just count how many times one of these crickets chirps in 25 seconds, add on 13/ and divide the result by 3. The reason it works is that crickets, like all insects, are cold-blooded - so their body temperature is the same as the temperature around them. On cold days all their body processes run slowly, including chirping, but as the temperature rises, everything speeds up. One expert claims you can also find the temperature by measuring how fast ants walk.
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