How To Forecast The Weather

The teddy bears were all out in the garden playing. Suddenly, Teddy stood up and announced "Let's pack up our toys and go indoors. It's going to rain."

The other bears looked at him quizzically. "How do you know that?" asked Vicky, looking around for big, dark clouds. "Have you got a secret radio with you and you've heard it on the weather forecast?"

Teddy smiled. "I don't need a weather forecast on the radio, or even on the television, or written in the newspaper," he declared mysteriously.

"What makes you think it is going to rain then?" asked Vicky.

"Nature is telling me so," replied Teddy. "There are lots of ways that the natural world lets us know."

"Ooooh!" said Vicky, very intrigued. "What sort of ways?" she asked.

"Well, for a start," said Teddy, "I've noticed that the wind has suddenly picked up, with a gusty breeze, and the trees are showing the undersides of their leaves. That's a sure indication that the weather is about to change."

"Gosh!" said Vicky. "I hadn't even noticed that. But I see it now you've mentioned it."

"Are there any other ways of telling the weather?" asked Richard, always interested in the natural world.

"Yes," replied Teddy. "Here are some other things you can look out for." And he started to reel off a long list.

"Watch the cows in the fields. They prefer to lie down if rain is due, and they tend to stand facing away from the oncoming wind."

"Use a poor man's barometer (that's a scientific instrument that measures air pressure - the lower the pressure, the more likelihood of rain). We already know that flowers close their petals at night and open them again during the day. But if certain flowers close their petals during the day, there's a good chance that rain is on the way."

"What flowers are they?" asked Vicky.

"Look for dandelions, daisies, tulips, clover or scarlet pimpernel," replied Teddy.

"Oh, look over here!" exclaimed Richard. "Here's some dandelions with closed petals. They think it's going to rain too!" The other bears all ran over to the patch of dandelions and, sure enough, their petals were already closed, even though it was only the middle of the morning.

"Also, if you smell any flowers which usually have a light scent, you will find that they smell much stronger just before it rains," Teddy continued. "The humidity (that's the amount of water in the air) increases before it rains and makes odour molecules (they're the invisible bits of a flower's smell) travel better."

The teddy bears ran round to all their favourite flowers, especially the roses, and discovered that they, indeed, did smell more strongly.

"Birds tend to fly lower or head home to roost when bad weather is on the way because it's more difficult for them to fly in low pressure and it's probably no fun to fly in the rain and get a face full of water!" Teddy continued.

"Pine cones are another good guide. They will stay closed if the humidity is high, but will open up if the air is dry."

"Also, look for spiders webs with no spiders in them. Spiders leave their webs when it's about to rain. Webs are very delicate structures and can easily be washed away by a heavy downpour, so spiders vacate them before the rain falls."

"And windspeed and direction can predict a storm. Though you do need to know what the prevailing (that means the main or usual) wind direction is in your particular area, and when the wind moves away from this, you can expect a change in the weather."

"They're all very interesting," mused Richard. "How can we tell which direction the wind is coming from though?" he asked.

"There are several ways," Teddy replied. "You can wet your paw and hold it up into the air and the side that gets coolest will tell you from which direction the wind is blowing. Or you could pick up some blades of grass and throw them up in the air and watch the way they are blown or fall."

"And, another useful trick to predict the weather with the wind and clouds, is by using your body. Stand with your back to the wind and look up. If the clouds are moving directly towards you or away from you or are stationary, the weather is likely to stay the same.

However, if the clouds are moving left to right, the weather is going to get worse. But if the clouds are moving right to left, the weather is likely to get better. This works in the Northern Hemisphere, which is where we live, but those living in the Southern Hemisphere can just reverse the rule."

"Wow! I especially like that tip as it's so easy to do, although they are all very useful things to know. But are you sure that all these things work?" asked Vicky.

"Well, you'll all just have to test them out and see!" laughed Teddy, "but not before we get ourselves inside," he continued as the first big, fat splodges of rain began to fall on them!

"Do you have any more tips?" asked Richard, who was very keen to learn more.

"Oh, loads and loads," replied Teddy. "And clouds - that's a whole other story! But let's leave them for another time, shall we? We need to get inside quickly before this rain becomes a torrent!"

You could try out these natural weather forecasting tips yourselves. Keep a record of your predictions, then track what the weather actually does. Do this for a month or so, several times a year. You'll hopefully start to see patterns in your predictions and how they relate to what the weather does. It will help to increase your skills and train you to pay close attention to the natural world so you don't get soaked when your are out and about!