NATURE'S WEATHER FORECASTERS

by Helen R. Sattler ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 30, 1978

If the pigs squeal and chew sticks, spiders take down their webs, and ants build up walls around their nests, you can expect a storm. Actually, says Sattler, these and other animal activities are reactions to lowered air pressure or high humidity-both of which conditions must exist before a storm breaks. (Likewise, cockroaches become more active before an earthquake--possibly in response to warning infrasounds.) Besides picking up on such animal cues, you can also watch plants, sky, and winds for signs of changing weather. Sattler's catalogs of cloud formations, wind directions, and other signs make this more systematic than either Wolff's (1976) or Davis' (1977) younger collections of rhymed weather lore, though Sattler also sprinkles rhymes throughout (some of them so flat it's hard to imagine them surviving in oral tradition). Anyway, it's probably true that learning to listen to nature's weather forecasters will do you as much good as calling up the weather bureau. And it's certainly more fun.

Pub Date: June 30, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Nelson

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1978

Categories: NONFICTION