Science Sunday: The Science of Animals and Weather Prediction

Today may be groundhog day, but it's well known that groundhogs are less accurate at predicting the weather than a coin flip.

However, the same isn't necessarily true about other animals.

Birds in particular are very good at predicting the weather.  Some birds can hear the infrasounds produced by the weather that eventually causes tornadoes, even though humans cannot hear these sounds.   Birds also likely can detect changes in air pressure to indicate when they should eat more, and thus store fat.  In general, it makes sense that our fine feathered friends can detect the changes in weather due to their generally smaller sizes and the fact that they travel by means of flight.

So in general, I wouldn't pay attention to Punxsutawney Phil.  He's a convicted criminal with a serious charge of weather fraudulance, punishable by the death penalty.  Instead, I'd pay more attention to the birds.