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Cats' Ears
Tue Aug 03, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton, and this is The Weather Notebook. Well, it’s the beginning of the
month again, and that means time for another Brainstorm. But for this one, we are
going to take you down a slightly different path. Where most of our brainstorms center
on atmospheric idiosyncrasies or nomenclature, today, we examine some weather
folklore, and challenge your observation skills. Today’s Brainstorm was posed by
Bernard Grisoni.
BG: I noticed that each time I saw one of my cats cleaning above its ears, I swear it’s
rained within the following 24 hours. Could you ask your audience if they have heard of
this or if they have observed this pattern? It would be interesting to know if the
American cats are as good rain forecasters as the European cats.
I have to admit, I had never heard this one before; I checked all my reference books,
and asked a few meteorologists, plus everyone else in the office. Nothing. So, we pose
the question to you: Have you noticed that cats seem to lick behind their ears within 24
hours of precipitation falling? And why do you think so—are their ears especially
sensitive to changes in atmospheric pressure? Or are cats just always cleaning
themselves, and the rain is only coincidental? And finally, are European cats better
barometers than our apple pie, American cats?
If you know what’s going on with this, please, please, please call us with your answer,
at (888) RAIN-001; or for those cats listening in: (888) 724-6001. You can also e-mail
us at questions@weathernotebook.org. If we use your answer on the air, some fun
Weather Notebook stuff will be coming to you soon. The number again: (888)
RAIN-001.
Thanks to our underwriters, Subaru of America and the National Science Foundation.
We are a program of the Mount Washington Observatory.
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