When the thermometer and barometer rise together in summer, with rain in large drops, a wholesome state of the atmosphere is at hand.
A great and sudden rising of the barometer, that is to say, a great accession of atmospherical pressure, will, in some persons, occasion a slight temporary difficulty of hearing and tingling in the ears, similar to that which is experienced in descending from high mountains, or from the air in balloons.
Bats.—When bats return soon to their hiding places, and send forth loud cries, bad weather may be expected.
Beetles flying about late in an evening often foretell a fine day on the morrow.
Blue Sky.—When there is a piece of blue sky seen in the forenoon of a rainy day, big enough, as the proverb says, “to make a Dutchman a pair of breeches,” we shall probably have a fine afternoon.
Calm.—A dead calm often precedes a violent gale; and sometimes the calmest and clearest mornings, in certain seasons, are followed by a blowing showery day. Calms are forerunners of the hurricanes of the West Indies, and other tropical climes.
Candles, as well as lamps, often afford good prognostics of weather. When the flames of candles flare and snap, or burn with an unsteady or dim light, rain, and frequently wind also, are found to follow. The excrescences from the wicks called funguses also denote rain and wind.
Cats are said, when they wash their faces, or when they seem sleepy and dull, to foretell rain. The same is said of them when they appear irritable and restless, and play with their tails.
Cattle, when they gambol about in their pastures more than ordinary, foreshow rain, and in general a change of weather.
Chilliness, and a sensation of cold greater than the indication of temperature by the thermometer leads us to expect, often forebode rain, as they show that there is already an increased moisture in the air, which experience has shown to be referable to the decomposition and the first formation of cloud.