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How to use a cricket’s chirps as nature’s thermometer

When you hear crickets playing their tune, count the number of chirps per interval of 14 seconds. That number plus 40 is a rough estimate of the current temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

This formula connecting ambient temperature to cricket chirp rates is now known as Dolbear’s Law. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the American scientist Amos Dolbear first described this quirk of nature in 1897.