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  1. #1
    NOBO in 2011 sidebackside's Avatar
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    Default Can Crickets Tell You The Temperature???

    There's an article out that says you can figure out what the temperature is by counting the number of chirps you hear within a 14second period then add 40 degrees. So...for example, if you hear 20 chirps in that time it's actually 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It also says that crickets are within 2 degrees of actually temperature 75% of them time. Have you heard this? Is it true?
    HABAKKUK 3:19
    Yaweh my Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!

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    It's true according to the Urban Legend website Snopes.com

    Read more about the science behind it HERE .

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    I've heard that before, And they only chirp after a certain temperature, Not sure but I think it's around 50 degrees. Any temp below that and they are quiet.

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    NOBO in 2011 sidebackside's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mountain Wildman View Post
    I've heard that before, And they only chirp after a certain temperature, Not sure but I think it's around 50 degrees. Any temp below that and they are quiet.
    Very interesting.

    Thanks for the in SPOKES.
    HABAKKUK 3:19
    Yaweh my Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!

  5. #5
    A♣ K♣ Q♣ J♣ 10♣ Luddite's Avatar
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    I read that in Backpacker. Supposedly you can predict the weather with a strong cup of coffee too.
    Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.
    -Edward Abbey

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    Registered User Wise Old Owl's Avatar
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    Some say Crickets "chip chip chip" while others say "Cheep cheep cheep" The interpretation is

    completely irrelivent when your freezing your a$$ off.

    Yes its true.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_(insect)

    Crickets chirp at different rates depending on their species and the temperature of their environment. Most species chirp at higher rates the higher the temperature is (approximately 62 chirps a minute at 13°C in one common species; each species has its own rate). The relationship between temperature and the rate of chirping is known as Dolbear's Law. Using this law it is possible to calculate the temperature in Fahrenheit by adding 40 to the number of chirps produced in 14 seconds by the snowy tree cricket common in the United States.[1]
    Last edited by Wise Old Owl; 09-17-2010 at 23:09.
    Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    Woo

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    For colder temperatures rhodedendron like plants are an indication, how tight their leaves wrap up when its cold. With varying hares, or snowshoe hares, you need to make a bigger loop with your snare wire when its below 5F or so, because unlike rabbits they can let their ears freeze solid and thaw out again when it warms up. So if rhodedendron type leaves are curled up really tight, that might be time to set bigger snare loops.

    You can get some sense of temperature from the sound of snow on the ice or fields.
    I am not sure what temperatures. Its not a bad idea to bring a thermometer to learn such things more accurately, and how much clothing you need for certain conditions.

    Its one thing to say, this served me well last time, but how cold was it really?
    It is easy to get used to 20F, and think that 10F is 0F, then get a wakeup at -20F.

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    THE SOLITARY WOODSMEN
    - Sir Charles G. D. Roberts

    When the grey lake-water rushes
    Past the dripping alder-bushes,
    And the bodeful autumn wind
    In the fir-tree weeps and hushes, --
    When the air is sharply damp
    Round the solitary camp,
    And the moose-bush in the thicket
    Glimmers like a scarlet lamp, --
    When the birches twinkle yellow,
    And the cornel bunches mellow,
    And the owl across the twilight
    Trumpets to his downy fellow, --

    When the nut-fed chipmunks romp
    Through the maples' crimson pomp,
    And the slim viburnum flushes
    In the darkness of the swamp, --

    When the blueberries are dead,
    When the rowan clusters red,
    And the shy bear, summer-sleekened,
    In the bracken makes his bed, --

    On a day there comes once more
    To the latched and lonely door,
    Down the wood-road striding silent,
    One who has been here before.

    Green spruce branches for his head,
    Here he makes his simple bed,
    Crouching with the sun, and rising
    When the dawn is frosty red.

    All day long he wanders wide
    With the grey moss for his guide,
    And his lonely axe-stroke startles
    The expectant forest-side.

    Toward the quiet close of day
    Back to camp he takes his way,
    And about his sober footsteps
    Unafraid the squirrels play.

    On his roof the red leaf falls,
    At his door the bluejay calls,
    And he hears the wood-mice hurry
    Up and down his rough log walls;

    Hears the laughter of the loon
    Thrill the dying afternoon;
    Hears the calling of the moose
    Echo to the early moon.

    And he hears the partridge drumming,
    The belated hornet humming, --
    All the faint, prophetic sounds
    That foretell the winter's coming.

    And the wind about his eaves
    Through the chilly night-wet grieves,
    And the earth's dumb patience fills him,
    Fellow to the falling leaves.



    THE WINTER FIELDS
    - Sir Charles G.D.Roberts

    WINDS here, and sleet, and frost that bites like steel.
    The low bleak hill rounds under the low sky.
    Naked of flock and fold the fallows lie,
    Thin streaked with meagre drift. The gusts reveal
    By fits the dim grey snakes of fence, that steal

    Through the white dusk. The hill-foot poplars sigh,
    While storm and death with winter trample by,
    And the iron fields ring sharp, and blind lights reel.

    Yet in the lonely ridges, wrenched with pain,
    Harsh solitary hillocks, bound and dumb,

    Grave glebes close-lipped beneath the scourge and chain,
    Lurks hid the germ of ecstasy—the sum
    Of life that waits on summer, till the rain
    Whisper in April and the crocus come.

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    I love the contrast of those two poems.
    The first, a crisp fresh air morning stroll. A walk in the park, full of life, and breath.
    The second, och, makes my bones ache, my heart wait. My lungs fear the frozen air.

  10. #10

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    No, No, No...not more poems

    You're killing me JAK, note my signature



  11. #11
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    I'm such a gift to this site.

  12. #12
    Registered User Wise Old Owl's Avatar
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    Yes you are....


    Now how about uploading a few photos!
    Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    Woo

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    .......... how many chirps would that be?

  14. #14

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    Great scoop regarding the crickets,and thanks for posting the beautiful poems, JAK! (my eyes got a little dewy reading them...)

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    Quote Originally Posted by sidebackside View Post
    There's an article out that says you can figure out what the temperature is by counting the number of chirps you hear within a 14second period then add 40 degrees. So...for example, if you hear 20 chirps in that time it's actually 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It also says that crickets are within 2 degrees of actually temperature 75% of them time. Have you heard this? Is it true?
    It must be 6,000 degrees when I hike in the sumer.
    Pain is a by-product of a good time.

  16. #16

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    I think the better question is not whether this is true, but whether anyone has ever bothered to try (other than to prove it can be done), and why they would bother to try.

    Why, exactly, would I need to know the temperature?
    Drab as a Fool, as aloof as a Bard!

    http://www.wizardsofthepct.com

  17. #17
    Registered User ChinMusic's Avatar
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    Crickets and temperature is common knowledge in my neck of the woods.

    As a side note, Granny's Weather Beetle was pretty good too.
    Fear ridges that are depicted as flat lines on a profile map.

  18. #18
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    of course you could just look at a thermometer.

    Panzer

  19. #19
    Registered User Wise Old Owl's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Panzer1 View Post
    of course you could just look at a thermometer.

    Panzer

    .......................................
    Last edited by Wise Old Owl; 09-20-2010 at 21:45.
    Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.

    Woo

  20. #20
    International Man of Mystery BobTheBuilder's Avatar
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    I wouldn't trust this piece of folk wisdom.

    Crickets are notorious liars.

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