What signs does nature provide that it's going to rain?

I have heard stories of farmers being able to walk outside, look around the land, and almost certainly determine if a storm is going to roll through that day.

What ways can nature indicate to us that a weather shift is about to happen? What indicators do you use in your environment?

The one way that I notice that nature is telling me it will rain is when maple/oak leaves start to flip over in the trees. Usually that is an indication that rain or a storm is going to pass through soon.

When I walk out the door and smell rain.

When I see dark clouds.

When all the cow are line up against a fence.

When the cat comes inside and hangs around all day even if it is nice outside.

I dislocated my shoulder hitting a diving board during a High School swim meet. I know when it is going to rain or snow from shoulder discomfort. the smell before a storm, the heaviness of the air.

I have read Tristan Gooley's book: The secret world of weather : how to read signs in every cloud, breeze, hill, street, plant, animal, and dewdrop

It is definitely a fun and educational read, but he's in the British Isles, and although he's travelled a lot, I found there are regional differences which I had to apply his knowledge to.

I am glad a upped my game in the "cloud" ID department. The mountains and hills around me, make actual predicting much harder than one might find in other locations. I've had it sunny in the front yard, and pouring rain in the back yard many times - something that was incredibly rare where I grew up.

I can see the weather coming looking into the west.
But there's usually a period of gusts of sudden wind before rain, and if it's a lot of rain that's coming, that wind will carry its smell with it.
Those gusts of wind are giving the homestead person just enough time to gather the tools and whatnot, put them back to place, and to go inside. More often than not, the first drops start to fall as I close the door behind me.

I'm a barometer! my back and neck begin to ache. probably the result from 5 crushed vertebrae and major spinal nerve surgery

From on top of out hill it's usually possible to see rain approaching, and if not seen, heralded by a swift drop in temperature a a wind. When the valley on the next door property fills with cloud that obscures some of the tree tops, I know there is about 10 minutes before it rains.  Especially hot days are signaled by the gum trees arranging their leaves for minimum exposure to the direct sun.   Other than that, unless the washing is destined for outside  drying, it's up to chance!  When we were kids, we relied on a pine cone hung outside for telling the weather - open in dry weather, closed in wet.  

Thunderstorm asthma.  It's an actual thing.   Before/ during storms (not just rain) the pollen and mold are broken into tiny pieces, if you are sensitive when you breathe them in your allergies go crazy.

I'm also a barometer. Not really surprising as we are mostly water, but I get a sinus headache when the air is pregnant, that sweeps away within 30 seconds to 3-5 minutes before a downpour is going to start.

A sign it's going to rain? When hordes of mosquitoes suddenly appear, looking for my blood.

You can train your bones to feel the weather and water. It takes some tuning in but it's possible. It's in your DNA.

Cows/animals start laying around resting. Air pressure feels heavier.

Swallows flying low is one I always notice. They're following the insects which drop lower before rain when the air pressure changes. Pretty reliable once you start watching for it.

So several observation we noted
Spiders climb up towards the ceiling basically not near the ground.
If the ants are in a straight line the weather is going to be fine- they are out harvesting there food,
If ants are in a tizzy going to and fro the weather is changing get back home and build the mound higher.  


Saint Isadore Novena for rain creates a very favorable rain response for rain after 9 days of prayers.
Draw a turtle facing West serves as a location which needs rain -native American request to God for rain.

here is a historical event concerning weather
“Old Indian Ways” of Predicting the Weather    https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/wcas/2/3/2010wcas1055_1.xml

On some people it is their bones certain ones hurt other their hair is a fizzy poof.

The claim it is an El Nino year so more rain storms are possible but what I want to know is about this coming winter as well.

Look to the sky if you see the cloud formations called mares tails and mackerel scales you will probably see rain in 24 to 48 hours.

The usual suspects have been mentioned.

Here is one I discovered myself.

Google AI - "Air pockets" are a popular, yet technically inaccurate, term for turbulence or sudden
atmospheric vertical downdrafts that cause a plane to drop rapidly. They are not literal vacuums or
empty holes in the air, but rather areas where air is moving downwards faster than the plane,
causing a momentary loss of lift.

Now they refer to "air pockets" as microbbursts.

It took them a long time to realize that if air moves up somewhere,
somewhere else air is moving down.

So if a breeze suddenly appears, turn around until the wind is at
your back. Then the direction you are facing is where clouds bringing
rain will come from because air going away from you will turn into
air coming towards you but higher up. Provided of course that lump
of air contains clouds.

Alternatively, if the wind is colder than just now, you are feeling the air
displaced by falling rain close by and the evaporation has cooled the
wind so you are about to get very wet. The wind direction doesn't matter.  

You could make your own barometer:

Properly adjusted, this can give an indication of air pressure
indicative of rain. Make a bunch of divers because it is very
difficult and tedious to adjust just one . . . which is why I
am not using one now although I have tried.



Don't know why this Youtube is not appearing so here is the URL.

T=888

Red sky in morning, sailor take warning.

I watch the ants to see if they are building a mound around their ant hole. The bigger the mound the higher rain fall. Works every single time.

My partner and I were raised in Wales.

He used to live overlooking a valley with a big hill opposite him. ~

If they could see the hill, that meant it was going to rain.

If they couldn't see the hill, that meant it was already raining.

The UK in general makes use of weather stones, though they work best with a pinch of salt...

My father was a nature lover and he knew a lot about clouds. He tried to teach me about the clouds too. This teaching worked half: now I can understand what the colour and shape of the cloud indicates. But I still don't know the names of the clouds (like Cirrus and Cumulus, etc.). I can't describe it, but it's a certain dark grey for rain, and a different type of grey for snow.

Before it's going to rain there will be gusts of (cold) wind. You can hear it in the trees.

Burra Maluca wrote:....

The UK in general makes use of weather stones, though they work best with a pinch of salt...

Here (and as far as I know in Germany too) there's a donkey with a tail showing those weather conditions. When I was young we had one of those, painted on wood, with a string as tail.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Here (and as far as I know in Germany too) there's a donkey with a tail showing those weather conditions. When I was young we had one of those, painted on wood, with a string as tail.

I found one here!

I think that might have to go on the list of projects to make one day...

Short term warnings would be a sudden very  cool breeze on a hot day. Rain is 10 minutes away.

You know it's over when concrete slabs have quit sweating dampness and dried out.

And a more technical favorite, I choose the animations with lightning flashes:

https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/conus.php?sat=G16