Who knew? All these years waking wondering what the temperature was outside I only had to listen to crickets chirping for 15 seconds and add that number to forty. Does it work? Hell I don't know it's raining outside so they evidently refuse to render the answer if it involves getting their feet wet.
Seriously though there must be something to it because there's even a government web site that will calculate the number of chirps in fifteen seconds for you. If you forget the formula you can click on the formula for cricket temperature conversion script link on the site:
Cricket Chirps
From the user a number of cricket chirps in 15 seconds (C) are given. Then, an air
temperature (T) can be calculated using the equation of below:
T = c + 40
Then the air temperature can be converted to different units. To see how to convert
temperature, see the link below:
How does a cricket accomplish such a feat? Well according to this article it's called Dolbear’s law:
The relationship between cricket chirping and the temperature has been noted for a long time. In Western science, it is called Dolbear’s law after the most widely referenced early publication on the phenomenon published in 1897 by Amos Dolbear.
His article is called “The Cricket as a Thermometer,” according to Almanac.com, and it discusses the correlation between a cricket’s chirp rate and the ambient temperature.
“The warmer the temperature, the easier the cricket’s muscles activate, so the chirps increase,” according to the Almanac. “The cooler the temperature, the slower the reaction rate, and the less frequent the chirps.”
Dolbear’s observations showed that you can count the number of chirps per 15 seconds, add 40, and that will give you the temperature in Fahrenheit.
Crickets are ectotherms — meaning their body temperature depends on the temperature of their surrounding environment.
Much like a sluggish bumblebee on a cool spring morning or a lizard sunning on a rock, crickets move slower in cooler temperatures.
As crickets warm, they can rub their wings together faster, which is how male crickets make the nightly repetitive chirp they use to attract mates.
The only part of the article I tend to disagree with is this:
Crickets can’t predict the weather, but their chirp can tell you the temperature.
Like I said it's raining outside right now so it's got to one out of three predictions: it's raining, it's cold, or it's to damn hot to do anything, that includes chirping.