Summer is heating up and bird and cricket songs drift through the air. According to the Library of Congress Science Reference Department, there is a way to ascertain the temperature by listening carefully to the sound that crickets make.
Male crickets make the sound by rubbing their wings together, usually with the purpose of impressing females. The rate depends on the cricket’s absolute temperature.
- For Fahrenheit: count the number of cricket chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37.
- For Celsius: count the number of chirps in 8 seconds and add 5.
Summer Haiku
Silence, a a deeper silence
When the crickets hesitate.
~ Leonard Cohen
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So interesting!
We used to try this when I was a kid but we were never sure what to do once we counted the chirps. Thanks for the pointers!
Very interesting. I wish you were here to identify the cricket-like sounds all around.
Waven, millhill and Kathy, I’m glad you all found this interesting. Hopefully the weather will get hot enough for us to apply this formula soon.
Waven, I too listened to the chirps when I was a kid and wondered what the calculation might possibly be.
Kathy, the sounds of summer make winter seem so quiet don’t they?
How absolutely fascinating!
I’ll have to wait until the summer months for our crickets to reappear (November to February), but now at least I know how to calculate the temperature!
And thank you, especially, for explaining how to do it in Celsius too. I am completely unable to figure out how Fahrenheit works, as it seems entirely nonsensical to me. 😉
Canada converted to Celsius about four decades ago, yet the English system is still very much used here. We’ve ended up having to deal with both systems. The humidity is higher than usual here and makes the temperatures seem a lot hotter. I haven’t heard a cricket yet, but usually do by this time.
I’m going to try that! Maybe this will be more reliable than watching the weather forecast ;D
Ahmed, ANYTHING would be more reliable than the weather forecasts we’ve been getting lately.