IRISH WEATHER WOMAN Evelyn Cusack may insist that animals can’t predict the weather but U.S. Army Signal Service lieutenant H.H.C Dunwoody begged to differ.

He worked for the Signal Service – the predecessor to the US National Weather Service – back in 1883 and penned a book that suggested cats could tell us exactly what we needed to know about the wind and rain.

Feline intuition, he argued, was far better than any weather forecaster’s long-range predictions. Pity he’s not still around to tell us why, eh?

NPR came across Signal Service Notes: Issue 9 this week and popped a few snippets of it up online.

“Cats have the reputation of being weather wise” it reads.

It is almost universally believed that good weather may be expected when the cat washes herself, but bad when she licks her coat against the grain, or washes her face over her ears or sits with her tail to the fire.

Jezebel managed to get their paws on a page from the tome, which reveals just what Dunwoody believed these feline forecasters were trying to tell us.

Weather Proverbs Weather Proverbs

And as if that wasn’t enough, Time stumbled across a few more helpful hints about your moggie’s mystical meteorological powers:

• When cats sneeze it is a sign of rain.
• The cardinal point to which a cat turns and washes her face after rain shows the directing from which the wind will blow.
• When cats are snoring foul weather follows.
• It is a sign of rain if the cat washes her head behind her ear.
• When cats lie on their head with mouth turned up [on their back] expect a storm.
• When a cat washes her face with her back to the fire expect a thaw in winter.

Someone call Evelyn, we need clarification after the Six One.

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