With cooler temperatures pushing in as winter approaches, it’s affecting people, animals, crops and… Crickets. A chorus of cricket chips isn’t just summer background music, it can also be used as a temperature gauge all year round. According to an old scientific theory, if you count the number of chirps per 15 seconds and add 40, you’ll wind up with the temperature in fahrenheit. It’s called Dolbear’s Law. Entomologists say heat helps crickets’ chirping muscles warm up. They are cold blooded, and affected by the ambient temperature. As the temperature rises, they can have those muscle contractions occurring more rapidly which allows them to have a higher frequency, the opposite in colder weather.
The National Weather Service office in El Paso, Texas, has a cricket chirp converter where you can plug in how many chirps you hear to get the temperature. However, the chirping may stop soon, as experts say crickets stop chirping when temperatures drop below 50 degrees, a true sign that winter is approaching.
