Despite computer generated models and satellite imagery, weather forecasters can still be notoriously unreliable. That’s why H.H.C. Dunwoody,  a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Signal Service, believed that the meteorologists should not only rely on technology, but also by observing the natural world as well.

“It is possible that a more accurate observation of the condition of plants or the condition or actions of animals,” he wrote in the introduction to Signal Service Notes, Issue 9, “might lead to some valuable suggestion in this important field of investigation.”

Dunwoody even wrote, “Cats have the reputation of being weather wise,” according to the book. “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.”

To learn more about how to forecast the weather by watching your cat, click here.