1 December 2008

The ants are in some trouble

| johnboy
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The weather predicting ants of my driveway have become something of a cause celebre.

A reader has suggested that I add a beer can to the mound photography to provide perspective and I have obliged.

After Saturday’s rains the mounds are still and plugged closed.

It might be because the ants are now satisfied the weather will improve and are busy underground. Or it might be that they’re flooded out and all dead.

Ants are nearly as tricky to interpret as the BOM.

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Dunno about the ants, but there’s a very interesting set-up emerging. We might get some significant rain when that trough in WA arrives, dragging some tropical moisture with it. So far Friday appears to be the day.

Already you can see the clouds are experimenting with the instability and moisture. If it warms today, we should see some storms later today to start the event off.

Pommy bastard10:55 am 10 Dec 08

What are the ants predicting now? BOM states it’ll be raining today, so I’m enjoying the glorious sunshine.

TroyWilliams11:12 am 02 Dec 08

In jolly old Blighty the weather forecast will tell you with stunning accuracy where each drop of rain will fall, and we get a lot of rain.
Just In From The BBC: Today’s rain will be in a small, concentrated patch extending from the North Sea down to the Isle of Wight.

It will all depend on when the can of beer arrived. Is it possible the ants are just hung over and sleeping it off?

tylersmayhem5:08 pm 01 Dec 08

…Tooheys Red eh?! Explains a few things! 😉

The mound is still there, just not as high as it was when johnboy took the “massive” photo. I suspect the rain beat it down, and some was washed to the right where the soil gathered around grass or debris in the gap between concrete slabs.

Or someone drinking Toohey’s Red stepped on it while trying to take a photo.

I bet a bit of sugar placed on the entrance would get the ants moving. That or pouring water down the hole.

How come the mound has gone though? Did someone run it over or does it need ant maintenance?

They might be busy making more ants to replace workers killed building the fortifications?

Well as soon as we reduce the size of Australia to that of the UK, and park it next to the densest concentration of weather observatories in the world aka Europe and its shipping channels, I’m sure forecasters will have a better chance. Till then, we should be thankful that they are able to be useful at all. Ants provide a useful backup, though.

Holden Caulfield10:29 am 01 Dec 08

Geez, must be a tough gig predicting when and where it will rain in old Blighty. It’s the size of a postage stamp and always wet haha.

Pommy bastard10:01 am 01 Dec 08

The BOM?

The most laughable site in Australia. As has been posited, one could better predict the weather by ants, cows in fields or random guessing.

Has anyone else noticed that it will predict rain four days hence at the start of virtually every week. Downgrading the % chance incrementally over the preceding days?

In jolly old Blighty the weather forecast* will tell you with stunning accuracy where each drop of rain will fall, and we get a lot of rain.

Here, they can’t even tell you when a hurricane is coming through…

*ok, Mr Fish’s little slip up excepted.

MMMM Tooheys Red….
So JB, you’re the other one in Canberra.

p1 said :

I’m sure I read somewhere that only serial killers drink Tooheys Red…

Well I’d hate to be one of those parallel drinkers!

Any further beer or beer-related venue reviews now need to be read in a very different light! Next it’ll be Swan Lager or Mavstar Bitter.

I’m sure I read somewhere that only serial killers drink Tooheys Red…

Skid will know.

well, it’ll be a dry week until Friday, which is a scorcher with some wet weather behind it. The ants are probably busy with other things until then.

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