Hello, today we are going to talk about how you can predict weather with pine cones. It all started out when I heard you could predict weather with pine cones. I asked my friend, "Big L", "How do you tell what the pine cone is saying." Big L answered by saying, "When it is open, there will be good weather. If it is closed, it is raining or is just about to." I wanted to know more. So yesterday my mom and I found out the pine cone is reading the humidity with its scales. You might be asking yourself if a pine cone has a brain. The answer is no. A pine cone reads the humidity because when it is humid the scales expand and make the scales close. When it is warm and dry, like now, the scales open to release the seeds giving them a better change of becoming a tree. Its the cells that take in moisture and expand. Isn't that interesting.
We made another hygrometer out of a pine cone. It looks like this. You use a pin in the pine cone to measure where the scales are.
If you would like to do this experiment too, here is where we got our information.
http://thehappyscientist.com/science-experiment/pinecone-weather