Tim Vaughan said:

> ...unusually still, no bugs chirping, etc...

> ....just as I was opening the door for her to enter with the last of the
> laundry, one of those South African hail storms hit. Wind to bend trees
> over, loudness, then hard rain.

For those interested in gathering data on this issue, get a barometer.

I've seen this phenomena, and the behavior appears to correlate to
sudden drops in air pressure, which often preclude storms.  I had lots
of chances to observe this, since in South Florida, it rained nearly every
day between May and October at almost exactly 4pm for about 15 mins.

How do bees and other animals detect air pressure changes?  No idea.
Could it be some other factor?  Sure, but what?
Are all storms "announced" by a drop in air pressure?  Not all, but most.

If you want to know in advance when to go check on bee flight operations,
http://www.weather.com has some decent maps made from a mix of doppler
and "NexRad" radars.  We who work the day shift at the idea factory
use the two images listed below to decide between afternoons of bits, bytes,
and nanoseconds, or afternoons of bees, buds, and bumming around.

http://image.weather.com/web/radar/us_ric_closeradar_large_usen.jpg

http://maps.weather.com/images/maps/lightning/ec_lightning_720x486.jpg

One of our dogs (a Corgi) also predicts bad weather with excellent accuracy.
He will "announce" storms by moving to a position directly at one's feet and
whimpering.  He does not like storms in the least, which is a perfectly valid
point of view for a herding dog.

        jim