Some animals may have the ability to predict changes in the weather. However, in reality, it is more likely that weather affects animal behavior rather than animals predicting the weather.
To understand how weather affects animals, we have to understand that the effects depend on local conditions and environment. For instance, you would see a different reaction by an animal to rain in the desert than you would if the same animal was in a rainforest—dry climate vs. wet climate.
Heavy rain can affect an animal’s ability to see and hear clearly, smell, and even regulate their body temperature. This could interfere with an animal’s ability to survive.
Insects cannot fly during a rainstorm. You might observe increased activity in the bug communities as they prepare to hunker down until the storm passes. This results in an increased subordinate response from the birds who take advantage of this more abundant bug smorgasbord. This also results in greater activity among prey birds such as hawks and eagles, and mammals whose diets include the smaller birds.
Birds fly low to the ground when there is an increase in air pressure, a predicator of stormy weather on its way. But recent research has found that it might just be that birds hear infrasound (a low-frequency noise) coming from a nearing storm, even days in advance, causing them to high-tail it out of the area until the storms have passed.
According to Ernest Seton, professor of animal science at State University, cows become agitated and nervous, bawling, and crowding together or seeking shelter when they sense a coming storm. They will suddenly switch direction while grazing, facing into a coming storm. They possess a remarkable ability to accurately “predict” the timing and direction from which a storm will come by detecting subtle shifts in barometric pressure or electromagnetic forces.
Dogs can hear thunder long before the human ear can, and with a nose—possessing as many as 300 million olfactory receptors compared to the human nose which only possesses 5 million—they can smell the moisture of coming rain, and can quite possibly sense static electricity and changes in barometric pressure.
Oceanographers are probably the only folks who would know this, but research shows that sharks dive deeper into the ocean when a hurricane is on the way. Researchers believe, though not conclusively proven, this is because of ear sensitivity which enables them to detect changes in the water and air pressure that accompany hurricanes and tropical storms.
There are documented instances of land animals heading for high ground in anticipation of a tsunami, flood, or earthquake. This is likely because they sense atmospheric and barometric changes, auditory signals, and heightened sensory perception—they can feel minute, low-frequency vibrations in the earth that humans do not notice until it is too late.
The Bible gives us an example of how the weather affected animal behavior.
“The beasts, exposed to the tempest [the Flood], rushed toward man, as though expecting help from him. Some of the people bound their children and themselves upon powerful animals, knowing that these were tenacious of life, and would climb to the highest points to escape the rising waters. … As the waters rose higher and higher, the people fled for refuge to the loftiest mountains. Often man and beast would struggle together for a foothold, until both were swept away.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 100
Sources: nature-mentor.com/weather-animal-behavior; science.howstuffworks.com/nature/slimate-weather/storms/10-ways-animals-supposedly-predict-the-weather.htm; berrypatchfarms.net/what-do-cows-do-when-a-storm-is-coming; scientificorigin.com/how-animals-sense/disasters-before-they-happen