Do cows lying down really mean it's going to rain?

From: The Wild File | Outside Online

Q) Do cows lying down really mean it's going to rain?
Jesse cantwell, Groveland, Illinois

Nope. Nor is it true that dogs eat grass before rain, groundhogs ruminate over their shadows, or Harvard nerds play Risk the night preceding a nor'easter. Turns out the vast majority of weather lore is bunk, though many faulty predictors endure in the age of Doppler 3000 and perfectly coiffed weathermen. This is probably because a handful of the predictors do work, mostly those based on animals' ability to detect changes in barometric pressure (something scientists don't yet fully understand). Seabirds head for open ocean when a storm system is approaching, bees tend to return to their hives during a pressure drop, and blackflies bite more before a drizzle. So chances are many of us will reach for our parkas when we see horizontal heifers. Unfortunately, says Mary Knapp, the state climatologist in Kansas (where modern wives' tales have led some to mistakenly believe they can outdrive tornadoes), "our understanding of weather keeps progressing, but the folklore doesn't keep up."