This is pretty cool. Apparently, you can do some rudimentary forecasting of pending storms based on wind direction and barometric pressure as measured with a barometer. (Details are generally valid for the continental US.)

If the winds pick up and there's a steady fall in barometric pressure, you can deduce that a storm is on the way (duh). What's cool is that the direction the winds are coming from will be offset by about 135° from the direction the storm is coming from. So, winds from the SE or S indicate a storm moving in from the W or NW. The storm center will pass near to or N of your location in 12 to 24 hours and as the storm passes, the winds will shift to the NW by way of S. Conversely, winds out of the E or NE indicate a storm moving in from the S or SW with the center passing near or S of your location in 12 to 24 hours. Again as the storm passes, the winds will shif to the NW, but this time, by way of N.

A storm is a low pressure zone, so the wind is basically going to be moving into the center of the storm. Because of this you can deduce the location of the center.