Filed under: Fall, Minnesota, seasons, spring, summer, weather, weather wisdom, wind, winter | Tags: fall, farm, Minnesota, spring, summer, weather, weather forecast, winter
Leo, our local weather forecaster has called in his prediction for the years weather, and it’s going to be interesting. He’s usually pretty accurate, so I always listen. He’s vague enough to be able to hedge his bets, but always better than the Old Farmer’s Almanac.
Leo has two methods he uses to predict the weather.
The onions.
On New Years Eve Leo cuts onions in half, hollows them out, adds a teaspoon of salt to each and puts them near a basement window. On New Years Day he reads the rainfall prediction by the amount of water in each onion. For this year he is projecting average rainfall for all months except May, August and December. These months will have below average rainfall.
Ember Days.
Ember days start on the first full day of spring. Leo keeps track of the weather for the first four full days of spring and uses those days to predict the areas weather. He claims the system has been used since before the Europeans came here. Here’s the forecast:
- Spring will have below normal temperatures. Leo expects a cool damp spring.
- Summer will also have below normal temperatures with early summer storms. It’s going to be windy so a few storms could mix in. This was the day that Iowa had lots of tornados and areas north of us were buried in snow, so we could get a little of crazy weather around us. Leo expects this to be a year that you should have crop insurance.
- Fall will be cold with some early snow. Later in the fall we could see some rain, but expect some wind, not a lot, all season long.
- Winter should be the best of all the seasons. Leo expects little snow and not much wind. We could have a decent winter ahead.
These forecasts are very place specific. If your area weather was different from ours, you can expect to have different weather. If he is right or not, it’s still fun to listen. My past experience is that it’s alway worth listening to Leo’s weather forecast for the year.
3 Comments so far
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This hollowing out of an onion to predict the weather is unlike any other method I’ve ever heard for forecasting.
I’d like to know more about Leo. I’m thinking possible “story” here for a magazine that I write for.
Could you email me with more info about Leo and how I might contact him? Thank you.
Comment by Minnesota Prairie Roots April 14, 2011 @ 10:36 amLeo didnt predict hot humid summer huh?
Comment by Hot in MPLS July 20, 2011 @ 8:37 amThis heat was one that Leo missed. Like the Old Farmers Almanac he deals in generalities. Spring weather was generally cold when he forecast the summer. That has sure changed.
Comment by Michael July 20, 2011 @ 8:49 am