Winter Weather Forecast 2017/2018, According to the Persimmon Seeds

Hunters and fishermen spend a considerable amount of time, and sometimes money, preparing for weather. Especially winter weather. The Farmers Almanac is out, along with it’s predictions. The Weather Channel will soon be giving us their outlooks. Several of them most likely, because they have so many models at their disposal. You’re in luck, because I’m ready to let you in on the real winter outlook as provided by that most reliable forecast model of them all…the persimmon. Lets start with a refresher on how persimmons help predict the winter weather. Click here for a quick reminder of what we’re talking about. http://militaryhuntingandfishing.com/predicting-the-winter-weather-reading-the-persimmon-seeds/

This year’s results

This year’s seeds were collected from trees growing on a local school yard. I figured that these trees must be smarter than others, because of their proximity to learning. There seems to be a good crop this year, with a good number of the persimmons being seedless. Now that’s a good thing for those harvesting for persimmon pulp, but it’s a bother if the seeds are what you want. None the less, enough were gathered for our purposes. After some cleaning and a couple days drying time, they were split and inspected, and separated into the traditional “Knife” “Fork” and “Spoon” categories. This years persimmon seeds seem to send a clear message. 38% were spoons, 62% were knives and 0% were forks. This is the first time I’ve ever read the seeds didn’t have at least one example of each shape.

What do they mean?

So what do the seeds tell us? And how does it mesh with other forecast sources? My seeds are telling me that it’s gonna be a cold winter with average, or maybe a little above, snowfall. This is in agreement with news I’ve received of frequent sightings of solid black wooly worms. The more black, the harsher the winter. A couple of Twitter followers have relayed the results of their own inspection of the seeds. Missouri reports ALL seeds to be spoons. Sounds like lots of snow for the Show Me State. And South Carolina didn’t provide a breakdown, only that the seeds were calling for a long, bad winter. What ever that means in South Carolina. He also relayed a weather predictor I hadn’t heard about. It seems there they count the number of foggy mornings in September, and that indicates the number of “real” snowfalls to expect over the winter. This year they had 5 foggy mornings. Average snow events is 1.5 per winter. I suppose 5 snows down in Dixie would constitute a bad winter. As for the Pros? I haven’t seen the Weather Channel’s outlook, but the Farmer’s Almanac is calling for a warmer and drier winter than average. I guess we’ll see who is right. But as for me, I’m sharpening my ice auger blades. Or maybe just replace them. Sharpening didn’t work out too well last year!