According to weather folklore, the shape of your persimmon seed will determine whether or not it’ll be a snowy or dry winter.
The folklore is thought to date back to the days of the settlers and pioneers when they didn’t have any much to monitor the weather other than things like a thermometer to measure temperature or a barometer to measure pressure changes (falling pressure means rain’s on the way) etc. I couldn’t find the specific source for the folklore but it appears to date back into the 1800s.
The middle of the persimmon is actually the root of the plant. More interestingly, the shape of the plant and subsequently the shape of the “spoon, fork, or knife” is mostly influenced by the conditions over the summer. For example, a dry summer would put more stress on the plant and could lead to smaller roots or “knives” whereas a wet summer might lead to bigger roots or “spoons”.
Last year, most of the pictures I saw were spoons. It didn’t snow. Actually it did a little, “officially it was a trace”.
There’s actually no peer reviewed scientific research that actually show a relationship between persimmon seeds and how the winter will unfold but it’s still fun to talk about.
The Climate Prediction Center Outlook for the winter months shows slightly higher changes for warmer than normal temperatures. I don’t think it’ll be as warm and as snowless as last year. Last year, we had a strong El Nino which was part of the reason for the wetter and warmer weather. This year, we’ll have neither El Nino or La Nina as a more neutral pattern is prevailing across the Pacific.
With that in mind, and looking at the average amounts of 5-7″, it’s a good bet we have at least a handful of snow days this year.
-Garrett
