# How to predict yearly rainfall with an onion on New Years Eve



## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

Read this in the almanac and thought it interesting. I'm going to do it tomorrow night and keep a record of my results to see how accurate it is (hopefully I won't  before the hour is up!)

Here's the info on how to do it...

1. On Dec 31st about 15 minutes before midnight cut a onion in half.
2. Peal the layers so you have 12 little onion "bowls".
3. Arrange the bowls in two rows of 6. put the biggest bowls on the left. the top row represents the first 6 months, the bottom the second 6 months.
4. Remove the fine skin inside each bowl.
5. Put a tsp of salt in each bowl and let it set for 1 hour.
6. The bowls with water in them will be rainy months and the dry bowls will be dry months. A little bit of water means a little bit of rain that month.
7. Use a *white onion*, and set them in an *unheated room*.

According to the almanac this system is used by Butch Schum of Hamilton Texas and most people in the area say it's pretty accurate.


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## andabigmac (Jan 10, 2011)

Does it have to be a home grown or local onion? Does it say whether you cut them top to bottom or side to side? I'll try anything once for giggles.


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## KarmaK (Nov 27, 2011)

I might just have to try that. We are finishing up the wettest year ever in my area, so I'm curious what next year will hold.


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## beachcomber (Dec 2, 2008)

does that work in a rain forest that gets 180 inches of rain a year. lmao


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## lonelyfarmgirl (Feb 6, 2005)

Thats really cool, but unfortunately I wont be able to do it. I'll be driving home from a rabbit show.


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## Wildwood (Jul 2, 2007)

All I have is yellow onions but I'll be anxious to hear your results.


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## barnyardgal (Sep 21, 2009)

interesting & i would try it but will be in bed....would be interested in your results though~~


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

Hmmm..same amount of salt to larger and smaller amount of onion flesh to draw moisture from....I'll have to try that just to see if the larger "bowls" do produce more water...

If I am understanding the placement of the size bowls we will have on the top row:
large Jan, large feb, large march..then small april,may and june. Second row will have large july, august and sept followed by small october, november and december.

LOL!! just to add more difficulty into this "equation" the larger bowls will most likely have thinner flesh while the smaller bowls will be thicker.....


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

Well, yeah, it would have to be a local onion. If you use an onion from Idaho, it will tell you what the weather will be like in Idaho.


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## springvalley (Jun 23, 2009)

I had an old timer tell me this once, but they used whole onions. They cut them in half and just dipped them in the salt and if the salt stuck to a large degree the month was going to be wet and if the salt didn`t stick, it would be a dry month. I have never tried either way, so tell us all what happens. > Thanks Marc


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Wildwood said:


> All I have is *yellow onions *but I'll be anxious to hear your results.


Don't eat the Yellow Snow


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

now if I can just stay awake another half hour to get the results...


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

Well..I'll post my results even tho I goofed twice...it was done on the kitchen table at my Mom's and it is a heated room. About 70 degrees..
When we looked at them after one hour one had completely dry salt..*rats* missed the inner skin removal on that one. Dumped the salt, peeled the skin, waited one hour and noted the results.

Western Md, zone 6 Drat!! my two colums went away....

January-medium wet----- July-very wet
February-medium wet----- August-semi-wet
March-very wet----- September-semi-wet
April-semi-dry ----- October-semi-dry
May-medium wet---- November-semi-wet
June-medium wet--- December-semi-dry

June was the goof month. I graduated the size cups from Jan to june and from July to Dec..large to small. We put them in two six count muffin pans. No month was completely dry, all had visable water around the salt. HEH! My Mom got a kick out of it! Happy New Year!


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

When I first looked at them, at the 1 hour mark, they all appeared to be dry with the salt just as it was when I put it in, with just a hint of moisture in most of them. 

A few minutes later, May & June were wet looking, the salt is glistening with moisture. Dec still has very little moisture, but the rest of them are about equal with drops of moisture on the walls of the "bowls". 

A few minutes later and the salt in May is drenched and June isn't far from it. Dec is still pretty dry. 

June & Dec "bowls" are the same size and setting so close to each other they are touching, I can't help but wonder why one of them is extremely wet while the other is almost totally dry. That makes me wonder if there might be something to this... It'll be interesting to see as the year goes by if May and June end up being very wet months. June is usually very dry in my area. 

I hope someone else did this. I'd love to hear how others did.


ETA: bee, I like the pattern you made so I'll copy it for mine.

January-semi-wet------ July-semi-wet
February-semi-wet----- August-semi-wet
March-semi-wet-------- September-semi-wet
April-semi-wet --------- October-semi-wet
May-very wet---------- November-semi-wet
June-very wet--------- December-semi-dry

It's now been a hour & a half since the salt went in the "bowls". The May & June bowls are very wet, the salt is almost to the point of dissolving, while the salt in the Dec bowl is still dry. The salt in the other bowls is starting to get damp, but not wet like May & June. Very interesting...



springvalley, I wish I had 2 onions. I would have liked to try both methods just to see if they both gave the same results. I wonder if it'd work to do it tomorrow during the daytime...


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

Any of you "wet" folks in Texas????
Ed


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

whiterock said:


> Any of you "wet" folks in Texas????
> Ed


I'm just a few miles north of the Texas border. It's been extremely dry here this year, and if I stick to the one hour limit, the onions predict extremely dry again next year. 

I hope the added time that shows a wet year will be what we get, which is probably nothing more than wishful thinking on my part since the "wet" didn't show up until the hour was over.


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