Charlayne's Blog

Beilue: Never argue with an onion

Perryton man passes on strange forecasting skill

Staff Column
Amarillo Globe-News
Publication Date: 06/20/07

Gary Karber has had more than one Ochiltree County rancher ask him if it's going to be a dry summer and should he wait to buy cattle. And more than one farmer has inquired if it would be wise to plant his corn or milo early.

"So there is some pressure on me, there sure is,'' he said.

All of this because of an onion, some salt and a muffin pan.

Karber, 55, has been service manager for Hergert Ford in Perryton for 12 years. But his passion is the weather. Ever since he was 6 years old and saw his first tornado near his boyhood home in Balko, Okla., he's been hooked.

All told now, Karber, for 36 years a spotter for the National Weather Service, has seen 106 tornadoes. That's certainly a worthy endeavor, but not his most noteworthy. For that one, credit his mother, LaFaun Karber.

"My mother taught me how to do this, and she learned it from her stepmom,'' Karber said. "She's probably been doing it for 50 years, and I myself have been doing this for about 30.''

It's forecasting the weather - for the entire year. Now Jim Cantore and the good folks at The Weather Channel use things like computers, weather balloons, charts and graphs. At best, they might get a 10-day prediction. Bunch of rubes.

All they need is an onion, some salt and a muffin pan. Don't laugh, Doppler Radar Breath, because the laugh may be on you.

Here's how it works: On Dec. 31, select one medium to large onion. Cut it through the axis, to

Here's how it works: On Dec. 31, select one medium to large onion. Cut it through the axis, top to bottom. Now grab a 12-cup muffin pan.

Take the largest or longest onion layer and put it in a cup marked January. Take the second-largest and put in February and do that in descending order through June. Then repeat the process with the longest and largest for July to the smallest in December.

Then put a teaspoon of salt on each onion in each cup. Take the pan and place it outside where moisture can't reach it; either cover it with a box or in a covered patio, whatever.

Technically, the pan is supposed to be checked at sunrise on Jan. 1, but let's say you partied too much on New Year's Eve. A few hours won't make that much difference.

Then check the moisture in each cup. It will be a dry month if the salt won't stick together. It will be a moist month if the salt sticks together, so expect some rain. It's going to a wet month if the salt is wet or there's standing water in the cup.

Maybe they don't accept this at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but maybe they should. Karber has been doing this for three decades and recording the results for 19 years. His month-to-month accuracy is 86 percent.

"A lot of it is you got to believe it,'' he said. "Somebody came up with it, and they believed it. I've never missed a whole year. I've missed a couple of months here and there, but that's it.''

In 1985, Karber remembers that New Year's Day looking at his muffin pan and water was practically running out of his May cup into his June cup. His cup li

But he's also read of a South Dakota man doing the same forecasting as well as a woman in Italy.

"Folklore is always interesting,'' Karber said.

Folklore? Please. This is exact science.

Jon Mark Beilue's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at jon.beilue@amarillo.com or (806) 345-3318.

© The Amarillo Globe-News Online

This is way too cool!
Thanx for that Char, I think I'm going to try it at the end of this year.