Listen to the Spleen

What's the best way to predict the weather, you ask? Well, with a pig's spleen, of course.

At least, that's the theory of Jeff Woodward, pig spleen weather forecaster extraordinaire.

Hailing from Regina, Woodward picked up the old time tradition of spleen reading from his Uncle Gus Wickstrom, who became famous for his knack for spleens nearly 10 years ago.

However, with Uncle Gus' death in 2007, the torch was passed to Woodward who has since embraced his uncle's passion.

"It was sort of by default," he admitted, explaining how Uncle Gus just sort of picked him to be the one to do it. Woodward had spent a lot of time with his uncle as a kid, so it didn't take long before he really grabbed hold of the reigns.

This is Woodward's third year forecasting the weather, and so far, it's turned out fairly accurate.

"(My uncle) wasn't very secretive with the way that he did it. There were some real specific rules that he followed plus a little bit of embellishment, and it wasn't really that hard to pick up on. I don't think I'm as good as him yet but perhaps some day I will be," he said.

So, how does it work? Well, animals' instincts tell them how to best prepare for upcoming weather, and it's believed that spleens give the best indication of what we can expect.

"If you look at the spleen, it's going to tell you what the following months have in store," Woodward said.

For instance, the shape of the spleen, any little anomalies on them, the thickness of the spleen and fatty deposits all have various meanings.

"The thickness and the bumps in it tell you what the weather is going to be like, and the fat deposits tell you about the precipitation. The idea is that you divide the spleen into six different pieces — each representing the six months from January to June — and you sort of interpret where the different characteristics of the spleen are and where they occur with respect to the periods in the month," he explained.

You can look at as many spleens as you want to make an accurate forecast. Woodward used four spleens donated to him from the Earview Hutterite Colony to make this year's forecast. Generally, wherever the spleens are from is the area depicted in the prediction.

This year, Woodward's spleens predicted a relatively warm, dry winter with a cooler, wet spring in store for Tompkins and area.

"The ones that I got were really consistent and had the same sort of characteristics from one to the other. They were difficult to read and I couldn't tell very much from them, and that I interpret more towards what you'd consider a normal winter, because there was nothing really distinctive about them," Woodward said.

The spleens are usually chosen at random, however older pigs provide the more accurate, readable organs. However, Woodward couldn't convincingly explain why pigs are the spleen of choice.

"My uncle had actually branched out and he was doing moose and whatever kind of spleens he could get his hands on," he said.

Uncle Gus had surprised a lot of people with his freakishly accurate forecasts over the years, making many believers out of skeptics. Even Woodward, an engineer by training, thought it was ridiculous at first. Now, however, "I can't dismiss it by any means," Woodward said.

"I think my uncle was very good at it. He had the knack to really get a decent prediction from it. He was doing things like predicting specific days and specific events — snowfall events, rainfall events — that were significant and out of the ordinary," he continued.

Woodward is not alone. At least two people in the United States and one other person in Saskatchewan read spleens as well.

"There's a little bit of merit to it. It shouldn't be dismissed wholeheartedly, but I can understand the people that are skeptical," he admitted.

Woodward's six-year-old son has already expressed a keen interest in the art of spleen reading and will likely take over once Dad is ready to retire, and carry on the tradition once again.

By Allison Werbowetsky
Maple Creek News-Times Jan. 14, 2010