A North Dakota farmer has a unique way of forecasting the weather - using pig spleens.

Paul Smokov swears his method is 85 percent accurate, insisting the weathermen - with their state-of-the-art radar and other scientific equipment - "aren't any better."

The 84-year-old farmer of Ukrainian descent said pig spleens could predict whether a year will be normal or replete with disturbances.

According to Smokov, winter will come early and spring will be mild if the spleen is wide where it attaches to the pig's stomach and then narrows. Harsh spring weather will prevail if there's narrow-to-wider spleen.

The best scenario, meaning no major weather occurrences, will arise when the spleen obtained is pretty uniform in thickness.

He and his wife Betty are always ready to share his forecast with townsfolk near their 1,750-acre (7.08-sq.km.) ranch north of Steele.

Before Smokov, Gus Wickstrom of Saskatchewan, New Hampshire, became popular for his pig spleen weather prognosticating. He died in early 2007.

Smokov's Ukrainian parents brought their folklore knowledge of pig spleen forecasting with them when they emigrated to the U.S. a century ago.

Meteorologists and weathermen largely rely on radar and other scientific instruments to come up with a three-month outlook, which is often at least 60 percent accurate.