Canada’s weather-predicting groundhogs call for early spring
Canada’s best-known weatherpredicting groundhogs called for an early spring Tuesday as they delivered their annual forecasts over video due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though Ontario’s own Wiarton Willie was missing in action.
Nova Scotia’s most famous groundhog, Shubenacadie Sam, was the first to make his prediction, hesitantly emerging from his pint-sized barn after an overnight storm and apparently failing to see his shadow.
The annual tradition at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park north of Halifax usually attracts scores of schoolchildren, but not this year. There were few onlookers Tuesday as the event was broadcast live on Facebook.
In Val d’Espoir on Quebec’s Gaspé peninsula, Fred La Marmotte was also reluctant to leave his miniature cabin. When the rodent did finally emerge during the livestreamed event, his handler held him to his ear and said he had predicted an early spring.
In Wiarton, the community’s famous albino groundhog, Wiarton Willie, was nowhere to be seen as officials called an early spring after throwing a fur hat into the air — a move they said hearkens back to the tradition’s first edition more than 60 years ago.
“The committee decided to pay tribute to the first prediction (which did not include a groundhog, only a fur hat) because it was the 65th anniversary this year and we were not able to host a live event due to COVID,” the town’s deputy clerk said in an email.
The spring forecast was delivered by Janice Jackson, the mayor of the Town of South Bruce Peninsula, in a pre-recorded video that also included a brief history of the event.
Meanwhile, those south of the border were told to expect six more weeks of winter as Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow. More than 15,000 viewers tuned into the livestreamed event at one point.
“People have been referencing ‘Groundhog Day.’ It has felt like at times we’re all living the same day over and over again,” a member of Phil’s “inner circle” said. “‘Groundhog Day’ also shows us that the monotony ends. The cycle will be broken.”