By Canadian Press

Groundhog Day: Furry forecasters make their spring prognostications

Feb 2, 2023 | 2:03 AM

Famed and furry forecasters of spring are set to make their predictions this morning.

It’s Groundhog Day, and as folklore goes, a groundhog will emerge from its burrow and if it does not see its shadow, then spring is just around the corner, while if it does and retreats, then we can expect six more weeks of winter.

Celebrity groundhog Shubenacadie Sam kicked off Canada’s first prediction shortly after sunrise over Nova Scotia.

According to Nova Scotia’s most famous groundhog, winter will drag on for a while.

Sam saw her shadow this morning as she emerged from a snow-covered enclosure at a wildlife park north of Halifax.

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Sam was the first groundhog in North America to make a prediction this morning, due to the Atlantic time zone.

Ontario’s Wiarton Willie’s hosts in South Bruce Peninsula say the groundhog is once again white-furred as per local legend, after town spokeswoman Danielle Edwards says it brought in an “understudy” with a more traditional brown hue last year while it searched for a replacement.

Willie was nowhere to be seen on the momentous day in 2021 and the town only later acknowledged the furry forecaster had died, launching a search that ended this past summer when town says it was able to get a white-haired groundhog from Cleveland, Ohio.

This latest encarnation of Willie did not see a shadow, and is calling for an early spring.

In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where they celebrate the German tradition every year, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and forecast six more weeks of winter there.

In a playful and peer-reviewed study published by the American Meteorological Society, researchers out of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., say groundhogs are “beyond a shadow of a doubt” no better than chance at prognosticating the arrival of spring.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2023.

The Canadian Press