Groundhog Day: Wiarton Willie forecasts an early spring

The weather predicting rodents have spoken and Ontario’s most prominent furry forecaster is the only well-known prognosticator calling for an early spring.

In Wiarton, Ont., the community’s celebrity groundhog, Wiarton Willie says spring will arrive sooner rather than later.

According to folklore, if a groundhog sees its shadow on Groundhog Day, winter will drag on. However, if they don’t spot their shadow, spring-like weather will soon arrive.

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.

While Willie did not spot his shadow, his two peers on the east coast and south of the border went the other way with their forecasts.

BREAKING: Wiarton Willie says early spring! ????

????: Town of South Bruce Peninsula pic.twitter.com/zHpP95veyf

— Breakfast Television (@breakfasttv) February 2, 2023

Shubenacadie Sam, Nova Scotia’s most famous groundhog, apparently saw her shadow as she emerged from a snow-covered enclosure at a wildlife park north of Halifax.

Just after 8 a.m. local time, the door to Sam’s pint-sized barn was opened, and she slowly backed out into the cold.

The annual tradition at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park, broadcast live on Facebook, has been closed to visitors for the past two years because of COVID-19 gathering restrictions — and the in-person festivities were cancelled in 2020 because of a storm.

But a small crowd, including a gaggle of children, braved the -14 C weather this morning.

As expected, Sam was the first groundhog in North America to make a prediction — thanks to the Atlantic time zone.

In Pennsylvania, people gathered Thursday at Gobbler’s Knob as members of Punxsutawney Phil’s “inner circle” summoned him from his tree stump at dawn to learn if he has seen his shadow — and they say he did. According to folklore, if he sees his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, spring comes early.

The “inner circle” is a group of local dignitaries who are responsible for planning the events, as well as feeding and caring for Phil himself.

In what will likely be heralded as a bleak Groundhog Day in Quebec, one of Canada’s most famous rodents died before he was set to make his prediction about spring’s arrival. Organizers in Quebec broke the news this morning to the crowd gathered in Val d’Espoir, saying nine-year-old Fred la Marmotte had been found dead the night before.

In Fred’s place, organizers pulled a stuffed toy groundhog from a miniature wooded hut and handed it to a child who called for six more weeks of winter.