Blame it on the ‘Hog
February 2nd, 2012 at 9:45 am by Ashley Baylor under Weather
Courtesy: MSNBC
..well not really. You can’t really blame the groundhog when he’s wrong! Please refrain from blaming your local meteorologist as well. (HA! Like we’re ever wrong..)
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, which means 6 more weeks of winter! I think everyone in western Massachusetts is saying, “winter?? what winter??”
January was pretty mild and we only had a few inches of snow – it’s almost like we lost an entire winter month! We have about 6 more weeks of winter left, we’ll have to wait and see whether it will actually feel like winter out there! I’m not usually a long-range forecaster, (I leave that job to the climotologists) but it looks like we could get a cold snap in mid-February.
Back to the ‘hog. Phil seems to favor full winters. Out of his last 116 predictions, he’s only forecasted an early spring 15 times!! Since 2000, he’s called for an early spring twice!
Believe it or not, there are several other prognosticating groundhogs around the country! This year it seems most of the ground dwellers disagree with Phil:
Shubenacadie Sam from Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia – Early spring
Staten Island Chuck from Staten Island (NYC) – Early spring
Buckeye Chuck from Marion, Ohio – Early spring
Holtsville Hal from Holtsville, New York – Early spring
Malverne Mel from Malverne, New York – 6 more weeks of winter
General Beauregard Lee from Lilburn, Georgia – Early spring
Wiarton Willie from Wiarton, Ontario – Early spring
Jimmy the Groundhog from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin – Early spring
Poor Richard from York, Pennsylvania – Early spring
Susquehanna Sherman from Mount Wolf, Pennsylvania – Early spring
Dover Doug from Dover, Pennsylvania – Early spring
Wynter the Groundhog from Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Early spring
Chuckles from Manchester, Connecticut – Early spring
Dunkirk Dave from Dunkirk, New York – Early spring
Octoraro Orphie from Quarryville, Pennsylvania – Early spring
I think even the birds and plants would beg to differ with Phil! We have birds that are already migrating back to the Northeast while daffodils are popping up out of the ground!!
Majority wins – Phil, you are overruled.
-Meteorologist Ashley Baylor
Phil’s probably mad because he gets yanked out of bed in the winter.
I tried to get my husband to step outside this morning (he didn’t) to see if he could see his shadow.
Thanks Ashley – Well done. Didn’t know Phil had so much competition.
Thanks for including Sun Prairie’s beloved Jimmy the Groundhog in your rundown.
Sun Prairie doesn’t get much good press.
We miss you up at the cabin in west-central WI, Ashley. See what happens? You move on to bigger and better things, and the WEAU tower collapses. Coincidence?