WIARTON, Ont. — Two out of three of Canada’s furry forecasters are calling for an early spring.
Ontario’s Wiarton Willie and Nova Scotia’s prognosticating rodent Shubenacadie Sam didn’t see their shadows when they emerged on Thursday morning.
But Manitoba’s lesser known woodchuck, Winnipeg Willow, is siding with Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil, who is calling for six more weeks of winter.
Folklore has it that if a groundhog sees his shadow on Groundhog Day he’ll flee to his burrow, heralding six more weeks of winter, and if he doesn’t, it means spring’s around the corner.
Willow was so startled at all the attention, she tucked her face into her handler’s jacket, and failed as a result of not looking to see her shadow.
The forecasts come in the middle of an unusually mild winter that has taken even seasoned meteorologists by surprise.
Environment Canada warned this fall to expect colder-than-normal temperatures in the north and west.
But the past few months have brought balmy weather peppered with a few cold snaps in most of the country.
Last year, several of the groundhogs — including Willie — predicted an early spring while a raging snowstorm battered Ontario.
About 150 people cheered Sam’s forecast on an overcast day at Shubenacadie Wildlife Park shortly after dawn.
“I don’t think we are going to have balmy spring weather tomorrow, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Susan Penney, a station co-ordinator at the park, about 60 kilometres north of Halifax.
In Wiarton, a crowd in the hundreds, some dressed as groundhogs, waited as Mayor John Close listened to Willie’s prediction.
Close’s announcement of “hello summer, it’s an early spring,” drew wild cheers after Willie failed to see his shadow.
Sue Allison, 64, and her two friends donned blue and white faux fur hats — complete with ears — and groundhog masks to hear Willie’s prognostication.
The group has come out for the event for 10 years, and dressing up is part of the tradition, Allison said, clutching a stuffed toy groundhog.
“I’m very happy — I don’t think I want any more of this,” Allison said, though she admitted the weather “could be worse.”
Mac McKenzie, who started the Wiarton Willie tradition more than half a century ago, said the festival has helped put the southwestern Ontario community on the map.
“When we first had it, we had only 12 people, that’s all there was,” McKenzie said.
In the United States, Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his lair to “see” his shadow on Thursday, predicting six more weeks of winter.
The groundhog made his “prediction” to loud boos on Gobbler’s Knob, a tiny hill in the town for which he’s named about 100 kilometres northeast of Pittsburgh.
Temperatures were near freezing when he emerged at dawn, which is unseasonably warm for the area.
- with files from Michelle McQuigge in Toronto