- (CP) - Two of North America's top furry forecasters had
some bad news for the winter-weary on Monday.
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- Punxsutawney Phil, Pennsylvania's prognosticator, and
Wiarton Willie, Ontario's best-known Groundhog Day woodchuck, saw their
shadows after squirming out of their burrows, signalling six more weeks
of snowy and cold weather.
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- Their outlook flies against the prediction of Shubenacadie
Sam, Nova Scotia's best-known groundhog, who got the weather-prediction
wheel moving early on Groundhog Day. Sam failed to cast a shadow upon exiting
his winter home, pointing to an early spring.
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- Groundhog Day is rooted in a German superstition that
if a hibernating animal casts a shadow Feb. 2 - the Christian holiday of
Candlemast - winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen,
legend says spring will come early.
-
- While many North Americans are anxious to put one of
the worst winters on record on ice, the townsfolk of Wiarton - including
Willie's so-called shadow cabinet of local politicians and service-club
members dressed in pink, purple and white tuxedos - cheered after the groundhog
saw his shadow.
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- "He did a quick turn there, and I think it's because
he did see his shadow and we have six more weeks of winter," said
Carl Noble, mayor of South Bruce Peninsula and a shadow-cabinet member.
-
- Brenda Sutherland, a volunteer with the annual Wiarton
Willie Festival held annually in advance of Groundhog Day, said cheers
greeted Willie's prediction because "you've got to make the best of
whatever he's got to say, because you're stuck with what he says."
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- In an interview, Sutherland said that Willie's forecasts
over the last 48 years have had a 90-per-cent accuracy rate.
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- "And the Americans and Canadians are on the same
page this year, so for anyone who favours warm weather, maybe they should
think of heading to the East Coast instead of down south for a change,
because Sam is the only one predicting an early spring," she joked.
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- Canada's East Coast groundhog ceremonies gave a glimmer
of early-spring hope.
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- "He's just coming out of the hole as we're speaking,"
said Sue Penney, an education co-ordinator at Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie
Wildlife Park, where about 100 people showed up to see Sam.
-
- "It's cloudy . . . he will not be seeing his shadow."
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- Initially, Penney was reluctant to disclose Sam's past
record in predicting the end of winter.
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- "Actually, I don't think he's even batting 50 per
cent. I think it's less than 50 per cent accuracy," she confessed.
-
- "I think the main point of the whole event is it's
an excuse to celebrate that winter's half over."
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- Punxsutawney Phil was the first groundhog to see his
shadow.
-
- After a rap on an oak stump roused him from his home
on Gobbler's Knob, Phil saw his shadow on a chilly morning.
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- Phil even included a topical reference in his proclamation
- to the capture of Saddam Hussein.
-
- "I'm glad I live in this luxurious burrow on the
Knob, and not in a dirty, smelly, spider hole like a slob," said the
proclamation read aloud by one of the organizers. "When I come out,
I don't want to negotiate; but to just do my job and prognosticate."
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- The prediction of six more weeks of winter drew boos
from thousands who turned out for the 118th annual festivity run by the
Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.
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- Including Monday's prediction, the groundhog is reported
to have seen his shadow 104 times since the tradition began.
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- People from as far away as England descended on the small
Pennsylvania town to shake the winter doldrums.
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- Mike and Anne Castledine, a retired couple from Derbyshire,
England, caught groundhog fever after seeing the Bill Murray movie Groundhog
Day, and just wanted to experience it for themselves.
-
- "We were quite hooked once we'd seen the movie,"
Anne Castledine said.
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