It’s just a rodent anyway…

Today is the day when furry prognosticators come out of their holes in the ground and try to out do Environment Canada and meteorologists around the globe do every day.  Predict what the remaining days are going to be like before the official Spring Equinox rolls around.  This morning, at 8:07 a.m. EST, in a town in Southern Ontario, Wiarton Willie crawled out of his hole.

He then crawled right back in after seeing his shadow.

This means six more freakin’ weaks of winter.  Actually in Saskatchewan, it means ten more weeks.  Had Willie not seen his shadow, then we’d have been right on schedule.  But wait!  Willie’s not the only furry prognosticator in the Western Hemisphere.

Let’s check in on Punxsutawney Phil!

Or maybe not.  Seems that little… guy has also predicted six more weeks of winter.  The scarey thing is both Willie and Phil aren’t that far off.  Both groundhogs have been doing this for some time (or at least the family of Willie and Phil has, no telling how many groundhogs have taken up the weather predicting torch over the century).  For a time, Willie was much more accurate than Phil, but Phil’s started to catch up.

Phil and Willie aren’t the only prognosticating groundhogs in the western hemisphere.  Brandon, Manitoba has Brandon Bob.  Staten Island Chuck in New York.  Gary the Groundhog in Kleinburg, Ontario.  And then there’s Shubenacadie Sam, a resident of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia.  None of those groundhogs get the media attention that Willie or Phil do, mind you.  And around Canada and the United States, there has got to be others, even less known than those second tier groundhogs mentioned here.  I know back in my old radio days, I pushed to get Saskatchewan’s own gopher trained to predict the weather.  Eston, Saskatchewaan would have been the perfect place, as that happens to be home of the Saskatchewan Gopher Derby.  I had a very hard time convincing people, because gophers in Saskatchewan aren’t seen as cute and cuddly, but rather much like the vermin they are.  As they fill pasture land with holes making it a headache for ranchers as they have to protect their livestock from broken legs in the event that poor Bessy steps in one by accident.  Not to mention what the little bastards can do to a garden.

Well, at any rate, another Groundhog Day has come and gone, and the furry meteorologists have made their predictions.  As wonderful and cute as they are, we in Saskatchewan are rather tired of winter.  I think I’ll trust Environment Canada’s predictions this year.

Until next time…

…keep ’em flyin’!