Sunday, February 2, 2020

Groundhog Update

I was pleased to see this morning that Wiarton Willie has forecast an early spring for us, joined by 3 of his other Canadian Colleagues, and Punxutawney Phil.  I hadn't even heard of these other groundhog prognosticators, but Manitoba Merv, Balzac Billie, and Fred la marmotte all joined Willie in forecasting an early spring.

Manitoba Merv hails from Manitoba (I never would have guessed!), Balzac Billie from Alberta, and Fred la marmotte from the Gaspe in Quebec.  Punxatawney Phil, who is one of the grandfathers in this business is a proud resident of Pennsylvania.

Sadly, our two maritime friends, Shubenacadie Sam from central Nova Scotia, and LucyLobster from Cape Sable Island in the extreme southwest shore of Nova Scotia, both forecast 6 more weeks of winter.  I guess the maritimes is getting more snow.

I guess too that it doesn't surprise me when I look at the map and see 6 of these helpful forecasters live in Canada, while only one lives south of the border.  I guess it's mainly in Canada that we complain about cold winter going on forever.

Doug Gilham, a senior meteorologist at the Weather Network, may have the final word though.  As he pointed out, if the snow melts by mid-March, a lot of us would still be complaining about a long winter and similarly, if the snow does melt by mid-March, we'll rejoice in the early spring.

Here's hoping!



10 comments:

  1. Well, as of today we are halfway to spring! I'm happy about it, no matter whether it comes early or late. :-)

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  2. We are almost into autumn, some leaves are changing and falling, flowers have done their dash, little birds have flown, and mornings are darker. However the other day, one city very near the East coast had a record high. Love the observations from around the country.And what suitable titles for each of them.

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  3. We're Canadians. Six more weeks of winter is to be expected.

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  4. You know what they say about the predictions: there will either be another 6 weeks of winter, or just another month and a half. :))

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  5. Down here in Pennsylvania it's like spring already, only remnants of snow and lots of mud. However, in recent years most of our snow has come in February and early March so we may yet have winter.

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  6. My birthday is in mid March and some years there is a blizzard and other years I have sat outside on a patio for lunch. I'm hoping for the later this year!

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  7. We humans sure do put a lot of Creedence in our Groundhogs don't we and I for one this year am darn glad we do:))

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  8. We had spring temperatures today, which felt weird although I don't like cold. I'm afraid the insects will be bad this year if we don't get more cold weather.

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  9. Stay safe and warm. I fear more that dramatic storms that may be ahwad.

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  10. Yes our forecaster in Maine says we are going to have a short spring. I don't know how it works as the weather on the Eastern coast usually is different than ours. Our son lives there and he is really a lot colder than us this winter.

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