Balzac Billy, Alberta’s “Prairie Prognosticator,” to cheers of his name on a snowy day, popped out of his burrow and predicted an early spring Sunday.
After spinning around trying to find his shadow, he pulled a bouquet out of his burrow, which, after failing to find it, was a signifier of the shortened winter.
Last year, Balzac Billy predicted six more weeks of winter, and again in 2022.
The man-sized groundhog’s prediction rate is currently at 42 per cent, according to stats from the Weather Network.
And it’s not just Balzac Billy — Ontario’s Wiarton Willie also didn’t see his shadow Sunday morning, good news for people tired of wintry weather.
But Nova Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam and Quebec’s Fred la Marmotte saw their shadows, predicting a long winter ahead.
According to Groundhog-Day.com, there is a 57 per cent consensus on an early spring so far this year.
Living on the East Coast, Shubenacadie Sam is typically the first groundhog in North America to issue a long-term forecast.
She is followed by Quebec’s Fred la Marmotte, who made the same prediction of a longer winter, and Ontario’s Wiarton Willie.
In western Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and is predicting six more weeks of wintry weather, his top-hatted handlers announced Sunday.
A massive crowd was on hand to hear the woodchuck’s weather forecast, an annual ritual that has boomed in public interest since Bill Murray’s 1993 movie, “Groundhog Day.”
In medieval Europe, farmers believed that if hedgehogs emerged from their burrows to catch insects it was a sure sign of an early spring.
With files from The Canadian Press