Sleepy Groundhogs Agree

Ms. G did not see her shadow on an overcast Groundhog Day morning at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln, which means everyone can look forward to an early spring. If the Official Groundhog of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had seen her shadow, we’d all be facing six more weeks of winter.

This is the fifth-straight year that Ms. G did not see her shadow. Over the 16 years she has been making her prognostications, she is now even with eight predictions apiece of early springs and six more weeks of winter. Unlike in the past, this year she agreed with her Pennsylvania peer, Punxsutawney Phil.

A colleague reminded us that groundhog days also coincides with a Christian holiday, Candlemas, or the Presentation of Jesus,  an early episode in the life of Jesus Christ, describing his presentation at the Temple in Jerusalem. Some have noted its place on the calendar around the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

Ms. G is a female groundhog living at Mass Audubon Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary. She has been forecasting on Groundhog Day since 2008.

Ms. G, below (image courtesy of Mass. Audubon).