Help us find all of the Groundhog Day Groundhogs and Groundhog stand-ins
Last year we here at Countdown to Groundhog Day began compiling a list of as many Groundhog Day Groundhogs and Groundhog stand-ins from around the world that we could find.
We came up with over 80 different prognosticators, and collected as many of their predictions for 2019 as we could find.
We’re aware, however, that there are almost certainly more “groundhogs” out there that we didn’t find. For example we just discovered that there’s a duck called Scramble who has been doing predictions since 2015, and we never came across him during the months of research we conducted in late 2018/early 2019. (And adding Scramble’s prediction of “Six more weeks of winter” into our list changed the overall Groundhog Day consensus from “Early Spring” to a tie, meaning there was both “Six more weeks of Winter” AND “Early Spring” in 2019)
So we need YOUR help in finding the missing groundhogs out there. Maybe your town has a groundhog (or other weather predicting animal) or a local farm or zoo does. Maybe your neighbor has a pet groundhog who does a yearly prognostication. Maybe you do.
Right now, just in the U.S.there are a number of states that we haven’t found any sort of animal weather forecaster for. These states are:
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Delaware
Hawaii
Kansas
Kentucky
Maine
Minnesota
Mississippi
Montana
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Mexico
North Dakota
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Utah
Vermont
Washington
That’s almost half the country! Is it really possible these states don’t celebrate Groundhog Day with any sort of animal?
And what about in other countries? Groundhog Day seems to be primarily celebrated in the United States and Canada, but you’d think some other countries would have taken up the tradition over the years.
So what we’re asking is, take a look at our list and see if you know of any animals that we’re missing. If so, send us an email and provide us with any information as you have. Let’s make this the most comprehensive list of groundhogs worldwide!