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Animal Weather Forecasting

In case you missed it, Punxsutawney Phil seems to have predicted 6 more weeks of winter. However, this opinion was not unanimously shared among other furry forecasters.
A gloomy Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil says more winter

There will be six more weeks of winter, Punxsutawney Phil predicted as he emerged from his burrow on a snowy Tuesday morning to perform his Groundhog Day duties.

Members of Phil’s “inner circle” woke up the furry critter at 7:25 a.m. at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to see whether he would see his shadow or not. ...

The annual event has its origin in a German legend about a furry rodent. ...

Punxsutawney Phil may be the most famous groundhog seer but he’s certainly not the only one. There are two other high-profile “imposters,” as the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club calls them, in the region.

Connecticut marked Groundhog Day with a hedgehog making the prediction after the state’s official groundhog, Chuckles X, died last year. Like Phil, Phoebe predicted another six weeks of winter after seeing its shadow at the Lutz Children’s Museum in Manchester.

New York City’s Staten Island Chuck disagreed, predicting an early spring in a video shown on the Staten Island Zoo’s Facebook page.
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/groundhog-day-punxsutawney-prediction-85527080ccef649d2807bfa4804fec25
 
Once again, Punxsutawney Phil has rendered his meteorological forecast (for 2022 - 6 more weeks of winter). As always, there were dissenting groundhogs elsewhere.
Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter

There will be six more weeks of winter, Punxsutawney Phil predicted as he emerged from his burrow Wednesday to perform his Groundhog Day duties.

Thousands of people from around the nation and other countries gathered at Gobbler’s Knob as members of Punxsutawney Phil’s “inner circle” summoned him from his tree stump at dawn to learn if he had seen his shadow, a message they said Phil communicated in “groundhogese.” After Phil’s prediction was announced, the crowd repeatedly chanted “six more weeks!” ...

Punxsutawney Phil may be the most famous groundhog seer but he’s certainly not the only one, and one competitor disagreed with his prediction. New York City’s Staten Island Chuck expects an early spring, according to Staten Island District Attorney Michael McMahon, who presided over a ceremony that was livestreamed from Chuck’s home at the Staten Island Zoo.

“He did not see his shadow. We will have an early spring,” McMahon announced. ...
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FULL STORY (With Photos): https://apnews.com/article/pennsylvania-groundhog-day-punxsutawney-c6179b6609274d43eb371363d2d816b5
 
While we're on the subject ... A review of Punxsutawney Phil's ascribed predictions from 1887 to now indicates he's not a very accurate forecaster.
How accurate are Punxsutawney Phil's Groundhog Day forecasts?

Crowds showed up this morning to watch as Punxsutawney Phil came out of his "burrow," only to see ... his shadow on 2-2-22. As the legend has it, that means six more weeks of winter weather. This is Phil the groundhog's has been forecasting the weather on Groundhog Day for more than 120 years, but just how good is he at his job?

Not very, it turns out.

Punxsutawney Phil was first tasked with predicting the upcoming spring weather in 1887, and the process hasn't changed much since. The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, takes care of Phil year-round, and on each Feb. 2, members of the club's Inner Circle rouse Phil at sunrise (this morning, they awakened him at 7:25 a.m.) to see if he casts a shadow. (Contrary to popular belief, Phil doesn't actually have to see his shadow; he just has to cast one to make his wintery prophecy.) ...

According to the Groundhog Club's records, the various incarnations of Punxsutawney Phil have predicted 107 forecasts of more winter and 20 early springs. There are nine years without any records ... Data from the Stormfax Almanac's data shows that Phil's six-week prognostications have been correct about 39% of the time.

Phil does a shade poorer when you check his performance against actual weather outcomes since 1969, when the accuracy of weather records is less in question ... From 1969 on, Phil's overall accuracy rate drops to about 36%.

The groundhog's powers of prognostication are slightly better when he doesn't see his shadow, though. "When Phil predicted a short winter, he was much more likely to be right" ... "Out of the 15 times that he didn't see his shadow and predicted an early spring, he got it right seven times. That's a 47% accuracy rate" ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/32974-punxsutawney-phil-weather-prediction-accuracy.html
 
I thought there was only Punxsutawney but it seems there’s scarcely a town which doesn’t have a weather forecasting groundhog. Maybe they only forecast for the local area. The US is fairly large & it’s a bit of a stretch to expect one groundhog to forecast for the whole country.
 

Beloved New Jersey groundhog Milltown Mel dies just before Groundhog Day​

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You've certainly heard of Punxsutawney Phil, but have you heard of Milltown Mel? For years, Mel, a New Jersey groundhog, also predicted how long winter will last every February 2 based on whether he saw his shadow. But Mel has now "crossed over the rainbow bridge," his wranglers said in announcing his death on Saturday.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/groundhog-day-milltown-mel-new-jersey-dies/
 
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