FRENCH CREEK, W.Va. — West Virginia’s official groundhog predicts an early spring.
At the West Virginia Wildlife Center, handlers opened up the burrow of French Creek Freddie on Tuesday’s groundhog day to let him emerge from his hibernation for a look around. Looking a tad groggy, the groundhog stepped out into a winter scene with snow on the ground, but cast no shadow during this emergence. By tradition, the lack of a shadow should mean an early spring.
A second West Virginia groundhog often referenced on this day, Concord Charlie, on the campus of Concord University in Athens, W.Va. also reportedly did not see a shadow and predicted an early spring.
The ground hog America seems to rely on for the weather prognostication, Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his hole on Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania and despite a blinding Nor’easter and near blizzard conditions across the region reportedly saw his shadow and predicted six more weeks of bad weather.