Canadian rodent forecasters ready for Groundhog Day

Details
Category: Canada News
Published Tuesday, February 2, 2016
CTV News

Thousands across the country will be turning to four-legged forecasters with names like Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam today to learn if spring is just around the corner.

See Full Article

According to tradition, if the groundhog sees its shadow when it emerges from its burrow on Groundhog Day there will be six more weeks of winter. But this year's festivities have already been marred by the death of one prognosticating marmot.

Groundhog Day celebrations have been cancelled in Manitoba due to the death of Winnipeg Willow, who died last Friday at the Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.

Wiarton, Ont., is holding a festival to celebrate 60th anniversary of predictions by the town's albino groundhog - Willie.

Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie Sam has the honour of making the first North American prediction of the day due to the province's time zone.

Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil, arguably the best-known weather predicting woodchuck, noted Winnipeg Willow's passing with his handlers saying they were surprised by news of the death of Phil's colleague.



Advertisements

Latest Canada & World News

  • NYC gives final salute to slain NYPD officer

    World News CTV News
    NEW YORK -- Police arrived by the thousands in their finest dress blues on Friday, as a light snow drifted under an overcast sky, to honour a fallen brother -- during the first of two funerals that again brought sorrow to the New York Police Department. Source

  • Belarus leader tells opposition leaders: 'Repent and kneel'

    World News CTV News
    KYIV, UKRAINE -- Belarus' authoritarian leader on Friday advised exiled opposition activists to "come home, repent and kneel," while repeating a vague promise to step down if the people "make the decision" for him. President Alexander Lukashenko made the remarks in his yearly state of the nation address, seeking to underscore his grip on power after suppressing an unprecedented wave of mass protests against his rule. Source

  • Russia won't start a war in Ukraine, says foreign minister

    World News CBC News
    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that Moscow will not start a war in Ukraine, but warned that it wouldn't allow the West to trample on its security interests, amid fears it is planning to invade its neighbour. Source

  • Iraqi army: Rockets hit Baghdad airport, damage two planes

    World News CTV News
    BAGHDAD -- Six rockets struck Baghdad's international airport facility on Friday, damaging two commercial planes but causing no casualties, Iraq's military said in a statement. The rockets fired in the early morning landed on planes parked in a waiting area of Iraqi Airways, the country's national carrier, the statement said. Source

  • UN: 'Extreme lack of food' for many in Ethiopia's Tigray

    World News CTV News
    NAIROBI, KENYA -- More than a third of the people in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region "are suffering an extreme lack of food," the United Nations World Food Program said in a new assessment of a region under a months-long government blockade. Source

  • As Johnson waits, U.K. police seek cuts to 'partygate' report

    World News CTV News
    LONDON -- Doubt about the timing and content of a key report into lockdown-breaching parties within the British government deepened Friday when police said they wanted parts of it to remain unpublished until they finish a criminal investigation. Source

  • Burkina Faso's junta leader promises security, order

    World News CTV News
    OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO -- Burkina Faso's new military leader said he was going to bring security and order back to the conflict-ridden nation and unite the country, but warned that betrayal wouldn't be tolerated by the new regime. Source

  • Student nurses joining Alberta hospitals eager to ease Omicron pressure

    Canada News CBC News
    Student nurses joining the front lines of Alberta's strained health-care system during the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic are eager to help ease the pressure on provincial hospitals. "Every unit has a bit of a different plan for us but we're hoping it puts more bodies in the workforce," said Bobbie-Jo MacMillan, a fourth-year nursing student at the University of Calgary who is now employed in the initiative. Source

  • Russia says it won't start a war as Ukraine tensions mount

    World News CTV News
    MOSCOW -- Russia's top diplomat said Friday that Moscow will not start a war in Ukraine but warned that it wouldn't allow the West to trample on its security interests, amid fears it is planning to invade its neighbour. Source

  • Inside a US$128M jewel heist, and the police chase that followed

    World News CTV News
    It took at least nine hard blows from an ax to smash the glass case in Dresden's historic Green Vault. Once the glass shattered, the two masked thieves grabbed 21 priceless diamond-studded artifacts and disappeared. Source