slo’s FRIDAY 2/2 poll - Groundhogs

[PollyannaMom]

As for Pux-whatever Phil, the prediction never made sense to me.

Sees his shadow, more winter. If it’s sunny, you’d think that’s a good thing, a harbinger of early spring.

Dreary, cloudy, no shadow. That sounds more like a gloomy sign of extended winter.

Yet Phil is just the opposite. What a convoluted creature.

It's related to an old poem. Here are a couple of versions:



I think the idea is that if it's still bright and cold, winter isn't over, but if it's warmer and cloudy, we're closer to spring.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I do not think we have groundhogs nearby. At least none that I see.

 

[John VN]

IMO, gotta have the following for an Official Groundhog Day along with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell

 

[AppleDumpling]

I haven’t seen them in my area, but my brother once had one in his basement and they had a hard time getting it out. I don’t mind either way about the weather. We’ve had a mild winter.

Just watched the ceremony on YouTube and it was so cute!

Thanks @PollyannaMom. Have never seen that before, and didn’t realize that the animal actually talks to the man in the top hat. Who has a magic cane that gives him the power to speak Groundhogese. LOL. Silly, but fun tradition I suppose.

 

[RedAngie]

About 10 years the local morning soft news started to show live coverage of the events. After about three minutes of a long winded speech by the top hat dude, they cut away. About five minutes later they returned, and he was still rambling on.

The TV host got frustrated and shouted “let the darn groundhog do his stuff already!”

 

[leebee]

Way to go, Phil!!

In the 20+ years we've lived in this house, we have almost always had a woodchuck/groundhog living out under our shed, except for the year we had a mama fox and her kits out there!

 

[TheChanClan]

I don't think even have them in California. Marmots might be the closest thing, but even they're just at higher elevations.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We had them living under our screened in room attached to our garage. It was pretty bad because you're not allowed to trap them and release them into the woods here, so we were basically running a Groundhog Motel. We had to demolish the room for unrelated reasons, and I haven't seen one since.

 

[slo]

I do not think we have groundhogs nearby. At least none that I see.

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Thank you for the thank you Dan

 

[georgina]

We had groundhogs in the woods behind our house in PA. They would come up to our garden, pick a tomato, take a bite, and throw it on the ground. They are very bold and show no fear of people. Smoke bombs down the hole got rid of the obnoxious rodents.

 

[amcnj]

I have seen them roaming around on occasion. Fortunately I never dealt with one in my garden. I know someone else who said the groundhog in their garden ate a lot with each visit.

 

[Imzadi]

Our local weatherman, Sam Champion, (he's also sometimes the weatherman on Good Morning America,) HATES Groundhog Day with a passion. And this is even though there is actually a cute groundhog in Long Island, NY named after him.

He says most weather meteorologists hate Groundhog Day. Who knew? He says it's because the groundhogs tend to be inaccurate. Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous groundhog in PA, only has an 80% accuracy rate.

 

[slo]

Our local weatherman, Sam Champion, (he's also sometimes the weatherman on Good Morning America,) HATES Groundhog Day with a passion. And this is even though there is actually a cute groundhog in Long Island, NY named after him.

He says most weather meteorologists hate Groundhog Day. Who knew? He says it's because the groundhogs tend to be inaccurate. Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous groundhog in PA, only has an 80% accuracy rate.

LOL!
Sam Champion does weather for a local station?
I thought he was only GMA.
I learned something today

 

[mumto3girls]

We have one in our yard occasionally in the warmer months. My dad lives a few miles from us and during warmer weather he often has 3-4 grazing in his yard.

 

[Imzadi]

LOL!
Sam Champion does weather for a local station?
I thought he was only GMA.
I learned something today

It's the local ABC affiliate which covers the whole metro tri-state NYC/upper NJ/lower CT area. So, not a small "local station."

He started as a meteorologist here decades ago. After he was on a few days, even David Letterman made a comment on how can anyone pay attention to the weather forecast with such a beautiful guy being our weatherman.

He's pretty much been our weatherman all these decades. He left for a couple years when the Weather Channel offered him his own early morning weather show down in Atlanta. It went bust for some reason. And our local station took him back. But, he had already given up his GMA spot to Ginger Zee and it took a while for him to get back on as much as he is now.

GMA films only 20 blocks from the local station. So Sam does the early morning weather here, hops into a cab to do GMA, then comes back to do the noon time weather.
Here is where they were talking, yesterday, about Sam Champion (the groundhog) to Sam Champion (the man):

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I don't recall ever having seen one in the wild.

 

[Buzz Rules]

I think groundhogs are adorable! One year we had a mama and babies under our shed:

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Part of me wants an early spring, but part of me doesn't want allergy season to start early. - Mainly, I just want more daylight, and that isn't going to change either way.

Yep, I think they are cute too. Our family has seen groundhogs in the Hudson Valley since I was a little kid.

 

[Buzz Rules]

It's the local ABC affiliate which covers the whole metro tri-state NYC/upper NJ/lower CT area. So, not a small "local station."

He started as a meteorologist here decades ago. After he was on a few days, even David Letterman made a comment on how can anyone pay attention to the weather forecast with such a beautiful guy being our weatherman.

He's pretty much been our weatherman all these decades. He left for a couple years when the Weather Channel offered him his own early morning weather show down in Atlanta. It went bust for some reason. And our local station took him back. But, he had already given up his GMA spot to Ginger Zee and it took a while for him to get back on as much as he is now.

GMA films only 20 blocks from the local station. So Sam does the early morning weather here, hops into a cab to do GMA, then comes back to do the noon time weather.
Here is where they were talking, yesterday, about Sam Champion (the groundhog) to Sam Champion (the man):

LOL!
Sam Champion does weather for a local station?
I thought he was only GMA.
I learned something today

Yep. NY 7 Eyewitness News (the Tri-State ABC station), is one of the best, in my opinion. The whole weather team is awsome. It would be cool if NY CBS, NY ABC, and NY NBC weather teams did a weather vlog/podcast together. It would be interesting if they each had different insights when it comes to topics about the weather.

By the way @slo , these are the websites for our local affiliates in case you and your family were visiting the Tri-State area in the future and wanted to see what's going on around here:

https://abc7ny.com/

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/

 

[Imzadi]

I don't recall ever having seen one in the wild.

Yep, I think they are cute too. Our family has seen groundhogs in the Hudson Valley since I was a little kid.

I don't think I'd know what one was if I saw one in the wild.

I did see an animal while driving up the Palisades Parkway, next to the Hudson River and saw what I thought was a beaver or otter off in the grass by the side of the road. Maybe it was a groundhog?

 

[Buzz Rules]

I don't think I'd know what one was if I saw one in the wild.

I did see an animal while driving up the Palisades Parkway, next to the Hudson River and saw what I thought was a beaver or otter off in the grass by the side of the road. Maybe it was a groundhog?