Move Over Punxsutawney Phil: Meet 11 More Weather-Predicting Groundhogs Across the U.S.

Me and my shadow.

Groundhog Day in the U.S. dates back to at least 1840, when a Welsh American shopkeeper in Pennsylvania made the following Feb. 2 journal entry: “Today the Germans say the groundhog comes out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he returns in and remains there 40 days.”

The day that falls directly between winter solstice and spring equinox has roots in European agriculture. It was a significant ancient Celtic holiday (Imbolc) and later Christian holiday (Candlemas). Elements of weather prediction are woven into both traditions.

Today, communities in about 200 U.S. states and Canadian provinces celebrate Groundhog Day with a real live varmint, or a reasonable facsimile, predicting the weather. (Some have switched from the former to the latter following mishaps involving both human and rodent casualties.)

Punxsutawney Phil

Punxsutawney Phil is perhaps the oldest and most famous of the furry forecasters, getting a PR boost in 1886 when a member of a groundhog hunting group called “The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club” used his position at the local newspaper to claim Phil as the only real deal. Folklore has it Phil is immortal and is literally the original provincial prognosticator. Regardless of whether he’s the same animal that’s been predicting the weather since the late 1800s, Phil is a live specimen.

Octoraro Orphie

Octoraro Orphie of Quarryville, Pennsylvania, held a close second to Phil in popularity for many years and has been predicting the coming of spring in association with the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge since 1907. (Groundhog lodges in southeastern Pennsylvania celebrate the holiday with Fersommling, social events that include food, speeches and skits, with fines doled out to those who speak anything but Pennsylvania Dutch.) Orphie is a stuffed woodchuck.

Harleysville Hank

Harleysville Hank is a cuddly stuffy and Facebook sensation celebrating 10 years making the rounds to local sponsors and schools, etc., in the months leading up to the Pennsylvania community event hosted by the Mennonite Heritage Center. (Note: Since Feb. 2 falls on a Sunday this year, the festivities will take place the morning of Feb. 1).

Staten Island Chuck

Staten Island Chuck gained notoriety in 2009 when he took a bite out of then-New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, at which point he was discretely replaced by zoo officials with his daughter Charlotte. Five years later, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped the stealthily swapped sister in front of a passel of schoolkids, and she was discovered expired in her enclosure a week later.

Milltown Mel

Milltown Mel predicted this New Jersey town’s weather for 11 years up until 2021, when Milltown Groundhog Day was shut down due to COVID-19. Mel expired just a week before the 2022 event, and organizers have yet to procure a state-sanctioned replacement.

Malverne Mel 

Malverne Mel has been looking for his shadow in this New York community for more than two decades. According to the tech-savvy critter’s own website: “Not happy with only predicting the weather, Mel is an art connoisseur and also hosts a poster contest. Mel is also a huge fan of the Bill Murray movie, ‘Groundhog Day.’”

And speaking of “Groundhog Day” (the movie) ...

Woodstock Willie

Woodstock Willie got his big break when “Groundhog Day,” ostensibly taking place in Punxsutawney, what shot in this Illinois community in 1993.

Stonewall Jackson

Stonewall Jackson of Wantage, New Jersey, lives at Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Sussex County. According to his website: “Stonewall is still ‘in training’ but he is from a proud prognosticating dynasty so he should have a leg up on other would-be weather-guessers.” Founded in 1927, the roadside zoo is home to more than 500 animals, including some endangered species ... and a groundhog.

Great Neck Greta

Great Neck Greta has been providing Groundhog Day prognostication at Village Green Park in Great Neck, New York, since 2020.

Quigley

Quigley was the name of a groundhog that did what groundhogs do on their special day in Quogue, New York. In 2023, Quigley was renamed Sam Champion after the Eyewitness News personality. Quigley (or Sam, the line is blurred) currently holds about a 70% track record for being correct.

Dunkirk Dave

Dunkirk Dave of Dunkirk, New York, according to his website (rodents these days), is the world’s second-longest prognosticating groundhog. What sets this story apart is that as a young boy, his handler Bob Will brought home a sick and injured groundhog, nursed it back to health and became fascinated with the species.

Will became a special education teacher and then a state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator, caring for and releasing animals back into the wild, and he incorporates his experiences into the indoor and outdoor classroom.

French Creek Freddie

French Creek Freddie will make his prediction at the West Virginia State Wildlife Center in French Creek on Sunday.

Tyler Evans, a wildlife biologist for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, told The Inter-Mountain local newspaper that groundhogs are not only fascinating animals but the only true hibernator at the wildlife center.

Jimmy the Groundhog

Jimmy the Groundhog bit the ear of Mayor John Freund in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, in 2015, and the story went viral. (With a name like “Jimmy the Groundhog,” which kind of sounds like a mob boss, the mayor might count himself lucky.) The following day, a mayoral proclamation absolved Jimmy XI of any wrongdoing.

A backstory that underscores the competitive nature of Groundhog Day across the country is that Sun Prairie proclaimed itself the “Groundhog Capital of the World” following a 1952 article in the Punxsutawney Spirit’s Newspaper describing Sun Prairie as a “remote two cow village buried somewhere in the wilderness.”

This is far from a complete list, but we’ll wrap it up there.

Click here for a fairly comprehensive rundown of Groundhog Day celebrations across the U.S. and Canada, featuring mostly groundhogs but also interesting stand-ins including prairie dogs, opossums, guinea pigs, grizzly bears, bullfrogs, alligators, marmots, hedgehogs, armadillos, tortoises, squirrels, ducks, a bass ... and a dog dressed like a bear (that is not an exhaustive list, either).

In other woodchuck-related news (yes, they are one and the same, also known as Marmota monax), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is proposing a vegan weather-reveal cake to communities celebrating Groundhog Day in order to spare Phil and friends indignities and possible injury (or worse).

Sometimes you drop the groundhog, sometimes the groundhog drops you.

And Don't Forget ...

Lancaster Farming's own prognosticating groundhog: Phil!