Ms. G clambered aboard her stump in 2013 as she prepared to make her prediction. (Photo: Alice Waugh)
Ms. G, the Massachusetts State Groundhog residing at Drumlin Farm, saw her shadow this morning, meaning there will be six more weeks of winter—though if it’s anything like this week, no one will mind except the skiers.
Ms. G began her Groundhog Day meteorology career at Drumlin in 2008. Organizers began collecting signatures (mostly from underage voters) in 2010 to get the state legislature to designate Ms. G as the official state groundhog. State Rep. Alice Peisch filed a bill in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2013 and after winding its way through the legislative process, the bill was signed by Gov. Deval Patrick in July 2014.
Ironically, Ms. G’s public prognostication was snowed out a year ago, but she did a private forecast for her naturalist handler and predicted an early spring. Despite the record snow last February, she was right.
This year also marks the debut of a children’s book about the groundhog’s political odyssey—Ms. G’s Shadowy Road to Fame by meteorologist Mish Michaels, Ms. G’s campaign manager. The new Ms. G website also features a history of the rodent’s forecasts (with an accuracy rate reportedly double that of the more famous Punxsutawny Phil) and her story in video form.