This week: Groundhoggin' Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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The groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears.
—Bill Vaughan
Alas! must it ever be so? Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go, And fight our own shadows forever?
—Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton
Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today.
—Philip Connors |
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This newsletter is meant to come out on February 1, which can only mean one thing: the most important weather-related holiday on the calendar is nigh.
It's also the only weather-related holiday on the calendar, unless you count the ones no one's ever heard of, like Weatherperson's Day (February 5) and World Meteorological Day (March 23). Oh, blast... now you've heard of them.
As everyone knows, the entire premise of Groundhog Day is that the eponymous ground squirrel comes blinking, hungover, out of his cozy burrow, and if he sees his shadow, that means six more weeks of winter.
No one apparently told the groundhog that astronomical spring starts six weeks later, regardless of the presence or absence of a marmot umbra.
And honestly, I hope no one ever does.
My wish isn't because the groundhog is a particularly good weather forecaster—according to at least one study, he's only right about 40% of the time. Which actually is a statistically significant result—for the opposite of what the lore supposedly says. This means that if you bet against the groundhog, all else being equal, you'll probably come out ahead.
No, it's because Groundhog Day is just plain fun.
Not only is it the perfect time to rewatch one of the greatest movies of all time , but where I live, it falls shortly after the statistically coldest day of the year; from there, daily average temperatures start increasing (at least until August).
This doesn't, of course, mean that we won't get more winter weather. Plenty of days are colder than average, and it's still damn cold. But at least hope is in sight.
Whether a shadow is or not. |
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Comedy: February 01, 2023 Issue [#11784]
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