2/2/2012:
Today, we celebrate Groundhog Day! Will groundhogs across the country see their shadow? If so, six more weeks of bad weather are in the forecast. If not—spring is supposedly just around the corner.
On this date in 1948, residents of the Red River Valley awaited the outcome of the Groundhog’s prediction. “Keep your fingers crossed!” The Fargo Forum urged, writing that whether the groundhog poked his head out and saw or did not see his shadow, “He had better get back to his hole quick before somebody beats him to it and hangs out a room-for-rent sign.”
The newspaper wrote that “Nobody seems ever to have checked up on the accuracy of the furry little fellow as a prognosticator in comparison with the U.S. Weather Bureau, but in 1941, six weeks to the day after he saw his shadow, one of the worst storms in history struck the Red River Valley.”
So as not to take chances, they article continued, “The Fargo Forum has arranged for its weather observers throughout the Valley to stand by all known groundhog holes with beach umbrellas—just in case the sun is out.”
No groundhog was spotted in North Dakota, however. One of these Red River Valley weather observers, R. W. Shultz, said that he had never seen a groundhog out so early in the year “in these latitudes.” Schultz said if any groundhog had ventured out, there was enough sunshine to make a shadow and grant North Dakotans six more weeks of winter.
And, to illustrate the point, Forum photographer Gifford Herron photographed his own shadow to accompany the story, as he couldn’t find a groundhog’s shadow. The caption read: “His shadow may have looked something like this to the groundhog if he’d been out shortly after sunup this morning.”
Schultz did not seem to put much store in the groundhogs’ predictions, however, stating that the “weather is usually always milder after Feb. 2nd, and that’s based on the record.”
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
http://www.groundhog.org/groundhog-day/history/
The Fargo Forum and Daily Tribune, February 1, 1948, Sunday morning
The Fargo Forum and Daily Tribune, February 3, 1948, Tuesday morning
The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, Feb. 2, 1948, Monday evening