Photo: Courtesy of Mass Audubon
LINCOLN, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The verdict is in: get ready for six more weeks of winter.
That’s according to our local weather-predicting groundhog, Ms. G, at Drumlin Farm in Lincoln.
For the first time in years, Ms. G’s prediction concurred with her groundhog teammate Punxsutawney Phil down in Gobblers Knob, Pennsylvania. Ms. G’s record, however, around 20 points higher in accuracy than Phil's.
“I believe she is in the 60 plus range,” Tia Pinney, senior naturalist for Mass Audubon Metro West, told WBZ NewsRadio.
She added that the celebration of looking ahead into the next season, with or without a large squirrel's shadow, dates all the way back in history.
“Groundhog Day [means] we are exactly halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, so this is an ancient tradition to celebrate this day,” she continued.
Ms. G started to predict Massachusetts’ Groundhog Day in 2008 because “how could Punxsutawney Phil be a local weather reporter?,” Pinney said.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.