Map can be found at https://groundhog-day.com/map

I'm the creator of the site: over the last year, I've spent many hours on this side project, finding North America's predicting groundhogs and plotting them on a map. I've also included a link to a 'profile' page with a photo and their latest prediction. The sources for the individual groundhogs can be found on their profile pages (under "Source"). It's super fun to browse, and it works reasonably well on a phone.

I'll be updating them during the day — the predictions come in at different times, so I'm still halfway through getting them up to speed.

I've used Leaflet.js to build the map with a monochrome tileset and custom pins. It's an open-source repo, so you can find the code here used to implement the map: https://github.com/pcraig3/ghog-day/blob/main/public/javascripts/map.js

It's my first time ever building a map, but I am pretty happy with it so far.

Also happy to take feedback if you have any!

This is really visually interesting. I noticed that the pins have little groundhog faces on them, nice touch!

How does this work for all the ones that are stuffed animals or are dead? I don't understand.

It basically works the same way as it does for a real groundhog (who is also not able to communicate to humans — except through Groundhogese, of course).

The mayor or whoever just reads a prediction out to the crowd and they either cheer (if spring is coming) or they cheer less loudly (if winter is staying). Here's a 1 min video of Poor Richard's prediction, a taxidermied groundhog in Pennsylvania: https://www.therecordherald.com/videos/news/2023/02/02/hear-york-groundhogs-prediction-spring-and-eagles-vs-kansas-city-chiefs/11169342002/

I always thought the groundhog was released into the outdoors in some way, and if it came out facing the direction of its shadow, we had more winter, but if it didn't (or it was overcast) we had spring. So does someone like spin one of these dead guys on a Lazy Suzan and see which way it ends up pointing? Or if its overcast they just call it early spring?

I mean, technically, it doesn't need to be alive to produce a shadow...

Some of the real groundhogs will do that, but often there is just someone holding the groundhog or it's in a plastic box or something. Most of the time, the announcers take their cue from the weather: if there's sun out, it can see its shadow — if not, early spring!

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thank you for making this omg- i had no idea there were more predictors in Ontario than Wiarton Willie… so i zoomed in and this is the first time i’m learning that my own hometown has someone in a costume do predictions!? the more you know i guess!

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I realized while making this that these are exactly the groundhogs that need your support. All the prestige superstar groundhogs are sucking up all the media attention, while all the folksy groundhog startups are struggling to be noticed.

This Groundhog Day, support your local guy in a suit who makes everyone pancakes.

Vous êtes au Québec ? J'ai lu ça ce matin, c'est vraiment dommage.

Wow… a helluva lot more than I woulda figured… I kinda assumed we had Phil and maybe a couple others, not… however many that was…

Thanks!

Do you mean average predictions for the year or do you mean the average weather?

I have 66 at the moment but I think there are a few that I am missing. Basically, I am adding groundhogs based on a couple years of predictions (some of them just do it once and then bail), and after this year I think there will be a few more.

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I got u fam.

https://groundhog-day.com/predictions/2023

You can also explore past years here: https://groundhog-day.com/predictions

Lol. Of course oregon’s beaver is named after our favorite nut.

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I'm imagining a prognostication ceremony more akin to a seance

Doesn't the groundhog need to witness the shadow?

If the groundhog is dead and unable to witness, does that mean spring will always be early?

12 more months of winter

You can basically have a person do the interpretation. Here's one that happened this morning: https://twitter.com/MparkCarp/status/1621186521280745475

It keeps looping over and over again! It never ends!

There is only one true weather predicting groundhog and that is Punxsutawney Phil!

You have a typo in the name of the North Georgia groundhog, labeled as "Yonah the Grounghog"

Haha I love how many albertaisms there are about Balzac

My favorite one is Bee Cave Bob. The blurb is excellent.

Predictions of what? How? No wait, what?

I feel like I'm missing a lot here.

Good catch! I have updated and we should be all good now. Thanks!!

Groundhog Day is a North American holiday where groundhogs predict the arrival of spring. According to tradition, if a groundhog sees its shadow on February 2nd, it means six more weeks of winter. No shadow means an early spring.

Thanks! That's 100% non-AI-generated content right there, just me finding the best articles and descriptions on Google and stitching them together. I think they are generally very funny to read through so it's good to hear some positive feedback!

What does "sees it's shadow" mean?

Aren't groundhogs jittery creatures that look around constantly? How would they not see their shadow?

No you fool. Now Phil will know where to send the hithogs!

In practice, I think it means that if the sun is out it will see its shadow. You can get more of the lore on this page: https://groundhog-day.com/history-of-groundhog-day

idk, Phil isn't even that good at weather predicting — I doubt he would be able to manage an organized crime ring.

Phil is probably just old and tired of having people wake him up in the middle of the morning.

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Interesting, I’m from Lander, WY, and I had no idea we had a groundhog statue.

Way to call Lucy the Lobster a glorified rat!

Which is weird; I'd expect a shadow to mean more sun to mean clearer skies to mean more spring-like. Maybe these groundhogs know something about meteorology that I don't.

Very nice map and thank you for sharing the code. I love GIS stuff and web-mapping, never used Leaflet but seems to be way more simple and intuitive than mapbox!

I absolutely love this, but I feel like the fact that Wiarton Willie is typically/historically Albino should be mentioned (although as of 2022, they’re using a brown Groundhog - perhaps because no albinos have been born recently?)

Did you write the map library yourself? Working on a project now that requires a map component so happy to hear your experience with the library you used

I had no idea Groundhog day was in Canada as well

I honestly thought it was half/half, so you are closer to the truth than I was.

It's counterintuitive, but spring weather is usually pretty overcast and grey, which is what this comes from I think.

> Spring weather can be pretty miserable — oftentimes it’s grey and rainy and wet — whereas the middle of winter has plenty of bright, clear days where it is insensibly cold outside. Essentially, the Candlemas prediction assumes that overcast weather is a harbinger of spring, whereas a clear day means you’re still in the thick of winter.

This year's prediction is hilarious. The mayor looks like he's waist deep in snow all by himself: https://county10.com/forget-groundhogs-this-february-2-lander-lils-2023-prediction-is/

There is a really good podcast episode about this from Canadaland:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/750-dead-willies/

Totally worth a listen even though it's from last year.

I asked on reddit here about what map library I should use a few weeks ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/Frontend/comments/zutb4l/recommendationadvice_for_embeddable_maps/

I started off thinking I would use Google maps, but then pivoted to Leaflet. I really liked Leaflet in the end, easy to get started with and enough StackOverflow answers that I could figure out how to get it to behave how I wanted. If you have any specific questions about the code, DM me.

It's my first time doing any development with a map, but I would use Leaflet again for sure.

And they say white people have no culture

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