New Jersey’s weather-predicting groundhog, Milltown Mel, has died suddenly — just before his big day.
“We wranglers are sad to report that Milltown Mel recently crossed over the rainbow bridge,” according to a Sunday post on the groundhog’s Facebook page.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the local celebrity died, but the borough’s annual Groundhog Day ceremony — scheduled for Wednesday — has been axed this year as a result. Â
“Considering the average lifespan of a groundhog is about three years, that is not such a shock, but Mel left us at a tough time of year when most of his fellow groundhogs are hibernating,” the post said.
“So no babies will be available to replace him until this Spring. We tried everywhere to get a stand-in, but to no avail.”
Milltown Mel for the last several years has been given the task of predicting whether there’ll be an early spring or six more weeks of winter.
“We will work hard on getting us a new weather prognosticator for next year, till then please check out what all of Mel’s cousins have to say on Feb 2nd,” the post added.
New York City’s very own Staten Island Chuck will be making his weather prediction at a virtual event streamed from the Staten Island Zoo from 7:20 a.m.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania’s famous Punxsutawney Phil will crawl out of his burrow in search of his shadow in front of a crowd at Gobbler’s Knob at 6 a.m.
According to lore, if the groundhogs see their shadows due to clear weather, they’ll scurry back to their dens and winter will last for six more weeks. If they can’t see a shadow due to cloudy weather, spring will come early.
