GROUNDHOG MAKE WEATHER PREDICTIONS FOR REGION TODAY

Girardeau George is back.

After a year's absence, the region's best-known groundhog will be at his familiar spot along Route W today keeping close watch on the skies.

If you notice the hairy little rodent, it could mean bad news for fair-weather friends. If you don't see George, it could be good news.

It all depends on the day's weather.

Folklore has it that on if a groundhog emerges from his winter slumber and sees his shadow today, he will go back into his burrow to another six weeks of winter. However, if George does not see his shadow, then spring is just around the corner in Southeast Missouri.

Groundhogs have been in the weather oracle business for 113 years.

The most well-known groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, and his ancestors have been forecasting the weather for more than a century. People around the nation await this annual prediction from Pennsylvania.

The weather predictions are part of our national tradition. The groundhog legend was born in 1882, and each year when Phil delivers his verdict it is dutifully recorded and reported on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. It is then noted in the Congressional Record.

Unlike Phil, there is no official recording for Girardeau George's predictions.

George became Southeast Missouri's best-known groundhog during the early 1970s and mid-1980s. After handing out predictions for more than a decade, he took a woodchuck sabbatical. But he came back during the early 1990s, and until last year, resumed his prognostications.

After a year's absence, George is back. His return was revealed Saturday by an anonymous note forwarded to this writer, who ventured out to George's abode Saturday afternoon.

You really can't blame the little guy for his disappearances.

After all, he has been overshadowed by old Punxsatawney Phil for eons.

Phil, who lives in a heated, glassed-in hutch near the town's library, is always greeted by thousands of fans for his annual appearances.

"What does he know," grumbled Girardeau George, when contacted for an exclusive interview Saturday. "I mean, he has a man-made burrow, and he can see what the clouds are doing before making his prediction. That's not exactly fair."

George never sees a crowd along Route W.

"Somebody driving by in a car may see me," he said, "but where are all the TV cameras and the newspaper photographers? You're the only one I ever see here. Where's the cast of cheering thousands?"

George may not draw the crowd, but he's going to make his appearance anyway.

"You watch, you just watch, you'll see me," he said. "I may just peep out, see some sun and jump back into my hole."

During the interview, George posed the same questions he has asked for years.

"Who thought up all this groundhog business anyhow? Don't you people have anything better to do than go around pestering furry little forest creatures?"

It's only fair to point out that George and Phil are not the only groundhog predictors.

"You mean there are others out there who take this punishment?" George asked.

In New York City, the Staten Island Zoo's furry prognosticator Charles G. Hog, may be around. And a groundhog named Gen. Beauregard Lee at the Yellow River Game Ranch in Lilburn, Ga., will give his prediction.

Groundhogs are not the only weather forecasters. Last year, a St. Louis pot-bellied pig name Bacon filled in for Whistler, a groundhog who died at the St. Louis Zoo the year before.

And, of course, all those little woolly-worms made their predictions months ago.

In centuries past, many people believed that animals had an uncanny ability to predict the weather. People for years have observed hibernating bears and badgers about this time of year, hoping to see them was a sign of better weather to come.

But the marmot or woodchuck or groundhog has gained the honor of making the "official" prediction of spring in this country. February 2 was selected as the perfect day for predictions because it fell halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. That date, even before the days of ground hog forecasting, has long been celebrated in folk culture as the day to turn from winter and begin looking forward to spring.