Groundhog Day went virtual this year in Wiarton, with a fur hat used in place of an actual groundhog to predict the upcoming weather.
The end result is an early spring has been forecasted.
The event was recorded on Saturday with Wiarton mayor Janice Jackson throwing a fur hat in the snow to see if a shadow was cast. The hat was a nod to the original Groundhog Day in Wiarton when a woman’s fur hat was used to predict the weather. According to legend, Wiarton mayor Mac McKenzie came up with the idea to make the town the Groundhog Day capital of Canada and invited the press. When a reporter from the Toronto Telegram arrived expecting to see an actual groundhog, with no animal on hand, the mayor threw a woman’s fur hat into the snow. Some 65 years later, the same approached was used, albeit under very different circumstances.