After we publicized Stormy Marmot’s Groundhog Day prediction in 2014, Stormy kept us on his distribution list for weather predictions.

Stormy Marmot predicts an early spring. Picture courtesy of Marmot Adventures.

While last year’s prediction was for a long winter, for 2015 Stormy is predicting an early spring. As retailers who don’t carry winter clothing, we are perfectly happy to hear that winter will see an early end. More sunshine and more warmth is good for pretty much everyone except the winter Olympics.

Looking at the news feeds, it looks like the groundhogs across the country are fairly evenly split when it comes to how much winter is left. Weathermen tell us that technically, because Groundhog Day, is a cross-quarter day, there is unconditionally six weeks of astronomical winter left for the northern hemisphere, but this is independent of warm and cold phases in the climate.

Climatologists are predicting 2015 to be an El Niño year, meaning warming of the ocean waters, resulting in warmer and dryer weather for the year.

Historical statistics show that groundhogs are about 40% accurate in their predictions. Weathermen make the right call about 75% of the time. This of course reminds us that as retailers we are deeply focused on economic forecasts and traditionally the economists are only right when using a rear-view mirror.

We would be amiss not to mention that you can order a marmot or a groundhog from us and start your own weather prediction service.

Thank you for your prediction, Stormy! We’re hoping that good weather flows your way!

[whohit]2015-02-02 Marmot Predicts an Early Spring[/whohit]