HOWELL (WWJ) - Not long after Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring, Howell Nature Center's Woody the Woodchuck called for six more weeks of winter on Friday morning.
The female critter, dubbed "Michigan's Official Groundhog," emerged from her home around 8:30 a.m. to a crowd hoping to hear good news. She took a look around a couple of times before she rushed back inside her home.
"Despite what maybe some of us hoped, it looks like we're going to have a longer winter," Representative (D-MI 7th District) Elissa Slotkin said to a crowd of people gathered at the Howell Nature Center. "I've got the cheers, I've got the boos, we've got the full thing, but man Woody was really keeping us on our toes."
While Woody is going against her counterpart in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania -- who did not see his shadow -- Slotkin said Woody's prediction is more reliable.
A federal agency said Phil has an accuracy rate at about 40%, but Woody has a 70% accuracy rate, the nature center said.
According to the Associated Press, the tradition of celebrating the midpoint between the shortest day of the year on the winter solstice and the spring equinox goes back many centuries in European farm life.
Weather-predicting groundhogs have popped up in at least 28 U.S. states and Canadian provinces in the last 100 years.
Friday's gathering celebrated Woody's 26th annual Groundhog's Day prediction at the Howell Nature Center located at 1005 Triangle Lake Rd. Slotkin took a few moments at the end of the celebration to honor the center and the tradition that dates back to the 1800s.
Officials said Wood first came to the center in 1998 as an orphan incorporated into the their wildlife rehabilitation clinic. She has been making Groundhog's Day predictions since 1999.
Woody became an orphan after a farmer and his wife found her outside her burrow and brought her inside to take for her.
"[The farmer's wife] cared for [Woody] for a period of time before bringing her to our clinic, and unfortunately Woody became habituated to people during that time and never regained her wildness that would allow her to be released," the nature center said.
Woody now calls the Howell Nature Center home where she helps us teach people about living in harmony with woodchucks.
Fun facts about Woody:
-She is not a morning chuck and grumbles when woken up in the morning
-She LOVES corn and watermelon
-She really enjoys packing as much bedding material into her nest box as woodchuckly possible
-She does not like her nest to be disturbed and will let you know
-Her favorite human calls her a "she-hulk" due to her muscular physique
So, whose prediction will win out? See Woody's Groundhog Day celebration here.