Weather-predicting groundhog Major dies on Groundhog Day

In Kentucky (USA), a groundhog who predicted the coming of spring has died. On the eve of his death, he informed people for the last time that spring would be early this year: he came out of the hole and did not see his own shadow. Major then died quietly. He was 10 years old – an age considered respectable for marmots. His duties will be carried out by his successor, a groundhog named Josie Burrow.

Let us remind you that Groundhog Day is celebrated in America on February 2. Meanwhile, the scientific director of the Hydrometeorological Center, Roman Vilfand, has already said that such traditions – predicting the weather by marmots – can only be treated with a smile and irony. “I always listen with pleasure about the groundhog, about his shadow, whether he woke up or not, about the groundhog who is in Tula, too. But meteorologists still know a little more than animals,” Vilfand noted.