While most people will tell you that they've been stuck in the neverending cycle of Bill Murray's Groundhog Day since March 2020, tomorrow (February 2) it's the real thing.  

Weather forecasting rodents across the world will venture out, or be dragged out, of their comfortable burrows and predict if they see their shadows, six more weeks of winter, or, if the day where they are is cloudy, an early spring.  

Since Punxsutawney Phil, or his great, great grandfather, made the first meteorological prediction by a hairy weatherman at Gobbler's Knob in Pennsylvania in 1887, others like Wiarton Willie from Ontario, and Shubenacadie Sam from Nova Scotia have gotten into the act.  Statistics show they have been right 50 percent of the time with their forecast.  

Albertans put their trust in local groundhog Balzac Billy and, in spite of restrictions around COVID-19, once again our fearless Alberta hog will make his bold prediction.  He's just doing it a bit differently this year, accord to the Marketing Manager of Blue Grass Nursery, Sod, and Garden Centre Sheena Haffner.

"We didn't want to break with tradition.  We've been doing this since the '70s, but, officially for the last 18 years.  We all need something fun right now and that's what Groundhog Day's all about.  It's just for fun. So we really wanted to make sure that we carried that on so we decided we were going to do a live stream so people could still come and hang out with us virtually."

Haffner says you can watch the drama unfold on Blue Grass Nurseries' Facebook or Instagram accounts starting at 8:00 am.  Balzac Billy will emerge from his burrow at sunrise, 8:10 am.  She says that unfortunately no one but the media will be allowed to watch the fun in person.

"We just want everybody to stay safe, Haffner explains.  "We'd rather be safe than sorry.  This is the kind of thing that's just perfect for an online event.  We think people will respond well to it."

Blue Grass Nurseries has worked with the Balzac Business Association on the event for years.  "We started that together a long time ago, just because we like to work together with our community.  It was just something that went well when we had a couple more brains together than just the one.  It's just a really good team effort to pull it together."

While Billy does his best to get the forecast right every year, every once in a while, just like David Spence or Paul Dunphy, he blows it.  Haffner says last year, she thinks Billy might not have been totally truthful.  

"I feel like Billy might have lied to us last year.  He said it was going to be an early spring and spring sure was a tough one last year.  I don't know, I like to trust Billy, I think he's a good guy but I don't know about last year so we'll have to see about this year."