The groundhogs didn’t all agree on the prospect of a protracted winter this Groundhog Day — Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania and Staten Island Chuck in New York both saw their shadows and thus predicted six more weeks of winter, while Woodstock Willie in Illinois did not see his shadow and forecasted an early spring.
But on Groundhog Day 15 years ago in Chicago, no one was thinking much about what the weather would be like in six weeks — and the ceremony where Woodstock Willie casts his prognostication couldn’t even be held. This did not happen any other year, not even during the height of the pandemic in 2021.
Why were Groundhog Day festivities called off in 2011? The winter weather happening that day took precedence over everything. Specifically, Chicago experienced the third-worst blizzard the city has ever seen…