In his home state of Pennsylvania, he has rivals including Octorara Orphie of the Slumbering Groundhog Lodge in Quarryville, and Sammi II of Monroe County, who was pressed into service after Sammi I died of heatstroke after riding in a parade. Last year, Mel, a groundhog in Milltown, N.J., got into the act. His owner, Jerry Guthlein, is predicting a crowd of 200 in the parking lot of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post.

"We call them all impostors," says Bill Deeley, who owns a funeral home and is president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, the name given to a group of businessmen from western Pennsylvania who have been using a groundhog to predict the weather since 1887. "We are the real McCoy."