The polar vortex is wearing thin on Connecticut's state groundhog, Chuckles IX, who predicted an early start to spring Saturday.
Let's hope the state's celebrity marmot is more accurate than last year, when he made a similar call on the weather.
In 2018, it snowed multiple times in March. Doh.
Chuckles IX made his annual appearance at the Lutz Children's Museum in Manchester, where Mayor Jay Moran summoned his special powers of communicating with the woodchuck.
This is second year on the job for Chuckles IX, who was sworn in as the state's official groundhog last year by a Superior Court judge.
His predecessor, Chuckles VIII, died in April of 2017.
Chuckles lost an eye during a scrum with another animal when he was younger.
Punxsutawney Phil, the nation's most famous groundhog, similarly predicted an early spring Saturday.
The tradition of Groundhog Day can be traced back to a Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a woodchuck sees his shadow, he will go back into his burrow for another six weeks of a long winter.
The temperature reached high of 32 degrees Saturday in Hartford, the first time the mercury wasn't below the freezing point in several days of bitter cold in the region. Sunday's high is expected to be 42 degrees, with temperatures creeping up into the 50s Monday and Tuesday.