{"id":98085,"date":"2026-02-02T14:57:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=98085"},"modified":"2026-02-02T14:59:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T20:59:02","slug":"owcs-hometown-groundhog-has-spoken-woodstock-willie-predicts-early-spring-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/98085-owcs-hometown-groundhog-has-spoken-woodstock-willie-predicts-early-spring-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"OWC\u2019s Hometown Groundhog Has Spoken: Woodstock Willie Predicts Early Spring for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of Team OWC’s favorite days of the year arrived this morning as everyone turned their attention to our Woodstock Square here at OWC headquarters in Woodstock, Illinois, and our winter weather prognosticator, Woodstock Willie. Would our very own groundhog Willie see his shadow or would warmer weather be on the way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The steely-eyed Groundhog emerged from his burrow this cold morning and declared to the bundled up masses gathered in Woodstock Square that he had not seen his shadow and thus, an early spring was on its way.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Crowds gathered at Woodstock Square to celebrate Woodstock Willie’s 2026 prediction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Steven Tobolowski reads the official proclamation during the Woodstock Groundhog Day festivities.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Woodstock Willie says an early spring is on the way.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Willie has been making his proclamations since 1999, each year attracting huge crowds to OWC\u2019s hometown of Woodstock, Illinois. Beyond being the home to OWC\u2019s incredible technology solutions, Woodstock\u2019s other claim to fame is as the filming location for the 1993 classic Groundhog Day<\/em>\u00a0starring Bill Murray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A fan poses for a selfie with Tobolowski, the actor who portrayed Ned in the 1993 movie Groundhog Day.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s celebration was marked by the guest appearance of actor Stephen Tobolowski, who played the role of Ned in the 1993 film. Tobolowski read the official proclamation to the elated crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of that proclamation, this year there is again notable discord among the groundhogs. Just as it was in 2025, while Willie is predicting an early spring, Punxsutawney Phil, the East Coast\u2019s leading groundhog weather expert, disagrees. This morning, Phil announced to those gathered at Gobbler\u2019s Knob that he had seen his shadow and was burrowing up for a longer winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess we\u2019ll just have to wait and see which groundhog is proved correct. But if we had to guess, our money is on Willie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy Groundhog Day from everyone here at OWC!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woodstock Willie makes his 2026 winter weather prediction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":98091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3765,4],"class_list":["post-98085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owc-news","category-tech-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nOWC\u2019s Hometown Groundhog Has Spoken: Woodstock Willie Predicts Early Spring for 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Woodstock Willie makes his 2026 winter weather prediction.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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