SNOHOMISH — Snohomish’s traditional GroundFrog Day is giving way after 18 years.
The final GroundFrog Day will be a small ceremony Saturday, Jan. 27 at 10:30 a.m. at the Carnegie Building, First and Cedar. Kla Ha Ya Days’ mascots Tad and Lil will declare the last “frognostication” of whether we’re in for six more weeks of cold rain or an early switch to sunny weather.
“The chamber is retiring this event,” chamber manager Nancy Keith said. “Kla Ha Ya Days will use it as an opportunity to announce its plans for 2024.”
Why? Keith said the chamber is going in a new direction.
“We felt like the opportunity to do something different that would benefit our community nonprofits,” Keith said. The chamber intends to announce those plans next month.
The chamber established GroundFrog Day in 2006.
How it used to go was one of Thayer Cueter’s live bullfrogs, Snohomish Slew, was put up to the microphone at the Avenue A gazebo. If Slew croaked, expect spring soon; if he stayed silent, expect six more weeks of winter. Wally Walsh acted as the first “frognosticator” to listen and announce if Slew made a sound. Slew’s predictions often were right: In 2019, for example, he said there would be six more weeks of “soggy and wet.” A week later, snow hit. Who knew? Did Slew?
Last year’s GroundFrog Day was held in the Snohomish Aquatic Center. Cueter and Slew were not in 2023’s event.
This week after press time, the chamber shared more of its 2024 plans at its monthly chamber meeting.
