Possum Day to feature weather-forecasting Sand Mountain Sam

The Gadsden Times

USA TODAY NETWORK

Sand Mountain Sam is getting ready for his close-up.

The weather-forecasting marsupial will be the star attraction during Possum Day, set 7:30 a.m.-9 a.m. Feb. 2 in at the WQSB studios in Albertville. Whether Sand Mountain Sam sees his shadow will determine if residents can expect an early spring or six more weeks of winter, according to local legend.

Here’s how Greater Gadsden’s website describes what will transpire on Possum Day:

Sand Mountain Sam, who lives at the Bama Bucks restaurant and wild game preserve at 292 Bryant Road in Sardis, will awake that morning and head to radio station WQSB at 3770 U.S. Highway 431 in Albertville, at 7 a.m. Sam will make the 6.9-mile journey in style, accompanied by the three 2026 Possum queens, a convoy of wagons, mules and horses.

Sam will make his fearless forecast at around 9 a.m. Ben Smith, WHNT News 19 meteorologist, who will serve as the official reader of the Possum Day proclamation.

Past Possum Day events have included free snacks and drinks, along with entertainment, such as bluegrass pickin’, harmonica and spoons playing, clogging and hamboning. Greater Gadsden advises attendees to 'dress for the occasion: Overalls, straw hats, corn cob pipes. Just plan ole hillbilly.'

Facts about opossums

Opossums aren’t the most attractive animals — they also can get snarly and hissy when confronted or surprised even though it’s an act, they’re generally docile — and they often wind up on the pest list when they rummage around in garbage cans or garages, or in yards.

North America’s only native marsupials are interesting critters, however, and serve numerous useful purposes. Here’s a few:

•Grooming: Opossums are meticulous about it, according to TreeHugger.com, and go about it much like cats. They lick their paws and wipe their faces and also will clean their bodies from head to tail. They use their claws to comb their fur (and snare insects that might be caught there to eat).

•Immunity: Opossums are virtually immune to rabies and the bites of venomous snakes like rattlesnakes and water moccasins. According to Scientific American, researchers have isolated a sequence of 11 amino acids copied from an opossum protein that could be used to produce snakebite antivenom at a lower cost, which would be useful in developing countries where bites are common.

•Intelligence: According to TreeHugger.com, research has found that opossums are better than rats, rabbits, cats and dogs in the ability to find food and remember where it is, and are better than rats and cats at finding their way through mazes.

•Playing Possum: It’s a real thing when opossums are threatened by predators, but according to the Farmer’s Almanac isn’t done consciously. It’s an involuntary reaction, like fainting, that renders the animal catatonic. It also can include the emission of foul-smelling stuff from their anal glands that can make them smell like they’re sick or even dead, for as long as four hours.

•They eat ticks: If you’re concerned about ticks getting on your pets, or spreading Lyme disease, it’s good to have some opossums around because to them, ticks are as tasty as candy. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, one opossum can devour 5,000 ticks in a single season.

•According to the National Wildlife Federation, opossums also catch and eat cockroaches, rats and mice. They are also resistant to snake venom and prey on them.