SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — Perhaps Hoodie-Hoo Day and thinking of chasing the cold weather away actually paid off before cheering started at noon Saturday.
About 25 people gathered outside the Schuylkill Haven High Rise to tell Old Man Winter to go away so spring can begin.
“Bring on the heat,” Zakai Staff, 9, said.
He wore a multi-colored hat and held a racket to slam winter back into the later part of the year.
Temperatures were in the upper 50s Saturday. Staff said he can’t wait for the warmer weather.
“Every time I try to go out, it’s freezing,” he said.
“We’ve got the weather,” Schuylkill Haven Mayor Mike Devlin said about the unseasonably warm temperatures that greeted county residents at the event. Children and adults were outside to celebrate.
“On this winter day, people should go outside at noon, wave their hands over their heads and chant “Hoodie-Hoo,” and I hope we will be more successful this year than last — so yell loud!” Devlin said.
It was the first time he has participated in the event.
Wearing colorful hats, the participants sang a song they hoped would shoo away winter: “Hoodie-Hoo. Hoodie-Hoo. It’s a special day. We go out and hoot and shout to chase winter away. Hoodie-Hoo. Hoodie-Hoo. Fun for girls and boys, young and old. And if you’re cold, you just makes lots of noise!”
Janis Wise, Schuylkill Haven, said last year it was very cold out with temperatures in the teens. She said the borough residents enjoy the day.
“We take matters into our hands,” she said.
She said the holiday has been celebrated in the borough for a number of years.
Borough resident Carol Wagner, 72, said she likes participating to banish winter.
“I want to get winter out, and Hoodie-Hoo Day is a lot of fun,” she said.
Borough resident Donna Thompson said she lived in Florida years ago and is still getting acclimated to the winter weather.
“We need to get spring fever before it is actually here,” she said.
Schuylkill County Commissioner Gary Hess and the former mayor of the borough said the event is a great one for the community “to get people out of the doldrums of winter.”
Tony Mach, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service at State College, said Saturday’s warmer weather was due to a warm front moving over the area. Some sections of the state noticed near-record temperatures. He said it tied a past record for 67 degrees in Williamsport. In Harrisburg, temperatures reached 63 degrees. The temperature in Schuylkill Haven was 56 degrees after the event.
Mach said it is still to early to estimate how much, if any, snow we could get this week. Temperatures will be in the mid-40s for most of the week.