February 2, 2021

February 2nd is the 33rd day of 2021. There are 332 days remaining until the end of the year.

It’s Groundhog Day.

Legend has it that if the groundhog sees his shadow, Winter will last six more weeks. If he doesn’t see his shadow, an early Spring.

Crowds will not be gathering in Wiarton for Ontario’s prognosticating rodent Wiarton Willie’s prediction. Due to the pandemic, the prediction will be made virtually on the town’s website.

The Wiarton Willie prediction will be made at 8:07am.

Chatham-Kent Public Health released the COVID19 numbers for the weekend Monday afternoon. There were 55 new cases, 33 resolved, leaving 136 active cases locally.

Sixty-five of the 136 active cases were in the five institutional outbreaks in the hospital and long-term care homes.

Ontario is reporting 1,969 new cases. Hotspots are Toronto, Peel and York.

Canada Basketball announced yesterday the 20 female athletes that have been invited to attend a Senior Women’s National Team virtual training camp this week.

Chatham’s Bridget Carleton was on the list.

Canada has qualified for the Tokyo Winter Games, originally scheduled for the summer of 2020, but postponed due to the pandemic.

The Tokyo 2020 Women’s Basketball Tournament is scheduled for July 26 – August 8, 2021. Canada is one of 12 teams that have qualified. Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team is ranked fourth in the World.

The full 7.8 km of the Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa is opening for the first time in two years this morning.

Last year, poor freezing conditions prevented the Rideau Canal Skateway from ever opening to its full length.

COVID-19 precautions are in place; Only residents living near the canal are asked to make use of the site for recreation, and all users are asked to wear masks and maintain physical distance. Concessions, rentals, picnic tables and other amenities are not in place this season.

The first 2.4 km of the Skateway opened for the season last Thursday. Another 3.3 km opened on Sunday.

The Rideau Canal Skateway is known as The Longest Skating Rink in the World. This is the 51st season of skating on the capital’s canal.

It’s been a long, long, long, LONG time coming, but the full length of the #RideauCanal Skateway will finally open tomorrow morning, at 8am! Get ready to skate the 7.8 km! 🙌🎉

Details: https://t.co/IQHolFrHZx | #ottnews #ottawa pic.twitter.com/jjd0a7pm8Z

— RideauCanalSkateway (@NCC_Skateway) February 1, 2021

The Guinness World Record for the fastest time eating the hottest chili peppers in the world has been set in London.

Mike Jack of London, Ontario ate three Carolina Reaper chili peppers in 9.72 seconds, setting the Guinness World for fastest time to eat three of those peppers, which Guinness says are the world’s hottest.

The video of Jack achieving the goal was posted on the Guinness Book of World Records Facebook page on Wednesday, but the official date of the record was November 21, 2020.

Guinness certified the Carolina Reaper as the world’s hottest pepper in 2017. Guinness says the chili pepper delivers an average of 1.5 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU). The average jalapeño pepper scores between 2,500 to 8,000 SHU, according to Guinness.

Jack has set three world records, all for consuming hot peppers.

Categorised in: 5 Things You Need To Know

This post was written by Chris McLeod