Crab Makes Chilling Prediction

Baltimore’s answer to Punxsutawney Phil is calling for an early winter.

On Wednesday morning Baltimore Bill, a weather predicting blue crab, walked up a specially designed ramp at the Inner Harbor and headed right into the warmer Chesapeake Bay waters indicating an early winter, according to a news release.

According to the release:

Ever since Bill was spawned in the lower Chesapeake Bay, he was different from other crabs. When he was hatched, Bill is said to have raised a claw in the water, felt a warm current and headed off to share his special power with the world. Baltimore Bill takes his job very seriously, and in a total claw-biter, he took his time making his prediction this morning.

The event was put on by Old Bay and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Correction: The direction Baltimore Bill went off the ramp was intially wrong due to incorrect information provided to Patch.