Punxsutawney Phil is predicting six more weeks of winter weather after seeing his shadow on Monday.
His annual prediction was translated by his handlers at Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania.
The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club says that when Phil is deemed not to have seen his shadow, it means an early spring. When he sees it, it’s six more weeks of winter.
Phil tends to predict a longer winter much more frequently than an early spring.
Tens of thousands of people attended Gobbler’s Knob for the annual ritual that dates back more than a century, with ties to ancient European agricultural traditions. Punxsutawney’s festivities have grown considerably since the 1993 film “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray.
Lisa Gibson was at her 10th Groundhog Day, wearing a lighted hat that resembled the tree stump from which Phil emerges just after dawn.
“Wow, this breaks the winter monotony,” Gibson said, accompanied by her husband — dressed as Elvis Presley — and teenage daughter. “It’s like Halloween and New Year’s Eve all wrapped into one holiday.”
Gibson, a Pittsburgh resident, was hoping Phil wouldn’t see his shadow and thus predict an early spring.
Rick Siger, Pennsylvania’s secretary of community and economic development, said the external thermometer in his vehicle read 4 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius) on the way to Gobbler’s Knob.
“I think it’s just fun — people having fun,” Siger said, attending his fourth consecutive Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney. “It brings people together at a challenging time. It’s a unifying force that highlights the best of Pennsylvania, the best of Punxsutawney, this area.”
Last year’s announcement was also six more weeks of winter, by far Phil’s most common assessment and no great surprise in the first week of February. His top-hatted handlers at the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club insist that Phil’s “groundhogese,” with winks, purrs, chatter, and nods, is being interpreted when they report the weather-predicting groundhog’s musings on the days ahead.
AccuWeather’s chief long-range forecaster, meteorologist Paul Pastelok, said early Monday that some clouds had moved into Punxsutawney overnight, bringing snow flurries he called “microflakes”.
Pastelok said the coming week will remain cold, with below-average temperatures in the eastern United States.
Phil is not the only animal being consulted for long-range weather predictions on Monday. There are formal and informal Groundhog Day events in many places in the US, Canada, and beyond.
Groundhog Day falls on February 2, the midpoint between the shortest and darkest day of the year at the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It’s a time of year that also figures in the Celtic calendar and the Christian feast of Candlemas.
Source: npr.org