Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of wintry weather Monday, a forecast sure to disappoint many after what’s already been a long, cold season across large parts of the United States.
His annual prediction and announcement that he had seen his shadow was translated by his handlers in the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club at Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania.
The news was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos from the tens of thousands who braved temperatures in the single-digits Fahrenheit to await the annual prognostication. The extreme cold kept the crowd bundled up and helped keep people on the main stage dancing.
What to know:
- Last year, Phil also predicted six more weeks of winter, by far his most common assessment and not much of a surprise during the first week of February.
- Phil isn’t the only animal being consulted for long-term weather forecasts Monday. There are formal and informal Groundhog Day events in many places in the U.S., Canada and beyond. Along with the many groundhogs, the winter forecasts were credited to an armadillo, ostriches, and Nigerian dwarf goats.
- Groundhog Day falls on the midpoint between the shortest, darkest day of the year on the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The tradition is rooted in European agricultural life, but the science behind it is questionable at best.
