The prognosticator of prognosticators is once again giving his take on the weather - will there be an early spring or will winter last six more weeks?
Despite the bitter cold with temperatures in the single digits and wind chill of below zero, revelers gathered at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to see what Phil has to say in groundhogese.
Around 7:25 a.m., the members of the Inner Circle pulled Phil from his stump and said there was a shadow on the ground, and that means six more weeks of winter.
Those who made the trek to northwest Pennsylvania, many who were bundled in blankets and sleeping bags, danced in the hours up until Phil came out of his stump to give his forecast, The Associated Press reported.
If Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter, but if he doesn’t, then spring is on the way.
On Feb. 2, 2025, he predicted six more weeks of winter, which is his most common weather forecast.
Punxsutawney Phil been on the job for 139 years, according to the “Today” show.
The tradition is connected to “Candlemas,” a Christian holiday that is linked to the end of the Christmas season.
“If Candlemas day be fair and bright, Winter will have another flight. If on Candlemas day it be showre [SP] and rain, Winter is gone and will not come again,” naturalist John Ray wrote in 1678, “Today” reported.
The Groundhog Day tradition came from Europeans who would look at animals’ activity at the midway point of winter, Visit Pennsylvania said.
He’s not the only animal that gives a weather prognosis.
There’s Buckeye Chuck in Ohio and General Beauregard Lee in Georgia. Massachusetts has Quentin the Quaho.
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