Punxsutawney Phil has Spoken: Six More Weeks of Winter
photo by JimmyWayne (image source: Flickr)
In the early morning hours of February 2nd, a crowd of hundreds gathered at Gobbler’s Knob—65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Here, they awaited the annual verdict of famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. Will we have an early spring, or will we have to suffer through 6 more weeks of winter?
The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s special group, the Inner Circle, is responsible for the care of Phil. Their president is also responsible for announcing Phil’s forecast to the world. Punxsutawney (punk-suh-TAW-nee) Phil has been in the weather forecasting business since 1887, but the Groundhog Day tradition started much earlier than that.
The recent tradition of whether or not a groundhog sees its shadow is said to have started in Berks County, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia) in 1841, as a Pennsylvania German custom. This tradition is also said to have come from ancient European weather lore, in which case bears and badgers were used to predict the weather, instead of a groundhog.
Whether or not this year’s Groundhog Day prediction will hold true remains to be seen; however, if you are a person that sticks to the calendar when it comes to seasonal changes, you’ll know there’s going to be at least 6 more weeks of winter anyway, regardless of what any groundhog, bear, or badger may say.
By Heidi Marshall
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Tags: 6 more weeks of winter, Gobbler’s Knob, Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil, weather lore, weather prediction
There were so many people talking about Punxsutawney Phil on Twitter that it was one of the top trending topics for a while – check out the video at http://www.joshrimer.com/top-trending-topics-happy-groundhog-day-thatsanono-punxsutawney-phil/ to see some of the more entertaining ones in a funny video.