Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring on a cloudy Friday morning at Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania, scene of the largest and best-known Groundhog Day celebration in the United States.
The annual event is a tongue-in-cheek ritual in which Phil’s keepers, members of a club with roots in the 19th century, reveal whether the groundhog has seen his shadow.
Just after dawn on Friday, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club announced that Phil did not see his shadow, which will mark the beginning of spring weather. The groundhog seeing his shadow portends six more weeks of winter, according to the group.
Before the announcement, President Tom Dunkel, wearing the traditional top hat and tuxedo worn by members of the club’s inner circle, explained that his cane, passed down from past presidents including his father, gave him the power to speak “groundhog.” ” and that Phil would tell him which of the two scrolls to use.
Under Dunkel’s direction, the crowd helped light the groundhog with repeated chants of “Phil!” before a club member pulled the groundhog out of a door on a stump on stage and held it up.
Dunkel and other club members leaned over the stump where the groundhog was sitting before Dunkel pointed his cane at one of the two scrolls and announced that they had a decision.
Vice President Dan McGinley read the decision, written in verse and filled with jokes about the groundhog’s envy of humans’ opposable thumbs and hopes of getting some Punxsutawney Phil write-in votes in 2024, from the chosen scroll and announced: “ Good news about this Groundhog Day, the beginning of spring is coming!
Around 10,000 people have come to Punxsutawney in recent years, where the festivities begin in the middle of the night and culminate in the middle of winter. A bundled-up crowd, some wearing groundhog-themed hats, watched musical performances and fireworks as they waited for sunrise and the appearance of Punxsutawney Phil.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro took the stage before Phil to urge people around the world who witness the festivities to come to Punxsutawney next year. Shapiro also announced that the famous groundhog is Pennsylvania’s new official meteorologist.
“Punxsutawney is the center of the universe right now and I love that everyone is here,” Shapiro said.
Phil predicts more winter much more often than an early spring, which isn’t a bad bet for February and March in Western Pennsylvania. A federal agency examined his record last year and estimated his accuracy rate at about 40%.
As the morning progressed, something of a groundhog consensus emerged, supporting Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast of an early spring. Among more than a dozen weather reports predicting groundhogs in the United States and Canada early Friday, 10 sided with Phil and only three warned of six more weeks of winter.
Octoraro Orphie in Quarryville, Pennsylvania, rival of the Punxsutawney groundhog for more than a century, says the cold will persist for a while. But the groundhogs in Staten Island, New York; Nova Scotia and Quebec in Canada; Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, and Ohio were all on Phil’s side: early spring.
Here in the city, quoting a social media message from our sister station NY1, Mayor Eric Adams referred to the Staten Island groundhog.
“It’s a VERY happy #GroundhogDay: Staten Island Chuck didn’t see his shadow, that means spring is on the way!” the mayor wrote.
It’s a VERY happy #GroundhogDay — Staten Island Chuck didn’t see his shadow, so that means spring is on the way!
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) February 2, 2024
The tradition of celebrating the midpoint between the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, and the spring equinox, dates back many centuries in European agricultural life.
There are more than a dozen active groundhog clubs in Pennsylvania, some dating back to the 1930s, and weather-predicting groundhogs have appeared in at least 28 U.S. states and Canadian provinces.
The hit 1993 film “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray, fueled interest in Punxsutawney Phil and inspired casual observations everywhere.
When he’s not making his annual forecast, Phil lives in a custom space next to the Punxsutawney Memorial Library, with a window where library patrons can view his burrow. In 2009, library workers said Phil had somehow managed to escape three times, climbing onto the library roof and falling into offices about 50 feet (15 meters) away. He was not injured.
