Punxsutawney Phil has officially made his annual weather prediction, and has declared that we’re in for an early spring! Although, given the unusually warm temperatures and conspicuous lack of snow so far this year, will it really make that much of a difference?
Regardless, the adorable groundhod weatherman was woken up from a deep sleep in his namesake town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania this Friday morning, and it was quickly revealed that he had failed to see his shadow; if he had, according to long-standing lore dating back 132 years, it would have signified that we would have been in store for an additional six weeks of winter.
Every year on February 2 since 1887, Punxsutawney has held a festival with music and food; festivities are kicked off early in the morning before sunrise, when Phil emerges from his temporary home on Gobbler’s Knob to make his famous weather “prediction.”
The event functions on a the lighthearted premise that it has been the exact same groundhog making these predictions all of these years; according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, there is only “one Phil,” and all other groundhogs have supposedly been “impostors.”
“There has only been one Punxsutawney Phil. He has been making predictions since 1886!” the Club says. “Punxsutawney Phil gets his longevity from drinking the ‘elixir of life,’ a secret recipe. Phil takes one sip every summer at the Groundhog Picnic and it magically gives him seven more years of life.”
Despite the mystery and intrigue surrounding Phil, his prognosticating powers are unfortunately not very accurate, having only correctly predicted the coming of spring approximately 40 percent of the time over the last century. But that doesn’t stop the public from having fun and celebrating his predictions each and every year!
