As a twenty -four year resident of Pennsylvania, I figured it would be fitting for me to pass along some information about a furry little creature that calls a quaint little town in western Pennsylvania home. This plump prognosticator has been forecasting the winter’s end since 1886 with no fancy college education or calculus based meteorology degree! We’ll his name is Phil and he lives in the trunk of a tree on Gobbler’s Knob in the town of Punxsutawney, PA. (He is not to be confused with Gus, the second most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania, or so goes the PA lottery commercials for the groundhog that could win you millions!) History: Past Predictions: Ground Hog’s Day 2009: -Meteorologist Jeff Jumper
In the 1700’s, a superstition of the remaining winter’s weather was decided by the weather on the day marking the halfway point of astronomical winter, known as Candlemas Day. Later, in 1841 a storekeeper’s diary entry talked of a groundhog and his shadow during Candlemas day. The German legend stated that if he sees his shadow, he takes another nap for six months and with no shadow he stays out for spring. Regardless of the tradition in Punxsutawney, Phil sadly has only a 39% accuracy rate since 1887 according to the website Stormfax.com! The folks in the Groundhog’s Club Inner Circle are the gentlemen you see with the black top hats; they organize the event and care for Phil. They will argue Phil has been 100% accurate as legends go according to the website groundhog.org. Each year, Phil has stayed alive by drinking a special elixir that gives him an addition of seven years to his life span.
Since Phil’s first official trek to Gobbler’s Knob on February 2nd of 1887, Phil has seen his shadow nearly 80% of the time. As mentioned to above, when he sees his shadow, we can expect six more weeks of winter. Over the past five years, Phil has seen his shadow four times, predicting a long winter.
Tens of thousands will gather in Punxsutawney this February 2nd at approximately 7:25am EST, to see Phil awaken from his slumber and climb out of his burrow atop Gobbler’s knob in order to make his prediction. Will the Pennsylvanian groundhog predict six more weeks of a Louisiana winter or will we be ready to roll in the spring weather for Mardi Gras? We’ll find out on Monday!
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