Happy Groundhog Day everyone! It’s time to whip out the 1993 classic movie starring Bill Murray and prepare for a wacky day.
Groundhog Day first start back on February 2, 1887, which makes it one of America’s longest-running traditions. to compare, the New Years Ball Drop only started in 1907.
The tradition started in Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and always features the world-famous Punxsutawney Phil.
According to the lore, there has only been one Phil, and all other groundhogs are impostors throughout the years.
It is claimed that this one groundhog has lived to make weather prognostications since 1886, sustained by drinks of “groundhog punch” or “elixir of life” administered at the annual Groundhog Picnic in the fall.
Regardless if you believe that lore let’s break down the facts.
According to Live Science, Phil’s six-week predictions have been correct about 39% of the time since 1887 (minus a few since there are 10 years of predictions missing due to bad note-keeping).
Jumping forward to today, Punxsutawney Phil was out of his home bright and early. At 7:15 am this morning Phil saw his shadow! This means we are in for another 6 weeks of winter.
At this moment, due to all the snow still, on the ground, we are likely to believe him this time. Only time will tell though since we have a few ice storms on our weather models.
There are other famous Groundhogs in our area including Chuck from Staten Island. He predicted that we will see Spring early.
If only these Groundhogs could agree on this.
We will still be counting down the days until summer 2022! (with a cold drink in hand). Depending on when you read this article, (on February 2nd) we have 139 days until summer.
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