Groundhog Day 2021: Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, predicts another six weeks of winter

Groundhog Day 2021: Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, predicts another six weeks of winter

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That is, if you want to get the weather forecast of a ground dog in Pennsylvania.

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Tuesday morning, and according to legend, that means another six weeks of heavy coats and gloves.

Phil was awakened at 7:25 a.m. and predicted against about 16 members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club at Gobbler’s Knob.

“If I go look now, there is a perfect shadow of me. There will be another six weeks of winter,” one of Phil’s handlers announced on his behalf during the ceremony.

The celebration, which is more than a century old, looked a little different this year. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there were no crowds or visitors present. It was streamed live.
Groundhog Club handler AJ Dereume is holding Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog weather forecast, while Vice President Tom Dunkel reads the scroll during the 135th celebration of Groundhog Day at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney.

He’s been doing this for a while

The first Punxsutawney Groundhog Day celebration was recorded in 1886, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club website.

Phil is not new to the prediction game. The ceremony has been going on since 1887.

Scientifically speaking, the winter on March 20 will officially come to an end, regardless of what Phil predicts. But Mother Nature does not always follow the timetable.

In fact, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota actually have their snowiest time of the year after Groundhog Day.

He’s not very good at it

For the past two years in a row, Phil has not seen his shadow, and he predicted an early spring.

In the past, Phil was more likely to see his shadow than not. He allegedly saw his shadow 104 times, but saw his shadow only 20 times. Statistically speaking, Phil has been accurate in his predictions about 50% of the time over the past ten years.

Phil is not alone in his predictive skills. There are, in fact, many others like him.

He has competition

Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Georgia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland, West Virginia and Michigan all have their own ground dog to use predictions.

There’s also Unadilla Bill from Nebraska, which boasts one of the highest accuracy ratings in the forecasting industry.

This means that if you do not like Phil’s prediction, chances are one of the other ground dogs will predict something you like.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar contributed to this report.

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