PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. — Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and is predicting six more weeks of wintry weather, his top-hatted handlers announced Sunday from Gobbler’s Knob in western Pennsylvania.
A massive crowd was on hand to hear the woodchuck’s weather forecast, an annual ritual with roots in European agricultural life that has boomed in public interest since Bill Murray’s 1993 movie, “Groundhog Day.”
The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club says when Phil is deemed to have not seen his shadow, that is said to usher in an early spring. When he does see it, there will be six more weeks of winter.
What that means can be subjective.
Phil has predicted a longer winter far more often than an early spring and one effort to track his accuracy concluded he was right less than half the time.