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Groundhog Dayhas rolled aroundyet again, which means it’s time to find out whether we’re in for another six weeks of winter or if spring is on its way!
Around 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, famed groundhog Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his slumber and didn’t see his shadow, meaning an early spring is apparently on the horizon.
“Faithful followers, there is no shadow of me and a beautiful spring it shall be,” a top-hatted member of Phil’s Inner Circle told the crowd as he read from a scroll, according toCNN.
Perhaps getting a little too ahead of himself, another member of Phil’s Inner Circle held up a sign reading, “Get out your swimsuits.”
Phil’s prediction — which came just days afterplummeting temperaturesacross the country claimed at least 21 lives — should be taken with a grain of salt. According to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, the iconic creature’s predictions areonly 39 percent accurate.
In fact, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that the groundhog showed “no predictive skill.”
Punxsutawney Groundhog Club records also show that Phil is far more likely to see his shadow and has only predicted an early spring 19 times in the last 133 years.
DAVID MAXWELL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
That doesn’t mean that many across the country aren’t holding out for Phil to be right, especially as temperatures in Chicagodipped to-50 degrees with thewind chill during the polar vortex, according toThe Chicago Tribune.
Even if Phil’s prediction turns out to be inaccurate, the weather is expected towarm up during the weekend.
This time of year, “I don’t think there’s ever been a case where we’ve seen [such a big] shift in temperatures,” Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the Weather Underground, recently toldUSA Today. “Past record-cold waves have not dissipated this quickly … Here we are going right intospring-like temperatures.”
This year marks the 133rd Groundhog Day celebration, which occurs annually at Gobbler’s Knob in the 5,500-person town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
According to thePennsylvania Tourism Office, as many as 30,000 people descend on the tiny town annually to watch Phil make his prediction.
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The origins of Groundhog Day date back to the early days of Christianity in Europe, according to the Pennsylvania Tourism Office.
Born of a winter festival called Candlemas Day, the celebration found churchgoers bringing candles to be blessed. If the skies were clear, it meant an extended winter was in the forecast.
In the U.S., Groundhog Daydates back to the 18th and 19th centuries. Pennsylvania German settlers pulled the tradition from European weather lore that used the appearance of hibernators, like badgers, as a sign it was time to prepare for spring. The Pennsylvanian German folk had to work with their surroundings, and so they decided on the groundhog to replace the traditional European animals.
Punxsutawney Groundhog Club records date back to 1887.
The unique holiday also inspired the popular1993 filmGroundhog Day, starringBill Murrayas a weatherman who finds himself stuck in a time loop, forcing him to relive the same day over and over again.
source: people.com
