Club spokeswoman Katie Donald said 1886 was the first year that the club trekked to Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney and the groundhog delivered a weather forecast. The sun is up and the shadow I see; six more weeks of winter for you, and back to hibernating for me.
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This year, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul (who?) had the honors of not killing the most important weather forecaster to come from Staten Island. That’s 7 to 4 in favor of an early Spring.
Truth be told, Phil’s handlers don’t wait to see if he sees his shadow – which he nearly certainly would have Tuesday.
This weekend’s weather patterns look mild, just as the chubby rodent predicted, other than some rain showers on Saturday and light snow in Sunday, the US National Weather Service said. Many of those in attendance had stayed overnight and partied into the wee hours waiting for the groundhog’s forecast.
Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring by not seeing his shadow on February 2.
Though Phil’s method may seem flawed – anticipating that the sight of his shadow determines a longer winter, while no shadow calls for an early spring – he has a tendency to get it right. There are no records for the remaining years. The mayor traditionally attends the ceremony and is the one to reveal the results.
Five years after that, the groundhog was the injured party, when a groundhog named Charlotte fell hard to the ground after she wriggled out of the grasp of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In 2014, de Blasio dropped the squirmy groundhog – who died seven days after the fall.
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The event’s website, Groundhog.org, notes that “groundhogs are one of the few animals that really hibernate”.
