In a departure from the traditional ceremony held annually in the Pennsylvania town, groundhog Phil refused to be drawn on whether the foresaw an early spring or another six weeks of winter.
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Events for Groundhog Day are mostly sold out, but local station televised the event showing whether Phil sees his shadow or not live.
SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA (WECT) – “Punxsutawney Phil” may be the star of Groundhog Day, but Phil’s exclusive “Inner Circle” are important players too.
Staten Island Chuck is a far better weather forecaster than Punxsutawney Phil, DNAinfo’s analysis shows. Phil’s forecasts have evolved from being a valuable source for farmers at the time to appearing in New York City’s Times Square on the JumboTron. As the Daily Mail reported, a Canadian Groundhog Day celebration had to be canceled this week when the beloved animal, Winnipeg Willow, died just days before the event.
To find out, we combed through nearly 20 years of records from the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club and NY newspaper archives to find out which predictions each groundhog made.
Staten Island Chuck This will be Chuck’s 34th year forecasting on Groundhog Day from the Staten Island Zoo, with an 82 percent accuracy rate, according to SI Live.
Phil, star of the 1993 Bill Murray movie “Groundhog Day”, is more famous. The Democrat had gone to Iowa to stump for Hillary Clinton for that state’s caucus.
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Milltown’s first Groundhog Day took place at the Bronson and Guthlein Funeral Home. “Whatever happens, happens. Groundhog Day is less about a forecast and more about fun!” USA Today tracked Phil’s results and found that since 1988, he was “right” a total of 13 times and “wrong” times, based on national average temperatures for February. According to legend, that predicts an early spring.
