Punxsutawney Phil, the magical and immortal groundhog has been around since 1886 to tell the world each year whether to expect six more weeks of winter or an early spring. Everyone knows the drill, on the mornings of February 2nd the groundhog is awakened by a crowd of fans and festival goers. Phil then speaks in Groundhogese to the president of the Groundhog Club who translates the message with the help of his ancient acacia wood cane and directs the vice president to read the according weather scroll.
Over the years masses of "phaithful phollowers" have watched live broadcasts worldwide to see if their iconic mammal has seen its shadow or not. The Inner Circle of the Groundhog Club claims 100% accuracy rate so of course why shouldn't we believe them? After all, they have kept Phil since the beginning of time. Although suspicions of a predetermined ruse have never been confirmed, some still refuse to believe the wonder behind this fun holiday.
As of this year, 2019, Punxsutawney Phil has made 133 predictions, only 19 of those however, have been of an early spring. Personally, I'm not a fan of winter and the cold so if I hear it might get warmer faster, I cling to the hope that it's true. Sadly though, outside impartial estimates place Phil's accuracy between 35-40%, so we may be coming to terms with the fact that maybe this groundhog isn't as special as the club says he is.
This past year was one of the few that Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow and therefore announced the early arrival of spring-like weather. Now, I don't know about anywhere else but I can certainly say that for Morgantown, West Virginia, it has been anything but what was predicted. We had three days that could have been considered "spring-like" but then we entered a polar vortex and since then it's been cold, rainy, windy, and everyone's favorite, snowy.
So sadly it seems that once again, Phil has mistaken his spring scroll for winter and all our hopes for warmer weather can be lay back to rest.