Punxsutawney Phil (Phil) is the groundhog from all the Groundhog Day hype. While it may not sound like the most exciting day in the world, Groundhog Day represents years of tradition and gives us all an excuse to watch a funny movie. If you have never seen the movie "Groundhog Day," you really should.
If you are unfamiliar with the Groundhog Day tradition, here is a quick recap. It is a tradition that has been going on since 1886. Which means this year marks 130 years of the tradition! Phil is a groundhog living in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and every year he predicts whether or not we will have an early spring or if winter will continue. He is awoken from his tree stump in Gobbler’s Knob the morning of February 2nd and will “look” for his shadow. The legend states that if Phil sees his shadow then we should expect 6 more weeks of winter. But if there is no shadow then we can expect an early spring.
**It doesn’t matter if Phil actually sees his shadow as a committee checks to see if it is present.**
I have always wondered how accurate Phil really is. Particularly this week while it has been bitter cold and snowy after Phil proclaimed we would have an early spring! It seems to me that he seems to be off more often than not in his predictions. But then again what do I know?
As it turns out one, can find the information of Phil’s predictions and how that each years weather turned out to be. In the 130 years of Phil’s predictions he has predicted 6 more weeks of winter 102 times and an early spring 18 times. (Information from NOAA). When compared to the weather for each year, Phil’s predictions don’t look too great. As he winds up predicting correctly significantly less than half the time. Ouch.
Luckily for Phil, his job does not depend on predicting the weather correctly.
