The annual weather prediction has taken place! Punxsutawney Phil’s “inner circle” gathered around the little groundhog and summoned him from his tree. Tradition has it that if the groundhog sees his shadow, winter will last six more weeks. If the groundhog does not see its shadow winter will end sooner leading to an early spring. According to the inner circle, Punxsutawney Phil (aka Phil the groundhog) spotted his shadow. People predict that because the groundhog saw his shadow, that there will be six more weeks of winter before spring. This is Phil’s third year in a row where he predicted that winter would last six more weeks. Phil has only been right 39% of the time, yet many people trust that the little groundhog will forecast the weather correctly. We will have to check in later to see if he was correct!

Why is groundhog day celebrated?

The first groundhog day was celebrated on February 2, 1877, at Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania. However, this tradition was carried long before it was celebrated in America by German immigrants. The celebration was created by Clymer Freas, a newspaper editor in Punxsutawney, who was a hunter in a groundhog hunting club named the Punxsutawney Groundhog club. The group upholded Punxsutawney Phil as the nation’s official meteorologist. This group is now called the “Inner circle”, every year they uphold Phil’s prediction. This tradition is carried on to this day, which is why we celebrate Groundhog’s day on February 2nd annually.