Punxsutawney Phil is about to announce his Groundhog Day weather verdict from Gobbler’s Knob. b
Punxsutawney Phil is about to announce his Groundhog Day weather verdict from Gobbler’s Knob. B
The framework has been made for a sunrise ceremony on Monday, when international woodchuck celebrity Punxsutawney Phil will give his yearly long-term weather forecast, which might be six more weeks of winter or early spring.
Tens of thousands of people will gather at Gobbler’s Knob in rural Pennsylvania to watch this year’s prognostication, which will be given after groundhog Phil is brought to the stage from his hatch on a tree stump.
Last year’s statement was six more weeks of winter, which was Phil’s most popular estimate and came as no surprise during the first week of February.
His top-hatted handlers at the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club insist Phil’s “groundhogese” of winks, purrs, chatters, and nods are being translated when they give the meteorological marmot’s thoughts on the days ahead.
Groundhogs are mostly solitary creatures that emerge in midwinter to seek a mate. Phil’s failure to perceive his shadow is considered ushering in an early spring. When he sees it, there will be another six weeks of winter.
This is the first Groundhog Day for Phil’s new “zoo” at Gobbler’s Knob, where he spends time when he’s not inside his longstanding home beside the town library.
The national popularity of Groundhog Day was supercharged by the 1993 Bill Murray film of the same name. “We just like to remind people that there’s a lot of serious things in this world and this life, and Groundhog Day is not one of them,” said home appraiser Dan McGinley, a member of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle for about a decade.
Groundhog Day has also become a massive marketing success. Phil was called out for an online news conference last week, where he and a couple of tuxedo-wearing club members answered questions about the event, its history, and the planning that goes into it.
Michael Venos, a 46-year-old database administrator from Roxbury, New Jersey, has been collecting stories about Groundhog Day happenings and weather predictions for nearly a decade.
A groundhog that lived behind his childhood home became an unofficial family pet, and Venos was further motivated after witnessing the popular film.
“And then there’s the holiday’s underdog status. It’s not quite like your A-level vacation. So it appeals to me as well,” said Venos, who has counted over 300 Groundhog Day prognosticators since 1880.
Does he have his own Groundhog Day routine? Venos’ family regularly creates groundhog cupcakes, and he and his daughters hold a backyard prediction ceremony using groundhog sock puppets.
According to Venos, over 100 weather predictions were made last year alone. In addition to the many groundhogs, an armadillo, ostriches, and Nigerian dwarf goats were credited with making winter forecasts.
His website contains noteworthy names such as Cluxatawney Henrietta (New York), Lucy the Lobster (Nova Scotia), Scramble the Duck (Connecticut), and Snerd (North Carolina).
