Feb. 2, 2012

Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous weather-forecasting groundhog, saw his shadow this morning. According to legend, that dark sight predicts that spring will not arrive for another six weeks. As Phil has every Groundhog Day since 1887, the prognosticating marmot emerged from his den on Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to greet a crowd waiting for his meteorological forecast. Tradition says that if the groundhog sees its shadow, it will be scared back into its den, and there will be six more weeks of winter. But if it is cloudy and the groundhog does not see its shadow, it will come out, and spring will arrive soon. (Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks.)

Groundhog Day is based on a tradition brought to the United States by German immigrants who settled in western Pennsylvania. For hundreds of years, European farmers had similar traditions that involved bears, badgers, and other animals. One of these traditions was Candlemas Day, a Christian festival celebrated on February 2. An English rhyme associated with the holiday says, “If Candlemas Day be fair and bright, winter will have another flight. But if it be dark with clouds and rain, winter is gone and will not come again.” The groundhog, which is plentiful in the Eastern and Midwestern United States, became linked with the custom in the New World. The modern celebration in Punxsutawney, a town about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh, draws an international crowd of thousands.

The groundhog, also known as a woodchuck, is a burrowing rodent with a chunky body. The woodchuck in this photograph has reddish-brown hair with pale gray tips. An adult woodchuck measures about 18 to 26 inches (46 to 66 centimeters) long, including the bushy tail. Leonard Lee Rue III, Tom Stack & Assoc.

According to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, there has been only one Punxsutawney Phil, whose official name is “Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary.” The club maintains that Phil has enjoyed such a long life because of a secret “groundhog punch” that he receives every summer at the town’s Groundhog Picnic. Except for Groundhog Day and other special occasions, Phil lives in a climate-controlled habitat at the Punxsutawney Library. On Groundhog Day, he travels to a heated burrow in a simulated tree stump on Gobbler’s Knob, from which he emerges to make his prediction.

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