Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring!

Luv2Camp

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 22, 2007
Messages
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I am sooooo ready for spring, so while I don't believe in the groundhog theory, I'm game to believe anything at this point for the hope of warm weather. I watched my DH beat the mailbox with a hammer to get the inch of ice off in case the mail delivery decides to brave it today. I don't know how our kids are going to get into their cars with all of the ice on them. I doubt they want us beating their doors with a hammer! ;) Stay warm and safe everyone that are in the path of this latest storm!


PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — The country's most famous groundhog predicted an early spring Wednesday but wasn't willing to go out on a limb to forecast whether his state's Pittsburgh Steelers will win the Super Bowl.

Punxsutawney Phil emerged just after dawn on Groundhog Day to make his 125th annual weather forecast in front of a smaller-than-usual crowd in rural Pennsylvania who braved muddy, icy conditions to hear his handlers reveal that he had not seen his shadow.

Including Wednesday's forecast, Phil has seen his shadow 98 times and hasn't seen it just 16 times since 1887, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, which runs the event. There are no records for the remaining years, though the group has never failed to issue a forecast.

Two years ago, Phil's forecast also acknowledged the Steelers' Super Bowl XLIII win the night before. This year, Sunday's game was mentioned in the forecast but no winner was predicted between the Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, who meet in Dallas for Super Bowl XLV.

"The Steelers are going to the Super Bowl," Mike Johnson, vice president of the Inner Circle, said just before the forecast was read, drawing cheers from the clearly partisan crowd gathered on Gobbler's Knob, a tiny hill in this borough of about 6,100 residents some 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The Groundhog Day celebration is rooted in a German superstition that says if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on Feb. 2, the Christian holiday of Candlemas, winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend said spring would come early.

In reality, Pennsylvania's prophetic rodent doesn't see much of anything. The result is actually decided in advance by 14 members of the Inner Circle, who don tuxedos and top hats for the event.

The celebration usually draws 10,000 to 15,000 spectators when it falls on a weekday, Groundhog club spokesman Luke Webber said. The area was under a winter weather warning and while heavier snows and sleet never materialized, rain falling in about 35-degree temperatures made for a below-average crowd, said Webber, who offered no specific estimate.
 
:rotfl2: I watched it on TV this morning. They had to pull Phil out of his hole because even he didn't want to come out in this nonsense. I don't care what that little rodent says, spring is nowhere to be found. I'm beginning to think we won't even have spring in April or May. :sad2:
 
good for him!! cause if he didn't I think a lot of people would have been very tempted to create some groundhog stew.....

i'm so over winter!! took me an hour to clear my driveway, sidewalk and I worked on my neighbor's driveway too before I was just too cold and wiped out.. Kuddos to all my Northern friends, I don't know how you do this every winter!!
 

sorry double post!
I think even my intetnet is too cold to function properly!!:lmao:
 
I'll take anything we can get. The snow is piled 5-5 1/2" feet high on either side of my driveway now. And the rest of the yard isn't much lower.
 
Big Bad Billy in Battle Creek predicted an early spring too.

Ghog.jpg
 
:rotfl2: Big Bad Billy looks like he was at the Pro Bowl.
 
Boys & I watched this at home today on our ICE DAY, lol.

Early spring, please come, you are so welcome!:rotfl:
Michele - RutgersAlum
 
Punxsutawney Phil emerged just after dawn on Groundhog Day to make his 125th annual weather forecast in front of a smaller-than-usual crowd in rural Pennsylvania who braved muddy, icy conditions to hear his handlers reveal that he had not seen his shadow.

A little old for a groundhog, don't you think? ;)

Watching Groundhog Day on Encore right now :)
 
Our local groundhog, Shubenacadie Sam, also predicted an early spring. Of course that was between yesterday's snowstorm and today's bit of the "snowpocalypse". Perhaps he was just hoping! :lmao:
 
I think they are all predicting an early spring out of shear self preservation. I know that if Punxutawney Phil had seen his shadow, there would have been "Groundhog Stew" for dinner last night.
 
Does anyone else think the whole thing is backwards anyways? If he sees his shadow, that means the sun is out. If the sun is out, it's a nice day - perhaps a sign of early Spring? Yet, if he sees his shadow it's six more weeks of crud...

I don't like his tendency to see his shadow, either...only 15 early springs in 115 predictions recorded...
 
Who cares what that overgrown Yankee rat thinks.

General Beauregard Lee of Georgia says early spring and his is the only opinion that matters as he is, by far, more cultured - being a southern gentle-hog that lives in a "mansion" - and educated since he holds two doctorates. :)

Our local zoo has a hedgehog - which they claim is more historically accurate since the Romans used hedgehogs, not groundhogs - who also says early spring.

As long as there is an early spring I could care less. Good golfing weather sooner is always welcomed. :)
 




















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