Happy Groundhog Day! If you missed Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction this morning, well…I hope you like winter. Before you give Phil a hard time, just remember, he didn’t sign up for this gig…and he’s a groundhog.
He didn’t ask to be a part of our kind of bizarre tradition of asking a rodent to predict the end of winter, yet each year he plays along (more or less). Although I’m beginning to think that Phil’s been getting his sweet revenge by pretty consistently predicting a late spring (103 times in 130 years)
For those not well-versed in Groundhog Day lore, today’s forecast had two possible outcomes:
- It’s cloudy: which means Phil doesn’t see his shadow, and we get an early spring.
- It’s sunny: which means Phil does see his shadow, and we get (at least) six more weeks of winter.
In other words, it’s a good excuse to throw a party in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and to harass some oversized ground squirrels on February 2nd every year.
It may be a bizarre tradition with some seriously questionable science, but it’s our bizarre tradition with questionable science…and it’s a pretty awesome movie too.
More on the Story: Live Science
…just for fun:
