Groundhog predicts early spring in U.S.
Offering relief to Americans digging out from a massive snowstorm, the country's most famous groundhog is predicting an early spring.
Punxsutawney Phil emerged around dawn Wednesday to make the 125th annual Groundhog Day weather forecast. A crowd gathered on the small hill of Gobbler's Knob in the town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to witness his prediction.
Phil's handlers announced that the furry rodent did not see his shadow, which according to Groundhog Day legend, means spring and its mild weather will be arriving soon.
If Phil had seen his shadow, it would have signaled six more weeks of winter.
The Groundhog Day tradition is carried out each year by the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle.
Since 1887, the group says a groundhog named Phil has spotted his shadow 98 times and has not seen it 15 times. Some years are missing from the record, though the group has never failed to issue a forecast.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration posted an analysis of Punxsutawney Phil's predictions on its website and found “no predictive skill” for the groundhog in the most recent years.
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