In the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, there is tradition called Groundhog Day.

Every year on February 2nd, a groundhog comes out of its burrow, and makes a prediction about the weather. It is believed that if the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, comes out of his burrow and sees his shadow, winter will go on for 6 weeks. If Phil does not see his shadow, spring will arrive early.

It is said that the idea of animals predicting the weather has been around for hundreds of years, especially in Germanic Europe. This makes sense as Groundhog Day  began in the German and Dutch settled areas of western Pennsylvania, during the 1800s.

Anyone that didn’t know about Groundhog Day surely did after 1993, when the classic movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, came out. In this movie, Bill Murray plays a weather-man that needs to anchor about the Groundhog, but is trapped in a time warp and keeps reliving the same day over and over again.

Punxsutawney Phil has some haters, too. Climatologists are not great fans of Punxsutawney Phil, as they make sure to stress every year that Phil has an all time accuracy rate of only 39%. However, last year in 2024, Phil did see his shadow, and correctly predicted an Early Spring.

So, what do you think? Are Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction abilities true, or was last year a lucky guess? We’ll find out on February 2nd.