Groundhog Club co-handler Al Dereume holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, during a 2018 Groundhog Day celebration on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa. (Gene J. Puskar/AP)
By Kasha Patel
Today at 10:06 a.m. EST
On Wednesday, a plump woodchuck will forecast the rest of winter for the 135th time. If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow on the ground (like he has about 85 percent of the time), then the United States can expect six more weeks of winter all around. If he decides to keep his head held high, then an early spring will apply. At least that’s the Phil-osophy of Groundhog Day.
Groundhog Day is a crowd favorite holiday, loathed by some actual meteorologists and a gem of a movie to at least 97 percent of reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Whether you think it’s hogwash or not, it is fun to see a group of grown men in top hats and suits hold up a bewildered groundhog like they’re reenacting a scene from “The Lion King,” which received a 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes for its original screenplay.
While Phil’s handlers claim he is right “100 percent of the time, of course!” data shows the supersized squirrel has about a 40 percent accuracy rate over his career. It remains to be seen if the prognostications of the “Great Oz of Weather Forecasting” should be chucked, but we can offer our insight by looking at stuff like numbers and weather models, at least until we can get our own forecasting groundhog.
(Washingtonpost)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2022/02/01/groundhog-day-2022-punxsutawney-phil/
