When Is Groundhog Day In 2023 – PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (WTAJ) – Six more weeks of winter or early spring? Punxsutawney Phil predicted Thursday morning at Gobbler’s Knob.
For 2022, Phil also predicted six more weeks of winter. The year 2023 now marks the 108th time Phil has seen his shadow since the tradition began in 1887.
When Is Groundhog Day In 2023
Inner Circle was forced to close Gobbler’s Knob in 2021 to protect Punxsutawney Phil from COVID-19. When fans were allowed in 2022, two big Phil fans decided it was the perfect place to tie the knot and get married under the stars. Check out this story here.
Groundhog Day 2023: Punxsutawney Phil Predicts More Winter Weather
Celebrations exploded around the world after the release of the movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, in 1993. The event drew about 5,000 people, now close to 35,000 since the film premiered 30 years ago.
Chief Meteorologist Joe Murgo braved the cold for you and hung out live with morning news anchor Jordan Tracy at Gobbler’s Knob on February 2nd for WTAJ’s Groundhog Day: Out of the Shadows special.
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Groundhog Day 2023: Punxsutawney Phil Sees His Shadow, But How Often Are His Predictions Right?
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Nike is a leading sportswear brand offering fitness apparel to help you perform at your best. Groundhog Day 2023: Punxsutawney Phil Sees His Shadow and More Winter Punxsutawney Phil predicts that winter is coming. Marmots may not have a great track record when it comes to weather forecasting, but experts say the tradition sheds light on our culture and environment.
Rory Szwed, left, and Kent Rowan watch the festivities as they wait for Punxsutawney Phil to make his prediction early Thursday morning at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Barry Reeger/AP Hide text
Groundhog Day 2023: Five Famous Groundhogs That Aren’t Punxsutawney Phil
Rory Szwed, left, and Kent Rowan watch the festivities as they wait for Punxsutawney Phil to make his prediction early Thursday morning at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
On Thursday morning, thousands rose early or gathered to watch Punxsutawney Phil emerge from his stump and predict the weather.
The groundhog — arguably the most famous member of his species and the most famous of all the animal soothsayers in the country — was doing what he’s been doing for the past 137 years: looking for signs of spring in front of a crowd of top hatters and rapt fans in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania.
Editorial Cartoon: Groundhog Day
“I see a shadow on my stage, and however you measure it, it’s six weeks of winter weather,” the supervisor read from the book Phil had chosen.
Tradition says that North America gets six more weeks of winter if Phil sees his shadow, and an early spring if he doesn’t. The stats don’t say that much: Phil’s accuracy is around 40% over the last ten years.
Also, human meteorologists now have much more advanced weather forecasting methods than when Phil first got the job in 1887.
Punxsutawney Phil’s 2023 Groundhog Day Forecast Is In & Here’s When Spring Will Arrive
From February 2nd, year after year, year after year, why do we keep asking creatures for answers? (You could say it’s almost identical to the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day… or even exactly the same.)
We can still learn a lot from Groundhog Day, both about our climate and our culture, several experts say.
Daniel Blumstein is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA and studies groundhogs, a group of 15 species of large squirrels that includes marmots. His department always throws a Groundhog Day party, even in perpetually sunny Los Angeles — but he says you don’t have to be a “groundhog enthusiast” (as he describes himself) to make something of the day.
Punxsutawney Phil Sees His Shadow, Predicts More Winter In 2023
“I hope people appreciate marmots and nature more and I hope people laugh at the idea that it’s the middle of winter and hopefully the rodents will tell us what the future holds,” he says of the flower stone.
Groundhog leader AJ Derume stands in front of the crowd holding Punxsutawney Phil, who saw his shadow Thursday to make a late spring prediction. Michael Swensen/Getty Images Hide caption
Groundhog leader AJ Derume stands in front of the crowd holding Punxsutawney Phil, who saw his shadow Thursday to make a late spring prediction.
Groundhog Day 2022
It has its roots in ancient traditions — first pagan, then Christian — and marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, says Troy Harman, a history professor at Penn State University who also works as a ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park.
Imbolc’s Celtic tradition of lighting candles at the beginning of February dates back to the 10th century AD.
The Christian Church later extended this idea to the Feast of Candlemas, which marks the moment when the Virgin Mary went to the temple in Jerusalem 40 days after Jesus’ birth to purify herself and present him as her firstborn before God.
Groundhog Day Images
On this holiday, the clergy blessed and distributed all the candles needed for winter – and as the day progressed, the day began to focus on predicting how long winter would last. As an English folk song says, “If the candlestick be fair and bright / Come, winter, there’s another flight; If the candle fog brings clouds and rain / Go winter and don’t come back.”
Germany went a step further and made animals – especially hedgehogs – part of the process. According to German tradition, if a hedgehog saw his shadow, it was “another winter” or six more weeks of bad weather.
It was one of several traditions brought to the United States by German settlers from Pennsylvania, Harman says, along with Christmas trees and the Easter bunny. And since hedgehogs are not native to the United States, they turned instead to groundhogs (of which there were plenty in Pennsylvania).
Groundhog Day 2023!
“And the first festival that we know of was in the 1880s,” Harman says. “But the idea of looking at animals and seeing their hibernating shadows existed before, and it only became a national holiday later in the 19th century.”
The “Punxsutawney Groundhog Club” was founded by a group of hunters in 1886, one of whom was the editor of the town newspaper and quickly published a statement about his local weather forecast (although Phil didn’t get his name until 1961). . The first Gobbler’s Knob ceremony was held the following year, and the rest is history.
The club says Groundhog Day is the same today as it was when it first started – if the old-fashioned dresses and scrolls are anything to go by – only with a lot more participants. This is due in large part to the popularity of the film of the same name and the possibility of live broadcasting the ceremony.
Groundhog Day 2023: 6 More Weeks Of Winter
And there are more furry prophets. Many parts of the US and Canada now have their own beloved animal forecasters, with some of Phil’s more famous contemporaries including “Staten Island Chuck” from New York (aka Charles G. Hogg) and “Wiarton Willie” from Ontario.
“Anyone who has a ground fault these days is trying to get some [credibility] out of it,” says Blumstein.
It’s not just marmots having fun. Take for example: Pisgah Pete, a white squirrel in North Carolina, Scramble the Duck from Connecticut, and a beaver at the Oregon Zoo named “Stumpton Phil.”
Groundhog Day 2023: Punxsutawney Phil The Groundhog Sees His Shadow
Jim Means holds a sleepy Punxsutawney Phil at dawn on February 2, 1980. Murmelody’s “Inner Circle” dresses the same way today. Lucas/Associated Press Hide caption
Jim Means holds a sleepy Punxsutawney Phil at dawn on February 2, 1980. Murmelody’s “Inner Circle” dresses the same way today.
He says the thought was that if there was a high pressure system in early February, things probably wouldn’t change and it would probably still be cold, while a low pressure system would indicate the possibility of better weather in the future. Moreover, when the sun is shining, marmots are theoretically large enough to cast shadows while standing.
Groundhog Day 2023 Live Updates — Punxsutawney Phil Sees His Shadow Predicting Six More Weeks Of Winter
“Whether there’s any predictability, whether it’s going to be sunny on Groundhog Day and whether spring will come sooner or later, I don’t know,” Blumstein says, adding that Phil’s predictions are “whispering to people wearing stovepipe hats in front of drunken crowds, so you can’t really trust her.”
Still, he says people can learn a lot from the behavior of murres. He leads a long-term project, soon to enter its 62nd year, studying yellow-bellied marmots in Colorado to gain insight into the animals’ longevity and resilience in response to a warming climate.
“Maybe it’s good for marmots to have a longer growing season, but they’re also at risk every day they’re active,” he explains. “And what we’re finding is that there’s kind of an optimal time when you should be active.” So there could also be an evolutionary response to that, and what we’re actually looking at is an evolutionary response to change over time and a kind of intergenerational plasticity, flexibility, if you will.”
Watch: Punxsutawney Phil Sees His Shadow, Predicting 6 More Weeks Of Winter
As part of this research, Blumstein spends time skiing, snowing and waiting
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