Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Early Spring On Groundhog Day

It’s going to be an early spring. Punxsutawney Phil, the seer of seers, sage of sages, prognosticator of prognosticators and weather prophet extraordinary, crawled out of his lair this morning and, thankfully, did not see his shadow.

According to Yahoo News, the famous groundhog emerged on Saturday in front of thousands of people on Gobbler’s Knob in west-central Pennsylvania and declared that it would be an early spring.

According to ancient lore, if Punxsutawney Phil would have seen his shadow there would have been six more weeks of winter.

Punxsutawney Phil, of course, isn’t always accurate with his predictions. CBS notes that the famous groundhog saw his shadow last year and predicted a long winter. But the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University found that the stretch between January and June in 2012 was the warmest since 1895.

If Punxsutawney Phil isn’t accurate enough for your rodent weather prediction needs, you do have several other sources that you can turn to. Staten Island Chuck, General Beauregard Lee, in Atlanta; and Wiarton Willie, in Ontario will all make predictions today.

National Climactic Data Center said:

“Punxsutawney can’t keep something this big to itself. Other prognosticating rodents are popping up to claim a piece of the action.”

Punxsutawney Phil, however, doesn’t take kindly to sharing the spotlight.

Staten island Chuck always trying to steal my thunder …early spring?! Yea right!

— Punxsutawney Phil (@PunxsutawnePhil) February 2, 2010

And since it’s Groundhog Day, and since there’s a celebratory mood in the air due to Phil’s spring prediction, here’s a clip from the classic Bill Murray movie.