Groundhog Day 2018: Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, predicts six more weeks of winter

The groundhog is rarely correct

Americans can expect six more weeks of winter, according to a small, allegedly 132-year-old rodent living on a hill in Pennsylvania.

Viewers watched from around the world as Punxsutawney Phil, the rodent in question, was pulled from his home on Gobbler’s Knob early Friday morning and asked to predict the weather. According to his group of handlers – known as the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle – the trembling woodchuck saw his shadow, forecasting six more weeks of cold weather.

It was a tradition started in the late 1880s, and immortalised by the eponymous 1993 film: Groundhog Day. According to legend, if the groundhog does not see his shadow on 2 February, there will be an early spring. If he does, it’s six more weeks of winter.

Unfortunately for the shivering crowds gathered in the 13-degree-Farenheit(-11C) weather at Gobbler's Knob, Punxsutawney Phil forecast another month and a half of cold weather.

Records show Punxsutawney Phil is a bit of a downer, having predicted more winter 103 times and an early spring only 18 times since 1887. Luckily, he is usually wrong.

After Phil saw his shadow last year, both February and March ended up warmer than average across the country, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA found that the Pennsylvania groundhog has been right 14 times and wrong 16 times since 1988.

"There is no predictive skill for the groundhog during the most recent years of the analysis," NOAA said in a report this year.

While Phil is the most “trusted” of the groundhog seers (the Inner Circle claims he is the same animal who made the first prediction back in the 1800s), several other states – and even other countries – offer up their own rodents for predictions.

In Canada, an albino groundhog named Wiarton Willie agreed with Phil's prediction, spotting his shadow on Friday morning. New Jersey’s Milltown Mel disagreed, however, predicting an early spring. New York’s Staten Island Chuck also did not spot his shadow.

Asked why viewers should believe Chuck over Phil, Staten Island Zoo Executive Director Ken Mitchell insisted his animal was a “genuine groundhog”.

“Chuck’s been right on the money 78 per cent of the time; Punxsutawney’s accuracy rate is, I believe, under 50 per cent,” Mr Mitchell told Spectrum NY1. "So Chuck is far superior and Punxsutawney can’t hold a candle to him.”

The Staten Island ceremonies haven’t always gone seamlessly, however. Chuck bit Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2009. Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped Charlotte, Chuck’s stand-in, in 2014, and hasn’t been back to the ceremony since.