Punxsutawney Phil, the prodigious forecaster of Pennsylvania, saw his shadow early Sunday morning on Groundhog Day 2025. He therefore predicted that there will be six more weeks of a long cold and icy winter.
This year is Phil’s 139th year as a marmot meteorologist.
This year’s crowd was one of the largest ever, Inner Circle President Tom Dunkel said, and thousands more watched a streamed broadcast online.
After members of the Inner Circle knocked on Phil’s burrow three times, the members escorted Phil out of his stump. Dunkel used his cane to speak “Groundhogese” with Phil, who selected the scroll containing this year’s prediction. The president of the Inner Circle unrolled it with a flourish and read the, ahem, forecast.
“It’s Groundhog Day and maybe life is on a loop, but I miss my burrow, I miss my coop. So I’m heading back down, there’s a shadow up here. Get ready for six more weeks of winter this year,” he read on Phil’s behalf.
It’s important to note that Phil, the world’s most famous groundhog, isn’t always right, however. .
Closer to The Travelist headquarters, however, is Staten Island Chuck in New York City. Unlike Phil, Chuck didn’t see his shadow on Sunday, forecasting that spring would arrive early this year.
According to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, “there is no predictive skill for the groundhog during the most recent years of the analysis.” In the past ten years, Phil has been right about 50% of the time.
Groundhog Day has its s in the Christian religious holiday of Candlemas Day, which, through an old folk song, became tied to weather forecasting.
When the tradition was introduced to Germany via an old folk song, the tradition held that, if the hedgehog saw his shadow that day, there would be a second “winter.” When German settlers came to the United States, they chose another hibernating animal, the groundhog.
The tradition further dates back to ancient Rome, when people would use hibernating animals including hedgehogs to predict when the weather would get warmer.
This year’s Groundhog Day observance is notable because it was the first since Phil became a father earlier in the year. In March, Mrs. Groundhog, or Phyllis, welcomed twins, which were named Sunny and Shadow.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)