Groundhog Day

Why Groundhogs?

Groundhog Day is February 2. Every year, a groundhog named Phil is pulled out of his hole in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. His official name is Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary. 

If he sees his shadow, legend says, we’ll have six more weeks of winter.  If he doesn’t see his shadow, winter is over, according to the legend.

The tradition of using a rodent as the mascot for Groundhog day is German. On Candlemas Day, the Germans would look at the badger to see if it saw its shadow. If he saw his shadow, it meant that a second winter was coming. When the tradition came to the United States in 1887, the groundhog was chosen because there weren’t any badgers in North America.

Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks. They hibernate every winter. They emerge from hibernation when winter is almost over which explains why they were linked to predicting the weather. 

Punxsutawney Phil

The most famous weather-predicting groundhog is Phil who lives in Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. 

But there are other groundhog forecasters. In Tennessee, there is a groundhog named Chattanooga Chuck who has been making weather predictions since 2010. French Creek Freddie lives in West Virginia and has been making predictions since 1980. Buckeye Chuck in Mario, Ohio, has been the weatherman since 1979. Essex Ed in Essex County, New Jersey, has been making his predictions since 1997. Essex Ed also predicts the Super Bowl winner each year. Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, is where Jimmy the Groundhog has been making predictions since 1970. There are also groundhog weather forecasters in Canada including Wiarton Willie who lives northwest of Toronto and has been making forecasts since 1956.

Compare the weather on Groundhog day to the Groundhog’s predictions.