PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) – It\u2019s already been a long, cold winter across much of the United States, and on Monday, Punxsutawney Phil\u2019s handlers will announce whether the weather-predicting groundhog says there\u2019s more of the same to come.<\/p>\n
When Phil is said to have seen his shadow upon emergence from a tree stump in rural Pennsylvania, that\u2019s considered a forecast for six more weeks of winter. If he doesn\u2019t see his shadow, an early spring is said to be on the way.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of people will be on hand at Gobbler\u2019s Knob for the annual ritual that goes back more than a century, with ties to ancient farming traditions in Europe. Punxsutawney\u2019s festivities have grown considerably since the 1993 movie \u201cGroundhog Day,\u201d starring Bill Murray.<\/p>\n
Punxsutawney Phil’s handlers will be announcing if the weather-predicting groundhog sees his shadow. (CNN)<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s announcement was six more weeks of winter, by far Phil\u2019s more common assessment and not much of a surprise during the first week of February. His top-hatted handlers in the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club insist Phil\u2019s \u201cgroundhogese\u201d of winks, purrs, chatters and nods are being interpreted when they relate the meteorological marmot\u2019s muses about the days ahead.<\/p>\n
Phil isn\u2019t the only animal being consulted for long-term weather forecasts Monday. There are formal and informal Groundhog Day events in many places in the U.S., Canada and beyond.<\/p>\n
Groundhog Day falls on Feb. 2, the midpoint between the shortest, darkest day of the year on the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It\u2019s a time of year that also figures in the Celtic calendar and the Christian holiday of Candlemas.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) – It\u2019s already been a long, cold winter across much of the United States, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10124,49812,49813,28,30,29,10123,49811,15765],"class_list":["post-102813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-groundhog-day","tag-groundhog-predicts-the-weather","tag-groundhog-sees-his-shadow","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-punxsutawney-phil","tag-punxsutawney-phil-predicts-the-weather","tag-winter-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}