Punxsutawney Phil, the famous Pennsylvania groundhog, will make his iconic appearance despite severe weather conditions, his caretakers said this week.
“We hold the event regardless of the weather,” said Ed Jekielek, ‘Storm Chaser’ in the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, and one of Phil’s caretakers.
“Phil is just oblivious. He couldn’t care less about the weather at this point,” added Jekielek, noting that the prognosticating rodent is still asleep in his burrow.
A massive, 2,000-mile-long storm has swept across the United States and is blanketing the nation with snow, ice, and sleet. Thousands of flights have been canceled. Jekielek said that hotels had been booked solid until Tuesday night, when news of the storm hit, and that “now there have been a few cancellations.” On Tuesday morning there had been some freezing rain at Gobbler’s Knob, he said.
“We might be running plows and snow blowers 15 minutes before the prognostication,” Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, told the Punxsutawney Spirit.
Local officials have taken care to lay “anti-skid material” on the ground around Gobbler’s Knob to make sure Punxsutawney Phil’s admirers have a good experience, said Jekielek. “We’re spreading grit around so people don’t slip.”
The coldest Groundhog Day was in 1918 when temperatures hit 18 degrees below zero.
On Wednesday, the upcoming Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney will be the 125th annual holiday. Crowds in the tens of thousands usually turn out for the day.
If Phil emerges from the tree stump at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney on Feb. 2 and sees his shadow, winter weather will keep up for another six weeks in the United States. If he doesn’t see his shadow, then better weather is on the way.
The earliest reference to the groundhog tradition was made in Feb. 5, 1841.
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