Quote:
Originally Posted by chasedawg
Time to retire Punxutawney Phil.
According to folklore, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow and see its shadow, then six more weeks of winter weather is on the way.
But if it comes out and sees no shadow, spring is expected to come early.
Here is what happened this year. He did not see his shadow thus the prediction for early spring. WRONG! 
NYC Mayor Curses the Groundhog.
Punxsutawney, the Pennsylvania town that is home to one of the most famous weather-predicting groundhogs, Punxsutawney Phil, has been carrying on the tradition of Groundhog Day since the 1800s. |
I went to google to see what I could find out about just how accurate he is. Here is part of the article.
According to
Stormfax.com, Punxsutawney Phil has only been correct approximately 39% of the time. Of course, long range forecasts can be difficult to predict for the human forecaster. For example, the 2012-2013 winter outlook for the United States was supposed to have equal chances to see a wet/dry and cold/warm winter as the lack of an El Niño and La Niña made the forecast rather difficult to predict.
As of February 1, 2013, 49% of the United States is covered in snowfall. At this time in 2012, only 19.2% of the nation had snow. So with regard to winter activity, 2013 has definitely been a better snow-maker than 2012. For most winters, everyone typically hopes Phil does not see his shadow in hopes of an early spring. But this year, it seems like many places haven’t had their average snowfall for the winter, so many people might be hoping Phil will see his shadow. It might become a celebration for the skiing resorts if Phil does see his shadow, which statistically, has happened roughly 87% of the time.
Groundhog via
Rick LaClaire
Here’s another question to ask: Can we be more specific? For instance, there are multiple we groundhogs in various states that get used to predict whether we’ll see an early spring. Shouldn’t we have one designated groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil to make it official? I mean, that’s not a polite way to treat Phil! If meteorologists use various silly “numbers” that rate your weather day or use random tornado indexes, then mass confusion would occur. We need one set of rules, and Phil should be the official one. Right?
To read the rest he is the website.
http://earthsky.org/earth/groundhog-...xsutawney-phil