MUNDANE MYSTERIES: How Accurate Are Punxsutawney Phil’s Groundhog Day Weather Predictions?

MUNDANE MYSTERIES: How Accurate Are Punxsutawney Phil’s Groundhog Day Weather Predictions?

Happy Groundhog Day! America’s weirdest tradition. If you missed it this morning Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, predicting 6 more weeks of winter. Boo. But if you were hoping for an early spring you might still have a chance.

Turns out the legendary groundhog who has been forecasting the weather since the first Groundhog Day in 1887 doesn’t have that great of a track record. The Groundhog Club (yes, that’s a real thing. Top hats and all) say their records show Phil has predicted more winter 103 times and early spring only 19 times. Since accurate weather history has been recorded in 1969 his predictions are only correct 36% of the time.

So there you go. There’s a good chance Phil was wrong and we could get that warm spring weather sooner than we think.