Happy Groundhog Day! Punxsutawney Phil ruined my spring time hopes this morning by seeing his shadow and predicting 6 more weeks of winter. Ugh. BUT, how accurate is this groundhog anyway?
Not very. “Phil” has been making his predictions since 1886, and he’s actually only been right 39% of the time! That’s under 50%. You could flip a coin and be more accurate. The Groundhog People at Gobbler’s Knob will tell you that he’s never wrong and maybe they just misheard Phil’s “Groundhogese.” language.
More often than not he predicts more winter. He’s seen his shadow 106 times now. Only 19 times has be seen no shadow and predicted an early spring. Which is crazy to me.
So if you were hoping for that nice spring weather coming sooner rather than later you might get your wish based on Phil’s record.
Image credit: REUTERS/Alan Freed