The groundhog Phil, the world’s most famous weather-predicting animal, on Thursday forecast six more weeks of winter in the United States before the attentive gaze of numerous spectators and reporters who gathered to observe the traditional annual prognostication, now in its 131st year.

Each Feb. 2 since 1887, the public in the western Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney, has climbed the small hill called Gobbler’s Knob to learn what its most illustrious resident has to say about the weather.

This year, Phil spotted his shadow upon emerging from his burrow and, according to popular legend, that means that winter will last for another six weeks.

The presiding official at the ceremony, who had to wrestle a bit with Phil – who was more problematic than usual this year – “apologized” for the bad news to the tens of thousands of people who awaited the groundhog’s forecast amid a festive atmosphere despite the cold and bona fide meteorologists’ predictions of snow.

The ceremony’s officials had to pull Phil from his burrow after the president had knocked on its entrance three times without, apparently, rousing the dozing groundhog.

After being brought forth, Phil apparently told the president in “Groundhog-ese” – a language said to be understood only by the woodchuck and his intimate circle of human associates and colleagues – that he had spotted his shadow.

The Pennsylvania marmot is an expert at delivering bad news, however, since he – or one of his many predecessors – had predicted a longer winter 102 times, an early spring just 18 times and has made no prediction 10 times.

“I wasn’t surprised at the forecast; it would have been the first time that Phil predicted two consecutive years of an early spring,” Bill Cooper, one of the masters of ceremony and the former president of the local Groundhog Club, told EFE.

Cooper, who has worked for 28 years to preserve the tradition, does not like to be asked how many groundhogs have fulfilled the role of Phil over the past 131 years or how reliable Phil’s forecasts have been.

Woodchucks live an average of about six years, but the club’s official line is that there has been just one Phil since the tradition’s inception, his longevity due to the fact that each summer he drinks a special brew that gives him seven additional years of life.

According to meteorologists in the US and Canada, Phil has been correct less than 40 percent of the time.

“If we’re get started talking about science, we lose what’s important about the day. It’s about enjoying yourself … just for the sake of enjoying yourself,” said Cooper, adding that that is the “secret” of the tradition’s survival for more than a century.

The tradition, which emerged in the US among the Pennsylvania Germans in the 18th and 19th centuries, gained additional adherents – not only in this country but also abroad – after the popular 1993 comedy film “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray.

However, as might be imagined, Phil’s handlers and/or fans don’t necessarily appreciate the fact that there are several “imposters” elsewhere in North America, such as General Beau Lee in Atlanta, Wiarton Willie in Ontario, Chuck in New York and Potomac Phil in Washington DC. EFE

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