"The extreme cold kept the crowd bundled up and helped keep people on the main stage dancing. Usually guests can come up on stage and take pictures of Phil after his prediction, but this year the announcer said it was too cold for that and his handlers were afraid to keep him out too long. Instead, the audience was asked to come to the stage, turn around and "do a selfie.""
"The club says that when Phil is deemed to have not seen his shadow, that means there will be an early spring. When he does see it, it's six more weeks of winter. Phil tends to predict a longer winter far more often than an early spring. The annual ritual goes back more than a century, with ties to ancient farming traditions in Europe. Punxsutawney's festivities have grown considerably since the 1993 movie "Groundhog Day," starring Bill Murray."
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, predicting six more weeks of wintry weather. Handlers in the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club announced the sighting at Gobbler's Knob in western Pennsylvania. Tens of thousands braved single-digit temperatures and greeted the news with a mix of cheers and boos. Extreme cold kept the crowd bundled and prompted dancing on the main stage. Because of the low temperatures, handlers limited Phil's time outside and asked the audience to take selfies rather than approach him. The ritual traces back more than a century with ties to ancient European farming traditions and has grown notably since the 1993 movie Groundhog Day. Other groundhogs and mascots around the U.S. offered a split set of predictions, with some also forecasting more winter.
Read at Fortune
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]