Punxsutawney Phil Sees Shadow, Predicts More Cold Weather Ahead

The groundhog called Phil emerged from his burrow this morning in central Pennsylvania and saw his shadow, which according to legend signals there will be six more weeks of winter in the U.S.

Phil's handlers, John Griffiths and Ben Hughes, removed him from his stump-shaped shelter on a stage in Punxsutawney at 7:27 a.m. local time and proclaimed he saw his shadow. The forecast elicited some boos from the crowd of about 30,000 gathered to await the 122nd annual weather prediction.

``The weather was cold this morning, and I feel very comfortable in saying we had about 30,000 people there,'' said Mike Johnston, vice president of the Inner Circle of the Groundhog Club. He said the temperature was 28 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2 Celsius) with a wind chill of 14 degrees.

Punxsutawney Phil and his predecessors have seen their shadows 97 times, or about 80 percent of the time, since 1887, according to the Groundhog Club, which conducts the annual event atop Gobbler's Knob. Only 15 times has the Punxsutawney groundhog not seen his shadow, including last year, while another nine results weren't recorded, the club said.

If he sees his shadow, there'll be six more weeks of winter weather, and if he doesn't, there will be an early spring, according to an old German superstition.

Punxsutawney is 90 miles (144.8 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh, and has a population of 6,800, with another 10,500 living in surrounding townships, according to the Punxsutawney Area Chamber of Commerce Web site.

Attendance at the annual event has grown since the 1993 movie ``Groundhog Day,'' a romantic comedy starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. A 15th anniversary edition of the movie was released last month.

Central Pennsylvania's earliest settlers were Germans, who said that if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on Feb. 2, the Christian holiday of Candlemas, unpleasant weather was on its way, according to the official Groundhog Web site.

Among other weather forecasting groundhogs making predictions today, four of them disagreed with Phil as Georgia's General Beauregard Lee; Novia Scotia's Shubenacadie Sam; Jimmy of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin; and New York's Staten Island Chuck all didn't see their shadow, meaning an early spring.