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Groundhog Day Is February 2nd And While We’re All Hoping For An Early Spring Here’s A Little History On The Famous Groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil

Jason Morton
3 min readJan 27, 2022

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Photo by Abigail Lynn on Unsplash

It’s been a long, and recently rough winter, so it’s with anxious anticipation that we await the prediction of how the rest of the winter will be, next week on February 2nd. That’s right folks, it’s Groundhog Day!

Groundhog Day

Every year we count down until Groundhog Day as part of an annual tradition observed across the United States and Canada. It’s the day that we watch for a groundhog emerging from its burrow and if it sees its own shadow it returns to its den, foretelling another six more weeks of winter. However, if the weather is cloudy and our furry little friend doesn’t get scared off, spring will arrive early.

Even in the 21st century, the tradition remains popular but unfortunately studies, and there have been studies, believe it or not, show there’s no correlation between a groundhog seeing its shadow and the early arrival of spring-like weather.

The legend of the groundhog's power over the weather comes from Germanic areas where the badger is the forecasting animal.

Groundhog day appears to be an enhanced version of the legend that clear weather during a Christian festival called…

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Jason Morton
Jason Morton

Written by Jason Morton

Currently, I'm a telecom tech, a grandfather, and fighting cancer. I enjoy writing and sharing opinions. I stumbled into some knowledge along my journey.

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