Today is Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Which means it’s time for Punxsutawney Phil‘s annual sunrise photo op outside his burrow for his long-range weather forecast.
According to lore, if Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.
Today, the “seer of seers” predicted six more weeks of winter.
Phil’s power’s of prediction are “complete bunk,” a former zookeeper says in a Thursday article by the Associated Press. Also, “the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration analyzed the forecasts of groundhog prognosticators from 1988 to 2010 and concluded there was no correlation between predictions and the length of winter weather in a given year,” the AP reports.
Not to mention that groundhogs aren’t all that cute and cuddly, and tend to bite humans, the AP says.
Yeah, but the tradition is good for large-scale silliness, debate and rentals of a 1993 Bill Murray movie. And redbankgreen gets to recycle this animated GIF (featuring cows from a farm on the Navesink in Middletown) from 2010.
You want to know the weather forecast? We like the taxpayer-funded NOAA’s National Weather Service, which has this to say about the Red Bank region over the next week:
Today: Partly sunny, with a high near 49. North wind between 7 and 13 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 31. North wind between 11 and 14 mph.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 45. North wind around 11 mph.
Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 32. Northwest wind between 6 and 8 mph.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 45. North wind between 7 and 9 mph.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 31.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 44.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 33.
Monday: Partly sunny, with a high near 46.
Monday Night: A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Tuesday: Partly sunny, with a high near 47.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 34.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 39.
