Phil predicts early spring; Beauregard says more cold

Saturday, February 2, 2013

photo Groundhog Club co-handler Ron Ploucha holds the weather predicting groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, after the club said Phil did not see his shadow Groundhog Day and there will be an early spring in Punxsutawney, Pa.

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. - An end to winter's bitter cold will come soon, according to Pennsylvania's famous groundhog, but not so, says Georgia's Gen. Beauregard Lee.

Following a recent stretch of weather that's included temperatures well below freezing as well as record warmth, tornadoes in the South and Midwest and torrential rains in the mid-Atlantic, Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his lair Saturday in front of thousands but didn't see his shadow.

Legend has it that if the furry rodent sees his shadow on Feb. 2 on Gobbler's Knob in west-central Pennsylvania, winter will last six more weeks. But if he doesn't see his shadow, spring will come early.

The prediction is made during a ceremony overseen by a group called the Inner Circle. Members don top hats and tuxedos for the ceremony on Groundhog Day each year.

Bill Deeley, president of the Inner Circle, says that after "consulting" with Phil, he makes the call in deciphering what the world's Punxsutawney Phil has to say about the weather.

Phil is known as the "seer of seers" and "sage of sages." Organizers predicted about 20,000 people this weekend, a larger-than-normal crowd because Groundhog Day falls on a weekend this year.

Phil's got company in the forecasting department. There's Staten Island Chuck, in New York; General Beauregard Lee, in Atlanta; and Wiarton Willie, in Wiarton, Ontario, among others noted by the National Climactic Data Center "Groundhog Day" Web page.

And the Georgia General disagreed. On the coldest morning so far this season, Georgia's resident weather-prognosticating groundhog emerged from his Gwinnett County lair only to be chased back inside by his shadow, declaring that we can expect another six weeks of winter.

Hundreds of fans of the famed rodent braved the 21-degree chill at Gwinnett County's Yellow River Game Ranch to see the General make his prediction in person just after sunrise Saturday.

About 7:30 a.m., Lee's handlers began ringing a bell to wake up the groundhog, and a few minutes later, the General made his anticipated appearance, looked around at the crowd for a couple of minutes and popped back into his white-columned home.

Scattered boos were heard as Lee made his unpopular prediction, but metro Atlantans really shouldn't complain, as Saturday was only the 16th day so far this winter of below-normal temperatures.

The daily average has been above normal 28 days, with the average being more than 20 degrees above normal several times in January.

Temperatures were mostly in the low 20s across metro Atlanta early Saturday, only the fourth morning this winter when the mercury has dipped into the 20s.

"Punxsutawney can't keep something this big to itself," the Data Center said. "Other prognosticating rodents are popping up to claim a piece of the action."

Phil is the original - and the best, Punxsutawney partisans insist.

The 1993 movie "Groundhog Day" starring Bill Murray brought even more notoriety to the Pennsylvania party. The record attendance was about 30,000 the year after the movie's release, said Katie Donald, executive director of the Groundhog Club. About 13,000 attend if Feb. 2 falls on a weekday.

Phil's predictions, of course, are not always right on. Last year, for example, he told people to prepare for six more weeks of winter, a minority opinion among his groundhog brethren. The Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University later listed that January to June as the warmest seven-month period since systematic records began being kept in 1895.

"We'll just mark it up as a mistake last year. He'll be correct this year," McKown said hopefully.