Groundhog Day: Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring in US celebrations

Phil's prediction is in line with the majority of his fellow fortune-telling groundhogs, with most having forecast an early spring

Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog, has forecast the early arrival of spring in his annual prediction in Pennsylvania.

The state hosts the best-known celebration of Groundhog Day in the United States, where legend says that if the chosen groundhog leaves his burrow and sees his shadow, there will be another six weeks of winter, if he doesn't see his shadow, an early spring is on the way.

The festivities were held shortly after sunrise on Friday and Phil's handlers revealed that the furry forecaster did not see his shadow on departing from his burrow.

Before the announcement, President Tom Dunkel, in the traditional top hat and tuxedo worn by the club's inner circle, explained that his cane, handed down from previous presidents, including his father, gave him the power to speak “Groundhog-ese”.

Phil would then tell him which of two scrolls to use to give his speech - the one announcing a long winter or the scroll prophesying an early spring.

At Mr Dunkel’s direction, the crowd helped fire-up the groundhog with repeated chants of “Phil!” before a club member pulled the groundhog from a door in a stump on the stage and held him aloft.

Mr Dunkel pointed to one of two scrolls with the cane and announced that they had made a decision.

Vice President Dan McGinley read the decision, written in verse and filled with quips about the groundhog's envy for humans' opposable thumbs, from the chosen scroll and announced, “Glad tidings on this Groundhog Day, an early spring is on the way!”

Crowds cheered on hearing that the state would be treated to early springlike weather.

In recent years around 10,000 people have visited the festivities in Punxsutawney, where the merrymaking begins in the dead of night and culminates in the midwinter forecast.

Party-goers donned groundhog-themed hats and enjoyed music and firework performances in the run-up to Phil's big prediction.

A federal agency took a look at his record last year and put his accuracy rate at about 40%.

He is more prone to predicting a long winter than an early spring.

Phil was in line with consensus this year, as among more than a dozen reports of weather-predicting groundhogs in the US and Canada early Friday, 10 were on Phil’s side and just three warned of six more weeks of winter.

Groundhogs in Staten Island, New York; Nova Scotia and Quebec in Canada; Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois and Ohio all predicted an early spring.

Phil's rival groundhog, Octoraro Orphie in Quarryville, Pennsylvania, swung the other way and said the cold weather would stick around for longer.

The tradition of celebrating the midpoint between the shortest day of the year on the winter solstice and the spring equinox stems back to European farm life from centuries' past.

There are more than a dozen active groundhog clubs in Pennsylvania, some dating back to the 1930s, and weather-predicting groundhogs have appeared in at least 28 US states and Canadian provinces.

The 1993 blockbuster film Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, fuelled interest in Punxsutawney Phil and inspired a huge fan club spanning far and wide.

At a celebration 10 years ago, a previous Staten Island groundhog called Chuck wriggled out of the hands of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and fell to the ground. Chuck died a week later.

An autopsy revealed it suffered internal injuries, but it was not clear if they stemmed from the fall.

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