All Eyes on PA

Since 1887, when the first trek to Gobbler's Knob brought the groundhog predicting fever to Pennsylvania, the festivities at Punxsutawney have crescendoed, at times bringing more than 30,000 people to this small town (of about 6500 people).



This morning Phil saw his shadow again which means six more weeks of winter in the old German tradition. The last time that Phil did not see his shadow was in 1999; however, being the skeptic that I am sometimes, I had to go back in some winter archives and see if winter really was short that year. Ask anyone in the northeastern corridor about the March 14-15th winter storms that dumped anywhere between 1 and 9 inches of snow on them. (6 weeks after Phil's prediction? hmmmmm) And, in 2002, when Phil did indeed see his shadow, there was no significant snowfall or winter storms reported after the first of February.

The celebration of Groundhog Day began with Pennsylvania's earliest settlers. They brought with them the legend of Candlemas Day, which states, "For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day, so far will the snow swirl in May..." Well, this morning Punxsutawney reported partly cloudy skies, so perhaps the snow will not "swirl" until May. Though, according to "Ray's Weather Archives", there have been four years since 1993 when April actually saw snow fall in some parts of the eastern seaboard.

I'm really not against Groundhog Day. Actually it's a pretty neat way to celebrate the middle of winter. It's so easy to find ourselves in a winter slump about this time of year, and I think the people in PA have a handle on a way to rise above that!

Of course, the good people of PA have much more than Phil to celebrate this year. I read that when Phil popped his head out of his burrow, Pittsburgh Steelers towels and paraphenalia rained down around him. I'm thinking that probably the people of Pittsburgh would not even notice a huge winter storm this Sunday............