christmas tree groundhog clipart happy groundhogs day

His department always has a Groundhog Day party, even in perennially-sunny Los Angeles - but he says you don't have to be a 'marmot enthusiast' (as he describes himself) to get something out of the day. There's still a lot we can learn from Groundhog Day, both about our climate and our culture, several experts told NPR.ĭaniel Blumstein is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA who studies marmots, the group of 15 species of large ground squirrels that includes groundhogs. 2, year after year after year? (One could say it's almost like the 1993 comedy 'Groundhog Day'. Why, then, do we continue looking to creatures for answers on Feb. Plus, human meteorologists have far more advanced methods for predicting the weather now than they did when Phil first got the gig in 1887. Statistics say not so much: Phil's accuracy rate is about 40% over the last decade. Tradition says that North America will get six more weeks of winter if Phil sees his shadow and an early spring if he does not. 'I see a shadow on my stage, and so no matter how you measure, it's six more weeks of winter weather,' a handler read off the scroll he said Phil had chosen.

Unfortunately, on this blustery winter morning, he didn't find it.

The groundhog - arguably the most famous member of his species and the most recognizable of all the country's animal prognosticators - did what he has done for the last 137 years: search for a sign of spring in front of a group of top hat-wearing handlers and adoring fans at Gobbler's Knob in Pennsylvania.

On Thursday morning, thousands of early risers either tuned in or bundled up to watch Punxsutawney Phil emerge from a tree stump and predict the weather.

Christmas tree groundhog clipart happy groundhogs day