Groundhog predicts an early spring. Don't get too excited, he's usually wrong.

Source: CNN

Groundhog predicts an early spring. Don't get too excited, he's usually wrong.

Harmeet Kaur, CNN • Updated 2nd February 2019

(CNN) — Thousands of people gathered Saturday at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to watch a famous groundhog deliver his highly anticipated forecast.

Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow around 7:30 a.m. ET and did not see his shadow, predicting an early spring for us all.

"Faithful followers, there is no shadow of me and a beautiful spring it shall be," a member of Phil's Inner Circle read from the groundhog's prediction scroll to the cheers and applause from the crowd.

As the legend goes, if Phil sees his shadow, he considers it an "omen" of six more weeks of bad weather and heads back into his hole. If it's cloudy and he doesn't, you can put away that winter coat sooner than expected.

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In the past decade, Phil has predicted a longer winter seven times and an early spring three times. He was only right about 40% of the time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which says the groundhog shows "no predictive skill."

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Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/groundhog-day-punxsutawney-phil-prediction/index.html