The History of Groundhog Day

As long has people have been impacted by weather, there have been people looking to predict the weather. In the late 1800s, one town in Pennsylvania took this to another level by appointing a groundhog the No. 1 weather prophet.

The crux of the argument is simple. If the sun is out and the groundhog sees his shadow and retreats to his burrow in fear, there will be six more weeks of winter. If the day is cloudy and the groundhog has no shadow, we are due for an early spring.

According to Stormfax Weather Almanac, Groundhog Day has a storied history dating back to 1887. The tradition itself dates back even further, when German people used a badger in the same way to determine the upcoming weather.

Native Americans settled Punxsutawney in 1723. It rests about 90 miles to the northeast of Pittsburgh, serving as a midway point between the Alleghany and Susquehanna rivers. The tradition came with German settlers, who celebrated Candlemas Day, but the main point, that a nice day means more winter, held throughout history.

According to the almanac, the earliest reference to Groundhog Day happened in 1841, where a local person recounted the tradition with groundhogs as the main predictor. The first trip to Gobbler’s Knob, where the event is currently celebrated, wouldn’t happen for nearly 30 more years.

In 1886, the first official Groundhog Day was celebrated. With it, the groundhog received its official name: “Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Pognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinaire.” On that first day, Phil failed to see his shadow, and an early spring was foreseen.

In the 132 years since the tradition was codified, Phil has seen his shadow 104 times. There have only been 19 occasions when the woodchuck failed to see his shadow and therefore predicted an early spring.

The legend of the day grew in the mid 1990s, when Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day launched it into the spotlight. Since the movie released, the ceremony at Gobbler’s Knob has grown to far outstrip the amount of residents actually living in Punxsutawney.

In its current form, Groundhog Day is a well-loved tradition. The venerable groundhog handlers place Phil into a heated, synthetic tree stump on Gobbler’s Knob hours before the ceremony. At 7:25 a.m., they pull the little guy from the stump, and he makes his prediction.

According to the almanac, when Phil isn’t predicting the weather, he is living in his burrow with his wife, Phyllis, eating dog food and ice cream.