Feb 2, 2022 3 min read

Did you wake up this morning to watch Punxsutawney Phil’s annual prediction? As I write this, Groundhog Day is still two days away, but you’ll be reading this Wednesday morning, Feb. 2, 2022 – Groundhog Day!

Before we get into all of the fun of that, may I just take a moment to say how much I love that the date is 2/2/22. The only thing better will be in 2/2/2222 and none of us will be around to observe that! Technically, 2/2/22 is a Wednesday, but since it is a palindrome date, and all of the dates are twos … the powers that be (whoever they are) are dubbing it Two’s Day. I love palindromes (words or numbers spelled the same backward and forward. Other examples are the words “mom” or “kayak.” Even better, each day the rest of this February starting with 2/20/22 will be a palindrome. Last year had many palindromes, and December was full of them, including a nine-day stretch of palindromes starting with 12/1/21.

Let’s get back to Punxsutawney Phil. Each Feb. 2, the guys up at Gobbler’s Knob roust Phil from his sleep, hoist him high in the air and ask whether he sees his shadows. Whether the sky is cloudy or clear, whether the sun has risen or the fact that lights from all of the surrounding television crews most assuredly cast a shadow behind Phil is completely irrelevant. That’s why you can never guess what Phil’s prediction will be. If we could base it solely on whether it’s clear, cloudy or sunny we would know it ahead of time and that would just spoil all of the fun, right?

Groundhog Day falls at roughly the midway point of astronomical winter, and legend says that if Phil sees his shadow, we will have to endure six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, then it’s time to bust out the shorts and T-shirts. Although they’re great fun, Phil’s predictions are not all that accurate. Looking at his track record, Phil has seen his shadow 105 times compared to not seeing his shadow only 20 times. Last year, Phil saw his shadow and correctly forecasted six more weeks of winter. What followed was the 19th coldest February on record for the continental U.S. Back in 2020, Phil correctly predicted an early spring, as temperatures in February and March were above average. The three previous years, however, his forecast did not pan out very well.

As for our region, December wound up about 7 degrees warmer than normal with only 0.7 inches of snow. January made up for all of that, running about 5 degrees colder than normal and dumping 19.2 inches of snow. For the season, we’re just over two inches below normal snowfall. While I love snow for skiing, I’m not a fan of cold air or the nine nights of single-digit lows we had in January.

All hail the groundhog and bring on spring!

Kristin Emery can be reached at kristinemery1@yahoo.com.