Groundhog Day: How many years did Punxsutawney Phil correctly predict the weather?

Every February 2nd, the people of the US turn on their televisions to watch a large woodchuck predict six weeks of weather based on its shadow. Ridiculous? Yes. Accurate? Kind of.

The tradition of Groundhog Day is rooted in Christian and European folklore. The first official Groundhog Day was in 1886 and since then the annual trip to Gobbler's Knob is made to determine if winter will continue.

This year, Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow indicating there will be six more weeks of winter ahead. But the silly, yet captivating, prediction lends the question, how accurate is Phil the groundhog?

According to The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, Phil has seen his shadow 106 times and not seen his shadow 20 times.

When the data is compared to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) it's found that the groundhog has been right about 40 per cent of the time in the last 10 years. Which is not too bad for a 20-pound groundhog.

In the past 10 years, Phil has been right 40% of the time.NOAA

Punxsutawney Phil's legacy has impacted cities all across the US and Canada. Several places have adopted their own weather-predicting groundhogs such as Staten Island, New Jersey, Ohio, Quebec, and Ontario.

Determining the weather could easily be done with a coin flip, having a large rodent view his shadow is more fun.

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