Punxsutawney Phil’s dignitaries predicted an early spring in 2016 on Feb. 2. (Pennsylvania Tourism Commission)
PUNXSUTANEY – Punxsutawney Phil, the nation’s most famous groundhog, made his annual appearance on Tuesday morning during the annual Groundhog Day ceremony in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Phil did not see his shadow, thereby predicting an early spring in 2016.
According to American folklore tradition, the groundhog wakes up from his winter sleep on February 2 to search for his shadow. If he finds it, he understands it to mean six more weeks of winter and returns to his hole. If the weather is cloudy and offers no shadow, it is a sign of early spring, and the groundhog stays above ground.
Watch the 20-pound rodent make the 2016 prediction through the dapper “inner circle” of 15 dignitaries who care for Phil and carry on the annual ceremony.
(Video credit: PennLive)
This year’s full prediction reads:
Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. Now, this second day of February, 2016, the 130th annual trek of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. Punxsutawney Phil, the seer of seers, prognosticator of all prognosticators, was awakened from his burrow to the cheers of his thousands of faithful followers. In Groundhogese, he directed the president and the inner circle to the precise prediction scroll, which translated reads:
The inner circle goes to great ends
To keep me abreast of latest trends
Down in my burrow I never get bored
Riding on my hover board
And I sure have fun flying my drone
But weather forecasting is my comfort zone
Is this current warm weather more than a trend?
Per chance this winter has come to an end?
There is no shadow to be cast,
An early spring is my forecast!
Punxsutawney Phil’s dignitaries predicted an early spring in 2016 on Feb. 2. (Pennsylvania Tourism Commission) 
