{"id":16460,"date":"2017-02-02T09:53:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T14:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=16460"},"modified":"2017-02-02T09:53:07","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T14:53:07","slug":"groundhog-forecasters-agree-six-more-weeks-of-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=16460","title":{"rendered":"Groundhog, forecasters agree: six more weeks of winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>PUNXSUTAWNEY \u2013 The big rodent and the science guys are on the same page, and it isn’t good news if you hate cold, wet\u00a0winter weather in Chester County.<\/span><\/p>\n

As is a Pennsylvania tradition,\u00a0Punxsutawney Phil \u2014 the groundhog \u2014 peeked out of his warren and saw his shadow, and apparently immediately returned to his burrow to binge-watch Netflix.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, AccuWeather, which is a tad more scientific, suggests that the long-term forecast calls for a cold, wet period possibly into late April, meteorologist Paul Pastelok said. Storms \u2014 including a potentially strong one next week \u2014 will bring rain, mostly to coastal areas, with snowfalls further to the west for much of the late winter season and into early spring. The lone bright spot: temperatures appear to be forecast a bit warmer than usual, with highs in the 40s predicted for most days through early March.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, for the 131st year, thousands gathered in the early morning bright sunshine to see Pennsylvania\u2019s world-famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, who then predicted six more weeks of winter after seeing his shadow this morning in the Pennsylvania Wilds.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to holiday folklore, if the groundhog emerges in the early morning on February 2 and sees his shadow, six more weeks of wintry weather are expected.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEach February, the eyes of the world turn to Punxsutawney, a town of just 5,500 residents, that represents the charm and history of so many of our small towns across Pennsylvania,\u201d said Gov. Tom Wolf. \u201cIn addition to Punxsutawney\u2019s quirky appeal, this event spurs a tourism boost, adding $1 million to the region\u2019s economy annually. Through this event, the local economy is stimulated significantly with vendors and shops experiencing increased sales and hotels lodging, restaurants, and other businesses in the hospitality industry accommodating high numbers of patrons.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Groundhog Day, a popular tradition in the United States, has a long history<\/span>, crossing centuries and different ethnic cultures. More recently, the annual Pennsylvania event that started with a small group of men known as the Inner Circle now attracts up to 30,000 visitors to Punxsutawney, Jefferson County, about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is an honor to help share Punxsutawney Phil\u2019s prognostication with the world,\u201d said Groundhog Club Inner Circle President Bill Deeley. \u201cFor more than 130 years, Punxsutawney Phil has been the only true weather forecasting groundhog and he\u2019s right 100 percent of the time, of course!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Phil\u2019s prediction is broadcast each year on visitPA.com<\/span><\/a> which results in the largest single day of traffic to the website. In 2016, the website received more than 287,000 page views, a new record which is expected to be broken this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGroundhog Day is a great way to introduce children to the excitement of weather forecasting,\u201d said Janice Dean, Fox News meteorologist and the 2017 inductee into the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center\u2019s Meteorologist Hall of Fame. \u201cI hope the enthusiasm surrounding this morning\u2019s prognostication inspires a future generation of meteorologists.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PUNXSUTAWNEY \u2013 The big rodent and the science guys are on the same page, and it isn’t good news if you hate cold, wet\u00a0winter weather in Chester County. As is a Pennsylvania tradition,\u00a0Punxsutawney Phil \u2014 the groundhog \u2014 peeked out of his warren and saw his shadow, and apparently immediately returned to his burrow to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3912,113,6130,114,4631],"class_list":["post-16460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","tag-groundhog","tag-punxsutawney","tag-weather","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16461,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16460\/revisions\/16461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}