Overview
- At Gobbler’s Knob on Feb. 2, caretakers declared Phil saw his shadow before thousands, and organizers canceled onstage photos to limit the groundhog’s exposure in the extreme cold.
- The ceremony coincided with a major winter storm delivering heavy snow, freezing rain, outages, and bitter temperatures from Texas to the Northeast.
- AccuWeather meteorologist Paul Pastelok and other forecasters expect the coming week to be colder than average across much of the Eastern United States.
- Long‑term reviews put Phil’s predictive accuracy at roughly 35–40 percent, underscoring the event’s cultural role rather than scientific reliability.
- Regional forecasts diverged as several Canadian events called for an early spring, and the astronomical start of spring still falls on March 20, 2026.