For many years Punxsutawney Phil has held great renown with his ingenious ability to predict the weather, long winter or early spring Phil has been tasked with making the crucial prediction on how our upcoming months will be. Though we trust him so dearly how accurate is our dear Phil? The groundhog is right 39% of the time… and we trust him every year. In the past Phil has predicted 108 winters to a whopping 21 early springs. This year being one of those early spring predictions but can we really trust Phil anymore? 

Lore: It is said Punxsutawney Phil has been alive since the first Groundhog Day of 1886 kept forever youthful by the “elixir of life” or “Groundhog Punch” TM Punxsutawney Phil he drinks every year at the annual Groundhog picnic. But let’s be real there have been more than one Phil. So how many are there? This is a well kept secret but with our knowledge of Phil’s alleged age of 139, and the knowledge the average groundhog lives about 6 years we can assume there have been roughly 23 Phil’s since the original from 1886. But that’s not the only secret Phil has been keeping… Phil is a thief! He stole his sacred tradition from the badgers of ancient European weather lore from a tradition where the badger was the one with the magical weather predicting powers not our Phil. Punxsutawney first received his renown by a newspaper editor by the name of Clymer Freas, who was part of a groundhog hunting club named the Punxsutawney Groundhog club, where they dubbed the first Phil as our chief weatherman. 

With all this new information on Phil coming to light on his hidden changing identity and stolen traditions can we still trust our beloved groundhog? Yes, Punxsutawney Phil is adorable.