The Verdict Is In: Punxsutawney Phil Says Six More Weeks of Winter!

The verdict is in.

Punxsutawney Phil forecasts six more weeks of winter.

He emerged from his home in front of thousands of onlookers around dawn today and saw his shadow. So that means 6 more weeks of winter.

Some may be asking why we base our weather predictions on a little rodent,  according to a German legend:

"if a furry rodent sees his shadow on Feb. 2, winter will last another six weeks. If not, spring comes early."

That makes sense.

We actually found out that in reality, Phil's prediction is decided ahead of time by a group called the Inner Circle on Gobbler's Knob, the tiny hill in the town for which he's named about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. So all those people gathering to see the little furry guy today are pretty much wasting their time.

Records going back to 1887 show Phil has predicted more winter 101 times while forecasting an early spring just 17 times.

Want more info? Well, we have five absurd facts about this about this holiday as well as all the information you would need to know about this day.

At least one thing good came from this day. And to cheer you out of those winter blues, here are our favorite scenes from the movie "Groundhog Day"