What Groundhog Day is, and what time Punxsutawney Phil will deliver his forecast today

Over the past couple of years, the chances are that the Covid pandemic might have made things feel like Groundhog Day at some point.

Ironically, though, the event that inspired the Bill Murray movie provides somewhat bizarre respite from the monotony of day-to-day life – and it’s taking place today.

That’s right: Punxsutawney Phil, the meteorologist marmot who solemnly casts a long-term weather forecast on 2 February every year, is back for another prophecy.

Here’s how and when you can watch the world’s most famous groundhog do his duty, and how one of the world’s weirder traditions became known across the globe.

For the uninitiated, a groundhog is a rodent from the marmot family, which essentially comprises large squirrels.

It’s found across North America, where it is variously referred to as a wood-shock, a whistlepig, a red monk and even a thickwood badger.

The most famous of all groundhogs is undoubtedly Punxsutawney Phil, who lives a couple of miles away from the town of Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania in a burrow on a hill called Gobbler’s Knob.

Every year Punxsutawney Phil emerges from Gobbler’s Knob on the morning of 2 February, the same date as the Christian festival of Candlemas.

This holy day is traditionally associated with setting the tone of the upcoming weather, as per the old English saying:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Winter has another flight.

If Candlemas brings cloud and rain,

Winter will not come again.

Groundhog Day was established by a 19th-century German community in Pennsylvania, and follows on from this folklore.

If Punxsutawney Phil ventures out and finds the weather “fair and bright,” he will see his shadow, and retreat back into Gobbler’s Knob – winter will then continue for another six weeks.

However, if the the furry forecaster is met with cloudy conditions, spring will arrive early that year.

Punxsutawney Phil has been casting his predictions since 1886, making him at least 134 years old, a lifespan far longer than the six years most wild groundhogs can expect.

According to official accounts, the soothsaying squirrel’s longevity comes from his consumption of an “elixir of life,” the recipe of which remains secret.

The release of Murray’s 1993 cult classic Groundhog Day in 1993 brought the festival to a global audience, with reported crowds of 40,000 descending on Punxsutawney for the ceremony.

After Covid forced the large-scale public event to be cancelled last year, this year’s celebrations will be back to normal.

Punxsutawney Phil fulfill his annual task at about 7.25am Eastern Time (12.25pm in the UK), when we’ll all final