Early Spring, Without a Shadow of Doubt

An outdoor bash that looked like a summertime rock concert, complete with bare-chested men and fireworks, was a fitting prelude Sunday to Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast: Spring is nearly here.

The sky was cloudy on Groundhog Day and the celebrated rodent failed to see his shadow at sunrise, just the 12th time that’s happened in 111 years of Pennsylvania prognostications. (The last time, in 1995, turned out to be a bad guess.)

“He’s just kind of complacent and ready to go about the things groundhogs do,” said Bud Dunkel, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

A shadow sighting, according to tradition, would have indicated six more weeks of winter.

It was a unanimous decision among groundhogs around the nation. Concurring opinions came from New York City’s Staten Island Chuck; Gen. Beauregard Lee of Lilburn, Ga.; Jimmy of Sun Prairie, Wis.; Wanda at the Milwaukee County Zoo; and Buckeye Chuck of Marion, Ohio.

Even a prairie dog got into the act: “Early spring” said Lander Lil of Lander, Wyo.

Phil was pulled from his temporary burrow in a hollowed-out maple stump at 7:25 a.m. EST by handler Bill Deeley, whose heavy glove saved his fingers from the annoyed critter’s sharp teeth.

Dunkel then looked into the 15-pound woodchuck’s eyes and pretended to translate “ground-hogese.”

The forecast won a cheer from about 20,000 fans who gathered in a small clearing at Gobbler’s Knob in the central Pennsylvania woods.