The Latest: Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil will predict winter's end or 6 more weeks of cold

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PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Tens of thousands of people are gathering for Punxsutawney Phil, a groundhog that lives in a tree stump, to predict if the already long and cold winter across much of the United States will go on for another six weeks or if an early spring is around the corner.

The meteorological marmot's predictions on Monday are pretty straightforward, although his top-hatted handlers in the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club insist Phil’s “groundhogese” of winks, purrs, chatters and nods are also being interpreted.

When Phil is said to have seen his shadow upon emergence from a tree stump in rural Pennsylvania, that’s considered a forecast for six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow, an early spring is said to be on the way.

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U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick was among the political figures drawn to the Gobbler’s Knob stage on Monday -- noting his mother was from Punxsutawney.

Also spotted were state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who is currently pursuing the governorship, and top state Senate Republicans Joe Pittman and Kim Ward.

AccuWeather’s chief long-range weather expert, meteorologist Paul Pastelok, said some clouds moved into Punxsutawney overnight, bringing flurries he called “microflakes.”

Pastelok said the coming week will remain cold, with below average temperatures in the eastern United States.

“We’ve still got some more snow and ice to contend with” in the mid-Atlantic, Ohio River Valley and Northeastern U.S., he said.

As for long-range forecasts, Pastelok said: “The farther out you get the accuracy is not specifically on point all the time, but we can get trends.”

Pastelok was in the State College area, about an hour from Punxsutawney.

Lisa Gibson was in Punxsutawney to attend Groundhog Day for the 10th time, wearing a lighted hat that resembled the tree stump from which Phil would emerge shortly after daybreak.

“Oh man, it just breaks up the doldrums of winter,” said Gibson, accompanied by her husband -- dressed up as Elvis Presley -- and teenage daughter. “It’s like Halloween and New Year’s Eve all wrapped up into one holiday.”

Gibson, a resident of Pittsburgh, was rooting for Phil to not see his shadow and therefore predict an early start to spring. She was there to “have a good time, and bring on that early spring.”

Among the revelers streaming to the site early Monday was India Kirssin, there to celebrate her 27th birthday with a group drawn from Ohio and Washington, D.C.

Kirssin said it was her second Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney -- the first was on her 10th birthday.

“Everybody’s in a good mood, it seems like,” Kirssen said, holding a customized sign.

She floated the plan to return this year back in November: “It all came together last minute.”

Groundhogs are herbivores that are themselves edible to humans, although they are not widely consumed.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission says about 36,000 hunters reported killing more than 200,000 groundhogs last year.

Game Commission spokesperson Travis Lau found groundhog a bit stinky to clean and thick-skinned, but “actually really good” and “more like beef than venison.”

Some cooks advise that groundhogs are best taken when they are young and after clover is in bloom, since a clover diet is thought to improve the meat’s taste.

A couple hundred people are expected to gather Monday afternoon in Bee Cave, located just west of Austin, to watch an armadillo named Bee Cave Bob.

Mike Burke, who helped start the annual tradition, believes an armadillo “knows a whole lot more about what’s going on than some rodent.”

Their ceremony also includes watching to see if the animal sees his shadow, but they aren’t opposed to improvising a little to make sure the crowd goes home happy. “A lot of the times when it’s been kind of a crummy winter, we’ll predict early spring no matter what,” he said.

Some well-meaning efforts have sought to determine Phil’s accuracy, but what “six weeks of winter” means is debatable. By all accounts, the furry prognosticator predicts more winter far more often than he predicts an early spring.

And claims that a groundhog has or has not seen its shadow — and that it’s able to communicate that to a human — are also fair territory for skeptics and the humor-impaired.

Among the skeptics is the National Centers for Environmental Information, within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The government agency last year compared Phil’s record with U.S. national temperatures over the prior decade and concluded he was right only 40% of the time.

Punxsutawney is an area that Pennsylvania Germans settled — and in the late 1880s started celebrating the holiday by picnicking, hunting and eating groundhogs.

Members of Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, organized in 1899, care for Phil at a customized space beside Punxsutawney Memorial Library — where there’s a window with a view into the creature’s burrow.

The annual ritual at Gobbler’s Knob goes back more than a century, with ties to ancient farming traditions in Europe. Punxsutawney’s festivities have grown considerably since the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray.

Groundhog Day falls on Feb. 2, the midpoint between the shortest, darkest day of the year on the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It’s a time of year that also figures in the Celtic calendar and the Christian holiday of Candlemas.