Groundhog Day 2018: Watch Punxsutawney Phil predict the end of winter

A groundhog called Punxsutawney Phil will emerge on Friday, perch on a stump in rural Pennsylvania and tell us when winter shall end.

He’s not always right. But he’s always popular.

Groundhog Day 2018 happens Feb. 2 at 7:25 a.m. Eastern time on a hill outside Punxsutawney, Penn., known as Gobbler’s Knob. There, the seemingly immortal Phil — the same rodent who launched the tradition in 1887, if you believe his handlers — will look for his shadow.

If Phil sees it, expect six more weeks of winter. If not, expect an early spring. (Spoiler alert: He almost always sees his shadow.)

Festivities will stream live on Pennsylvania’s tourism website at visitpa.com/groundhog-day-live-stream/.

If you ask Phil’s handlers, called — no joke — the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, the groundhog’s predictions aren’t geographically specific (they always come to pass somewhere). He also relays his predictions by speaking “Groundhogese” and sips a “groundhog punch” that staves off death. It gets pretty weird.

Groundhog Day stems from the European holiday known as Candlemas, a Christian “festival of lights” in the bleak midwinter of Feb. 2 . Germans built upon the tradition by looking to the hedgehog as a predictor of weather, the legend goes, and German settlers in Pennsylvania later switched to the groundhog.

Explore more Groundhog Day facts and oddities with Pennsylvania’s York Daily Record, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK:,