It shares its name with a classic film in which a single day is stuck on repeat — but Groundhog Day is a day like no other. That's especially true for a small town in Pennsylvania, where celebrity groundhog Punxsutawney Phil delivers his annual weather prediction on Feb. 2 to thousands of people in person, and millions more online.
The event takes place at Gobbler's Knob, an open hillside in the woods about 2 miles from the town of Punxsutawney. In a tradition dating to the 1880s, if Phil sees his shadow, it's a sign winter will last six more weeks. If he doesn't, an early spring is on the way. There are also other groundhogs making predictions around the country. (Science-based approaches to weather are also available.
Here's a quick guide to the famous festival in Punxsutawney, Pa.
Phil has his own 'Inner Circle'
The event is headed by the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle. The group has been around almost as long as the tradition and currently consists of 15 men who live in the small town about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. They have day jobs, but in groundhog mode, they wear top hats and tuxedos and use nicknames like "Moonshine" and "Frostbite." They also have a secret handbook.
The Inner Circle's president is Tom Dunkel, whose father also spent decades in the group (it's a lifetime commitment). For him, Groundhog Day and Phil were never far away.
"Phil would be at my Thanksgiving dinners, running around on the floor," Dunkel says.
On Groundhog Day, Dunkel uses the same cane his father once held to rouse Phil from his burrow. The famous groundhog's handler is A.J. "Rainmaker" Dereume. Like Dunkel, his father was also in the Inner Circle.
"You've got to have the gene, we say — you've got to have the groundhog gene," Dereume says. "We were both born with it."
Phil is purportedly immortal
When Phil sits on a stump to predict the weather, you're seeing the original animal, not a replacement, according to Inner Circle lore.
"Always remember that first and foremost, it's Groundhog Day — not Groundhogs Day — for a reason," Dereume says.
"There's only one. And there's only ever been one," Dunkel agrees. "There's only ever been one Punxsutawney Phil. Our Phil is like, probably 139 years old." (Under normal circumstances, groundhogs in captivity reportedly live up to 14 years.)
Asked to explain, Dunkel says that at the club's summer picnic, Phil drinks a secret concoction dubbed "The Elixir of Life."
"Every sip gives him seven years of longevity," he says.
Many Groundhog Day visitors also do their share of sipping. There's an official Groundhog Ball, a banquet and reception, and restaurants stay open late on Groundhog Day Eve — but no alcohol is allowed at Gobbler's Knob.
The hit movie brought huge crowds
Punxsutawney's Groundhog Day was steadily gaining popularity before the eponymous film came out in 1993, Dereume says.
In the movie, Bill Murray, playing TV weatherman Phil to Andie MacDowell's producer Rita, took audiences through a Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney that was stuck on repeat.
The film was shot mostly in Woodstock, Ill., but for Punxsutawney, Pa., "Groundhog Day was really off to the races at that point," Dereume says.
The event exploded, he says, from crowds of 3,000 to 5,000 people to 30,000 to 40,000 — a massive influx for Punxsutawney, where the U.S. Census Bureau lists a population of about 5,600.
Organizers adapted to huge crowds, and they noticed something odd at Gobbler's Knob: Visitors kept coming to see the small stage in a field, no matter the date.
"We thought, 'Well, geez, people are coming year 'round," Dunkel, the Inner Circle's president, says, prompting the group to add amenities like a welcome center that is open all year.
Punxsutawney Phil was famous before the movie
"Phil's met two presidents," Dunkel says. "He went to the White House to meet Ronald Reagan, and he's met Jimmy Carter."
On the other 364 days of the year, admirers look for Phil at Gobbler's Knob and at special events.
"We'll do probably six or seven parades a year," Dunkel says. "We have what's called a Phil-mobile" — a bus that plays groundhog-centered music, with a platform perch for Phil.
People come from far away, for many reasons
Many visitors come to Punxsutawney's Groundhog Day for fun, or because it's on their bucket list. But some come for more personal reasons.
While the film is a comedy, Groundhog Day "changed a lot of the reasons why people come," Dunkel says. "You'd be surprised."
He notes that the story depicts a jaded man who struggles to break free from a rut of bad habits and impulses.
"We get a lot of people that come to Groundhog Day for a fresh start and to start over" because of what they got out of the movie, Dunkel says. "And their stories are pretty cool to listen to."
Visitors find an event with modest costs. It's free to attend the big gathering at Gobbler's Knob, although many spectators opt to pay $5 for a bus ride rather than deal with parking. Hotels in the area sell out; people who need rest can pay $10 to nap in a community center.
Why the top hats?
In the 1950s, the Groundhog Club decided their honor and respect for Phil required them to wear top hats and tuxedos, says Dereume, the prognosticating rodent's handler. If you were to meet the king or queen of England, he adds, "you would certainly do the same thing."
But there was a scramble for top hats a few years ago, after the club's longtime supplier in the U.S. went out of business. They found a new top hatter in England — but "then Queen Elizabeth passed away, and all of a sudden there was a top hat shortage," Dunkel says.
The hats aren't cheap, and a free one is the only perk you get for joining the Inner Circle, Dereume says.
It's not (all) hokum
Groundhog Day rituals are a unique blend of formality and folksiness. When else do grown men in fancy dress bend their ears toward a woodchuck — as groundhogs are also known — as thousands look on?
But the timing has been important for centuries, as ancient Celts and then Christians celebrated the halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox.
Our modern Groundhog Day evolved from the Christian holiday Candlemas, which in turn came from the Celtic festival of Imbolc. Like the Lunar New Year, the traditions celebrate the return of the sun and spring.
The observances also prompted a question: When will winter end? When Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants thought about that, they recalled the German practice of consulting a European badger for weather predictions — and in North America, they pressed a groundhog into service.
Phil tends to bet on winter
Historically, Phil's predictions lean heavily toward an extended winter. That's been his forecast 108 times, compared to 21 for an early spring since his prognostications were recorded in 1887 (there are no records for 10 years). That tendency to anticipate more cold helps explain why he's been accurate only about 35% of the time, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Neither Doppler radar nor pesky statistics seem to dent interest in Phil's weather predictions. Still, experts say that if you really want to predict the end of winter, you might be better off flipping a coin.
But where's the fun in that?
Copyright 2025 NPR