Posted on 02/03/2019 12:16:32 AM PST by CaliforniaCraftBeer
Phil does a shade poorer when you check his performance against actual weather outcomes since 1969, when the accuracy of weather records is less in question, said Tim Roche, a meteorologist at Weather Underground. From 1969 on, Phil's overall accuracy rate drops to about 36 percent...
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
The only element of the ritual that makes a smidgen of meteorological sense is recognizing springtime is a season of stormy change from a season of just plain cold/dry. With the latter being mostly sunny, and the former being mostly cloudy, that suggests seeing a shadow means your still stuck in non-stormy winter, while not seeing it means you are more in season-change mode, or more in Spring conditions.
It’s just a little fun people. Lighten up.
Nothing is fun to do in winter.
I remember last year when the rodent’s prediction was wrong, there came a humorous joke of a news headline that there was an arrest warrant out for Punxsutawney Phil.
“You think an animal can predict when spring comes? Sounds like morons who think man can cause Global Warming...”
Many animals definitely exhibit different behaviors/growth based on their perception of a harsher upcoming winter. The animals sense things we do not perceive. As a result you can see thicker coats and dens, more intense food searching, putting off mating to search for more food, etc.
In early history, humans learned to watch for these things and passed down the knowledge. Unfortunately most of these skills have been lost to time due to far fewer people living off the land and being directly connected to nature these days
Given what the weather’s been in much of the country over the last week or so....if Punxsutawney Phil had seen his shadow and predicted 6 more weeks of winter, the crowd may have rioted, rushed the stage, and torn him to shreds.
This isn't just any animal, this is Punxsutawney Phil......
Good point. But the hedgehog is a nocturnal animal, so it won’t apply to him. However, it is also a hibernating animal, and such are rather good at predicting when Spring will arrive: after all, their lives may depend on their being right.
He’s a groundhog:
The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots.[2] It was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.[3] The groundhog is also referred to as a chuck, wood-shock, groundpig, whistlepig,[4][5] whistler, thickwood badger, Canada marmot, monax, moonack, weenusk, red monk[6] and, among French Canadians in eastern Canada, siffleux.[7] The name “thickwood badger” was given in the Northwest to distinguish the animal from the prairie badger. Monax (Móonack) is an Algonquian name of the woodchuck, which meant “digger” (cf. Lenape monachgeu).[8][9] Young groundhogs may be called chucklings.[10]:66 Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas, but the groundhog is a lowland creature. It is found through much of the eastern United States across Canada and into Alaska[11]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog
He’s ugly enough to be cute.
Agreed.
However, using the aspect of the Groundhog being still in hibernation or not is not the test being applied. For that, the test should be humans looking into his den and checking his respiration rate, pulse, etc.
With the in-practice test being whether the animal itself casts a shadow, as observed by humans, I think I’ll go by my original clear/dry/cold versus cloudy/stormy/warming test, where no actual hedgehog need be involved.
...or French Creek Freddie
Yours, JL
I was going to post a meme from Caddy Shack and that groundhog but, ran into “Lacey Underall”
She is still beautiful... but, point taken...
Still, Cindy Morgan from Cadyshack was hot and her current photos are beautiful...
;-)
Caddyshackalicious!
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