The verdict is in!
Punxsutawney Phil reluctantly left Gobblers Knob early Thursday morning. Thousands of people stood outside in the cold to hear whether we'll see an early spring, or six more weeks of winter.
The prediction: six more weeks of winter. Phil saw his shadow....under cloudy skies. One of the lights attached to a camera must have gotten too close to the stage.
Dunkirk Dave, Jimmy The Groundhog and Michigan's Woody The Woodchuck agreed with Phil's prediction: more weeks of shoveling and shivering.
But not good old Staten Island Chuck! He differed with other distinguished groundhogs across North America, calling for an early spring. Gardeners and woodchucks rejoice!
Ontario's Wiarton Willie, an albino groundhog, hopped on the spring train Thursday morning as well.
There are other marmots as of Thursday morning that have yet to tell their forecast. Woodchuck Wyn makes her debut up in Winnipeg. She has some big shoes to fill, as Winnipeg Willow passed away unexpectedly last year, days before Groundhog Day.
Chesapeake Chuck will make his seventh grand appearance at the Virginia Living Museum out in Newport News, Virginia.
Queen Charlotte was too shy for the big stage. Instead, she took to twitter to announce her prediction. Yes, chalk up another marmot predicting an early spring.
My royal prognostication is that spring will come early to the Queen City! Happy Groundhog Day! #noshadow pic.twitter.com/z7tFdn7XgN
— Queen Charlotte (@CLTGroundhog) February 2, 2017
As for the weather here, you'll likely see winter stick around for at least a few more weeks in the Buffalo area. :(
It'll feel more like spring early next week....Though, for a short timeframe. Winter returns towards the end of next week.
As of now, Mid-February looks as if it will be average to slightly milder than average.
For far range outlook, the Climate Prediction Center is prognosticating that the month of February as a whole will end up to be average to above average for the Northeast (snow, cold with spurts of above average warmth at times). Some of the long range models even suggest the second half of Februrary will be much warmer than normal. Not saying that we won't see a few cold shots move into our neck of the woods.
Southwest U.S. has the best shot of experiencing an early spring through the next month and a half.
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