
Bundle up, winter is sticking around for another six weeks. Or is it?
The immortal weather prognosticator, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow this morning, which means we can expect another month and a half of freezing and shoveling.
Which shouldn't be a surprise. Besides the fact that Phil's groundhog girth could block out the sun (who is feeding this thing?), according to the
BookOfOdds.com the odds Phil will see his shadow is an almost certain 1 in 1.15. The odds he will not see it? 1 in 7.86. (The odds he will be run over by a semi crossing the street to the shadow ceremony? 1 in 12.87.)
So according to those numbers, the odds are stacked against us heading into an early, and much needed, Spring.
But, in the words of the immortal Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend." Phil's shadow is apparently about as accurate as coin flipping, dart throwing and Mark McGwire's memory.
While friends of Phil claim that his shadow correctly predicts the arrival of Spring 100 percent of the time, the U.S. National Climatic Data Center has estimated that Phil is only right about 40 percent of the time. So there's still hope. (But I wouldn't put away the shovel just yet.)