2024-02-02 00:41:00
A funny “meteorologist”. In North America, there is a centuries-old tradition of predicting the weather. Every February 2 marks “Groundhog Day”, in addition to Candlemas Day. During this very special day, Canadians and Americans closely scrutinized the behavior of the rodent. Depending on this, they would be able to know if winter will last another six weeks, or if spring will arrive early.
It is therefore on the morning of February 2 that North American marmots poke their heads out of their burrows before returning to hibernate until March. If there is enough sunlight for the animals to see their shadows, that means a winter that will last another six weeks. Otherwise, spring will be early. It is in Pennsylvania, in Punxsutawney, that the groundhog Phil is undoubtedly the undisputed star of this very special day. Every February 2, thousands of people participate in “Phil’s Parade,” a popular event that takes place before the rodent’s long-awaited forecast.
A tradition that has become famous thanks to A Day Without End
However, are the marmots’ predictions reliable? The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, carried out calculations in 2019 comparing Phil’s predictions and the climate reality of the past decade, reminded West France in 2021. Result: the marmot was right about the length of winter in… 40% of cases.
This is notably thanks to the film A day without end, released in 1993 and with the American actor Bill Murray that this North American tradition became famous. In this feature film, a journalist annoyed at the idea of having to cover Punxsutawney’s “Groundhog Day” relives the event over and over again, finding himself locked in a time loop.
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