Lingering Winter Lurks in Shadow as Groundhog Sees His

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. —  About 2,000 people shivered for up to two hours Saturday to see Punxsutawney Phil emerge from his cushy, heated burrow and predict six more weeks of winter.

The groundhog cast a shadow over the nation after his handler coaxed him from a specially made tree stump into the clear dawn and 20-degree weather.

The most devoted of Phil’s followers, the 14 businessmen who comprise the rodent’s Inner Circle, gathered in top hats on stage with the town’s “Seer of Seers.”

At 7:27 a.m., the exact moment of the sunrise, Inner Circle President James H. Means rapped three times with a cane on Phil’s yellow door. Handler Bud Dunkel reached in, gently woke Phil, and lifted the squirming rodent.

Means held Phil up to his face and questioned him, held the woodchuck to his ear for the answer and signaled for a proclamation.

Judge Edwin Snyder reported to the audience of college students, families, tourists and reporters that Phil “signaled in clear groundhogese: ‘There’s a shadow down there. Not especially dark or strong, but enough to call for six more weeks of winter.’ ”