Down Life’s Crazy Road: An Early Spring?
- by Guest Contributor
- February 16, 2023
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By John Pozza
February 2 marked the 137th annual trek to Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney for the commemoration of Groundhog Day, with Phil once again (as he does most times) predicting six more weeks of winter.
It’s an annual tradition. As legend has it, once Phil is pulled from inside his stump at approximately 7:20 am, with assistance from the Inner Circle who translate Phil’s prediction in Groundhogeese, he will determine whether he sees his shadow or not. If he does, it means we’ll have six more weeks of winter. If not, spring is just around the corner.
Wait. The vast majority of times, Phil has seen his shadow, so we have NOT had an early spring. In reality, we have not only NOT had an early spring, but we had a longer winter than Phil forecasted.
That’s because the beginning of spring is actually six and a half weeks after Groundhog Day. The first day of spring (Spring Equinox) is Monday, March 20, 46 days after February 2. And in leap years, when there are 29 days in February instead of 28, it’s 47 days after February 2.
All of this may be inconsequential. Most people just follow their favorite meteorologist’s mid-winter weather forecast.
During the winter we tend to spend most of our time indoors anyway. We only spend time outdoors when we have to go from the house to the car to go to work, to school, to church, shopping, the gym, visiting family or friends, eating out at a restaurant, or taking in an indoor athletic, theatrical or music event. When the weather is bad, we tend to stay home.
On those days that are either sunny, milder in temperature, or both, we try to spend a little more time outdoors to take advantage of the nicer weather and to escape the indoor winter blues. Often it’s to either take a walk, take the dog for a walk, jog, or ride a bike.
For those wanting to celebrate Groundhog Day or to just learn more about weather in general, nothing can beat visiting the Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center, located at 201 N. Findley St. in the borough. It is currently open Thursdays through Sundays, from 11 am to 3 pm.
Since 2007, the board of the Weather Discovery Center has selected and honored a new member who has advanced the knowledge of weather science, climatology and meteorology into its Meteorologist Hall of Fame.
As Hall of Fame members, each has helped to represent and promote the mission of the Weather Discovery Center, which is to help visitors explore and understand the science behind weather phenomena.
This year, the Weather Discovery Center’s Board of Directors inducted its final member into the Meteorologist Hall of Fame. As the final inductee, it was only appropriate that the board chose a celebrity well-known in meteorological circles throughout the world. It was the seer of seers and prognosticator of prognosticators himself, Punxsutawney Phil. His forecasts have inspired songs, poetry, cinema and more.
Previous Hall of Fame inductees from 2007 to 2022 include: Dr. Joel Myers, Jeff Verszyla, Stephanie Abrams, Richard Kane, Jim Burton, Paul Knight, Dr. Greg Forbes, Elliot Abrams, Fred Gadomski, Jim Cantore, Tim Samaras, Dr. Richard Alley, Dr. Louis Uccellini, Janice Dean, Joe Murgo, Jen Carfagno, Erik Salna and Tony Martin.
About the author: John Pozza
John Pozza, of Brookville, is an early childhood education advocate and veteran broadcast journalist. He retired from the Region 1 Early Learning Resource Center based at the Northwest Institute of Research (NWIR) in Erie in 2020, but keeps active as a regular columnist for the Brookville, Brockway and Clarion Mirror, and as a contributing writer for Watershed Books in Brookville, which helped publish his memoir, “Was Anybody Really Listening,” available on Amazon, and his soon-to-be-released “Conversations on The Neighborhood” on the legacy of Fred Rogers. He also hosts the NWIR Quality Early Learning Show podcast on Soundcloud. John and his wife Lisa live in Brookville with their two cats, Rusty and Tinker Belle. They have a son Matt, a US Navy veteran, who is a graduate of the Claude Pettit College of Law at Ohio Northern University and practicing attorney in Jacksonville, Florida.
