Phil Saw His Shadow

[Dave Mitsky]

Well, folks, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning so don't put away the down parka just yet. :)

http://www.groundhog.org/

Dave Mitsky

[Tinaa]

Down here in Texas I guess that means don't even unpack your winter clothes, 'cause you ain't gonna need them.

[NEOWatcher]

Well, folks, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning so don't put away the down parka just yet. :)

http://www.groundhog.org/

Dave Mitsky
Slooow site this morning.
Besides, with this winter, it doesn't really matter. Temps were unusually warm, and I didn't even use my snowblower since before Christmas. 6 more weeks of this winter, bring it on. (Although Murphy's gonna make it snow this May)
http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/figuren/n070.gif

[Wolverine]

From the NWS:

Today: Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high around 78. Northwest wind between 5 and 15 mph.

I think I'll leave the parka in the closet.

[Argos]

Almost no snow south of the 40 in the US. Pretty unusual, eh?

[Dave Mitsky]

In my neck of the woods, January was the fifth warmest on record.

Dave Mitsky

[Swift]

Which means six more weeks of eggs standing on their ends
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0309/eggs_plait_big.jpg

[farmerjumperdon]

I was listening to it on the radio for a bit this morning. Talk about booooooring. They drag it out with speeches from dignitaries (who?) and all kinds of flotsam. I do love the movie, nice to know it's based on a true promotion.

I have not even started my snowblower this winter. What little that didn't melt quickly could be dealt with by shovel - and usually a broom!

[Gruesome]

"This is pitiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. What a hype. Well, it used to mean something in this town. They used to pull the hog out, and they used to *eat* it. You're hypocrites, all of you!"

[NEOWatcher]

I was listening to it on the radio for a bit this morning. Talk about booooooring.
At least we're back to the origininal PunkyPhil. It got kind of sickening when Ohio had Buckeye Chuck.


I have not even started my snowblower this winter. What little that didn't melt quickly could be dealt with by shovel - and usually a broom!
And I thought that was unusual for NE.Oh....but Wisconson? Wow.:surprised

And Lake Erie is (completely?) free of ice, Ferry service to the islands is running. It used to be that they would shut down shipping in Nov, and not start it up until Mar.


Added: Just thought I'd through in a link to Phil seeing his shadow (http://www.badastronomy.com/pix/bablog/phil_shuttle.jpg)

[Argos]

Global Warming! :)

[NEOWatcher]

Global Warming! :)
I think those people in the other hemisphere would disagree. But personally, my globe is warm. http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/froehlich/k010.gif

[Parrothead]

Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam predicted an early spring (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/02/02/1422808-cp.html). :D

[NEOWatcher]

Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam predicted an early spring (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/02/02/1422808-cp.html). :D
I didn't know Canada had spring.:p

[Moose]

Sure we do. It starts around the end of June, but still...

I've always said Canada should define two seasons for simplicity: Winter, and Not-Winter (which lasts about six weeks.)

[Dave Mitsky]

I was listening to it on the radio for a bit this morning. Talk about booooooring. They drag it out with speeches from dignitaries (who?) and all kinds of flotsam. I do love the movie, nice to know it's based on a true promotion.

Edit



I was at Punxsutawney for Groundhog Day in 2003, along with some 30,000 other folks. Yes, that's right - thirty thousand. There was nary a bit of "flotsam" in sight. It was loads of fun.

IMHO, "Groundog Day" was one of the best movies of the 1990s.

http://www.transparencynow.com/groundhog.htm

Dave Mitsky

[SeanF]

Did anybody else see the "Phil" in this thread title and think it was about Dr. Plait before reading the whole title? :D


Ever since 2002, I forget that Feb 2nd is Groundhog Day, anyway. It's my anniversary! :dance:

[Argos]

Happy birthday, pal. :)

[NEOWatcher]

Did anybody else see the "Phil" in this thread title and think it was about Dr. Plait before reading the whole title? :D
See the additionon post #10. (http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?p=671273#post671273)

[ToSeek]

One of our local weathermen says he expects the weather pattern that's been keeping the east coast so warm to change shortly, so that February is much closer to normal than January was.

[SeanF]

See the additionon post #10. (http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?p=671273#post671273)
:clap:

[Doodler]

Global Warming! :)

Ugh, don't get me going down that road..

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/02/02/groundhog.day.ap/index.html

The National Environmental Trust said it's groundhog-suit-wearing human "will ignore his shadow and will instead rely on global warming evidence to forecast an early spring."

:evil:

[NEOWatcher]

Ugh, don't get me going down that road..
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/02/02/groundhog.day.ap/index.html

Well; 2 pluses for this article:
1: They actually have the "Offbeat News" banner on top.
2: They didn't put in the science section because it's weather related.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Global Warming! :)

Sorry if you're joking, but I have to correct this. The unusually warm weather is not due to global warming but to a displacement of cold arctic air. North America is getting warmer air, while Eurasia (especially Russia) is getting the displaced cold air. Just a normal variation in weather. Not a variation in climate.

[Argos]

;)

[The Supreme Canuck]

Yeah, I figured, but I've been hearing it (seriously) quite a lot recently. ;)

[NEOWatcher]

.... It got kind of sickening when Ohio had Buckeye Chuck.
Ooops, Chuck is still around (http://www.weathernet5.com/weather/6678007/detail.html)

[peteshimmon]

Do you mean there actually IS a groundhog
day?

[ToSeek]

Sorry if you're joking, but I have to correct this. The unusually warm weather is not due to global warming but to a displacement of cold arctic air. North America is getting warmer air, while Eurasia (especially Russia) is getting the displaced cold air. Just a normal variation in weather. Not a variation in climate.

A local weatherman blamed it on a summer phenomenon that's stuck around. Our main summer weathermaker is the so-called "Bermuda high," that sits out over the Atlantic and draws hot, humid air up from the Gulf so that everyone who can leaves the DC area in August. Normally these fade during the winter, but this January it's persisted, so that we're getting mild southern air and are blocked from the nasty Canadian winter air. However, that is apparently going to change soon.

[Doodler]

A local weatherman blamed it on a summer phenomenon that's stuck around. Our main summer weathermaker is the so-called "Bermuda high," that sits out over the Atlantic and draws hot, humid air up from the Gulf so that everyone who can leaves the DC area in August. Normally these fade during the winter, but this January it's persisted, so that we're getting mild southern air and are blocked from the nasty Canadian winter air. However, that is apparently going to change soon.

As long as I've been in the DC area, it always seemed the worst stuff was in February anyway. White Christmases and New Years were pretty uncommon.

[Argos]

La Nina is intensifying. Water surface temperatures on the Eastern pacific are already 1 to 1.5 C colder. If this trend persists until March La Nina will be officially characterized. It usually dislocates the subtropical jet stream northwards over North America, allowing for warm moist air entering the lower Mississipi valley. Maybe this atypical January is an early manifestation of this effect.

[WHarris]

As long as I've been in the DC area, it always seemed the worst stuff was in February anyway.

Usually that's true, but there are exceptions. There was that twin snowstorm attack back in January 1987 and another January snowstorm in the latter 90s. Plus a March blizzard in 1993. Those are the ones that come immediately to mind.

[Swift]

Originally Posted by SeanF
Did anybody else see the "Phil" in this thread title and think it was about Dr. Plait before reading the whole title?
See the additionon post #10. (http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?p=671273#post671273)

I ToSeeked (http://www.bautforum.com/showpost.php?p=671260&postcount=7) the pair of you (post # 7). :dance:

[Doodler]

Usually that's true, but there are exceptions. There was that twin snowstorm attack back in January 1987 and another January snowstorm in the latter 90s. Plus a March blizzard in 1993. Those are the ones that come immediately to mind.

Yeah, I remember the '93 one, I just started working at a restaurant the weekend it hit. There were two January storms I remember, '94 and '95. It was too cold to snow in our area, and we ended up having everything covered in a quarter inch sheath of ice.

[Laguna]

Seem Phil received the european weather channel this year.
One of the coldest winter I can remember.
Just perfect to learn how to ski. :D

[Vaelroth]

Could this mean that we'll have a deathly cold March around here? It is possible, right?

[Vaelroth]

Yeah, I remember the '93 one, I just started working at a restaurant the weekend it hit. There were two January storms I remember, '94 and '95. It was too cold to snow in our area, and we ended up having everything covered in a quarter inch sheath of ice.

I think you're thinking of '94 and '96. 'Cause I remember '96 being rough, and I have a shirt from Anne Arundel Medical Center that says "I survived the blizzard of '96." However, I could be horribly wrong and '95 could have been bad too. I was a wee tot then so I don't remember.

[ToSeek]

Yeah, I remember the '93 one, I just started working at a restaurant the weekend it hit. There were two January storms I remember, '94 and '95. It was too cold to snow in our area, and we ended up having everything covered in a quarter inch sheath of ice.

'94 was horrible. Single-digit temperatures for four days in a row, and ice everywhere. We broke multiple shovels trying to clear the ice.

[Chuck]

http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/reality/archive/images/reality2006915880202.gif

[Enzp]

(They say we're young and we don't know; won't find out untiiiiiiil we grow...)

So Punxawhatsis will have six more weeks of winter. Good for them. Here in Michigan, we had clouds, so I guess we don't get six more weeks of it. It will probably not last more than , oh, about a month and a half.


Up here we get nine months of winter and three months of bad ski conditions. SO they say.

[Enzp]

Peteshimmon, yes, there is a groundhog day. The Punxatawny Phil is a relatively recent effert to capitalize on the old tradition. It is based upon some old folklore that if it is a clear day on February 2, then winter was still hard upon you and would not be ending soon. It was not originally a national thing - like one woodchuck for the whole country. But it has sorta turned into that.

[peteshimmon]

You mean there actually IS a groundhog
day?....:)...oh..thanks Enzp. It seems a very
cozy film for some reason and it does not
spoil "I got you babe" which brings back
memories of warm August days with a new bike
and monochrome television with Sonny and Cher
singing to each other then scarching their
noses. And some nice puppy flesh on Cher:)
But I also hear "Deep in the heart of Texas"
do I not?

[NEOWatcher]

I ToSeeked (http://www.bautforum.com/showpost.php?p=671260&postcount=7) the pair of you (post # 7). :dance:
Well that was Phil, I'll give that to you. http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/verschiedene/k020.gif But there didn't seem (to me) to be a lot of relevance to this thread. No shadow for one. http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/verschiedene/s050.gif

As for the discussion of cold winters... My 2 cents is this. I remember most of the snow being in Feb-Mar, but the cold being in Jan. Usually, by the end of Jan, we've had at least 1 week of never getting above 20F. I don't remember even having one day of that yet this year.

[Tinaa]

I went out to see what work I needed to do in my flower beds and my hyacinths are already up! They are a whole month early. I'm going to have to mow my yard if we ever get any rain. Too soon!

[Gillianren]

The warm winter we were predicted came through. We had one, maybe two days of snow back in November, but warm and rainy the rest of the time. (Well, warm by WA winter standards, let's say--mostly in the 40s and 50s.) However, the prediction I'm citing came from a slightly more reliable source than some rodent in Pennsylvania--it came from the National Weather Service.

[Dave Mitsky]

Do you mean there actually IS a groundhog
day?

Yes, it was originally known in pagan times as Imbolg or Imbolc and was Christianized as Candlemas. February 2 is one of the four cross-quarter days and thus has an astronomical connection.

http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/cal/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-quarter_day

Dave Mitsky

[Kelfazin]

. . .if we ever get any rain.

Boy are we ever saying this over in Phoenix. The last time we had even a drop of rain was October 18, 2005. Back on Jan 28th we set a new state record of 102 days without rain and have continued to "improve" upon that record ever since.

And to think, last year we had so much winter/spring rain we thought our 7 year draught was finally over...