FOX44 - Burlington / Plattsburgh News, Weather & Sports2.1.12 Come on out, furry buddy. What's the forecast?

2.1.12 Come on out, furry buddy. What's the forecast?

It's almost here, it's almost here! The day I worked for 4 long tough years at college to have blown away by a furry little puff ball with a cute face...

That's right! Every meteorologist's favorite (*grunt*) day. Groundhog Day! The day where the country turns to a cute, adorable, little ball of fat and fuzz named Punxsutawney Phil to make the prediction for the next 6 weeks. (I make a forecast 6 days out and people call me out!)

Of course, I'm joking. I love Groundhog Day just as much as anyone else. And yes, I do get up early sometimes just to watch the fun on TV.

Groundhog Day, as folklore (and groundhog.org) would have it, is a popular tradition in the United States. It is also a legend that traverses centuries, its origins clouded in the mists of time with ethnic cultures and animals awakening on specific dates. Myths such as this tie our present to the distant past when nature did, indeed, influence our lives. It is the day that the Groundhog comes out of his hole after a long winter sleep to look for his shadow.

If he sees it, he regards it as an omen of six more weeks of bad weather and returns to his hole.

If the day is cloudy and, hence, shadowless, he takes it as a sign of spring and stays above ground.

The forecast is Punxsutawney, PA for Thursday, February 2 is for a mostly cloudy sky. That gives the little guy a pretty good shot at either seeing it or not. I'm going to say, the way this winter is going, I won't complain either way. So come on out, little furry fella. Tell the country what you see!