MORE Stats and Facts for Groundhog Day 2024

Spoiler Alert: In honor of Phil NOT seeing his shadow (which according to the legend means we’re in for an early spring), here are a few more stats and facts to help celebrate . . .

• They used to EAT Phil after he made his prediction, which isn’t cool. They served him up after the first official Groundhog Day back in the 1880s, and said he was quite “tender.”
• The Gobbler’s Knob event attracts thousands of people. The record was around 40,000 in 2020, then the next year, it was ZERO (they did it virtually in 2021 because of COVID-19). Before the Bill Murray movie came out 30 years ago, only around 2,000 people were showing up for it.
• This year marks the first time since 2020 that Phil predicted an early spring, and just the 21st time since records were kept. Prior to this year, Phil had seen his shadow 107 times. There were a few years in the late 1800s where there was no record of his forecast, and 1943 was the only year he did not make an appearance.