how long has punxsutawney phil been predicti...

Punxsutawney Phil has been “predicting” the weather since the late 19th century, with his first recorded Groundhog Day forecast in 1887, so the tradition has been going on for about 139 years as of 2026.

How long Phil has been predicting

• The Groundhog Day ceremony with Punxsutawney Phil dates back to 1887 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

• That means Phil (through many groundhog successors using the same name) has been making annual predictions for roughly 13+ decades.

• Records from tourism and news sources describe the event as having occurred every year since 1887, with only a handful of years lacking clear documentation.

A bit of fun context

• Each year on February 2 at Gobbler’s Knob, Phil is taken from his burrow to “predict” either six more weeks of winter (if he sees his shadow) or an early spring (if he doesn’t).

• Over that long history, he has called for more winter well over 100 times, while predicting an early spring only a couple dozen times, according to historical tallies.

• Analyses of those forecasts show his accuracy is well below 50%, closer to about 35–40% overall, which is part of why the event is treated more as a fun folk tradition than serious meteorology.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.