Punxsutawney Phil to be inducted into Meteorologist Hall of Fame

Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog will receive a big honor just before he gives his weather prediction on Groundhog Day 2023.

The Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center will induct Punxsutawney Phil into the Meteorologist Hall of Fame on Feb. 1 - the day before Groundhog Day.

The center said Phil will be the “final and most famous” inductee into the Meteorologist Hall of Fame.

“The Punxsutawney Weather Discovery Center’s Board of Directors is inducting its final member into the Meteorologist Hall of Fame. As the final inductee, the Weather Discovery Center has chosen a celebrity well-known in meteorological circles throughout the world.

His forecasts have inspired songs, poetry, cinema, and more. Each year on February 2, thousands of faithful followers gather in the Pennsylvania dawn, eagerly anticipating his forecast. The seer of seers, prognosticator of all prognosticators, Punxsutawney Phil is the 2023 — and final — Hall of Fame inductee,” the center said in a news release.

Phil began his work in weather forecasting in 1887 on Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney. The tradition began with the Christian holiday, Candlemas Day, held on Feb. 2.

According to the center, “On that day, Christians would take their candles to the church to have them blessed. This, they felt, would bring blessings to their households for the rest of winter. The celebration was memorialized by an English folksong:

If Candlemas be fair and bright, Come, Winter, have another flight;

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain, Go Winter, and come not again.

“When the celebration was adopted in Germany, the tradition of watching the behavior of a hedgehog (cousin to the groundhog) on February 2 was added to the folklore. If the animal saw its shadow on that day, there would be a second winter. If there was no shadow, spring would arrive early.”

Phil is taken care of by the Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

Phil will be inducted into the Hall of fame at noon on Feb. 1. The ceremony is open to the public with the $8 admission to the Weather Discovery Center. A reception with punch and groundhog cookies will follow. Those attending will be able to meet Phil. The center is at 201 N. Findley St., Punxsutawney, Pa.

Previous inductees have included Louis Uccellini, Ph.D., the former director of the National Weather Service and former assistant administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2016); Joel Myers, Ph.D., the founder of AccuWeather (2007); Weather Channel meteorologist Jen Carfagno (2019); Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore (2013); and Weather World/Penn State University meteorologists Fred Gadomski (2012), Elliot Abrams (2011) and Paul Knight (2010).