Groundhog Day comes around again for Punxsutawney Phil

Sun Prairie Mayor John Murray, left, predicts spring after communicating with Jimmy, Wisconsin’s answer to Punxsutawney Phil, held by caretaker Jerry Hahn, in Sun Praire, Wisconsin (Craig Schreiner/Wisconsin State Journal/AP)

Punxsutawney Phil’s winter weather forecast will be announced sometime after sunrise on Friday in Pennsylvania, the scene of the country’s largest and most well-known Groundhog Day celebration.

The annual event in Gobbler’s Knob is a tongue-in-cheek ritual in which Phil’s handlers, members of a club with roots in the late 19th century, reveal whether the groundhog has seen his shadow — ushering in six more weeks of winter weather — or has not, presaging early springlike weather.