A Shadow Is Seen; Winter Sticks Around

Punxsutawney Phil sent groans through a record crowd of 40,000 as they shivered in subfreezing temperatures on Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania.

Continuing a more than a century-old tradition, Bill Cooper, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle, knocked on Phil’s tree-stump home. Bill Deeley, Phil’s handler, retrieved him, and members of the club gathered for the proclamation.

German superstition holds that if an animal sees its shadow on Feb. 2, then bad weather is in store.

Meteorologists say the groundhog’s prediction looks accurate: February and March are expected to be slightly colder than usual across much of the East Coast.