Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring — too bad his track record is terrible

Punxsutawney Phil predicts an early spring for 2019
(Image credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow in Pennsylvania on Saturday, making a 2019 Groundhog Day prediction of an early spring.

The prediction was confirmed by a second groundhog in New York, Staten Island Chuck. This year's forecast comes as the Midwest finally warms up following a week of extreme cold and California braces for a major weekend storm that could bring flash floods and landslides as well as up to 10 feet of snow at high altitudes in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.