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Stumble It!Thursday morning, citizens of Punxsutawney, Pa., gathered at the famous Gobbler's Knob to witness the time-honored tradition of letting a groundhog predict the weather.
Phil the groundhog stepped out of his hole, in front of hundreds of Groundhog Day supporters, only to see his shadow, indicating that there would be six more weeks of winter.
However, in Sue Prairie, Wis., overcast skies kept Jimmy the groundhog from seeing his shadow, leading to the prediction of an early spring.
When asked which groundhog would predict the fate of our early spring, David Braaten, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science said that one would be best served by flipping a coin.
"You might as well say that Wisconsin is heads, and Pennsylvania is tails and flip it, because the only way to predict the weather is through demographics and charts. Not by the work of a groundhog," Braaten said.
Recently, Lawrence residents have been enjoying a trend of warmer average temperatures. Models have shown a 90 percent probability of temperatures increasing from 1.7 to five degrees Celsius over the next 100 years due to an increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
However, temperatures haven't increased globally. This winter, Eastern Europe has seen a decrease in its average temperatures.
