Groundhog Club handler A.J. Dereume holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, during the 136th celebration of Groundhog Day on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., Wednesday. Phil's handlers said that the groundhog has forecast six more weeks of winter. Associated Press

Barry Reeger

PUNXSUTWANEY — After more than three hours of waiting in cold, mountainous air in the middle of a crowd of about several thousand people, seeing a fuzzy, half-asleep groundhog being hoisted into the air by a man who resembled Mr. Monopoly was the last thing I could have expected to be the payoff for my long wade through the early dawn.

But the crowd of thousands went wild at the sight of it Wednesday morning, and the cheers of adoration for the exalted rodent warmed the brisk 7 a.m. air, which eventually culminated in disappointed, but accepting, “boos” at the news that we would be getting six more weeks of winter.

Eddie Trizzino

It was Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, and 2022’s observance marked the return of the events and festivities that had been the tradition for the holiday before the coronavirus pandemic put it on hold in 2021.

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