According to this asinine legend, if the Groundhog doesn't see its shadow, winter weather will be gone in 2 weeks. If it sees its shadow, it will scare underground and winter weather will continue for another 6 weeks.

This year, the Vernal Equinox is at 3:45PM, March 20th (slightly earlier than usual.) That's 46 days, 8 hours, and 19 minutes after after Punxsutawney Phil cowered back into cover this morning. Note that 6 weeks is 42 days. That means that spring actually arrives approximately closer to 7 weeks from today. The break-even point would be just under 7 more weeks of winter. Anything less than that (Phil's 6 more weeks, for instance), is a prediction of warmer than usual weather, as winter weather can last well into spring for anyone north of Tennessee.

I submit Phil and other groundhogs engaged in meteorological prognostication (such as the more local Wiarton Willie, who even more egregiously predicted an early spring today) are frauds, overpromising and underdelivering, even on their most pessimistic predictions.