(ap photo)
By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA and MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Punxsutawney Phil’s team of top-hatted associates says he has seen his shadow and is predicting six more weeks of wintry weather. The prognosticating woodchuck made his forecast as the sun rose Sunday in western Pennsylvania. The annual ritual goes back more than a century and has far older roots in European agricultural life. The event’s date of Feb. 2 doesn’t just divide the calendar between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It’s also a time of year that figures in the Celtic calendar and the Christian holiday of Candlemas.