Feb 2, 2018

Six More Weeks? By Tim Hodson

Well, it looks like spring is still a little way off — maybe.

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow on Friday. That means the world’s most famous groundhog/weather forecaster is predicting another six weeks of winter.

Phil emerged from his den in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on Friday morning and was greeted by his portly shadow. So, according to legend, that means six more weeks of Old Man Winter.

But, much like his human counterparts in the weather business, Phil’s forecasts aren’t always the most accurate. Over the past 120 years, Punxsutawney Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter 103 times while forecasting an early spring 17 times.

According to Stormfax Almanac, that means his predictions have only been correct 39 percent of the time.

I don’t think too many people in our industry are making any of their business-related decisions based on Phil’s prognostications. But it is interesting to see what Phil is forecasting.

In spite of Phil’s most recent prediction, spring will arrive sooner rather than later. Are you and your team ready for it?

How is your spring planning going so far this winter? Are you staffed up yet? How does your production plan look for spring 2018? Are there big changes in store for your organization or are you planning for a year similar to 2017?

March 20 is right around the corner so we will know how accurate Phil’s 2018 forecast really is and whether or not consumers will be venturing out to buy their plants.

By the way, did you know that Punxsutawney Phil is married? He lives with his “wife” Phyllis in a specially built residence at the town library. He also has a website as well as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram accounts.

For a guy that only shows up once a year, he’s pretty active on social media.

— Tim