The nor’easter in Pennsylvania won’t stop groundhog Phil from carrying out his virtual work responsibilities: The famous groundhog will make an appearance tomorrow, February 2, where he will predict the next six weeks of weather. We can’t celebrate with Phil in person this year (but were you really planning on that?). Instead, the Groundhog Day experience will be streamed, much like everything else these past 12 months.
How to watch
Punxsutawney Phil will emerge from his burrow at 7:45am to inspect the weather conditions and discover his shadow (or not). You can watch as usual with your cable provider on local and national news channels; if you don’t have cable, you have a couple of alternatives. Watch directly on the groundhog.org site, where the full day of events will be streaming, starting at 6:30am with some pre-reveal festivities. The day will also be streaming on Punxsutawney’s Facebook and YouTube pages. For Pennsylvania residents, the local network PCN (Pennsylvania Cable Network) has a comprehensive list of networks to catch this year’s groundhog display.
You can even listen in via shortwave radio: Punxsutawney provides coordinates and channels to tune into for the winter verdict.
Participate in virtual activities
You can “attend” the festivities as a cardboard cutout, if that’s your thing. Email a 1MB or smaller image of yourself in your Groundhog Day paraphernalia to [email protected]. The event organizers will print the image onto a cardboard cutout and place it in the audience seats the day of. You may need to purchase your own cutout (nothing’s free in this world) so reach out now if you want details.
Like every other celebrity, Phil has his own Cameos available for purchase. For $99 you can get a personalized message from the groundhog.
You can also participate in a virtual scavenger hunt before the day begins; just download the “Eventzee app” app and create an account. Or use the designated QR code on groundhog.org to get the app and use the event code “Phil” to join the online scavenger hunt.