Punxsutawney Phil Charged

Score one for science.  Bright and early on February 2, The Washington Post reported

At 7:25 a.m.Saturday, amidst overcast skies, and frigid temperatures hovering around 8 degrees, Groundhog Phil failed to see his shadow in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pa.

According to folklore, no shadow for Phil means “there will be an early spring.” Had Phil seen his shadow, it would have meant six more weeks of winter.

It is  now one day shy of seven weeks, or six days beyond six weeks, of February 2, 2013.  Here at 40 degrees latitude and 74 degrees longitude, the temperature currently is 35 degrees with a wind-chill factor of 26 degrees.  Elsewhere, the Butler County, Ohio prosecutor is displeased. In Cincinnati, where the temperature and the wind-chill factor stand at 32 degrees

Apparently frosted over Ohio's cold start to the spring season, prosecutor Mike Gmoser accuses Phil of "misrepresentation of spring."

On Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, Phil did not see his shadow. By legend, that portends an early spring.

But in an official-looking document, Gmoser alleges that Phil acted "with prior calculation and design" to cause people to believe that spring would arrive early.

"Contrary to the Groundhog Day report, a snowstorm and record low temperatures have been and are predicted to continue in the near future," Gmoser wrote.

Tradition (at least sometimes), myth and superstition must give way to science, in this case, meteorology.  If that gets out, it spells the doom of the Republican Party.

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