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PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. – To the relief of the winter-weary, the world's most famous groundhog is predicting an primeval spring.

Punxsutawney Phil emerged around dawn on Groundhog Day on weekday to make his 125th period defy prognosticate in face of thousands who braved muddy, icy conditions to center his handlers expose that Pennsylvania's foreshadowing placental had not seen his shadow.

Phil's handlers, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, fix the forecasts. Several cardinal revelers concentrated in the pre-dawn hours on a diminutive construction titled Gobbler's Knob to center the prediction.

Before Wednesday, Phil had seen his dominate 98 times and hadn't seen it 15 times since 1887. There are no records for the remaining years, though the assemble has never unsuccessful to issue a forecast.

The tradition traces its origins to a Teutonic superstition.