PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil told people to prepare for six more weeks of winter on Thursday, making his the minority opinion among his groundhog brethren who seem to think that spring is coming early.

But with such a mild and relatively snowless winter so far, who can tell the difference?

Phil’s “prediction” came as he emerged from his lair to “see” his shadow on Gobbler’s Knob, a tiny hill in the town for which he’s named about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Yet groundhogs in at least five other states — West Virginia’s French Creek Freddie, Georgia’s Gen. Beauregard Lee, Michigan’s Woody the Woodchuck, Ohio’s Buckeye Chuck and New York’s Staten Island Chuck (full name: Charles G. Hogg) — did not see their shadows. Nor did Ontario’s Wiarton Willie or Nova Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam.

The Groundhog Day celebration is rooted in a German superstition that says if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on Feb. 2, the Christian holiday of Candlemas, winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says, spring will come early.

Temperatures were near freezing when Phil emerged at dawn — unseasonably warm for Punxsutawney — and were forecast to climb into the mid-40s in a winter that’s brought little snow and only a few notably cold days to much of the East.

Organizers expected 15,000 to 18,000 people to witness the prognostication ceremony that was held just before 7:30 a.m.

And the ceremony is largely that: Phil’s prediction is determined ahead of time by the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle, a group who dons top hats and tuxedos and decides in advance what the furry creature will predict.