The Rambling Writer: “Groundhog Day” and Weather

What would you do if caught in a “Groundhog Day” time loop?

On February 2, 2026, Groundhog Day, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so it’s six more weeks of winter – so sorry, all you folks caught in the freezing storms of the eastern U.S.  Here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s seemingly just rain and more rain. After the record-breaking, disastrous floods here in November and December, our rain and unseasonably warm weather continue, which means our essential mountain snowpacks are not accumulating to stave off another drought summer. And yet the Powers that Be continue to ignore climate change and blunder ahead with “Drill, baby drill.”

On a lighter note, on Monday Thor wanted to celebrate the day by watching the Bill Murray “Groundhog Day” movie — again! In the 1993 film directed by Harold Ramis, Murray plays TV weatherman Phil Connor, an arrogant, self-centered jerk who mocks the “hick town” of Punxsutawney where he is sent to film a feature on Groundhog Day. He insults almost everyone he encounters, including his sweet producer Rita, played by Andie McDowell. After recording a blasé report on the appearance of the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil (who saw his shadow and predicted another six weeks of winter), the human Phil can hardly wait to escape back to the city. After a blizzard he failed to predict strands him and the crew in town, he wakes up to the same music on the radio from the day before, and is doomed to keep repeating the same day over and over.

I do enjoy the comedic encounters that repeat, as Phil grows more and more desperate to escape the time loop, and he starts to take advantage of his knowledge of events to rob an armored car, one-up an obnoxious insurance salesman, lead a wild car chase along railroad tracks with new drunken pals and police in pursuit – all without consequences, as he wakes up the next day untouched. He finally becomes suicidal, but even his attempts to kill himself come to nothing. The best scene, which always makes me laugh, is when he decides to break the cycle by kidnapping Phil the groundhog and jumping into a stolen pickup. We see a closeup of the two manic Phils behind the wheel of the pickup, with the groundhog doing the steering as Phil tells him, “Don’t drive angry,” before they plunge over a cliff and burst into flames. And then wake up to the same repeating morning.

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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s Caribbean suspense novel from Book View Café is ISLANDS, which draws on her experiences working as a scuba divemaster on various islands, and also her research into petroglyphs.  Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com