While most college students were sleeping, a few Penn State students got up before dawn to see Punxsutawney Phil and his yearly weather prediction.

Jenny Warren (senior-communications, sciences and disorders) and her friends left State College at 3 a.m. to make it to Gobbler's Knob in time for the festivities.

"They pulled the groundhog out at about 7:30, and the president of this groundhog club started talking to him," she said. "These people go crazy."

Onlookers hoping for spring were disappointed as Phil saw his shadow and declared six more weeks of winter.

Warren said there was a family section and a student section watching to see whether or not the groundhog would see its shadow.

"We always wanted to go see it, so since it was our last year, we decided to go," she said.

Paul Knight, a Penn State climatologist and meteorology instructor, said that although Phil declared six more weeks of winter, the next 10 days are going to be rather mild.

"We'll see a lot of snow melt and chances are that by next Wednesday, most of it will be gone," he said. "In [Phil's] defense, between Feb. 9 and 10 and the end of winter, it'll be more like six more weeks of winter."

Knight said Phil's weather prediction for this winter was incorrect.

"We're not trying to embarrass Phil or anything, because he's very sensitive," he said. "But if he were a real weather forecaster, he would have predicted a decent February thaw. It's not his fault, though. We understand he has a limited vocabulary."

Taran Connelly (senior-public relations) also made the trip and said it was definitely worth the time and waking up early.

"The best part was when they pulled the groundhog out," she said. "It was really fat -- I wasn't expecting that -- but also really cute."

Connelly said there was a lot of buildup to the actual event, and a lot of students and young people attended.

As far as the rest of the winter is concerned, meteorologist Henry Margusity of Accuweather said the weather will remain on the cold side.

He said predictions are made partly from studying weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere and seeing what is happening in other parts of the world.

Margusity said January had temperatures above average, but February will most likely have temperatures slightly lower than normal.

"A lot of people are going to say this is crazy, but the first half of January was very warm, and that warmth outweighed the cold we had at the end of the month," he said.

So far, Margusity said Penn State has received 12.7 inches of snow -- below the average of 25 inches at this point in the season.

Usually, the area receives around 45 inches of snow per winter, and Margusity does not think State College will reach that amount this year.

"Statistically, if we stay on the colder side, we'll be expecting more snowfall to come to State College in the remaining weeks of winter," he said.