DES MOINES, Iowa — Central Iowans celebrated Groundhog Day with their own tradition Friday morning, the 20th-annual Polk County Paula event.
The event, hosted at High Life Lounge in downtown Des Moines, had people lining up early in the morning.
Starting at 6 a.m., the bar/restaurant gave out free beer to patrons.
It's become a lively tradition for Groundhog Dog, with local groundhog mascot Polk County Paula making her prediction at sunrise.
This year, Paula made the same prediction as Punxsutawney Phil: an early spring, after neither saw their shadow.
Event organizers also had a special theme for Polk County Paula this year, inspired by the Iowa Caucus. Paula even faced off against another candidate for best mascot.
The nation's most famous animal forecaster, Punxsutawney Phil, has been making predictions since the tradition began in Pennsylvania on Feb. 2, 1877.
Phil has a lackluster 39% record when it comes to prediction accuracy, and he heavily favors a longer winter.
In fact, he's signaled six more weeks of winter about five times more than an early spring, with 107 shadow spottings and only 21 no-show shadows in the history of the tradition, though a decade's worth of predictions were lost at one point.