By Meteorologists Mary Gilbert, Monica Garrett

(CNN) — Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog weather icon, saw his shadow when he was plucked from his warm burrow and thrust out into the frigid air Monday morning. According to Phil, that means six more weeks of winter are ahead.

Every year on February 2 — Groundhog Day — rodents around the United States take a stab at long-range weather forecasting.

Phil is the most famous prognosticator of the bunch and lives in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Legend has it, if he sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter are on the way. If he doesn’t, an early spring arrives.

In reality, astronomical winter will end on the spring equinox, known also as the vernal equinox, on March 20 at 10:46 a.m. ET, regardless of Monday’s prediction. But weather conditions don’t always follow the timetable — and neither does Phil.

Phil has been forecasting the weather since the late 1800s — the story goes that there’s always been one Phil. We’ll let you do the math.

Despite allegedly being the world’s most seasoned forecaster, Phil’s recent predictions would have a better track record if he just flipped a coin: He has only been right about 35% of the time in the past two decades, according to data analyzed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Phil’s call for six more weeks of winter last year fell flat. Temperatures in February 2025 ended up near-normal despite some bouts of bitter cold, but March was the sixth-warmest on record for the country, according to NOAA data.

There are more consistent experts to turn to when Phil falters.

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center produce forecasts for temperatures and precipitation across the US on timescales ranging from one week to more than a year.

Their outlook for February is a bit mixed: Colder than normal conditions are expected in much of the East. Warmer than normal conditions — an “early spring” — are expected in the West and Southern Plains.

But long-range forecasts are notoriously complex, even with prediction tools, and the rest of the country is a toss up, with about equal chances for above, below and near-normal temperatures.

Winter in the US so far this year has been a tale of two seasons.

East of the Rockies, it’s actually felt like winter, with rounds of brutal cold slamming the eastern half of the US. A handful of locations in the Great Lakes, Northeast and mid-Atlantic are experiencing one of their 10 coldest winters to date, according to NOAA data.

At times, the cold has been deadly. It also fueled a historic winter storm that brought catastrophic ice to parts of the South and buried many Northern states.

But winter is nowhere to be found from the Rockies to the West Coast: Nearly 150 locations — including Phoenix and Las Vegas — are having their warmest winter to date.

Warmer winters aren’t a fluke, even when punctuated with seasonably appropriate cold. Winter has become the

Happy Groundhog Day! Whether Phil sees his shadow or not, theres no winter temperatures expected for Southern California for quite some time. Monday will be warmer than average but slightly cooler than the previous weekend. Onshore flow is weak, so some areas will experience marine clouds and dense fog while others might see an hour or so of overcast skies.

Clear skies and toasty temperatures are on the docket for Tuesday. High pressure moves back in and creates another round of summer weather. High rise into the 70s and 80s! Head out tot he beaches and enjoy. Winds are strong enough for advisories in Ventura, as Santa Ana's are back in the forecast. Gusts may near 50mph in some spots and beaches will be breezy.

Peak heating occurs Wednesday. This is when high pressure is at its strongest and hovering over the coverage zone. Expect daily records to be broken again! Highs will be in the upper 70s and 80s, feels like temperatures will measure warmer. If working outside, stay hydrated and seek shade. We hold with warm weather through Thursday. Clouds may look different into the weekend. More details to come on the extended.

The post Warm Groundhog Day, sweltering heat mid-week appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

KGUN, PIMA COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT, CNN

By Karina Tsui, Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — Nancy Guthrie, the mother of NBC’s “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie, has been reported missing from her Arizona home, officials said.

Nancy Guthrie, 84, was last seen Saturday night at approximately 9:30 p.m. near her residence in the Catalina Foothills area near Tucson, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said at a news conference late Sunday. A family member called 911 around noon Sunday to report her missing, the sheriff added.

Nancy Guthrie has some physical ailments, but the family reported she has not had any cognitive issues, Nanos said.

“The scene at the house also has some concerns for us,” the sheriff said, without providing further details.

Search and rescue teams, including volunteers, dogs, border patrol agents and helicopters, have been dispatched overnight.

“We’ve pretty much just thrown everything at this as we can,” Nanos said.

Detectives from the homicide team are investigating and haven’t ruled out possible foul play, Nanos said.

The “Today” show led with the news on Monday morning and shared a statement from Savannah, who said, “On behalf of our family, I want to thank everyone for the thoughts, prayers and messages of support. Right now, our focus remains on the safe return of our dear mom.”

“We thank law enforcement for their hard work on this case and encourage anyone with information to contact the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900.”

Savannah Guthrie, who lost her father before her senior year of high school, has spoken highly of her mother and their close relationship.

When the anchor was offered her first news job in Butte, Montana, at the age of 21, her mother encouraged her to pursue the role, despite the distance from home.

“It’s not because she didn’t want me to stay. Of course she wanted me to stay,” the TODAY anchor recalled. “But she’s like, ‘I’m not going to stand in the way of your dreams.’”

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By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — True to her inimitable fashion, this year’s Big Game might end up being all about Cardi B.

The “Bodak Yellow” rapper – who just this past weekend performed in Studio 8H as the musical guest for the 1000th episode of “Saturday Night Live” – has many believing that she could be a featured performer during this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, headlined by the newly crowned album of the year Grammy-winner Bad Bunny.

She won’t have far to travel, since Cardi B will already be at the game.

Like Taylor Swift last year, the spicy rapper has a personal interest in the Super Bowl in that her boyfriend, wide receiver Stefon Diggs, will be playing in the celebrated game alongside his team, the New England Patriots.

There were high hopes for Super Bowl LIX last year, since Swift was already in attendance to cheer on her now fiancé Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs, and fans hoped she would take to the halftime show stage with headliner Kendrick Lamar for a rendition of her “Bad Blood” remix – on which Lamar was a collaborator.

That didn’t happen, but now that Cardi B is in her WAG (as the wives and girlfriends of athletes are called) era hopes are running high that she might fulfill the double-duty dream of attending to cheer on her man while also taking the stage for one of the biggest performance events in the world.

Goodness knows, Cardi has given the people reason to hope for such things.

Her enthusiasm for both football and Diggs, with whom she shares a newborn son, has been much on display recently.

The Grammy winner has shown up at games dressed as if it were Fashion Week, rocking looks from a vintage pink Chanel tweed set to an all-gray leather look by Jagne which included a corset.

The woman born Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar has made quite the statement, and the NFL has taken notice.

Her flowing mint green wig provided a conspicuous flash of color when the sports organization posted a celebratory video on their verified Instagram account of her declaring, “We’re going to the Super Bowl!” after the Patriots secured their place by defeating the Denver Broncos during the AFC Championship game last week.

Cardi B’s eye-catching coif was accompanied by a massive fur coat when she talked to NFL Network reporter Cameron Wolfe about Diggs and how he fought his way to the Super Bowl.

“I’m feeling very excited, and very happy for him, very proud of him,” she said. “You know, he just came back from an ACL and me seeing the progress and the process of him going from there, from the first time he started running back and now joining the Patriots and actually going to the Super Bowl. I’m very excited for him, very excited for the whole team.”

The star’s transformation into a football superfan has helped her to be ubiquitous of late, from hanging with Patriots owner Robert Kraft to her reported upcoming performance at Michael Rubin’s Fanatics Super Bowl Party planned to be held in San Francisco the day prior to Super Bowl LX.

But it’s the belief that Bad Bunny will bring her out for the halftime show that has many most excited.

Not only have the pair collaborated before along with fellow Latin artist J Balvin on Cardi B’s hit 2018 single “I Like It,” but four yea

By Ella Nilsen, CNN

(CNN) — Electricity costs are climbing nearly everywhere in the United States. But, in recent months, the Trump administration has framed the problem as one impacting only blue states.

While several blue states like California, Massachusetts and Hawaii do indeed have some of the highest electricity rates in the country, federal data shows that electricity prices are now increasing in every corner of the US. In fact, some of the highest jumps since last year came from purple Pennsylvania and red Ohio.

Despite framing high energy prices as a policy choice of blue states pursuing wind and solar, there are a lot more factors at play. Experts told CNN costs are going up in red and blue states alike and are not tied to voting patterns. And plenty of red states (Texas chief among them) have installed far more renewables than many of their blue counterparts.

Residential electricity prices across the US have climbed about 40% since 2021, according to data from nonprofit utility group PowerLines.

“That is a very significant increase that significantly outpaces inflation during this time,” said Charles Hua, PowerLines’ founder and executive director.

A spokesperson for utility trade group the Edison Electric Institute disagreed, saying federal data shows “electricity prices have largely tracked overall inflation in recent years, with prices only rising significantly in a few areas.”

Regardless, the cost of electricity is only expected to increase; utilities requested another $31 billion in rate increases in 2025, more than double the rate increased they requested the year prior, the PowerLines report found. About half of that requested money is concentrated among Southeast utilities in red states, where grid hardening, hurricane recovery and an expensive new nuclear power plant in Georgia are factors driving up costs for ratepayers.

“Lowering electricity prices is a top priority for President Trump,” said White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers, adding Trump is “aggressively unleashing reliable energy sources like coal and natural gas to reverse the catastrophic damage that Joe Biden did to our power grid.”

But experts cautioned that leaning on coal and natural gas could do more to drive prices up even further in the future.

Why prices are so expensive in New England and California

Electricity bills are indeed highest in several blue states, including California, New York, and the New England region (Hawaii and Alaska are also expensive outliers).

In past statements, the White House has characterized these high prices in blue states as a policy choice. Rogers, in a previous statement to CNN, said blue states were “stubbornly choosing Green Energy Scam policies that are making electricity bills unaffordable.”

But the reasons behind high bills are more complicated and vary by state. There is one factor they hold in common, however: Costly infrastructure that has come due for maintenance and upgrades.

Massive, deadly wildfires have driven up costs in California, where utilities are trying to harden their electricity infrastructure and are spending money on clearing vegetation and trees away from power lines.

“That has driven huge costs in the electricity system to adapt to that wildfire risk,” said Brendan Pierpont, director of electricity at think tank Energy Innovation.

Even though it has far less wildfire risk, New England has also been upgrading and modernizing its aging distribution and transmission systems, which hav