February 2 is the day when we traditionally celebrate Groundhog Day, when groundhogs everywhere (or at least where there are active tourist bureaus) come out to determine whether or not there will be six more weeks of winter. It amazes me that people trust the wisdom of a glorified rat more than real climatologists when it comes to climate prediction, but for those of you who like to know, you can find stories about their predictions in the news. I’m guessing that here in Georgia we will see an early spring based on how foggy it is this morning. But then we seldom have six more weeks of winter after February 2.
Here’s a story on how accurate those predictions are from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, a column from Marshall Shepherd of UGA in Forbes.com, and a blog post on EarthSky about the day’s history.
Meanwhile, I’ll be watching “Groundhog Day” and eating chili made with ground chuck tonight with a bunch of meteorology students at UGA.
