Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania Although Philm might be the most famous groundhog that can predict the weather, a recent list questions his accuracy. Phil’s prediction of an early spring was so bad that even inanimate objects outperformed him.
Phil placed 17th out of 19 criteria in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information’s accuracy ranking list, thanks to handlers and his forecasts based on shadows.
Which groundhogs are the best at forecasting longer winters, then?
With an astounding 85% accuracy rate, Staten Island Chuck of New York topped NOAA’s list. General Beauregard Lee of Georgia came in second with 80%, and Wyoming’s Lander Li, a bronze statue of a prairie dog, came in third with 75%. With an accuracy percentage of only 35%, Phil finished 17th out of 19 and trailed three taxidermied groundhogs, according to NOAA.
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We would be foolish not to recognize the United States’ longest-running weather-forecasting groundhog, even though he is not the most reliable seasonal prognosticator. NOAA’s Punxsutawney Phil wrote. According to folklore, this well-liked national figure has been predicting the arrival of spring from his burrow on Gobler’s Knob since 1887. How did he manage to survive thus long? The solution is straightforward: every fall, at Punxsutawney’s annual Groundhog Picnic, he is served groundhog nog.
How do animals qualify for NOAA’s list of weather-predicting groundhogs?
NOAA states that qualifying criteria must fulfill two essential requirements:
They must have at least 20 years of February 2 forecasting experience.
They have to be operational as of February 2, 2024.
Using the March temperature averages for the U.S. each year from 2005 to 2024, NOAA noted that these groundhogs, a tortoise whose emergence from his winter hibernation (hibernation for reptiles) foretells the arrival of spring, and a prairie dog statue whose shadow at sunrise predicts how long it will be until Spring arrives have all been graded and ranked based on their accuracy over the past 20 years.
In 2025, will Phil get it right?
Find out when Phil predicts that shadows will bring six more weeks of winter on Sunday, February 2, 2025!