MACON, Ga. — Happy Groundhog Day!
It looks like Phil has made his forecast... six more weeks of winter.
It's sad news in the weather department, but how accurate has Phil been in the past five years?
According to the president of the groundhog club, Punxsutawney Phil has been forecasting for 137 years.
So far, he has forecasted 106 late winters, 20 early springs, and 10 years had no records.
Looking back at the past five years, one of Phil's predictions was correct.
When Phil predicted a late winter extending into February and march of 2020, he was accurate. Every other year, he was wrong. That's a 20% accuracy, which isn't that impressive.
Though he isn't the only meteorologist, I mean- groundhog... On groundhogs day!
Beau has been forecasting for the past 42 years.
So far, he has forecast only 3 late winters and 39 early springs.
Earlier, we told you that Phil's forecast was only 20% accurate over the past five years, but what about Beau?
Unfortunately, there aren't any notable records out there that establish beau's recent accuracy.
Though an article published 12 years ago by Politifact stated at the time, Beau was 50 percent accurate in Atlanta.
So it looks like Beau's prediction is no more accurate than a flip of a coin.
But are we surprised? he's a rodent... with no degree in meteorology.
We'll give him some credit--his accuracy is still better than Phil's-- at least where Georgia is concerned.
I guess we will just have to wait and see-- what the weather brings in 6 weeks.