Groundhog Day Georgia Forecast: Bundle Up General Beauregard Lee

ATLANTA, GA — The weather-forecasting groundhog Punxsutawney Phil isn't likely to see his shadow on Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, and it's dicey whether Georgia's own General Beauregard Lee, who makes the call for the Southeast, will either, with showers predicted Friday morning. According to folklore, spring will come early if the groundhog doesn't see its shadow and will last another six weeks if it does. For the record, spring doesn't officially arrive this year until March 20, and that's a little more than six weeks away.

The National Weather Service predicts cloud cover in Punxsutawney and a fair chance of snow. Long-range forecasts suggest bitterly cold temperatures will persist from the Midwest to the Northeast. But in the Southeast, where warmth can appear at times, February will usher in the threat for severe thunderstorms, says AccuWeather. By the middle of next week, cold nighttime lows will disappear and daytime highs will hover around 60 degrees.

Punxsutawney Phil, the famous handle given to those varmints that are roused at sunrise for the annual ritual, isn't that accurate a barometer for the end of the winter — surprising considering the ritual has been going on for more than 120 years. Stormfax Almanac, which keeps records, says Punxsutawney Phil has been correct only 39 percent of the time. The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club says its records show groundhog forecasts have predicted more winter in 103 cases and early springs in 17.

Last year General Beauregard Lee, the groundhog prognosticator who just moved to a new home at Dauset Trails Nature Center in Jackson, disagreed with the northern rodent. To chants of "Go, Beau!" from a crowd of hundreds, Georgia's groundhog emerged from his home to declare winter was over. We'll see what he says on Friday, the 38th straight year Beau will try to predict the weather for the coming weeks. (The current Beau is actually the nephew of the original.)

It's a decidedly Southern take on the Groundhog Day tradition. Each year, Beau is coaxed out of his home with scattered, smothered and covered hash browns from Waffle House — the breakfast chain founded in nearby Avondale Estates and headquartered in Norcross.

The same rules apply for Beau as for his northern counterpart: If he comes out to embrace the day, that means winter is almost over. If he sees his shadow and heads back inside, that's a sign that six more weeks of chilly weather are on the way.

Here's the Georgia forecast heading into Groundhog Day:

Today: A 20 percent chance of rain after 2pm. Cloudy, with a high near 58. Southwest wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph.

Tonight: Rain likely, mainly between 1am and 4am. Cloudy, with a low around 36. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Friday: A 30 percent chance of rain, mainly before 7am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 44. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 28. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northeast after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 15 mph.

Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 48. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Saturday Night: Rain likely after 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 40. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Sunday: Rain. High near 50. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

Sunday Night: Rain, mainly before 8pm. Low around 39. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

Monday: A 40 percent chance of rain before 8am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 53.

Here are five things to know about Groundhog Day:

1. Before there was a Groundhog Day, there was Candlemas, an early Christian holiday in which candles were blessed and distributed by local clergy. The celebrants eventually declared that clear skies on Candlemas meant winter would persist. Germans selected an animal — the hedgehog — to predict the end of winter, and brought the idea to America. Groundhogs, which are also known as woodchucks, were plentiful in Pennsylvania, where many Germans settled, so the tradition was Americanized.

2. Punxsutawney Phil has his own "inner circle" — the guys who are always pictured wearing top hats as he emerges. They're a group of local dignitaries charged with planning the festivities and ensuring they come off without a hitch every year, but also with the feeding and care of Phil.

3. Punxsutawney Phil is pretty spoiled. He doesn't have to burrow into the dirt to survive winter like less-famous groundhogs. He lives in a warm terrarium built into the Punxsutawney library and visitors can stop and gawk at him any time they want.

4. Groundhogs have an average lifespan of six to eight years, ten tops, but Punxsutawney Phil gets a life-extending elixir — called "groundhog punch" — every summer during the annual Groundhog Picnic to extend his lifespan by as much as seven years. An added effect of the punch is that it makes Phil appear to have gotten a dye job, because his coat might be gray one year and a youngish-looking brown the next.

5. The 1993 movie "Groundhog Day" gave the celebration in Punxsutawney a big boost. Bill Murray stars as a hapless weatherman named Phil. Dispatched to cover the emergence of the groundhog from its hole, he is caught in a blizzard he didn't predict. Trapped in a time warp, he can't escape and must live the day over and over until he gets it right. Murray went to Punxsutawney in 1992 to prepare for the role, and by 1997, the number of people attending the festivities had swelled to about 35,000 visitors.

Photo courtesy Yellow River Game Ranch