Who Needs a Groundhog?

Here in the South, winter weather is so wild and crazy that we don't worry too much about what a rodent says.

Of course, last Thursday was Groundhog Day, the dumbest and most useless holiday on the calendar. I mean, other than the setting for a Bill Murray film, what’s the point?

Everybody knows about Punxsutawney Phil up in Pennsylvania, but did you know that we have our own groundhogs here in the South that have predicted the weather? There’s General Beauregard Lee here in Georgia and Sir Walter Wally in Raleigh, N.C., both of whom have better track records than ol’ Phil. There was also Birmingham Bill in his namesake city.

The funny thing is, we Southerners have no use for a groundhog because our winter weather guarantees us a little bit of everything! It’s not the least bit unusual for us to be in a hoodie and long pants one winter day and in a t-shirt and shorts the next.

Growing up, it always seemed like our worst snow days happened right before the start of spring. Ask any Southern child of the ‘70s and ‘80s, and they’ll tell you about March snow days. Heck, the infamous Blizzard of ‘93 happened on March 13!

At the same time, I have distinctive memories of Christmas Days in short sleeves and even shorts. Here in the South, we’ll have weeks where the temperature rises every day, and then it’ll rain or storm and get cold again. Last year on New Year’s Eve, I dodged a tornado driving home from picking up supper before the CFP Semifinal game.

The biggest constant for us in the wintertime is rain. Winter is our rainy season, so we can be sure to see lots of wet days. Fortunately, they don’t coincide with the below-freezing days all that often in Georgia.

The long and the short of is that, here in the South, winter weather varies wildly. I’m grateful for local meteorologists like fellow UGA alumni David Chandley and Joanne Feldman, as well as Christina Edwards (who, unfortunately, went to Georgia Tech).

This year on Groundhog Day, someone on Facebook asked Edwards what her prediction was: more winter or early spring. Her reply was classic, “It’s the South: Periods of cold followed by ridiculously warm days.”

There you go.

Photo by Steve Wrzeszczynski on Unsplash