Sir Walter Wally to tell how long winter will last
By From staff reports
Published in News on February 1, 2017 10:07 AM
RALEIGH -- Will there be an early spring?
Or will winter linger?
Groundhog Sir Walter Wally will whisper his prediction for the year to Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane at noon on Thursday, Feb. 2, in front of the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.
Also, Grady the groundhog will be the star of the 12th annual Grady's Groundhog Day Celebration at Grady's Discovery Den at Chimney Rock State Park, Feb. 2 from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
Why do humans turn to groundhogs for weather predictions every Feb. 2?
What makes them better prognosticators than squirrels, or wooly worms, or frogs?
Here are some fun facts provided by the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources about Groundhog Day history, North Carolina groundhogs and other animals that predict the weather.
* Groundhog Day springs from a Pennsylvania-German tradition in the 18th and 19th centuries, when people used the hibernation patterns of bears and badgers to predict the end of winter.
* Using animals to predict the weather dates back even further. For example, during the Celtic pagan ritual of Imbolc, snakes and badgers were used for weather predictions.
* Groundhog Day was officially adopted in the United States in 1887 in -- you guessed it -- Punxsutawney, Pa., when Clymer H. Freas, editor of the local newspaper, "Punxsutawney Spirit," began promoting the town's groundhog as the official "Groundhog Day meteorologist."
* North Carolina's prognosticating groundhogs include a few at the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources -- Sir Walter Wally at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, Grady at Chimney Rock State Park, and Sunshine and Stormy at the N.C. Zoo Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Other N.C. groundhogs are Nibbles at the Western North Carolina Nature Center in Asheville and Queen Charlotte in Charlotte.
* Sir Walter Wally has been prognosticating in Raleigh since 1998. Although this would be an impossibly long lifespan for a normal groundhog (even in captivity groundhogs generally only live 9 to 14 years), according to museum staff, Wally keeps his youthful vigor by drinking magic elixirs made of crushed acorns from only the oldest oak trees in Raleigh.
* Wally has proven a far better prognosticator than his cousin Punxsutawney Phil -- since Wally began predicting he has been right 58 percent of the time while Phil has been right only 37 percent of the time. Both groundhogs were correct last year in their predictions of an early spring.