Sir Walter Wally says Raleigh is in for six more weeks of winter

Being held aloft in a patch of bright sunshine, Raleigh’s most esteemed groundhog, Sir Walter Wally, saw his shadow on Sunday, meaning we’re likely in for six more weeks of winter. Or so the tradition goes.

Sir Walter Wally’s prediction came at a ceremony at the Museum of Natural Sciences downtown, surrounded by chants of “Snow Day!” as children in the audience pined for winter weather. This year’s winter months have brought more moderate temperatures.

Despite Wally’s prognostications, the forecast for the rest of this week calls for spring-like temps in the upper 60s to around 70.

It was a debut prediction for this year’s Wally, a three-year-old groundhog from Hickory. Wally has been hibernating there for the past several weeks.

The new Wally’s prediction is in disagreement with his more famous cousin, Punxsutawney Phil, who made his prediction much earlier in the day. At sunrise in Punxsutawney, Pa., where he was making his 134th prediction, according to the Pennsylvania Tourism Office, Phil predicted that spring would come early this year.

Wally is the more accurate groundhog

However, as Eric Dorfman, the new head of the Museum of Natural Sciences, noted, Wally has historically been more accurate than Phil, even if Phil has had a longer run at predictions.

Dorfman, who came to North Carolina just this week from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, told the crowd gathered Sunday that in his 22 years of predictions, the lineage of Wally groundhogs has been right 64% of the time. Phil, however, was only accurate on 32% of his predictions, he added.

Last year, Wally and Phil were also in disagreement, with Wally calling for more winter and Phil sensing an early spring. However, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Wally was the more accurate groundhog. Last year, the country actually had below average temperatures in both February and March. Though, if you were to just look at North Carolina, temperatures during February and March were higher than normal, NOAA reported.

It remains to be seen who will be more accurate this year, even as February begins on a warm note.

Nicole Stewart, a member of the Raleigh City Council, was tasked with interpreting Wally’s prediction — though she noted the warm sunshine had already indicated what the result would be.

While noting some disappointment with the idea of more winter, Stewart did say there was a silver lining in the prediction. She then turned to her young daughter, who began leading the children in attendance in a “Snow Day! Snow Day!” chant.

This story was originally published February 2, 2020 at 12:29 PM with the headline "Sir Walter Wally says Raleigh is in for six more weeks of winter."