Those hoping that warmer weather was just around the corner could be disappointed.
Or will they be?
The more than a century-old tradition of Groundhog Day saw Punxsutawney Phil predicting six more weeks of winter as he saw his shadow on Tuesday. This year the celebration was held in front of 16 members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club at Gobbler’s Knob and the normal crowd of people in attendance had to view it via a live-stream.
However, Punxsutawney Phil isn’t the only groundhog in the country giving its predictions for a longer winter or quicker spring.
North Carolina — along with Ohio, New York, Georgia, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland, West Virginia and Michigan — had its virtual ceremony with its two groundhogs. Queen Charlotte, Charlotte’s resident groundhog, predicted six more weeks of winter as she made a bee-line for the bowl of treats marked “winter” and not the one marked for “spring.”
Sir Walter Wally in Raleigh, however, did not see his shadow, meaning he was on the opposite side of his two fellow groundhogs and predicted an early spring.
Locally, some are hoping that Sir Walter Wally, despite being on the opposite side, is right.
“I’m ready for spring, so I’m not too thrilled about these six more weeks of winter,” said Billy Ray Norris Jr. “I’m ready for it to warm up and be able to get outside more.”
However, from an official side, local emergency personnel aren’t counting on any of the predictions.
“The weather is unpredictable and a groundhog isn’t usually right,” said Scotland County Emergency Director Roylin Hammond. “We monitor the weather daily and we get updates from the North Carolina Weather Service out of Raleigh twice a week on what they predict the next four or five days to look like.”
Hammond did continue by stating if the area were to see more winter weather, it’s not snow he’s worried about but ice.
“Ice presents additional hazards and is a safety issue,” Hammond said. “It can make the roads more hazardous or weigh down tree branches which can then break and fall onto powerlines leading to a power outage. If we see that the temperature is dropping and there’s going to be participation we will let people know ahead of time but we want people to be prepared.”
Katelin Gandee can be reached at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com. To support The Laurinburg Exchange, subscribe here: https://laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com/subscribe.