ATLANTA — Groundhog Day: the time-cherished yearly tradition of letting a rodent prognosticate the weather.
On this Groundhog Day 2023, Beau came out of his house in Jackson, Georgia to cloudy skies and rain showers. He didn't see his shadow, predicting an early spring for the Peach State.
However, Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania disagreed with Beau. He saw his shadow and ran back into hiding for six more weeks of winter.
Phil is only accurate 40% of the time though, according to NOAA. And this year, Georgia groundhog 'Beau' may be a little more accurate.
For 2023, our 11Alive meteorologists agree that February may not hold a brutally cold outlook for the Peach State. Weather models trend towards warmer-than-average temperatures for the month.
Here's the official February temperature outlook from the Climate Prediction Center, showing just that.
With that being said, we will still have warm snaps and cold snaps for the month.
Long-term, the milder outlook may carry further than just this month and trend warmer-than-average through the first months of spring.