Did You Know Wisconsin Has A Groundhog Way More Accurate Than Punxsutawney Phil?

I know, rodents forecasting the weather is kind of a silly tradition. While it's fun, I think most of us accept that it comes with limited accuracy.

That said, there are actually some pretty accurate groundhogs out there in the world of weather forecasting, and one of them happens to live in Wisconsin.

Last year, the National Weather Service's parent agency, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), looked into just how accurate Punxsutawney Phil and other weather-predicting groundhogs are who participate in this annual February tradition.

In their findings, they discovered Punxsutawney Phil is not very accurate. Phil's accuracy rate is only 35%, which is at the bottom of the list of nearly 20 rodents around the country that take part in Groundhog Day. While that isn't surprising, what might be is this - there are some pretty accurate groundhogs out there, and one of them lives in Wisconsin!

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The lesser-known Wisconsin groundhog's name is Jimmy, and he lives in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, which is a little northeast of Madison. According to NOAA's research comparing groundhog predictions to what actually happened with springtime, Jimmy has an impressive 60% accuracy rate. That's way more accurate than Phil.

What is Jimmy predicting for the spring of 2026?

Jimmy and Phil each offered their Groundhog Day predictions this morning, and they both had different takes on what is going to happen with springtime this year.

While Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, predicting 6 more weeks of winter, Wisconsin's Jimmy the Groundhog is going a different route and forecasting an early spring.

With a significantly better track record than Phil, I'm sure plenty of people across the Upper Midwest are siding with Jimmy's optimistic prediction for an early spring.

What's NOAA forecasting for this spring?

After a cold snap that saw temperatures plummet at the end of January, an early spring might sound alluring. Will it happen?

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center is seeing a warm-up for Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota in the early part of February, though another round of colder-than-average temperatures looks to be in the cards for later February.

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Looking further ahead, the long-term outlook for February through April from NOAA hints at colder-than-normal temperatures for far northern Wisconsin and the northern two-thirds of Minnesota, with most of Wisconsin and the southern parts of Minnesota seeing equal chances of normal, above-normal, or below-normal temperatures.