The NC groundhogs have spoken: Should you put away the sled or is more winter coming?
At age 10, Snerd the Garner groundhog manages to prognosticate with fading eyesight and a head that tilts to the side — an elder statesman among weather marmots.
But he lumbered to the stage in White Deer Park on Wednesday and delivered his eighth-straight forecast: six more weeks of winter.
“Snerd has given me the word,” said Mayor Ken Marshburn. “My advice to you is not to put away your winter coats just yet.”
Unlike his better-known colleagues, Snerd shuns shadows and other forms of folk wisdom, embracing modern meteorology.
“He consults the Internet,” said Kindra Mammone, his keeper at the Chapel Hill nonprofit CLAWS. “He doesn’t depend on archaic technology.”
From his downtown Raleigh perch, Sir Walter Wally consulted the old shadow gods, saw himself and agreed with Snerd’s wintry prediction.
Meanwhile, Sylvia the Apex armadillo delivered the same cold-weather news from inside her shell — the only fur-less forecaster with a claw to Wednesday’s wind.
Snerd’s deep forecasting
At 10, Snerd brings sophistication scarcely matched among whistle pigs who watch the clouds.
In the wild, groundhogs seldom live beyond a few years. But in his Chapel Hill den, Snerd neither hibernates nor ventures outdoors, allowing time for deep forecasting.
“They deliberate before they’ve even seen the sun,” said Katie Lockhart, Garner’s outdoor education and parks director.”
A native of Garner forests, Snerd operated until recently with his partner, Mortimer, who handled the Groundhog Day crowds while he crunched the numbers.
But Mortimer, being 13, grew grumpy in old age. And once he passed, Snerd took on the whole job.
This story was originally published February 2, 2022 at 12:18 PM with the headline "The NC groundhogs have spoken: Should you put away the sled or is more winter coming?."