General Beauregard Lee is a groundhog in the US state of Georgia widely considered to be the Groundhog Day weather prognosticator for the Southern United States.[1]
The previous forecaster before General Beauregard Lee was General Robert E. Lee, who started making predictions in 1981.[2] He was named after the American Confederate General of the same name. General Beauregard Lee's first nationally televised appearance was in 1988.[3] General Beauregard Lee resided at Yellow River Game Ranch in Gwinnett County, Georgia for 27 years until the ranch suddenly closed in December 2017.[4] He was then relocated to Dauset Trails Nature CenterinJackson, Georgia, to carry on his weather-predicting tradition.[5]
In 2011, PolitiFact decreed General Lee to be more accurate than Punxsutawney Phil, boasting a 60% national accuracy for an early spring between the years of 2001 to 2010, compared to Phil's 30%.[6] The groundhog-sized ante-bellum style mansion that General Lee lives in is known as Weathering Heights.[7]
| 1981 | 1982[8] | 1983[9] | 1984[10] | 1985[11] | 1986[12] | 1987[13] | 1988[14] | 1989[15] | |
| 1990[16] | 1991[17] | 1992[18] | 1993[19] | 1994[20] | 1995[21] | 1996[22] | 1997[23] | 1998[24] | 1999[25] |
| 2000[26] | 2001[27] | 2002[28] | 2003[29] | 2004[30] | 2005[31] | 2006[32] | 2007[33] | 2008[34] | 2009[35] |
| 2010[36] | 2011[37] | 2012[38] | 2013[39] | 2014[40] | 2015[41] | 2016[42] | 2017[43] | 2018[44] | 2019[45] |
| 2020[46] | 2021[47] | 2022[48] | 2023[49] | 2024[50] | |||||
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"Long winter" (3)
"Early spring" (40)
No record (1)
|
