Long winter or early spring? Groundhog Day prediction matches forecast for Maryland

Early spring is on the way, if a rodent in Pennsylvania is to be believed.

The famed groundhog Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow on Friday, which means we can expect milder weather. In good news for Phil, that does line up with what the professionals say.

An eight-to-14-day temperature outlook published by the National Weather Service on Friday indicates that Maryland has a 50% to 60% chance of having higher than average temperatures.

And the latest three-month temperature outlook, which was published in mid-January, indicates Maryland has a 33% to 40% chance of having higher than average temperatures in February, March and April.

Locally, Baltimoreans can predict a “pretty quiet weather pattern” over the next week, according to Erik Taylor, a meteorologist at the Baltimore-Washington office of the National Weather Service.

He said we could expect plenty of sunshine and temperatures reaching the 40s and 50s in the afternoon, with overnight lows “generally” in the 20s and 30s.

“For us here locally, just over the next week, the temperatures will be near or slightly above average,” Taylor said.

The United States is experiencing an El Niño, which typically means drier and warmer conditions to northern states and cooler and wetter conditions in the south. Maryland falls somewhere between the two, making it difficult to predict how the climate pattern might affect our weather.

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