This February, students across North Carolina can lend a hand to Sir Walter Wally and help predict his spring weather forecast. Preparations are under way for the fourth annual Sir Walter Wally Weather Watch during Groundhog Day, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2003. Activities, including the Groundhog Shadow Ceremony, will take place at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences from noon to 3 p.m.

“Over the past three years, more than 500 classrooms representing approximately three-quarters of the state’s 100 counties have participated,” says Museum educator Liz Baird. “We hope that by tracking the weather a week before Groundhog Day, students will learn about meteorology and how to make accurate weather predictions.”

Because Groundhog Day falls on Sunday, students will be asked to collect weather observations from Monday, Jan. 27 through Friday, Jan. 31. They will e-mail their findings to the Museum as well as give their predictions for Sunday’s weather.

At the Museum, members of the North Carolina State Climate Office will compile the student’s observations. With assistance from the UNC Department of Geography, they will create a statewide Weather Watch map, which will be placed on the Museum’s Web site. For six weeks after Groundhog Day, students can check the Museum’s Web site to see actual weather temperatures and patterns and compare them to Sir Wally’s prediction.

Classes can register on-line and use e-mail or fax to report their Weather Watch data by Friday, Jan. 31. To participate in the Groundhog Day Weather Watch, schools must sign up on the Museum’s Web site, www.naturalsciences.org.

Starting Friday, Jan. 17, teachers who register a class can download a Groundhog Day kit containing educational classroom activities related to winter weather and animals, as well as information and folklore about groundhogs. The class will also be entered in a drawing for an all-expenses-paid trip to the Museum.

“The children, parents and I had a wonderful time on the field trip! This trip meant the world to them,” said Harnett County teacher LuAnn Miller, whose second grade class at Johnsonville School won the 2002 trip to the Museum. Miller and her family attended last year’s Saturday Groundhog Day celebration and were present when her class was drawn as a winner.

For more information, contact Liz Baird, coordinator of distance learning, at 919/733-7450, ext. 621.