NOTE: Video is from Armadillo Day 2022.

BEE CAVE, Texas (KETK) – Punxsutawney Phil has been predicting the weather on Feb. 2, also known as “Groundhog Day,” since the 1800s, but in recent years a Texas animal has been making his own predictions.

Texas’ Bee Cave Bob will make his 14th annual prediction on Thursday as part of what has become known as “Armadillo Day.”

Bob and Phil have agreed about the weather outlook twice in the last five years. The year of the Texas winter freeze in 2021, Armadillo Day was canceled due to the pandemic, but Bob said on his Twitter page that he predicted “six more weeks of social distancing.”

Photo by KXAN.
Groundhog Club handler A.J. Dereume holds Punxsutawney Phil, the weather prognosticating groundhog, as Vice President Tom Dunkel reads the scroll , during the 136th celebration of Groundhog Day on Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. Phil’s handlers said that the groundhog has forecast six more weeks of winter. (AP Photo/Barry Reeger)

2022

  • Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter.
  • Bee Cave Bob predicted an early spring.
  • Reality: Texas weather for February 2022 was 2.3 degrees below normal.

2021

  • Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter.
  • Armadillo Day was canceled due to the pandemic.
  • Reality: Texas weather for February 2021 was 9.5 degrees below normal with the coldest temperature on record on Feb. 16 at -6 degrees during the winter storm.

2020

  • Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring.
  • Bee Cave Bob predicted an early spring.
  • Reality: Texas weather for February 2020 was 0.9 degrees below normal.

2019

  • Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring.
  • Bee Cave Bob predicted an early spring.
  • Reality: Texas weather for February 2019 was 2.2 degrees below normal.

2018

  • Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter.
  • Bee Cave Bob predicted an early spring.
  • Reality: Texas weather for February 2018 was 0.5 degrees below normal.

In the last five years, Bob has never predicted six more weeks of winter for Texas, while Phil has predicted the extended winter three times in the last five years.

In 2022, according to the Texas Climate Report, Phil seemingly predicted the weather more accurately than his armadillo counterpart, as Texas has been seeing some extra-cold winters lately. The Office of the Texas State Climatologist (OSC) found that February to be the 22nd coldest on record, though Bob predicted an early spring.

However by March 2022, Texas average temperatures went from 45.8 degrees to 57.1 degrees, not quite lasting the six more weeks of winter Phil had predicted.

In 2018, the Texas Climate Report found temperatures across the state were between two and four degrees above normal in February, making Bob the more accurate predictor for that year.

While there isn’t a clear answer on which weather prediction is more accurate, Bob has often poked fun at his groundhog counterpart through his Twitter page.

“Spotlight too bright for Ol’ Phil since the Bill Murray movie came out,” Bob wrote. “Now he thinks everyone is in a shadow.”