By Sydney Maldonado, Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Staten Island Chuck is getting ready to make his Groundhog Day prediction at the Staten Island Zoo in West Brighton on Monday, Feb. 2.
This year’s ceremony will be closed to the public due to the weather, but fans of Chuck are invited to tune-in and watch the proceedings live on the Staten Island Zoo’s Facebook page. The ceremony will begin on Monday at 8 a.m.
The Staten Island Advance/SILive.com will also be on hand to cover the prediction. You’ll be able to catch the ceremony live from our Facebook page.
PHOTOS: Chuckles predicts whether a long winter or early spring in CT
Celebrated on Feb. 2 every year, Groundhog Day captures the attention of Americans of all ages when the groundhog emerges from its home and makes an appearance to the public.
If the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If it does not, an early spring is expected to come.
Fans interested in seeing the other groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, make his prediction in Pennsylvania can view it online. The livestream will begin at approximately 8 a.m., and Chuck is set to make his appearance at 8:30 a.m.
​​The Groundhog Day tradition can be traced to Candlemas, an early Christian holiday where candles were blessed and distributed. Those who celebrated Candlemas decided that clear skies on the holiday meant a longer winter.
The Germans eventually began to believe that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, a hedgehog would cast a shadow — predicting six more weeks of harsh winter weather. And it was the Germans who brought this belief to the United States.
When German immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania, they found a large number of groundhogs. And they tasked the groundhog, which resembles the European hedgehog, with the job of predicting the weather.
The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club was founded in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in 1887 by a group of groundhog hunters. The editor of the Punxsutawney newspaper was a member of the club, and he claimed that Punxsutawney Phil was the only true weather-predicting groundhog. Eventually, the furry Pennsylvania rodent became famous.
Today, tens of thousands travel to Gobbler’s Knob, the location in Punxsutawney where Phil makes his prediction.
Punxsutawney Phil prepares to issue his Groundhog Day weather verdict from Gobbler’s Knob
However, Chuck is the most accurate groundhog, according to 2025 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He boasts an 85% accuracy rate from the last 20 years, according to the data.
Phil, on the other hand, has an overall accuracy rate of 39% over 136 years, according to StormFax Weather Almanac.
While all eyes in Pennsylvania are on Phil, Chuck is the groundhog the Big Apple relies on to predict whether spring will arrive early.
Chuck has been making his prediction in the borough for more than three decades — and some years have been more eventful than others. In addition to biting Bloomberg in 2009, Chuck was dropped by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014.
© 2026 Staten Island Advance, N.Y.. Visit www.silive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.