STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 There\u2019s a well-known weather prognosticator in New York City\u2019s quietest borough, and this rodent\u2019s accuracy is proof that there\u2019s more to predicting the arrival of spring than meteorology.<\/p>\n
Staten Island Chuck, (a.k.a. Charles G. Hogg) is a groundhog who calls the Staten Island Zoo in West Brighton his home, and he has an excellent record<\/a> when it comes to predicting whether we\u2019ll experience an early spring or six more weeks of winter.<\/p>\n He does this by looking for his shadow when emerging from a hollow log inside the zoo enclosure he calls home. A visible shadow means six more weeks of winter. No shadow: Early spring.<\/p>\n Including last year\u2019s early spring forecast,<\/a> confirmed by research done by Susan E. Wagner High School students and warm March temperatures, Chuck\u2019s extended predictions have been accurate for the last 16 years. <\/p>\n He was last \u201cofficially\u201d wrong in 2009. That\u2019s the year he bit former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. <\/p>\n Unofficially, in 2017, students at PS 45 who tracked Chuck\u2019s prediction said he was wrong that year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chuck certainly has an impressive history when it comes to his accuracy, especially when compared with another well-known weather-predicting groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Zoo in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n The two go head-to-head for accurate predictions each year on Feb. 2.<\/p>\n And Chuck seems to get it right much more often than Phil, according to the Staten Island Zoo. Chuck was reported last year to have an accuracy rate of 85%, while Phil\u2019s numbers hover just below 40%, the zoo reported. His current accuracy rate, including his accurate prediction in 2025, will be announced by the zoo on Groundhog Day 2026, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Phil has been issuing his predictions since 1887 from Gobbler\u2019s Knob in Western Pennsylvania and has an overall accuracy rate of 39% over 135 years, according to StormFax Weather Almanac<\/a>. <\/p>\n (Groundhogs can live only 14 years in captivity, so younger groundhogs have stepped in for both Phil and Chuck through the decades after the senior groundhogs have passed on.)<\/p>\n Despite their differing decisions through the years, in 2024 and 2025, both Phil and Chuck called for an early spring. <\/p>\n They are not the only groundhogs around the country<\/a> who try to predict the timing of spring\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n Prediction ceremony<\/p>\n