{"id":117692,"date":"2026-01-30T19:13:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117692\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T19:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T19:13:24","slug":"groundhog-day-2026-ceremony-at-staten-island-zoo-closed-to-public-due-to-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117692\/","title":{"rendered":"Groundhog Day 2026: Ceremony at Staten Island Zoo closed to public due to weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 As New York City continues to face frigid temperatures in the coming days,<\/a> even Staten Island Chuck, the borough\u2019s famous weather-predicting groundhog, is being forced to adjust. <\/p>\n

The Groundhog Day ceremony, which is set to take place on Monday, Feb. 2, at the Staten Island Zoo in West Brighton will be closed to the public this year due to the weather.<\/p>\n

The ceremony, featuring Staten Island Chuck, will begin on Monday at 8 a.m. Fans of Chuck are invited to tune-in and watch the proceedings live on the Staten Island Zoo\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n

Chuck\u2019s appearance and prediction are expected to occur at 8:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to hold our annual Groundhog Day ceremony on February 2nd, but regret due to weather conditions that this year\u2019s ceremony will not be open to the public,\u201d said Ken Mitchell, Staten Island Zoo\u2019s executive director. \u201cWith recent weather storms and cold snaps affecting our area, weather is certainly on the minds of most New Yorkers, so we predict there will be a great deal of interest in Chuck\u2019s prediction. Will he forecast an early spring or six more weeks of winter? Only the shadow knows … so join us as the sun comes up on Groundhog Day at the Zoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event, sponsored by Citizens, will feature special guests, Staten Island elected officials, and students from Susan E. Wagner High School, Sea View, who will serve as Chuck\u2019s \u201cweather checkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students will monitor the weather for the next 45 days to determine if Chuck is accurate in his prediction.<\/p>\n

The ceremony, weather science school outreach, and care for the zoo\u2019s resident groundhog Chuck are made possible by the generosity of Citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cCitizens is committed to supporting long-standing traditions that bring our local communities together,\u201d said Yajaira Hafley, Tristate metro retail market executive at Citizens. \u201cThe Staten Island Zoo\u2019s Groundhog Day celebration brings together students, teachers, and families to witness Chuck\u2019s much-anticipated prediction.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to legend, groundhogs awake from their winter hibernation every Feb. 2 to either forecast an early spring (if it doesn\u2019t see its shadow), or six more weeks of winter (if it sees its shadow and runs back into its burrow).<\/p>\n

Staten Island Chuck has been accurate nearly 80% of the time, according to data.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 As New York City continues to face frigid temperatures in the coming days, even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-117692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}