Hopes For Thaw Hang On Staten Island Chuck As Groundhog Day Nears

STATEN ISLAND, NY – Make it stop, Chuck! New Yorkers in the midst of the deepest freeze of the winter so far are hanging their hopes on Staten Island's weather forecaster as he emerges from his burrow for Groundhog Day.

Staten Island Chuck will be seeking his shadow in the borough's zoo at 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

If the rodent sees his shadow when he wakes from his slumber, we're in store for six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't, an early spring is on its way, according to lore.

The zoo, at 614 Broadway in West Brighton, opens at 6 a.m. Feb. 2 with the Groundhog Day ceremony set to start at 7 a.m.

If you can't make it to watch live, sign up for Patch's newsletter to be alerted of the furry weatherman's prediction.

While Chuck's Pennsylvania rival Punxsutawney Phil might be the more famous forecaster, Chuck has a higher accuracy rating. Chuck's predictions were accurate 68.4 percent of the time from 1992 to 2016, while Phil was right only 42.1 percent, DNAinfo reported.

Aside from battling against Phil, Chuck has had a strained relationship with the city's mayors who pull him out of his burrow. In 2009, Chuck took a bite out of then Mayor Michael Bloomberg's finger as Hizzoner tried to coax the groundhog out of his home.

Bloomberg took to using a plunger instead of his hands in 2011 and was caught on video calling him a "son of a b--ch."

Relationships didn't improve when Bill de Blasio took office. In 2014, de Blasio dropped Chuck — later revealed to be a stand-in named Charlotte — as he took her out of her home for the prediction. Charlotte was found dead a week later in her cage after suffering internal injuries, the New York Post reported.

A spokesman for the zoo told the Post that Charlotte showed no signs of trauma or pain during a medical exam after Groundhog Day.

When de Blasio returned next year, the zoo took extra precautions and had Chuck lifted from his burrow by an elevator and kept in a Plexiglass box away from de Blasio's slippery fingers.

De Blasio hasn't returned since 2015 and he's not expected this year, according to reports.

Lead image by Nick Rizzi/Patch