As the annual tradition continues, weather-predicting rodents from all across North America emerged from their sleep and offered weather forecasts for either an early spring or six more weeks of winter. There are actually more than 80 weather-forecasting prognosticators, but not all of them record a prediction every year.
On February 2, 2025, 43 groundhogs predicted an early spring and 33 predicted six more weeks of winter. Of course, rodents are not meteorologists, but it’s always fun to see their predictions and find out if they were correct.
One of the most famous groundhogs is Punxsutawney Phil, who resides in Pennsylvania and is claimed to have been predicting the weather since 1886, despite the lifespan of a wild groundhog being roughly six years. This year, when Phil emerged from Gobbler’s Knob, he saw his shadow, meaning six more weeks of winter. However, in the last decade, Phil has only been right 30% of the time, so maybe it’s more likely we will have an early spring?
Another rodent we like to keep an eye on is Buckeye Chuck, who resides in Marion, Ohio, not far from where we (ForecastWatch) are based out of. Chuck has been offering predictions since 1979, and has been correct 50% of the time. This year, he predicts an early spring.
Over in New York City, Staten Island Chuck is also predicting an early spring, and he has been correct the last FIFTEEN YEARS IN A ROW! He has an 85% all-time accuracy rate since his predictions began in 1981!
If you’re interested in a prediction from a four-legged friend near you, check out https://groundhog-day.com/. We’ll check back in a few months to see who was correct!