Buckeye Chuck says winter to ‘hang around’

OHIO – With media and fans looking eagerly watching, Buckeye Chuck, Ohio’s official state groundhog pronounced winter will continue six more weeks.

Buckeye Chuck even issued this statement via Twitter, “Prognostication: Yikes, is that my shadow on the ground? Winter will hang around. #sixmore weeks of #winter #GroundhogDay”

Buckeye Chuck is Ohio’s own official prognosticator. He resides in Marion, Ohio. Chuck was named Ohio’s official state groundhog in 1979.

He isn’t the only groundhog working on Groundhog’s Day. The most famous of the prognosticators on Groundhog’s Day is Punxsutawney Phil. Punxsutawney Phil concurred and has predicted six more weeks of winter as read in a statement at Gobbler’s Knob this morning.

New York’s Dunkirk Dave concurred with Buckeye Chuck and Punxsutawney Phil with their predictions of winter continuing for six more weeks.

General Beauregard Lee, Georgia’s own groundhog, has a dissenting opinion. He did not see his shadow and has proclaimed an early spring. Tennessee’s Chattanooga Chuck also did not see his shadow.

According to the History Channel, “On this day in 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring.”

Groundhog Day actually has it’s roots in Christianity. In the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas Day, the clergy would bless and distribute candles which were needed for winter. The candles represented how long and how cold the coming winter would be. Germans expanded upon this idea by incorporating the hedgehog as a way to predict the weather. As immigration to America began, German immigrants in Pennsylvania discovered groundhogs. They continued the tradition with woodchucks.

According to the History Channel website, “In 1887, a newspaper editor belonging to a group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was America’s only true weather-forecasting groundhog. The line of groundhogs that have since been known as Phil might be America’s most famous groundhogs, but other towns across North America now have their own weather-predicting rodents, from Birmingham Bill to Staten Island Chuck to Shubenacadie Sam in Canada.”