STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The chilly weather didn’t deter Staten Island Chuck on his day of fame as the four-legged prognosticator predicted we will have an early spring for the masses.
Chuck (a.k.a Charles G. Hogg) was greeted by over 150 fans as he sat inside a hollowed log within a special enclosure at the Staten Island Zoo to deliver the news shortly after the 7:30 a.m. ceremony began.
“The science of meteorology and the groundhog, we can coexist. It’s important to hear both,” Rutgers University Meteorologist student and Tottenville resident Ashlee Gervasi joked. “He has his methods, we have ours, and we’ll match up.”
Scenes from Groundhog Day 2025 from the Staten Island Zoo. Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Jason PaderonJason Paderon
Gervasi was joined by Brooklyn native Januario Garces, who was happy to see a rodent that wasn’t a rat.
“Staten Island has more lively creatures than Brooklyn. [There’s] kind of just rats and fat ones, too — the ones that eat pizza and stuff [in Brooklyn]. These ones [groundhogs] are kind of cooler. They’re the better rodents.”
Staten Island theater stars Cara S. Liander (who moonlights as a roastmaster!) and James McKeon hosted the ceremony for the first time this year, an honor usually reserved for former Staten Island Deputy Borough President Ed Burke, who now serves as chief of staff at the Zoo in West Brighton.
Cara S. Launder and James McKeon pose with Tottenville Tony on Feb. 2, 2025, at the Staten Island Zoo. (Staten Island Advance/Jillian Delaney)Staten Island Advance/Jillian Delaney
“When we were asked to do the ceremony, I felt as though it was the greatest Staten Island honor that anyone can ever be asked of. So, I was very, very happy to do it,” Liander said.
Liander’s uncle, Peter, also made the early morning trip to the Zoo to support his niece.
McKeon — who was feeling good after Chuck made his prediction — introduced Tottenville Tony, a groundhog puppet, to the crowd before Chuck’s big moment. Tony, the pair joked, is Chuck’s cousin. The puppet is a prop from Staten Island the Musical, McKeon said.
New Guests and Lifelong Supporters
Lifelong Staten Islander and Zoo volunteer Lucy Debeppo continued her annual tradition by attending the event, which also marked her 103rd birthday.
103-year-old Lucy Debeppo watches from the crowd at Groundhog Day 2025 at the Staten Island Zoo. Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Jason PaderonJason Paderon
Debeppo remembers when the Zoo was first being built back in the late 1930s. She sat towards the front of the crowd in a wheelchair with her grandson by her side. Nothing was stopping her from participating in the tradition.
Another lifelong Staten Islander, Marissa Bujka, brought her children Carlo and Sophia to the ceremony for their very first Staten Island Chuck Groundhog Day.
“They were more enthusiastic about it than I was,” Marissa said. “They woke up better than they would have woke up to school, and we rushed right over, and we can’t wait to see.”
The kids thought that there would be more winter instead of an early spring — which fit right into a crowd divided on Chuck’s anticipated prediction.
Scenes from Groundhog Day 2025 from the Staten Island Zoo. Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Jason PaderonJason Paderon
Three Staten Island brothers — Sal, 8; Max, 6; and Nicholas, 3 — were also bundled up to see Chuck with their father. If Sal could’ve spoken to Chuck before his big debut, he would’ve told the furry weatherman, “Please make it spring! And not [to] be afraid of his shadow.”
Miss Richmond County, Miss Richmond County Teen, Miss Staten Island, and Miss Staten Island Teen were all present and accounted for in their crowns at the ceremony.
Miss Staten Island Teen Nadia Anwar, Miss Staten Island Madison Gattullo, Miss Richmond County Scarlett DeWitt, and Miss Richmond County Teen Chloe Wong pose at the Groundhog Day festivities at the Staten Island Zoo on Feb. 2, 2025. (Staten Island Advance/Jillian Delaney)Staten Island Advance/Jillian Delaney
“It is truly an honor to be able to represent a community like this and to be up here with all of these incredible people. Just an honor. There’s really no other words for it. I mean, you have the community and the kids coming and singing,” Miss Richmond County Scarlett DeWitt said. “There is no place like Staten Island because there’s no sense of community like Staten Island. Where in the world do you have all these little elementary school kids and middle school kids coming, and you have every single representative you could think about, to see a groundhog? You don’t see that.”
Elected officials take the stage
Staten Island’s elected officials were all smiles this morning as they mingled with the crowd and on stage during the ceremony.
Scenes from Groundhog Day 2025 from the Staten Island Zoo. Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Jason PaderonJason Paderon
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R–Staten Island/South Brooklyn), Assemblyman Michael Tannousis (R–East Shore/South Brooklyn), Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo (R–Mid-Island), Assemblyman Charles Fall (D–North Shore/Battery Park), Councilwoman Kamillah Hanks (D–North Shore) as well as representatives from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s and State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton’s (D–North Shore) offices were present.
“Even though Charles Fall loves the fall, we’re hoping for early spring,” the Assemblyman Fall joked, referring to himself in the third person. “You have a sense of community here.”
A slew of Staten Island students from Susan E. Wagner High School, Prall Intermediate School (I.S. 27), and P.S. 29 participated in the Groundhog Day festivities.
Students from Wagner High School are ready to track Staten Island Chuck’s prediction at the Staten Island Zoo on Feb. 2, 2025. (Staten Island Advance/Jillian Delaney)Staten Island Advance/Jillian Delaney
Students from Wagner High School will be keeping a weathered eye on Chuck’s prediction for the next 45 days to see if the beloved critter was accurate this year.
The students brought their hand drawn calendar to the festivities, which they will use to mark temperatures recorded by the high school’s “state of the art” weather station, Robert Fendrick said.
This was Fendrick’s third Groundhog Day at the Zoo. He teaches AP Environmental Science in addition to the agriculture elective and brings a new crew of Wagner students — like Phoenix Garcia and Zaimah Chaudhry — to the event each year.
Scenes from Groundhog Day 2025 from the Staten Island Zoo. Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon) Jason PaderonJason Paderon
Garcia was rooting for an early spring, while Chaudhry adamantly said Chuck is better than his competition, the very popular Punxsutawney Phil, of Pennsylvania.
I.S. 27 students offered fun facts and jokes about groundhogs to the crowd, which inspired some chuckles.
And who could forget the sweet singing of “Shadowphobia” by I.S. 27?
Staten Island Chuck predicts an early spring! Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (Staten Island Advance/Jason Paderon)Jason Paderon
A Decades Long Beef
Chuck and Phil, the two fuzzy forecasters, go head-to-head for accurate predictions each year on Feb. 2.
Chuck has an astounding rate of accuracy compared to Phil, who predicted that we would experience another six weeks of winter.
Staten Island’s prognosticator boasts about an 80% accuracy rate from his predictions spanning back to 1981, according to the StormFax Weather Almanac, while Phil has an overall accuracy rate of just 39% over 135 years.
Including last year’s early spring forecast (bing!), Chuck’s extended winter-or-early spring predictions have been on point for much of the last 15 years. After being wrong in 2009, the same year he bit former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, our groundhog slipped up in 2017, when students at PS 45 who tracked Chuck’s prediction said he was wrong that year.
