Phil, Chuck or Poppy: Which Prognosticator Does It Best?

Article presented by Herlihy Moving & Storage …

This Monday is Groundhog Day, the day Midwesterners look to rodents for a forecast indicating an early spring. The arctic weather pattern which found its way to the Scioto Valley this week has only made residents eager for warmer weather.   

For more than a century, hearts desiring a shorter winter have kept watch on Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil. It began in 1887, with Phil seeing his shadow more than one hundred times, meaning six more weeks of winter. His accuracy has been less than satisfactory, predicting an early spring just 21 times.

In Marion, Ohio, Buckeye Chuck joined the forecasting foray in 1979. Chuck has a higher percentage of correctly determining the weather. According to the Marion Star, Buckeye Chuck has correctly predicted an early spring in six of his last ten appearances on Groundhog Day. Each year a crowd gathers in the parking lot of WMRN Radio awaiting the prediction of their famous burrow dweller.

WATCH our feature on Buckeye Chuck from 2022 on the Litter Media YouTube Channel

This will be the fifth year for Lancaster’s Poppy the Skunk. Introduced in 2022 by the Parks and Recreation Department gave another twist on the weather prediction game. Poppy has predicted an early spring once, last year.

The website CountdownToGroundhogDay.com is tracking as many as 185 forecasting animals, from a polar bear to penguins, an alligator, armadillo, cat, and Buckeye Lake’s Benny the Bass. CLICK TO SEE the complete listing.

The long range forecast according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, we should expect colder than normal temperatures into mid-March for the Ohio Valley. That would be six more weeks of winter, however there’s no snow forecast for March, which may be a good sign for an early spring.

Which will these forecasters lean to on Monday? To borrow a line from classic radio, only the shadow knows.