Results tagged “statenislandchuck”

It was no contest. In a battle of weather legends Staten Island Chuck's month old prediction of an early spring was thoroughly pummeled by March coming in like a lion last night. Snowfall amounts generally ranged from 5-8 inches across the city this morning. More than a foot fell on eastern Long Island.

Staten Island Chuck, your time has come! A Quinnipiac poll notes that New Yorkers support and your taste for Bloomberg blood. The groundhog bit the Mayor at the start of the month, to much fanfare, and Staten Island Advance reports the poll found "61 percent of New Yorkers, including 79 percent of borough residents, said he was protecting the Island's interests. Fifteen percent said he was making a political statement." However, Mayor Bloomberg has promised to show the Staten Island Zoo resident who's boss next year—"I'm gonna get the little SOB next year. I'm gonna bite him in front of the cameras"—though the Mayor must be re-elected to do so. Oh, and the poll also found that New Yorkers want mayoral control of the schools to continue.

Fine, maybe the Marist poll revealing that Mayor Bloomberg's approval rating fell seven points is not correlated with his promise to get back at Staten Island Chuck. But on John Gambling's radio show Mayor Bloomberg did (jokingly) discuss revenge and retribution with the creature who bit him on Groundhog Day—"I'm gonna get the little SOB next year. I'm gonna bite him in front of the cameras"—which totally sounds like a way to work his way into the hearts of voters who want to see some sort of smackdown between a billionaire and a little ol' groundhog who just sent the Mayor chocolates for his birthday/Valentine's Day as an apology.

After spending an awkward Groundhog Day together, Staten Island Chuck wants Mayor Bloomberg to know that he's sorry. The Staten Island Advance reports that the Staten Island Zoo's resident groundhog "sent some Valentine's Day affection toward Mayor Michael Bloomberg to apologize for biting him during a Groundhog Day celebration... To mark the mayor's birthday, which coincides with V-Day, and to get back on good terms with the man who holds the purse strings for a portion of the Zoo budget, Chuck offered Bloomberg a heart-shaped box filled with chocolates as an olive branch."

After Staten Island Chuck, the Staten Island Zoo's weather predicting (on Groundhog Day, of course) groundhog, bit Mayor Bloomberg, causing a storm of media attention, the NY Times had to go back to the scene of the chomp: "He went rampaging across the stage in the zoo’s auditorium, knocking over a prop-size statue of a giraffe" and when he encountered a photo of Bloomberg, "Chuck rubbed his lips on the corner of the picture frame. He was not making nice — it looked as if he had bared his teeth." Still, Chuck's keeper, Douglas Schwartz, believes Chuck acted out because the small animal believed Bloomberg was taking away his food, a theory we believe since the mayor kept taking away Chuck's cob of corn. The zoo may trade this Chuck in for a younger edition (the zoo limits the groundhogs' stints to 3-5 years), but this Chuck has his fans—check out the Viva Chuck t-shirts.

Charles G. Hogg, better known as Staten Island Chuck, the Staten Island Zoo's resident groundhog, is becoming a bit of a folk hero after his Groundhog Day encounter with Mayor Bloomberg. The rodent bit the Mayor, who was trying to coax him out for his annual prediction; the Daily News even put Chuck on the cover!

At 7:30 a.m. this morning, Mayor Bloomberg was at the Staten Island Zoo, awaiting the appearance of Staten Island Chuck, the borough's Groundhog Eminence Grise. However, when the mayor tried to coax Chuck out of his little Groundhog Day house, the Staten Island Advance reports, "Chuck snapped at the mayor's hand, grabbed the tasty treat and ran back in. As Bloomberg reached for him, the groundhog tried hiding in the corner before eventually being lifted out."

Staten Island Chuck proclaimed that spring is coming this morning at the Staten Island Zoo's Groundhog Day festivities. The Staten Island Advance reports that the interaction between Chuck and the mayor was pretty amusing, "Though Mayor Michael Bloomberg tried luring Chuck out of his house with an ear of corn, Chuck snapped at the mayor's hand, grabbed the tasty treat and ran back in. As Bloomberg reached for him, the groundhog tried hiding in the corner before eventually being lifted out." Heh! And phorget Phil: The Pennsylvania groundhog thinks there's six more weeks of winter—he's such a Debbie Downer!

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day, the day we rely on furry animals to predict whether we'll see another 6 weeks of winter or an early spring. Sure, Punxsatawney, PA-residing Phil has been celebrated in the 1993 classic, Groundhog Day, but New Yorkers have Staten Island Chuck, who spends half the week at the Staten Island Zoo and the other half at his keeper's house (he commutes by public transit!).

As we mentioned over the weekend, Staten Island Chuck predicted a Giants Super Bowl victory as well as an early spring. He got the football prediction right, but what's the deal with the snow, Chuck? We tried to talk to him but his publicist would not return our calls! That forced us to look at a few weather maps, which led us to see that the snow shower was actually a harbinger of warmer weather to come. Maybe Chuck was right afterall. The snow was the result of anxious warm, moist air riding up and over the departing high pressure system that gave us a sunny day yesterday.

Several hundred people, including Gothamist, gathered at the Staten Island Zoo early this morning to hear a well-fed rodent's forecast for the remainder of the winter. After the Tottenville High School chorus entertained the crowd local dignitaries and elected officials were introduced. Then, the moment everyone was waiting for. A Brownie troop member was enlisted to coax Staten Island Chuck out of his house with the aid of a few peanuts.

Every year, we look forward to Groundhog Day for the appearances of Punxsutawney Phil, Staten Island Chuck, and the inevitable multiple screenings of the movie Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray. But we also love Groundhog Day because it means that WNBC newswoman Sue Simmons is prodded into doing her impression of a groundhog. We love a beautiful woman not afraid to make herself look ridiculous--like when she fell off her chair and recovered somewhat gracefully. The video was recorded yesterday, as Sue has today--Groundhog Day--off from work.

Our snowless, warm January is being followed by a very wet start to February. Expect rain and sleet throughout the day today. It's the dreaded wintry mix! We may even have a bit of thunder this afternoon. Actually, the weather freezing rain north of the city is making conditions dangerous from Connecticut through the lower Hudson Valley into northern New Jersey. Further upstate there's an ice storm warning in effect through 5 p.m. Within the city the ground isn't frozen so freezing rain won't happen here. Showers should continue until midnight or so.

Nothing like a sunny Monday to start off the week. Especially when it is likely to be cloudy and wetter tomorrow and Wednesday. Clouds will roll in during the day tomorrow. Rain may begin as early as the afternoon but is most likely Tuesday night. Highs tomorrow and Wednesday should be in the mid-40s. The winds will pick up along with the rain as this is a fairly big storm approaching from the Midwest. The cold front trailing the storm is expected to clear all the moisture out of here by Wednesday afternoon. The storm is odd in that there's not much cold air behind it. Thursday's weather will be much like today's. Another storm passage, albeit a weak one, is expected Thursday night or Friday.

Charles G. Hogg, VII would like to apologize. As you may recall, Mr. Hogg, better known as Staten Island Chuck, predicted an early end to winter. That prognostication by Gothamist's favorite mass transit-taking Marmota monax, turned out to be wildly inaccurate, as the second half of winter was much colder than normal and the greatest snowfall of the season occurring last week. Chuck told the Staten Island Advance "I want my public, my admiring fans... to know that I truly felt spring in my bones on Feb. 2." He went on to say that he should have paid more attention to his shadow than his bones.

As we mentioned on Friday, Staten Island Chuck's forecast skills aren't the best. Instead of an early spring, today and tomorrow will be the coldest days yet this winter. An arctic front passed through the city around three o'clock this morning, bringing with it bone chilling cold, dry air and high winds.

Hoorah! WNBC has a clip of Sue Simmons's Groundhog Impression, 2007 edition from yesterday's newscast. How did the WNBC anchor start imitating woodland creatures?

Sue says her imitation of the groundhog face actually began before she came to New York, when she was a reporter in New Haven. On Groundhog Day one year, she ended a live shot with the groundhog face, and for weeks, people kept coming up to her asking for a repeat performace.

Let us start by saying Gothamist loves Staten Island Chuck. But our unconditional love for New York's largest commuting rodent hasn't fogged our assessment of Chuck's forecasting ability. We realize this is the first time Chuck #6 has made a forecast, but it is as wrong as the last couple of forecasts the late Chuck #5 made. It pains us to contradict Chuck. There will be no early spring this year.

The groundhog survey says we'll have an early spring. Staten Island Chuck, along with Punxsutawney Phil (pictured above), predicted an early spring. However, Holtsville Hal on Long Island saw his shadow for six more weeks of winter, but we'll assume he just woke up on the wrong side of the burrow this morning. As for today's weather, we'll have another post up about that in a bit.

When you get up early tomorrow to see if Punxsutawney Phil or Staten Island Chuck see their shadows, try to remember to put on something red! February is American Heart Month and the American Heart Association (AHA) is launching the HEART for Women campaign to raise awareness. And the AHA is encouraging everyone to wear red this Friday to spread the word.

It is often said that baseball is a game of inches. There are many times during a game when an inch or two difference in the location of the ball would change a strike to a ball, a swing and a miss to a hit, a double to a home run, a catch from a error.

These days, the most famous Staten Islander we know is Staten Island Chuck (sorry, Molinari!), the Staten Island Zoo's groundhog. Groundhog Day is just three weeks away, and the NY Times looks at the preparation the zoo and Chuck are doing in the run-up. Cue the montage sequence of Staten Island Chuck in training!

As we all know by now, Staten Island Chuck, Gothamist's favorite rodent (he's bigger and cuter than a rat!), did not see his shadow yesterday morning, meaning an early spring. While Chuck was not seeing his shadow, Gothamist was photographing these snowdrops emerging from the ground in Morningside Park. By our recollection they were coming out a couple of weeks earlier than last year, which one might assume is another sign of an early spring. Now that this morning's rain has stopped we've warmed up to 62. Close to the record high of 64. Another sign of spring's imminent arrival?

Toby at Random Observations captured this great moment in local TV news: Sue Simmons doing her best groundhog impression during the Live at Five broadcast, writing, "It is something that I always look forward to every year." When Gothamist caught the 11PM broadcast, Chuck Scarborough created quite a fanfare for Simmons to repeat the impression. And suddenly we realized that while WNBC mentioned Punxsutawny Phil, they neglected to mention another Chuck - Staten Island Chuck who predicts an early spring. At any rate, this is why we love local news.

Staten Island Chuck, NYC's own weather-prognosticating groundhog, did not see his shadow this morning which means an early spring. And in keeping with the trend in the past few years, Punxsutawny Phil differed, seeing his shadow and dooming the Northeast to more cold weather. Well, if it's cold weather the way it has been the past few weeks, we'll take it! What's sad is that apparently people were booing Phil's forecast - he's just a groundhog, people! He rather spend his time digging up holes in your yard than working out the meteorology.

Last month tied January 1913 as the fourth warmest January on record. The average temperature in Central Park was 40.9 degrees, 8.8 degrees above normal. Much of the Midwest and Great Plains had their warmest January's ever. The warm trend continues into February but for how long? The clouds are giving us warmus interruptus today but tomorrow will be a sunny, warm mid-winter day. The sunshine means that Staten Island Chuck will see his shadow, predicting six more weeks of winter. Gothamist hopes whatever local dignitary helps Chuck with his duties tomorrow morning asks the rodent if "six more weeks of winter" means more of the same or a return to real winter weather.

Really, we shouldn't be talking about heat in January but we're in the midst of another stretch of unusually warm weather. Temperatures were 15 degrees above normal over the weekend and at least that much again today (It's already 60 degrees at JFK!). If Gothamist has done our math correctly we will easily be the fourth warmest January on record and may squeeze by 1950 and 1990 to finish in second place. At two degrees warmer than any other January, 1932 will hold on to the top spot in the rankings. Rain moves in tonight and tomorrow looks soggy. It will be a little cooler but still well above average for the rest of the week. Can winter continue this warm? Only Staten Island Chuck knows for sure.

The high temperature in Central Park yesterday was 52, only two degrees below the record high for the day. It'll remain warm today but we won't get near the record of 61 degrees. We won't get near any record high temperatures for the next couple of weeks at least. It appears that Staten Island Chuck could only see about a week into the future. Yes, Gothamist readers, winter hasn't gone away.

At 7:20 this morning Staten Island Chuck (Rodentus forecastivus) crawled out of his hole in the ground and did not see his shadow. How could Chuck not see his shadow on such a clear day? Was it cloudy on Staten Island this morning? Not a cloud could be seen from Gothamist's Harlem abode. According to Newsday, Holtsville Hal also did not see his shadow, but Melville Mel did!