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......

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. To chants of "Chuck......

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......

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......

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......

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.........

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. While the temperature may get up to the lower 20s today, it certainly won't feel nearly that warm. Winds coming out of the......

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.And......

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. Do you like......

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. If anyone went to the Staten Island......

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. Heart disease is the most common cause of death in women, leading to......

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. On a much larger scale we can think of meteorology as a game of miles. The last two snow......

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! For instance, his trainer Douglas Schwartz, zookeeper for the tropical rainforest section, brings the groundhog to his home by way of......

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.......

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......

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......

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,......

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......

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. Tomorrow should start off......

- NY media blog smackdown: Gothamist asks the experts about the Gawker-FishbowlNY match (1, 2) - The MTA is dangerous, and ahead of its own schedule and - and riders are happy - NYC gets serious about trying to bring the Olympics in 2012 - A bagel gets a New Yorker down - And the Idiotarod was last weekend - Gothamist Food ranks vodkas - Where to karaoke in town, per Ask Gothamist -......

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! No shadow foretells an early Spring. Despite......

Tomorrow's the big day! Will Staten Island Chuck see his shadow and doom us all to six more weeks of winter? The Queens Zoo has two prairie dogs, Flushing Meadows Phil and Corona Kate, to predict the weather. Gothamist would just like to say that we know groundhogs, and prairie dogs ain't groundhogs. Imposters! There is, or perhaps was, a family of wild groundhogs living in Riverside Park just north of the North River Sewage......

The Northeast sure looks cold in this true color image taken Monday by NASA's MODIS sensor (see the whole chilly image on the Earth Observatory). It looks cold because it is cold and it is going to be colder for the remainder of the week. Windy too! That old blowhard Mr. Wind Chill is going to be in town through Friday. Wind chill only pertains to exposed flesh, so you should be fine if you......