Staten Island’s Groundhog Day 2021 Conspiracy

People in Staten Island and all over New York are upset about the Groundhog Day forecast from Staten Island Chuck. No, they aren't upset about the content of the forecast. They are upset about the actual broadcast of Staten Island Chuck's prediction.

First and foremost let me say that I think the whole Groundhog Day thing is stupid. The only good thing that has come out of this ridiculous tradition of letting a rodent play meteorologist is the movie Groundhog Day. Bill Murray is a national treasure and I'll fight anyone that says anything different.

Anyway, back to the Staten Island Chuck conspiracy that has a group of weather-predicting rodent lovers upset. Take a look at the picture below, notice anything weird about this picture? This is one of the zookeepers at the Staten Island Zoo and she's in a t-shirt and there's no snow on the ground. Hmmmm that seems to be a clue. Somebody call the Facebook Fact-Checkers because something is afoot at the Staten Island Zoo! Look how beautiful and sunny it looks....didn't New York just get over a foot of snow and have blizzard conditions?

Staten Island Zoo/Facebook

The annual Groundhog Day event was done virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic and it was billed as a "live" Facebook video....only it wasn't. It was prerecorded earlier and that's why there isn't any snow on the ground. Ah Ha! Finally, a conspiracy that might actually be true.

One commenter on the Facebook Live feed wrote, “There was not a drop of snow on the ground, they were out in sweatshirts, and it was sunny. It is NOT sunny here on SI now! Coming. Everything has been canceled in 2020, so you could have just canceled it.”

A bunch of people made fun of them online, and a few were OUTRAGED. One parent said their kids were confused and wanted to know why the snow disappeared. The zoo later said that the, quote, "magic of Chuck" must have melted it.

In the end, does it really matter if it was prerecorded? Puxatoney Phil and several other rodent meteorologists predicted six more weeks of winter, while Staten Island Chuck is predicting an early spring. I'll stick with Jim Cantore...if you squint your eyes hard enough he kinda looks like a groundhog.