The cold front will continue!
New York City’s resident groundhog, Staten Island Chuck saw his shadow early Monday — meaning six more weeks of dreaded wintry weather.
The famed prognosticating rodent agreed with the prediction of his rival from Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil.
The annual ceremony at the Staten Island Zoo was closed to the public this year due to the freezing weather conditions.
The Staten Island woodchuck has been historically more accurate than his Keystone State counterpart, reigning supreme among his fellow groundhogs with an 85% accuracy rate in predicting the six-week weather forecast, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Punxsutawney Phil, however, is only correct 35% of the time, data collected by NOAA showed. Last year, the famous Pennsylvania rodent predicted six more weeks of winter, disagreeing with his Big Apple counterpart.
If the groundhog in question emerges from his den and sees his own shadow, the country is in for another month-and-a-half of winter.
Groundhog Day was first celebrated on Feb. 2, 1887, at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Penn., for a holiday stemming from German folklore that took root in western Pennsylvania more than a century ago.
The holiday originates in the ancient Christian tradition called “Candlemas,” where clergy blessed and distributed candles for the winter and predicted how long and cold the season would be.
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