MARION, Ohio — Well, you’ll have to decide who you believe: the groundhog out of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, or the one out of Marion, Ohio.
They seem to disagree about when we’ll see spring this year.
Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow, and that—according to the tradition—means we’ll be seeing six more weeks of winter.
The woodchuck’s weather forecast is an annual ritual that goes back more than a century in western Pennsylvania, with far older roots in European folklore, but it took Bill Murray’s 1993 “Groundhog Day” movie to transform the event into what it is today, with tens of thousands of revelers at the scene and imitators scattered around the United States and beyond.
However, perhaps you’d be more trusting of a local groundhog.
Buckeye Chuck, at an event at the Marion County Fairgrounds Coliseum, did not see his shadow. This means he’s predicting an early spring.
In a post on social media, the “Buckeye Chuck” account thanked attendees of the event, saying they “collected a bunch of monetary and food donations for the St Vincent DePaul food pantry.”
They also thanked the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for its partnership.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.