Holtsville Hal, Malverne Mel Make LI Groundhog Day Forecast

Long Island’s leading groundhogs Holsville Hal and Malverne Mel agreed with each other for the first time in three years in making their seasonal forecast on Friday for Groundhog Day.

Both groundhogs did not see their shadow, their handlers told cheering audience members gathered to hear the news early Friday morning, which means springlike weather will arrive early, according to groundhog folklore.

“At sunrise, the sky was filled with more than one cloud, and so I hope your cheers will be quite loud — I did not see my shadow in the early morning hours,” said Dan Losquadro, the Town of Brookhaven highway superintendent said while reading Hal’s prediction at the Holtsville Wildlife & Ecology Center that the groundhog calls home. “And so the wait will not be long until we see the flowers, sun, and warm temperatures the next few weeks will bring. I hope everyone enjoys this year’s spring.”

Holtsville Hal’s forecast at 7:25 a.m. came minutes after Malverne Village Mayor Tim Sullivan read Malverne Mel’s prediction also was for an early spring after that groundhog didn’t see its shadow either. The forecast means both of LI’s top groundhogs agreed with the nation’s most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, who made the same prediction Friday.

“When looking for his shadow, he ran out of his house, he could not see it,” Sullivan said in his unpoetic forecast.

Allen McButterpants, a groundhog at the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays, Quogue Library’s Sam Champion the groundhog, and a local newcomer, Niblet, who lives at Sweetbriar Nature Center, agreed. Other tristate area groundhogs that forecast spring were Staten Island Chuck, Dunkirk Dave and Connecticut Chuckle’s. New Jersey’s event was canceled again this year as officials were reportedly unable to find a replacement for Milltown Mel, who died in 2022. Bucking the trend and predicting a long winter was Buffalo Bert.

In addition, the Village of Bablon hosted an event with the nonprofit Humane Long Island that was billed as the region’s first groundhog-free Groundhog Day, which instead featured a person in a groundhog suit making the prediction.

“To see why groundhogs should be allowed to be groundhogs and do what groundhogs do, which at this time of the year is sleep, we need look no further than Staten Island Chuck who bit Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his stand-in, Charlotte, who passed away a week after being dropped by Mayor Bill de Blasio—or Malverne Mel who attempted to escape this morning’s ceremony in Malverne,” said John Di Leonardo, anthrozoologist and executive director of Humane Long Island.

The Groundhog Day forecasts came as temperatures were expected to be in the 40s for the next week and drop into the 20s overnight, according to the National Weather Service. The vernal equinox is Tuesday, March 19, 2024.