In a turn of events, there was no live Buckeye Chuck this year. Instead, representatives of\u00a0the groundhog interpreted and announced the 2023 winter forecast.
It was a Groundhog Day unlike any other.
Each Feb. 2, Buckeye Chuck emerges in Marion, Ohio to look for his shadow and predict whether we’ll have another six weeks of winter. It’s Ohio’s less-famous version of Pennsylvania’s media darling Punxsutawney Phil.
But in a strange twist, there was no live Buckeye Chuck this year. Instead, WMRN-AM radio personality Paul James, who emceed the event, was joined on stage by a stuffed groundhog, standing stoically atop a base adorned with a “Buckeye Chuck” nameplate.
That groundhog seemed incapable of scratching his ear, much less making a complex weather prediction.
So where was Chuck?
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As the moment of truth approached, James threw it over to a reporter, suspiciously off camera, who said he was standing outside Buckeye Chuck’s burrow somewhere in the woods.
