Continentalenews travelled down to Marion to witness Buckeye Chuck predict the weather by being out and checking for his shadow. This year, with partly cloudy skies, Chuck did not see his shadow for a prediction of only 6 weeks til Spring. Buckeye Chuck spends most of his time at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and normally goes by the name Murray. Officially this is the 47th year of the ground hog weather predictor in Marion. It started in the early 70s when longtime WMRN radio announcer Charlie Evers noticed and befriended a groundhog behind the WMRN studio. This started the WMRN Groundhog Day promotion. In 1979 Buckeye Chuck became the State Groundhog.
The Groundhog Day prediction event was originally held behind the WMRN studio on the outskirts of Marion, where the original ground hog resided. In the last couple of years, the event has moved to the Marion County Fairground in a room adjacent to the Coliseum. A crowd of over 100 was there to take part in the festivities. Although Buckeye Chuck has been off 2 of the last 3 years on his prediction, he has a 70% success rate the last 10 years and overall beats his competitor to the East, in a neighboring state. A number of people must be groundhog-fervent-followers as they decided this year to watch the better predictor while wearing Phil hats. Since this is an OSU Football affiliate and they are not in Pennsylvania, attendees were cautioned not to talk about the state up north or the rodent from the East. Buckeye Chuck!
