The Associated Press

MARION – Buckeye Chuck and Punxsutawney Phil both have the same message this year: Don’t be fooled by the mild January weather, for there won’t be an early spring.

Monday, February 04, 2002

MARION – Buckeye Chuck and Punxsutawney Phil both have the same message this year: Don’t be fooled by the mild January weather, for there won’t be an early spring.

Ohio’s Buckeye Chuck saw his shadow at 7:39 a.m. Saturday outside his burrow on the grounds of radio station WMRN in Marion, 45 miles north of Columbus. Also seeing his shadow was Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil. Legend says that means six more weeks of winter.

The groundhogs disagreed last year. Chuck didn’t see a shadow, but Phil did.

The Groundhog Day tradition is rooted in a German superstition that if an animal casts a shadow on Feb. 2 – the Christian holiday of Candlemas – bad weather is coming.

Buckeye Chuck was designated Ohio’s official groundhog in 1979.