The ceremonies included appearances and predictions from real groundhogs such as Malverne Mel, and costumed characters such as Babylon Belle. NewsdayTV's Andrew Ehinger reports. Credit: Newsday Staff; Town of Brookhaven

The prognostication is in: Malverne Mel says six more weeks of winter.

About a hundred people huddled in the frigid temperatures Sunday morning by the Malverne train station just after sunrise to hear from the beloved groundhog.

His prediction triggered an uproar. Babies cried, teens groaned: There was no sign of spring.

Malverne Mel, a youthful woodchuck thought to be 4 or 5, pulled up in a Honda CR-V after a breakfast of sweet potato and broccoli. A row of politicians towered above him in 6-inch black top hats and red scarves, including Malverne Mayor Timothy Sullivan and Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre).

"It’s like Santa Claus, it’s like the Easter Bunny. It’s Malverne Mel," said Victoria Gil, 42, of Malverne. "It’s part of the air here."

Mel is at the center of a 29-year tradition in Malverne but he appeared confused on Sunday morning, attempting with resolve to escape the plexiglass separating him from onlookers. Mel oscillated between hiding in a cardboard box and making the rounds in his rectangular pen, eventually burrowing into a pile of hay.

As rows of childen pressed their faces against the fence to catch a glimpse of Mel, their parents remembered times less simple. In 2009, Staten Island Chuck bit former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In 2014, former mayor Bill de Blasio dropped the groundhog’s later iteration, Charlotte, killing her.

Last year, Mel himself broke out of his pen and made a run for it. "Did he escape yet?" a teenage boy asked in a shout Sunday morning. But this year, the ceremony went off without a hitch.

"On the second day of February in the year 2025 ... He prognosticated to me, that upon looking for his shadow, it surely could be seen," Sullivan said, proudly holding an artificially aged scroll and looking into a largely disappointed crowd. Within minutes, a three-person folk band began to play "Winter Wonderland" and Mel was loaded back into the compact SUV.

A Malverne Village employee dressed in a groundhog costume posed for photos beside children and adults. But Mary Kate Schnaars, 43, said dressing up as a rodent isn’t exactly her calling. "I do it when they need me."

This year's ceremony was not without controversy. Animal welfare activists pleaded with officials to call off Groundhog Day this year in Malverne and Holtsville, arguing the ceremonies place undue stress on the woodchucks, who are normally hibernating through February.

"I would hate for anyone to try to shut this down," said Cheryl Buccelli, 45, of Garden City.

Said Annmarie Byrnes, 66: "We all have an occasional annoyance in our life. I think that’s all it is for Mel, an annoyance."

Byrnes and her daughter Samantha, 31, were among the fans who said they were relieved Groundhog Day fell on a weekend this year.

Sullivan said he spent ample time preparing for Sunday. The plexiglass pen surrounding Mel helps serve as a sound barrier, he said. "They don’t like music."

Asked about the significance of his outfit, a top hat and tuxedo in 18-degree weather, Sullivan stopped short of being specific.

"It’s just a throwback," he said, "honky-tonk kind of thing."

Holtsville Hal, Mel's main Long Island competitor, stopped short of making a public prognostication. Instead, a Facebook post noted, he issued the same prediction.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office is investigating Hal's home, the town-owned Holtsville Ecology Site and Animal Preserve, over allegations of animal neglect and "abysmal" enclosures, Newsday has reported.

Daniel Losquadro, the town's highway superintendentwhose department operates the facility, has denied the allegations. 

Like any sporting event, Groundhog Day is not without ego. Staten Island Chuck sought to distinguish himself on Sunday, calling for an early spring.

But at Gobbler's Knob in western Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, leaving Chuck as the lone optimist in the esteemed group of four-legged forecasters. 

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