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Spring is just around the corner

As we dig out from snow and ice that fell over the weekend, it’s anticlimatic to hear what the rodent in Punxsutawney and his ilk in Marion, Ohio, and French Creek, W.Va. said at dawn today.

For it’s a wintry Groundhog Day we find ourselves in and the predictions by two-footed meteorologists with rooms filled with equipment started far and wide on Friday with predictions ranging from rain changing to ice changing to snow to forecasts of anywhere between 4 inches and a foot of snow.

Punxsutawney Phil is the most famous of the groundhogs, but, like all things in tourism, he’s been replicated in the forms of Buckeye Chuck and French Creek Freddy, as well as some Canadian pals and a groundhog as far south as Georgia.

Phil’s weather prognostication has roots in Pennsylvania Dutch culture. The rest arose from the ability to get tourism in the dead of winter.

Unlike last winter when the area was already shellshocked from days upon days of snow and bitter cold, this winter really hasn’t been horrible.

It’s the Upper Ohio Valley. It’s winter. It snows. It’s cold.

Just keep looking ahead and enjoy the fun of Groundhog Day in your own way.

The important thing to remember, no matter the weather predictions of groundhogs and shadows is that we’re at the midpoint of winter now and, regardless of the ache in your muscles from shoveling a bit the past couple of weeks, it’s downhill toward spring. The days are getting longer and there’s reason for some hope in life.

And, regardless of the rodents, the calendar says spring happens in March.

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