Regardless of what Punxsutawney Phil and his furry woodchuck pals say Friday morning, reality is on the calendar, and that indicates we have reached the midpoint between fall and spring.

Groundhog Day lore relies on Punxsutawney Phil and his fellow forecasting groundhogs to tell us if there will be six more weeks of winter ahead or if we can expect an early spring. And it’s all based on whether or not the groundhog sees its shadow, according to the animal’s handlers.

It’s great fun and a chance to relax a little and direct our attention to Gobblers Knob and wait for the annual prediction.

Let’s make sure we keep it in perspective, though. Remember that no matter what Phil — or Buckeye Chuck, French Creek Freddie, Gen. Beauregard Lee, Wiarton Willie, Staten Island Chuck, Shubenacadie Sam or Flatiron Freddie — says, spring will officially arrive at 11:06 p.m. March 19.

That means we’ve got to remain in a winter mode, which, admittedly, has been difficult to do this year. With just a few scattered exceptions, a great deal of our daily temperatures have been above average, while most of the precipitation that has fallen has come in the form of rain, and not the many inches of snow we normally receive.

And a look at the forecast covering the next two weeks shows we can expect more of the same — above average temperatures, with little or no rain — or snow — anywhere to be found.

This year’s weather has even proven to be tough for the almanacs to get a handle on — a look at the Old Farmer’s Almanac, for example, reveals an early February forecast of snow and frigid temperatures across our region, while the Farmers’ Almanac has predicted we would experience rain turning to snow, and colder temperatures.

It just goes to prove, though, what residents of the Tri-State Area have known for more than a century now remains true today: That no matter what the women and men who depend on all the weather-predicting tools, computer models, artificial intelligence, radars and satellites say; no matter what the forecasts the time-honored formulas of the almanacs reveal; and no matter what insights the groundhogs offer or what the calendar might say, there’s really only one real indicator that spring has arrived.

This year, that comes on Feb. 14, when the Pirates’ pitchers and catchers hold their first workouts of spring training in Bradenton, Fla.