Regardless of what Punxsutawney Phil and his furry woodchuck pals said this morning, reality is on the calendar, and that indicates we have reached the midpoint between the end of fall and the start of 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, Fred la Marmotte, Staten Island Chuck, Shubenacadie Sam or Flatiron Freddie — says, spring will officially arrive at 10:46 a.m. March 20.

That means we’ve got to remain in a winter mode, which, should not be all that difficult for us this year. With just a few scattered exceptions, a great deal of our daily temperatures have been at or below average, and, depending on where you live in the Tri-State Area, we had a snowfall that broke records on Jan. 25.

We’ve had an extended period of frigid weather, and while the forecast for the next several days shows moderating temperatures, it’s still going to be cold.

This year’s weather has proven to be tough even for the almanacs to get a handle on — the Old Farmer’s and Farmers’ almanacs indicated that winter in our region would be cold and snowy overall, but neither predicted last weekend’s snowstorm and bitterly cold temperatures we have experienced.

It just goes to prove, though, what residents of the Tri-State Area have known for more than a century remains true : 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 the arrival of spring is very close.

This year, that comes on Feb. 11, when the Pirates’ pitchers and catchers hold their first workouts of spring training in Bradenton, Fla.