If he sees his shadow, he ducks back under cover and we have 6 more weeks of winter.
If he doesn’t see his shadow, he decides to go back to bed and we have 6 more weeks of winter.

Or something like that.

Up here in the hills of Idaho, it’s going to be a wet, rainy day with temperatures predicted to be in the 40s. It didn’t get down to freezing last night.

Florida has had more “winter” than we have this year. Snow-pack levels up high are OK, but down here, barely at the level to need “high-altitude” cooking directions, we’ve had two snowfalls the entire season – one a month or so ago, the other last Friday. Both were only ¼ inch or so, neither lasted the day. Most “winter” we’ve had was 10 days straight of pogonip. Frosted up the trees heavy enough to be concerned about breaking branches. Then it went away.

Now I’ve lived up in these hills for more than 20 years and I’ve seen it snow nine feet in a week – three storms one after another dumping 36″ each time; chains a daily necessity even on a 4×4. I’ve never seen essentially no snow.

Which leads me to wonder what the rest of February, March, April, and sometimes into May has in store for us.

Like most things, life tends towards a balance.