I was driving back to work last week when, for a brief moment, I thought spring had well, sprung. I’m sure you’ve noticed all the melting snow and greenish-brownish grass as your travel across Muscatine County. Welcome to false spring–it’s that time in the Midwest when you think winter is over because of warmer temps, but it’s just lurking around the corner.

As I’ am writing this, on my other screen I have the Accuweather monthly forecast pulled up. From what I can see, the coldest day we’ll see this February has already happened. If anything, I see more 40-degree weather than not, which is wild.

My Facebook memories the past few days have all been about snow, cold, and ice from years past. Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t the last two or three Februarys just brutal? Before you accuse me of “jinxing” things, I’ll share that I have also looked at the March forecast, and it (as of right now) is looking pretty good.

I had shared a post similar to this column on my personal Facebook page, sharing my excitement at the notion that winter might just be over. It was met with various comments, including one from my pal and former coworker, Chris Davis, who pointed out that we: “need snow for the ground. It is too dry; the soil is blowing out of the fields. We need snow to fill the creeks and rivers for the spring. We need snow for the people who make a living plowing it.”

All of those are excellent points and, if anything, helped me to understand the positive impact that a snowy winter can have. All that being said, I’m personally okay if it doesn’t snow anymore, or, if it does, just not enough for me to have to shovel, salt, and almost fall on my backside.

I’m coming up on my 20th year of living in Iowa, and at this point, there really can’t be anything weather-related that would surprise me. From tornadoes to derechos, ice storms, significant snowfalls, and those hot and super humid summer days, I’m a seasoned pro at this point.

2022 will be a hectic year for my family and me. Both of my brothers (Phil and Brian) are getting married, with one happening in July and the other in August. In addition to that, we’ll have a couple of kids signed up for soccer and will need to start thinking about trying to sneak away for a family vacation.

I’d just like to have all the seasons this year. We’ve had winter; spring should be next, and then summer. Can we agree on that? Let’s ease on into it rather than going from one extreme to the other (like winter to summer). So long as I don’t see any snow in our forecast, I think it might be time to get out the front porch chairs, fingers crossed.