Column: Come out, wherever you are

Wednesday, is Groundhog Day, the day that Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil foretells whether we can look forward to an early spring and the warm sunshine or put our boots and parkas back on to endure six more weeks of snow, wind, and temperatures in the single digits. After this record-breaking cold and snowy winter, everybody is looking forward to the arrival of spring, or at least spring break. Last Sunday's blizzard and Wednesday's snowstorm dumped almost three feet of the powdery white stuff on the greater Boston area. While our friends down the street at Boston University had no school last Monday due to the storm, Boston College only escaped with a delayed opening on Monday and an early closing on Wednesday. Delays, early closings, and snow days are very common at the grade school and high school levels because of the traveling to and from school that is involved. With the majority of BC students living on campus, however, trekking to class through howling winds and mountains of snow is not easy, but it is at least plausible. Too bad, though, for the professors that still had to battle the dangerous and icy roads to make it on time to their classes. Hopefully, it is almost over. Today is the last day of January, which marks the end Boston's snowiest month ever in history. The month started off with mild temperatures reaching almost 50 degrees across New England on New Year's Day, but January quickly turned into a seemingly endless stream of white. This month Boston saw a total of 43.1 inches of snow, the most snow in any single month since the National Weather Service began recording snowfall in 1892, according to the Associated Press. This month's snowstorms beat the previous record set in February 2003 when 41.6 inches blanketed Boston. Those of us who are juniors and seniors should remember the blizzard of February 2003 very well; we had two days of classes cancelled and we were cooped up in our residence halls for hours at a time. In 1978 New England saw its worst snowstorm in history. Between Feb. 6 and 7, 1978, more than 27 inches of snow fell onto Boston over a 32-hour period without letting up. This week, though, Mike Jackson of the National Weather Service, called the January 2005 blizzard one of Boston's top five of all time even though the Blizzard of 1978 still seems to take the cake for the worst snowstorm in Boston's history. Hopefully winter is almost over. Wednesday brings us another Groundhog Day and maybe this year the weather gods will send us a cloudy day so that the legendary groundhog will not see his shadow and we will not be condemned to six more dreadful weeks of winter. The odds, however, are not in favor of an early spring. Groundhog Day started in 1887, making this year the 118th that all eyes are on the psychic groundhog at Gobbler's Knob, Pennsylvania. According to his official Web site, groundhog.org, Punxsutawney Phil has seen his shadow 94 times out of the past 117 Groundhog Days, tipping the scales in favor of six more long and cold weeks of winter. Because the results of nine Groundhog Days were not recorded, there are only 14 times on record in 117 years that Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow and stayed above ground, thinking it was spring. The last time Punxsutawney Phil was not scared back into his dugout by his shadow was in 1999, so it is about time for us to enjoy early spring. After this snowy and bitterly cold winter, we more than deserve the little bit of warmth an early spring might provide. But even if Punxsutawney Phil is startled by his shadow, at least the snowiest month in the history of Boston is over tonight at midnight.