With all due respect to Punxsutawney Phil and his fellow weather prognosticating whistle pigs, including Reading's Patty Pagoda, I have had enough.

If it weren't for the alligators, giant lizards, snakes and hurricanes that menace Florida, I would pack up and move to the Sunshine State.

Kudos to South Whitehall Township police for spending a good portion of Monday morning finding ways to get traffic moving on Route 309 amidst a jumble of tractor-trailers stuck in the 9 inches of snow blanketing the highway.

Thanks also to the drivers of PennDOT, township and borough plows who somehow managed to open the roadways for drivers, including me, who just had to go somewhere, even at the risk of life and limb.

The giant rodents' Feb. 2 prediction of six more weeks of winter began the next day and, according to WFMZ meteorologists, there would be no break with a 3-inch to 6-inch snow and an ice storm expected for the overnight hours of Tuesday into Wednesday.

A brief hiatus in precipitation from Thursday through Saturday gives Valley residents a chance to dig out before the next storm predicted for Feb. 9 and 10.

Skiers and snowmobilers will be in seventh heaven, with the next storm coming Sunday night into Monday morning.

I can't wait to see what the weather will be for the remainder of February and March in the Lehigh Valley.

Perhaps Pennsylvanians should trade in the winter-loving grundsau (that's groundhog for non-Pa. Dutch readers) and consider making a tropical-weather alligator the state's weather prognosticator.

Allentown Allie sounds good to me.

Deb Palmieri

editor

Parkland Press

Northwestern Press