The winter season generally is measured in two ways. There’s meteorological winter, the three months of December, January, and February. And then there is astronomical winter, which begins with the winter solstice on December 21 and ends with the spring solstice on March 21.

But however you want to think about “winter,” the last week of January basically brings us over the proverbial hump for the 2025 winter season. December and January are in the rear view mirror with only the short month of February ahead. (If you prefer astronomical winter, we’ll be very close to the mid-point between December 21-March 21 by the end of this week.)

Of course, as we all know, Ol’ Man Winter doesn’t always play by the rules — or the calendar. The infamous Blizzard of ‘78 occurred in February, as did a number of other huge storms. The first week of March may bring out the colorful crocuses and snowdrops pushing through the ground in our garden, but just as often as not, they’re peeking through a fresh few inches of snowfall .

But what is undeniable, however you prefer to  measure the seasons, and regardless of what Ol’ Man Winter has in store for us, the days are now getting noticeably longer. There will be 10 hours and five minutes of daylight on February 1, compared to just the nine hours and eight minutes that we had on December 21.

In addition, when we take our walks and go for our runs, the sun’s warmth is becoming noticeably stronger every day. And even if we get some snow, it typically disappears much faster in February and March than in January thanks to the strength of the sun.

So yes, after our colder-than-normal January, as far as we are concerned, spring can’t come soon enough!