Everything I said about this winter not being so bad, I take it all back now.

A couple of weeks after Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, the brutally cold winter has finally arrived. On Sunday (I’m writing this on Saturday evening due to early deadlines from the threat of snow and ice), we were supposed to have temperatures below freezing all day with wind chills dipping below zero.

Then on Monday, we were anticipating a snowstorm that could dump up to three inches of snow here locally.

Then on Tuesday, the National Weather Service was expecting the temperature to go above freezing shortly with a rain/snow mix and then drop back below freezing, possibly causing black ice.

Today, we were expecting our temperatures to barely get to freezing, and temperatures are expected to struggle to get above 40 by Friday.

If there’s anyone to blame, it’s me. I thought we were out of the woods, but I should have known better. I forgot to say “knock on wood” somewhere in the column, but I didn’t.

I apologize for superstitious error.

For some reason, talk has gone back to the legendary 1993 blizzard, that dumped more than a foot of snow across North and Central Alabama.

In fact, several members of the Board of Education were talking about their experiences from the snowstorm.

I hope we’re not in for that again. You’ll know if it was by the time you’re reading this column – that is if you can even read this column on Wednesday if the mail went through.

Brent Maze is the managing editor of the Hartselle Enquirer.