Most everyone knows that an east coast ground hog is the official predictor of whether or not there is going to be six more weeks or winter.

If that ground hog sees his shadow on February 2 there is six more weeks of winter and if he doesn't see his shadow, it means that spring is here.

We don't have any ground hogs in Montana. Our closest relative is the marmot or whistling marmot and in the Bear Paw Mountains we are fortunate to have one that forecasts the end of winter.

His name is Marmaduke Marmot and he leaves in an instinctively through crevice and burrow high up in the reaches of White Pine Coulee on Clear Creek. Each February 2 he comes out and tells the assembled throng if winter is over.

It was no different this February 2 except that when the throng assembled at Marmaduke's door there was a terrible blizzard and whiteout going on in the gulch.

Sure enough around 9am Mountain Standard Time, the crevice and burrow door opened and Marmaduke looked out, saw a complete whiteout and no shadow and proclaimed an end right then of winter.

And now you know the rest of the story. The kind of a story the AP won't let you know at all!