Once again our southern weather has put us in a state of confusion.

Tuesday was the first day of spring and it barely made 60 degrees. Tuesday night, it was the lower 40s. Wednesday, as I sit at my desk and write this column, it’s 61 and breezy, and the low was expected to be 40 degrees. Not quite what I would consider spring-like weather. Actually, if my shaky memory serves me right, it was warmer this time last week, and I was about to start pulling my warm weather clothing out of storage.

The days are supposed to start getting warmer, according to the weather app on my phone, with highs in the upper 60s to low 80s and nighttime lows in the 50s and 60s as we head into April. But how long will that last until winter finally makes its big last gasp before finally falling away for the next six months?

It reminds me of my senior year in high school. I ran track in high school in Baton Rouge, and we were supposed to travel to South Terrebonne High School in south Louisiana one week in April for a meet. The Thursday before the meet, we had our usual light workout in the 80-degree heat in shorts and light T-shirts.

Overnight, the weather changed. The temperature dropped Thursday night into the 20s and I woke up to find snow on the ground, ice and a cold windy morning. Obviously, the meet was called off, since the folks in Houma, where South Terrebonne is, were also under the cold weather. Although we lived across the street from the school, my father offered to drive me to school that particular day. I refused, telling him that I wanted to be able to tell my children that I walked to school in the snow; something he would occasionally remind me of when he discussed his high school years.

I can also remember another cold day in my younger years when we wore heavy coats to hunt Easter eggs. I also remember a spring when it was raining so hard the Easter egg hunt was held indoors.

That old saying about the weather, “If you don’t like it, wait a minute, it’ll change,” is quite true of our southern climate, and as the days of spring move into summer, the weather will only get warmer and on occasion wetter with the traditional popup thunderstorms and end up making the days warmer than they already are.

And at some point beginning June 1, we’ll face the potential of another summer phenomenon, hurricanes — those engines of power that form in the Atlantic, or Caribbean, or the Gulf of Mexico and come ashore with rains, high winds and storm surge to cause havoc on the Coast and then move inland to cause problems for us.

And as the weather changes from cold to warm, we’ll complain, but we’ll also celebrate. Summer’s coming, and that’s what makes living here so special.

John Surratt is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com