National Weather Forecast

The weather will be a lot calmer across the country on Friday. A frontal boundary with an area of low pressure near Florida will produce showers and storms in the Southeast. Snow showers – some of it due to lake effect snow – will be possible across the Great Lakes. A system out west will produce rain and higher-elevation snow.

Around half a foot of snow will be possible downwind of the Great Lakes through Saturday due to lake effect snow. From Thursday to Saturday, at least 1-2” of rain will be possible across the Deep South.

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Punxsutawney Phil left his burrow for his annual prediction. Here’s how much longer winter will last according to the legend

More from CNN: “Punxsutawney Phil – the legendary groundhog weather watcher – woke up and saw his shadow Thursday morning, calling for six more weeks of winter. Each February 2, on Groundhog Day, the members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club make the pilgrimage to Gobbler’s Knob, Phil’s official home. The group waits for Phil to leave his burrow and, legend has it, if he sees his shadow we’re in for six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, we get to bask in an early spring. Scientifically speaking, winter will officially come to an end on the equinox on March 20, regardless of what Phil predicts. But Mother Nature doesn’t always follow the timetable, and neither does Phil.

Climate change has already come for this vineyard. But the wines don’t taste like you’d expect

More from the San Francisco Chronicle: “There’s a lot of talk about how California’s wine industry will have to adapt to climate change in the coming decades. It will sound familiar to regular readers of this newsletter: Vintners will have to use less water, plant heat-tolerant vines and figure out ways to make delicious wines in vintages with erratic weather. Often, these conversations seem to position climate change as something that’s coming in the future, rather than something that’s already here, which it very much is. Some California winemakers are already working in climates that feel extreme — and are adapting to them in innovative, sometimes even radical, ways. Pietro Buttitta, owner of Prima Materia winery, is one such winemaker.”

Cleaning up ‘forever chemicals’ is costly and messy — just ask this Wisconsin town.

More from Grist: “It’s late October in the northeast corner of Wisconsin. Trees have started to change colors and a colder wind whips across Lake Michigan. Gas station marquees welcome back fall hunters on their annual pilgrimage. Tucked away at a technical college, citizens of the rural town of Peshtigo, population 4,006, try to get comfortable in plastic chairs, ready to hear from state officials, once again, about ways they may one day safely drink their home’s well water. … If a clear solution was sought by those in attendance at the state’s most recent in-person Peshtigo PFAS meeting, residents walked away empty handed. Officials told residents that plans to provide new groundwater wells are coming from the company responsible for the pollution, but not everyone gets a well.

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– D.J. Kayser