The sun rises today on the first day of Spring, the beginning of a season that is supposed to bring warmer days and nights and an end of freezing cold, wintry missed and the threat of snow.

In actual time, the Spring Equinox occurs at 12:57 p.m., so Thursday is the first half day of the season and the forecast calls for a high of 57 degrees.

Not bad for the first half-day of Spring.

Friday, the first full day, sees the overnight low from Thursday right at a freezing 31 degrees before heading north to a high of 64 degrees on Friday with a low of 42 and then 67 degrees on Saturday with a low of 38.

Then the weather cools down for 54 on Sunday, 50 on Monday with lows in the 20s on both nights.

Call the next three days a Spring tease.  Tuesday next week is forecast at a high of 36 with a 60 percent chance of snow before climbing back to 42 on Wednesday and 53 on Thursday and the low 60s on Friday and Saturday.

Overnight lows, however, will be in the 20s from Sunday night to the early morning hours of Friday of next week.

Spring?  Sort of.

The long-range outlook of the National Weather Service says there is a strong possibility of six more weeks of winter weather and real spring warmth may not arrive until mid or late Spring.

We’ve said it here before and it bears repeating:  In 2014, Mother Nature is a bitch.