The Northeast again is digging out of a snowstorm.

Tupelo has set snow records — with almost two months of winter left.

Municipalities the nation over are running out of money to fight snow removal, if they budget for snow removal at all.

Ah, isn’t it nice we will always have the weather and the complaints that follow? It may be the one thing we all have in common.

Yankees complain in the winter because of snow, even though snow is nothing new to Yankees. They look for reasons and rationales, blaming coal, SUVs and the most current — North Atlantic oscillation. Ten dollar words worth 10 cents.

Southerners laugh at the Yankees, and the Yankees scowl back. In seven months, though, it will be the Yankees scowling at the Southerners when the seventh straight day of 95-95 weather — 95 degrees and 95 percent humidity — rule the day.

Weather is the perfect conservation starter. It does not draw the intensity as much as talking politics or religion. It is universally discussed on social networking sites and phone calls to relatives. “Ah, those New Yawk wintahs!” I howl to Yankee relatives. “Wait until July,” they shoot back.

If one wants to break down the weather, look at it this way — in the summer, Mississippi is going to be hot. Some years the average summer temperature will be 90, some years 95. If we are lucky, the mercury will not rise above 90 for at least two days between June 21 and Sept.19. Mississippi summers have been hot for millennia, but it seems worse now because we spend too much time indoors. We have replaced the hand fan for processed cool air. It might feel hotter, but it really isn’t. Can anyone really feel the difference between 96 and 99?

Yankee winters are cold. They’ve been cold for as long as Mississippi summers have been hot. They will continue to be cold, and some years will have more snow than others.

Theories will exist to try to explain the weather patterns. People will argue and make political points to advance their hand-chosen theory. For every theory scientist A puts out, there will be a scientist B theory to rebuke it.

It’s winter and it’s cold. Soon summer will be here and it will be stifling hot. As it always has been — and likely always will be.

But at least it gives us something to talk — err, complain — about other than national deficits, entitlements and “American Idol.”

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Sean P. Murphy is web editor. He can be reached at smurphy@vicksburgpost.com