By CLARA KILBOURN

Special to The Hays Daily News

HUTCHINSON -- Never mind that nighttime temperatures hover in the 40s and gray skies have lingered overhead, it's the calendar that counts.

The start of daylight savings time has passed, St. Patrick's Day potato planting begins today, a full week of NJCAA tournament games are on the schedule, and the first day of spring on Saturday all signal one thing: Winter is over. Well, maybe.

Count on spring-like weather today and Thursday, with temperatures in the high 60s, said Mike Umscheid, a meteorologist at the Dodge City National Weather Service. But looking to Friday, be prepared for another blast of the white stuff.

"There's snow in the forecast, it's just too early to tell how much," he said.

With a strong cold front ahead of it, Kansas will see temperatures with a high in the 50s to lower 60s early Friday afternoon to a good 25-degree drop in a couple of hours.

And count on wet and windy.

"When the precipitation gets going ... it might start as rain and change to snow. We'll see a lot of wind," Umscheid said. "With a decent amount of snow, there could be some blowing and drifting problems."

The weather, however, seems to be the only part of nature not getting the hint that winter is over.

At Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, the ducks, geese and other birds are temporary guests, stopping only for a short time -- apparently in a hurry to get back to nesting grounds.

"Every time we go out there, it's hard to tell. It looks like a whole different marshland, with a lot of birds moving through and stopping briefly," said Barry Jones of visitor services. "Spring manifests itself in a lot of different ways."

This year, so far, has brought sandhill cranes and white pelicans.

Next in the migration flights are the shore birds, followed by the song birds in mid-April through early May.

For this week's NJCAA basketball crowd in Hutchinson, it's not uncommon for the final snowfall of the year to hit during tournament week. There is snow about every three to four years, said Jerry Ricksecker, tournament chairman.

In the 1980s, when he served as a host to the Chowan, N.C., team, it snowed 6 inches Monday practice day -- and only one or two of the players ever had seen snow.

Another year he hosted a team from Chipola, Fla., when a heavy snowstorm hit. The Florida men lost the first two games and were out of the tournament. When he went to check on them at the South Hutchinson Best Western, he found the players dressed in their warm-ups wearing athletic socks for gloves. Dick Cooper at the tire store had loaned them inner tubes so they could slide down the highway overpass.

"They were having the time of their lives," Ricksecker said.

Last year, 19 inches of snow fell the week after the tournament. Considering parking and getting around town, "we were lucky," Ricksecker said.

If it does snow or freeze, there's no need to worry about the tree buds, said Pam Paulsen, Reno County Extension gardener.

"The buds can be frozen, but because they are good healthy plants, they have secondary buds that will take over, a built-in backup system" she said.

A late freeze might nip the tulips and daffodils that are starting to work their way up, but the bulb itself still will put up leaves. Even a huge snow wouldn't damage them.

Of greater concern are the fruit tree blossoms.

"Nip those buds and we don't get fruit for the year," she said.

The trees survive, but because of the weather, a good peach and apricot crop happens only once every five years, she said.

Another sign of spring's arrival are restless gardeners who spend the ending days of winter looking through seed packets and gardening supplies. Today is the beginning of the planting season for potatoes, onions, radishes and peas. Paulsen said to wait until the soil is 45 degrees to plant seeds and 55 degrees for tomatoes, peppers and corn.

At Smith's Market, people are buying in anticipation of planting, said Chris Barnes. He remembers when seed potatoes came only in Norland Reds and Idaho Whites. Today's gardeners can choose from Yukon Gold, Red Pontiacs and an all blue variety. The proverbial rule of thumb is to cut the potatoes, leaving two eyes on each piece, and bury them three-fourths of an inch deep in rows 3 feet apart.

And even though it's not yet green, it's that time of year to begin thinking about the lawn and the yard work, said Gary Bornholdt of Bornholdt Plantland.

"One of these days we're going to wake up and it will be 75 degrees outside and everything will start growing," he said. "The inclination will be to head for the golf course rather than do lawn work."