Buckle up, Rochester. Fickle, fearsome February is here, it could be a rough ride.

February, the shortest, but perhaps least favorite month of the year in western New York, is well underway.

Least favorite? Oh sure, February has its fans, but there are many people here who just want it to end. They stand there poised, eager to flip the calendar, eager to move on to March, even if that month offers mixed messages, what with its storms and sunny days.

February just comes at the wrong time in the year. When it arrives, winter, even a snowless winter like the one we experienced through January, has worn us down.

We’re tired of boots and gloves and puffy coats. We’re tired of cloudy skies, and we’re especially tired of getting emails from friends who have ducked the winter entirely and are pickleballing their days away in the south.

More:Subzero wind chills expected in Rochester. How cold will it get?

Winter fatigue comes to a peak in February, a month with weather that can be disturbingly fickle, warm one day, cold the next. No wonder that I once heard of a Rochester boss who wouldn’t let any of his workers quit in February.

“Come back in March when you’re thinking straight,” he would tell them, believing that no one here should make life decisions in February.

Though people do. They’ve had enough. They want out. They quit their jobs, their gyms. And who is to say that their decisions are wrong?

On Feb. 29, 1980, the last day of February in a leap year, I took a leap myself, quitting a perfectly good job teaching at a perfectly good place in New York’s North Country.

It was a risky move, especially because I hadn’t begun to look for another job. Silly me, I wanted to try my hand at journalism, and, with luck, I ended up as a reporter for the Times-Union in Rochester. My late February life decision worked out.

More:Will schools be closed tomorrow? How cold is too cold to cancel class

Speaking of life decisions, people propose in February. I’m sure that some Rochesterians will pop the question this coming Valentine’s Day. Everyone in the restaurant will applaud if the answer is “yes.” (Who knows, they may applaud if the answer is “No.” We live in a cynical age.)

In addition to Valentine’s Day, February gives us Groundhog Day, the goofiest of all annuals that inspired “Groundhog Day,” undoubtedly one of the top 10 movies of all time.

February offers President’s Day, this year on the 20th. Were they alive, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln might grumble about sharing a birthday cake, lumped together like twins even though they were born 77 years apart. But still, it’s a day off for lots of workers.

February also offers Black History Month, a chance to reflect upon well-known and, sometimes, not-so-well-known, contributors to American life. They’ve earned the attention.

All, in all, February is busy, especially for such a short month. Regardless, it remains a tough sell.

Go online, search for “February, cruelest month.” Up pop links to columns nominating February as crueler even than April, T.S. Eliot’s cruelest month.

“Nothing begins in February but misery,” writes one libertarian wag. “Nothing ends in February, either. Except maybe your hopes and dreams.”

“What most sane people would like is to have February eradicated from memory,” grumped a harried editor, plagued as she was by readers pointing out errors in her publication’s February calendar.

“February is pitiless and it’s boring,” concluded novelist Tom Robbins.

You get the point. It’s not just that a lot of people don’t like February, it’s that they are personally offended by February.

So buckle up, Rochester. February, fickle, fearsome February, has arrived. It’s going to be a rough ride.

Too harsh?

Columnists can be wrong. Perhaps February isn’t the cruelest month? Maybe it’s January, or March, or even October. Feel free to weigh in on the debate. Give your reasons.

From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454