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Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is your cup

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of Traverse City for the last day of

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March

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2026.

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For those keeping score, it's the thirty first.

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I'm Mike,

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and I do have my coffee ready.

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Normally, I like to do good news stories,

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but,

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today, I wanted to kinda do a

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story. There was a a lady in the

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Upper Peninsula,

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where the scammers contacted her and claimed her

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computer had been compromised.

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And they direct directed her to record herself,

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stating her name, address,

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and social security number to verify her identity.

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And after they got her personal data, the

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scammers instructed the woman to withdraw money from

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her bank and claimed a federal agent would

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arrive at her residence to collect the cash

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and resolve the situation.

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And this is kind of a,

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twist on an older scam.

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But

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anytime anybody

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calls

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you

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and then says something about your computer,

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hang up on them. Doesn't matter who they

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are, what they sound like,

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unless it's, you know, somebody you know, but

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why would they call you about your computer?

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And even then, be careful. Now with the

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AI voice cloning and

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all the AI stuff out there, it's a

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little harder to spot these kind of scams.

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But, you know, there's the the, you know,

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classic one where

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they say, oh, we'll help you with your

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computer problem and

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or the the the one, the big one

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is the antivirus,

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payment scam. So what they'll do is they'll

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send you a receipt,

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in in in your email

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or whatever

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saying, you know, thank you for your, purchase

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500 and something dollars for antivirus.

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And, of course, you don't

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know anything about it and don't want $500

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or more taken out of your account. So

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they give you a convenient 800 number to

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call or maybe not even an 800 number.

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They give you a number to call so

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you get on there with them and they

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say, oh, okay. Well, we could,

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refund your money. You need to install this

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this thing so, we could access your bank

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and and

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refund the money.

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So what they'll do is they'll put in

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a refund instead of $500,

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they'll put in $5,000

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or make it look like they put in

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$5,000

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after they're looking at your desktop and you

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can see it and

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all that. And then they say, oh, we

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need that money back. So they'll,

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have you,

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hold I need you to go, withdraw the

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money and then go,

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to Target and buy gift cards, and

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and you can pay us back that way,

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blah blah blah. You know, just

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ridiculous stuff. You know?

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So use some common sense. If if

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well, I would shouldn't say it's common sense

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because they're very convincing.

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Just

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be really super careful out there,

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with,

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you know, the online scamming,

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you know, or you get an email from

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what appears to be your bank

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saying they need to verify your information.

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And what's funny about that is they'll blast

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out, you know, a whole bunch of them

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for Bank of America. Then they'll

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blast out a whole bunch of them for

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Fifth Third Bank and a whole bunch of

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them for,

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you know, whatever bank.

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And they'll keep doing that, and eventually, you'll

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get one with your bank on it, and

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it looks official.

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And, again, with AI help now,

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you know, their bad English and bad writing,

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doesn't

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show up as easily. So

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always be skeptical.

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Anybody calls you,

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get, you know, get the name of the

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company, then you look it up, and you

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call them if you really think this is

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something that is

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legit.

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Another,

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famous one is somebody will call and,

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tell them we're I'm agent so and so

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from the IRS.

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And, you know,

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chances are they have a thick accent

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of some sort.

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That's a that's a clue.

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You know, somebody with a very Indian sounding

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accent tells you their name is Tom or

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Joe or George or,

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you know, some normal,

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English name,

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you may not be right. In fact, it

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isn't. The IRS will never call you. Period.

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They'll not send you an email. They'll will

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they will not call you. The only

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communication you're gonna get from the IRS, if

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you have an IRS problem,

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is a

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is US Postal Service mail?

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I mean,

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that's it. They don't

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do

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phone calls. They don't do

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texts. They don't oh, another one.

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I I keep getting these texts and it

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has, either an Indian or

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Chinese,

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area code you know, post phone code, but

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I'll get a text saying the

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Michigan department of motor vehicles or, you know,

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DMV

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is gonna suspend your license and cancel your

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registration if you don't pay these fines

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for an unpaid ticket. And

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well, first off, there is no DMV in

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Michigan.

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It's the secretary of state, and and they're

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getting smarter on that one.

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But

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they're not gonna use

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a phone number from

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India or China.

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They're gonna use

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they're not even gonna text you. They'll never

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text you. Michigan secretary of states will not

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text you unless you've set up an appointment

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with them, and

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that's a whole different thing. But, you know,

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just

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if somebody contacts you, you can't believe anything

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you see, hear, or read.

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Be super

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skeptical.

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And,

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again, you know, if if you're really gonna

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get arrested, the the, police will show up

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in your driveway

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with a warrant.

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Okay? Nobody's coming to arrest you.

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So there you go.

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Anyway,

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let's get to the weather.

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And, last night, I had some, thunderstorms.

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That was nice. I mean, they weren't too

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ridiculous, but, you know, lots of lightning and

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thunder there towards, bedtime last night. It was

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pretty cool.

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You know, didn't didn't seem to be damaging

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or anything of the sort,

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but your mileage may vary.

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So today, a chance of showers before 11AM,

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then a chance of showers and thunderstorms

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between eleven and two,

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and showers and a possible thunderstorm

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after two.

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So they're being real specific again today, but,

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yeah. We'll see.

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Today, a high near 50.

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Calm wind becoming east around five miles per

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hour.

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Chance of precipitation

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is 80%.

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New rainfall amounts between a tenth and a

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quarter of inch

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quarter of an inch expected higher amounts possible

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in thunderstorms.

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Yeah. Duh.

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Weather service is very literal here.

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But,

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tonight, partly cloudy with a low around 29.

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Oh, that's cold,

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for this time of year. North wind, five

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to 10 miles per hour.

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Excuse me.

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And tonight

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or to tomorrow,

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partly sunny with a high near 43 northwest

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winds five to 10.

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So

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looks like,

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I'm seeing the word snow,

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Wednesday night,

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but it doesn't look like

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it's gonna amount to month much. So

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hang in there.

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It's spring. Spring does what spring does, and,

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we may see snow.

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Catch me later.