It may officially be spring according to the calendar, but a glimpse at the forecast suggests otherwise.

A winter weather advisory Thursday called for up to six more inches of snow throughout the weekend and high temperatures barely reaching 20 degrees. It looks like the season of warmer weather and flowers hasn't arrived just yet.

However, an incident Tuesday on the Big Fork River prompted Koochiching County Undersheriff Bruce Grotberg to warn people about the quickly changing ice conditions on area rivers and lakes.

Grotberg said Marlene C. Sethney, 75, Effie, walked down a steep bank of the river near her home when she thought her dog may have fallen through the ice. She contacted her sister in Garrison, Minn., before she started looking for the dog near the river. When she didn't hear back soon from Sethney, the sister called the Sheriff's Office, which sent two deputies.

Sethney found the wet dog, which had pulled itself from the river on its own, but Sethney's husband had come down to the river to look for her, said Grotberg.

In the meantime, staff with the Itasca Sheriff's Department and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources arrived, along with the "local mail lady," to help, he said.

Sethney's husband and dog required assistance getting back up the bank of the river.

"But all were fine," Grotberg said. "It could have been a different story."

He urged people to keep their children and pets away from ice to avoid the risk of falling through the ice, or requiring others to help them out of a dangerous situation.

Normal?

Meanwhile, Melody Lovin, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Duluth, said while the extended forecast predicts a “more normal spring,” temperatures are expected to stay slightly below normal.

“They won't be anything too extreme,” she said of temps, “but we are expecting to see the trend of slightly below average continue.”

Still, the meteorologist was optimistic that Saturday night into Sunday morning would be the only time that the area may experience subzero temps.

“Sunday morning temperatures will be slightly below the single digits,” she said. “The rest of the month is looking like it'll stay above zero.”

Borderland received some winter relief with a few days of 40-degree temperatures earlier this month, but just last week the area broke two records, March 16 and 17, for low temperatures of 23 degrees below zero each day.

The cold mixed with the snow may have some feeling like winter may never end.

But Lovin looked on the bright side of things.

She told The Journal Thursday the low pressure system bringing Friday's snow is nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year. In fact, while it may seem like the local snow banks are never-ending, last year at this time, there was much more of the white stuff piled up.

“In 2013, there was 29 inches of snow on the ground in International Falls March 20,” she said. “This year, there is only 19 inches.”

She added that spring in Borderland has been on quite the rollercoaster ride in the past few years. In 2012 at this time, there was no snow on the ground.

“It's like we skipped spring and went straight to summer that year.”

The normal high for the end of March is about 36 degrees and lows are normally around 15 degrees.

Snowfall tends to stay to less than half an inch, but of course, in northern Minnesota, anything is possible, Lovin said.

“It varies on when a snow system moves in,” she said. “This storm coming up is one of those things. It's just another system giving northern Minnesota some more snow.”