COTC - 31 Mar 2026 - Scam Warning

Michigan State Police warn of scam targeting elderly residents
• Michigan State Police say scammers are calling older residents, pretending to be law enforcement and threatening arrest
• Victims are told they missed jury duty or have a warrant, and are pressured to pay fines immediately
• Police emphasize they will never demand payment over the phone and urge residents to hang up and report suspicious calls
Source
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Weather – Traverse City (Next 36 Hours)
Today
Partly cloudy with highs in the low 40s and a light breeze off the bay
Tonight
Clouds increase, lows in the upper 20s
Tomorrow
Mostly cloudy with a chance of light snow or mixed precipitation, highs in the upper 30s
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events
• Early spring hiking conditions improving across area trails, but still muddy in spots—trail groups asking people to use caution
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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.



