We’re working through the last weekend of winter, which means there’s a lot to look forward to.

St. Patrick’s Day falls on Tuesday this year, which means this is a big weekend for those who choose to celebrate. March Madness also will get underway Tuesday, when the first two of the four First Four play-in games are held at the University of Dayton.

And, let’s not forget that spring will officially arrive at 10:46 a.m. on Friday.

It’s reassuring to know that whether you have plans to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or are looking forward to NCAA basketball, our region ranks among the top places to enjoy both.

Pittsburgh, for instance, is home to one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades in the nation, an annual extravaganza featuring more than 200 units. Estimates show there could be more than 300,000 spectators lining the city’s streets for Saturday’s event, which was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

While there won’t any men’s or women’s March Madness games in Pittsburgh this year, there already has been post-season basketball at PPG Paints Arena — that’s where the Atlantic 10 is wrapping up its conference tournament this weekend.

Since everyone loves to know where they rank in just about everything these days, it’s interesting to see where the region stands on the annual lists complied by WalletHub about basketball and St. Patrick’s Day.

Pittsburgh, for instance continues to be among the best places to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The city stands at 16th on that list and is the 84th best area for college basketball fans, according to the lists compiled by the Washington, D.C.-based personal financial website.

The St. Patrick’s Day number represents a fall in the rankings –Pittsburgh was 10th in last year’s survey.

When you look at how the rankings were compiled, that drop becomes a little more interesting.

Pittsburgh was seventh in St. Patrick’s Day traditions and sixth in the safety and accessibility category. What dragged the overall number down, though, was the city’s ranking of 166th when it comes to cost and 183rd when you look at the projected weather forecast for St. Patrick’s Day.

And that’s out of the 200 cities that were a part of the survey.

Concerns about the region’s weather should come as no surprise –just look at the past couple of weeks. We’ve experienced several days with near-record temperatures, days with a little snow and, looking at the next couple of days, we can expect to see days with high temperatures ranging from the mid-60s to the low-30s.

And, if we need another reminder, just look back 33 years ago this weekend, when the blizzard of 1993 left more than 2 feet of snow between the late-night hours of March 12 and during most of the day on March 13.

At least our area fared a little bit better than other cities in the region. Cleveland was 47th overall while Columbus was 97th.

Looking at the subcategories, Cleveland was eighth in St. Patrick’s Day traditions, just one notch below Pittsburgh, and was 156th in costs. What really dragged Cleveland down was its safety and accessibility ranking — 165th –and weather ranking — 187th.

Columbus was 74th in St. Patrick’s Day traditions — which is strange, considering one of its most popular suburbs is Dublin — 40th in costs, 88th in safety and accessibility and 199th in weather.

It should come as no surprise that Boston topped the overall list. It was followed by Reno, Nev.; Savannah, Ga.; Overland Park, Kan.; Henderson, Nev.; Omaha, Neb.; New York City; St. Paul, Minn.; Worcester, Maine; and Buffalo.

There were more locations included in the compilation of best cities for college basketball fans — 290. And, while Pittsburgh’s overall ranking was not that bad, there are cities in the region that ranked a lot better.

Take Morgantwn, for instance. The home of West Virginia University was 26th overall, which should not come as much of a surprise when you consider the loyalty West Virginians show toward the Mountaineers. Morgantown is tied for first with some other big names in places in college basketball — Chapel Hill, N.C.; Storrs, Conn.; Bloomington, Ind.; and East Lansing, Mich. — in the subcategory of most engaged fans.

Towns with schools that play in the Mid-America Conference also finished fairly high in the rankings, with Akron coming in at 40th, Athens finishing at 42nd and Kent standing at 65th.

Even small towns can have a lot invested in their college programs: Loretto, Pa., the home to St. Francis University, is ranked 12th on the overall list, and is tied for first on the listing of most-accessible arenas.

Los Angeles; Durham, N.C.; Lexington, Ky.; Philadelphia; Lawrence, Kan.; East Lansing; Storrs; Capel Hill; New York City and Boston make up the top 10.

No matter where our area ranks on the lists, it’s a sure bet that many people will be wagering on this year’s March Madness. According to H2 Gambling Capital, it is projected that sportsbooks will handle $4 billion in wagers during the men’s and women’s tournaments. That’s a 6.7 percent increase over the $3.7 billion wagered on the tournaments last year.

And then there will be the pools that pop up in offices, clubs, and organizations and among friends and neighbors. According to Vegas Insider, 59 percent of workers plan to participate in pools, with the average person spending around $97. That works out to $7.7 billion.

With that much interest, it’s likely the games will draw the attention of people while they are working –and that, surveys show, could lead to a $20 billion hit in lost productivity. According to a survey by Action Network, 24.6 percent of workers say they have watched a game during work hours, 21 percent have used a vacation day to keep track of the games and 11 percent say they have called in sick during the tournament.

There’s a lot to keep track of in the quest of beating the odds of 1 in 9.2 quintillion and creating a perfect bracket — something that’s never been done before. True fans of basketball, it is reported, have a better chance of accomplishing that feat — those odds drop significantly, to 1 in 120.2 billion. According to the NCAA, the last perfect bracket in the 2025 tournament was broken when Kentucky topped Illinois in the 43rd game.

Let the madness begin.

(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is senior writer for the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)