Forget winter. Folks in Erie, Pa. can handle all the snow, wind and ice Mother Nature throws our way. It's the potholes that crop up toward the end of winter that shake many of us to our bones, not to mention our poor vehicles -- you'll know them by their cracked axles and overburdened shock absorbers.

The focus of today's Erie Times-News front page is on potholes. Transportation reporter Jim Carroll captures the sound and feel of the season. "Westbound Interstate 90. Thud," Carroll writes. "West Ridge Road. Thud. Liberty Street. Myrtle Street. Maryland Avenue. Thud. Thud. Thud."

During the months of February and March in Erie, nothing will rattle your insides like slamming into a deep pothole. Many of us have blown tires or cracked a strut. By hitting a pothole at 30 miles per hour, I once ruined the "constant velocity" near the engine of my car. I'm not exactly sure what it is, only that it cost hundreds of dollars to repair.

So, why are Erie roads plagued by such horrendous potholes? "It's the constant freeze-thaw, freeze thaw cycle," Terry Delio, assistant chief of the Erie Bureau of Streets, told Carroll. Temperature swings mean moisture -- rain or melting snow -- gets through the cracks in a road surface when the weather warms. That water freezes and expands when temperatures plunge again, widening cracks and heaving the road base.

"Repeat that process a few times on weak pavement, apply pressure from car and truck tires and -- bam! -- there's your pothole. Keep repeating the process and the holes grow wider and deeper," Carroll writes.

The large photo of the pothole on the front page was taken by Times-News photographer Carlos Delgado, who was alerted to its presence by photo chief Chris Millette. The hole is in the middle of the street near where Millette lives. As any longtime Erie resident will tell you, it's next to impossible to fill and patch a pothole until the freeze-thaw process ceases -- usually by April. I've watched workers fill and patch a pothole in the morning, only to return to a gaping hole by nightfall.

Today's pothole package in the newspaper include a series of pothole tips, such as "Beware that water can conceal the depth of a pothole." And, "Brake and release before you hit the pothole, but don't break as you hit it. Braking causes the car's weight to shift to the front wheels and that can cause more impact damage as the wheel hits the hole."

The pothole package is reader friendly, as it urges readers to call or e-mail Carroll with news of any really horrendous potholes they've encountered in recent days. I took calls from three readers today, who told really funny stories about slamming into potholes around town. I know, nobody should laugh -- it's not really funny. But we're all in this sorry boat together, and what can you do but laugh? Locally, we call them "pothole war stories."

Erie Times-News graphic artist Chris Sigmund assembled an impressive-looking photo illustration to accompany the story. It's a story about "How the pothole developed," but I confess I didn't have the stomach to read all the details. It was too depressing.

Readers were encouraged to go to Go.Erie.com to post comments about monster potholes they've encountered -- to let other motorists know about the threat.

Oh, and one more thing about today's pothole package -- Carroll got the sound right, even above and beyond his simple "thuds!" The headline on an inside page reads: "Hear that ka-chunk?"

If you live in Erie during the months of February and March, you know that sound all too well.

-- Kevin Cuneo