Scott Martin: Dry, warm weekend for Alabama
By Scott Martin
March 13, 2021
THE ALABAMA WEEKEND: With a boundary stalled out over southern Tennessee, we’ll have a mix of clouds across Alabama today. No rain is expected across most of the state, but a few showers may be possible along and north of the Tennessee River in north Alabama. Highs will range from the lower 80s in the northwest to the mid-80s in the southeast.
Sunday will be much the same, but the boundary will drift back northward before our next system begins to move into the state before sunrise Monday morning. Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy with highs reaching the upper 70s to the lower 80s.
Many of you clearly remember where you were this day 28 years ago.
From March 12 until the 14, 1993, a massive storm system involved nearly half of the U.S. population. Causing approximately billions of dollars in damages, the “Storm of the Century,” as it would become known, swept from the Deep South all the way up the East Coast. It spawned tornadoes, coastal flooding, crippling snow, and bone-chilling cold in its wake. Of the more than 250 weather and climate events with damages exceeding $1 billion since 1980, this storm remains the country’s most costly winter storm to date.
Up to 6 inches of snow even blanketed the Florida Panhandle.
Black Mountain is 9 miles from the nearest entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but the Buncombe County town had something last year that the world-famous park couldn’t offer – a public bathroom.
That feature – as well as its restaurants, shops and gas stations – drew in crowds during the COVID-19 pandemic when the national park’s facilities were shuttered but millions of people still came from around the world.
According to preliminary data compiled by the National Park Service, the 469-mile parkway, which snakes across the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains in Cherokee, was the most-visited of all 423 national parks in 2020.
Gatlinburg post office was doing very little business early in 1934. The small post office only generated about $4,000 a year in stamp sales and money order fees, therefore, it
Ten great outdoor moments from 2020 Zeb Powell during Men’s Snowboard at Winter X 2020 in Aspen. Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool photo
There’s been a lot of focus lately on all the ways that the last 12 months have been hard and frightening and challenging, but believe it or not, 2020 has had its share of bright spots, too. Here are 10 of the most inspiring, beautiful and joy-filled moments from this year’s outdoors news.
1. Waynesville native wins X Games gold. After cutting his teeth on the slopes of Cataloochee Ski Area, Zeb Powell left home at age 13 to study snowboarding seriously at Vermont’s Stratton Mountain School. As a 19-year-old, he blew away the competition at his first-ever X Games competition, leading in all five runs to easily win the Wendy’s Snowboard Knuckle Huck in January.