After some cold and threatening weather blowing us into 2020, the sunshine about our hometown is sure to warm the mountains and hollows this weekend and extend for many winter days.

The New Year 2020 arrived with some cold brisk weather to motivate us after the holidays in our hometown with school back in session and the attention returning to school basketball.

Sunshine passed over Christmas and carried us warmly into the weekend before more rain threatened our hometown—perched days away from the New Year with its matching numbers: 2020.

At the end of this week the first day of winter is here, though with the snow and ice of last week our hometown felt what could have been the early arrival of winter, yet the shortest day of the year remains December 21.

Except for some gusty days, the recent December weather for our hometown has favored those who have to work outdoors to make a living. I visited one of those construction tradesmen who is marking 45 years building houses and structures in East Tennessee.

Fierce Wednesday winds last week in our hometown forced tens of thousands of loose leaves to flee across parking lots, on highways, and sidewalks scurrying around curbs before falling exhausted to the ground, when the wind rested.

Workers took advantage of a warm week of afternoons with little rain, for our hometown, to complete the shingled roof for the Kickliter building under construction across from the Plain Talk.

You can thank the early fogs in August for bringing in an early snowfall and bone chilling weather last week for our hometown that is seeing the sun return with briskness.

Grayer skies with hints of rain because of a cold front threatening these mountains greeted our hometown where folks will be turning up the heat and piling on blankets, as the temperature drops into the low 20s mid week

Weather forecasters promised rain and there was plenty of it arriving last Thursday afternoon at the tip of a cold front that sent temperatures for our hometown down to freezing. A rude awakening for November.

Shining Sumac reds contrasted against Tulip Poplar pale yellows have suddenly appeared after some showers and much cooler mornings for our hometown where fall is running late where forests are in no hurry to shed their leaves for winter.

By 11 a.m. last Thursday the temperature had bounced up from about 39 degrees to near 50 degrees in our hometown with reports of light frost across the pumpkin patches, and it seemed like a good morning to visit a junkyard. But before I tell you about some of Drew Ramsey’s hidden vehicle tre…

Crisp air, football well underway, and thoughts of Thanksgiving all channel our hometown thoughts to the way things used to be and today that takes us back to May and June of 1974 from the Newport Plain Talk files.

Sunday is supposed to begin a trend of cooler weather after rain for our parched hometown where the current 90s fall to the low 70s by Monday, Oct. 7 and shower chances increase.

Lonely raindrops, they finally started arriving late Thursday to dampen the blanket of loose leaves about our hometown while weather forecasters promise some 70-degee days towards mid-October.

A few rain drops splash danced off dry pavement or knocked the stubbornly dead leaves off trees around our hometown but gave only slight relief from the heat, thus it looks like many days to a frost.

In contrast to the record heat wave for mid September 2019 in East Tennessee for our hometown, Newport’s cool spring weather greeted events and change in 1974, as reported in the Newport Plain Talk pages in April that year.

Just when all eyes have been watching Hurricane Dorian shuffle slowly up the east coast flooding cities and states, in our mountain hometown the weather remains hot and dry. Any breeze dislodges the dry brown leaves in cascades.

Suddenly some brilliant red leaves have appeared on a few trees anticipating the arrival of fall not far away for our hometown that shivered a little, when the temperature dropped to about 60 degrees this past Friday morning.

A lattice work of late evening lightning announced the arrival of heavy rains last Thursday night, jarring the owls from their perches about our hometown, where residents look for cooler days the last week of August.

Ever so slowly like a hot August afternoon, the Cocke County scene shifts over decades, covering and uncovering the past. The new and the bright still to be revealed.

August is living up to its reputation of heat and drier days for our hometown, where athletes take to the fields to prepare for fall football and students return to their studies.

A distinct cool spell fell over the mountains in late July to dispel some of the early heavy rains for our hometown, yet the arrival of August seems to have brushed away the chill.

With morning temperatures in the mountains challenging the low 60 degrees accompanied by low humidity for our hometown you might begin to think about fall football.

As sure as the baby blue cornflowers have been opening every morning the thunderstorms returned daily drenching our hometown that is barely dry for the last days. The highlight happened to be a clear patch of sky for the full buck moon on July 16.

June rumblings rolled into July thunderheads that dumped rain on Thursday laced with blazing bolts of lightning until the cooler night air arrived for our hometown at this mid-month point in time.

Less rain and more heat for July cast its spell over the mountain landscape for our hometown, yet drying days improved chances of harvesting summer hay and taking advantage of outdoor picnics for the holidays.