Free Daily Headlines

News

Set your text size: A A A

News

Asheville, Transylvania and Polk win greenway grants

Henderson County News

Snow chance diminishes but deep freeze is coming

The forecast keeps getting worse for Henderson County fruit growers. As rain moves into the area today high elevations may see precipitation change over to a wintry mix after midnight tonight, causing hazardous driving conditions. Showers are likely, mainly after 5 p.m. and lows should be around freezing.There's a chance of snow through 7 a.m. Tuesday, though little to no accumulation is expected. The deep-freeze comes after that, with lows forecast to be 20 on Tuesday night and 17 on Wednesday night. A warmup doesn't come until Friday, when the high climbs out of the 40s, to 52. Saturday's high should be 57 and Sunday warms up to 57, the National Weather Service said. Sustained lows in the low 20s or teens could severely damage strawberries and blackberries and hurt early varieties of apples like Galas, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious and Granny Smiths.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Rising Leaders now well-versed in volunteerism

After eight months of education and community service, 20 members of sixth annual Rising Leaders Program of the United Way of Henderson County are better prepared to start making a difference as volunteers with Henderson County nonprofit organizations.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Developers' vision for mill less ambitious than council's

They asked for plans for a five-story 130-room hotel. They got proposals for smaller hotels with half the number of rooms and a mixed-use idea with no rooms at all.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

KnollsCam: Black coyote visits

Thomas Brass is drawing a lot of web traffic to his YouTube video of a black coyote visiting a clearing on top of Haywood Knolls.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Yes, Carl Sandburg was a golfer

What does Carl Sandburg have to do with golf?   Read Story »

Henderson County News

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: We still don't get the $20M training center

If the Board of Commissioners and Sheriff Charlie McDonald are now having to scramble to describe what the $20 million law enforcement center is not, they’ve got a problem.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Sandburg Home reopens Little Glassy Trail

FLAT ROCK — The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site has reopened Little Glassy Trail after extensive rehabilitation. Little Glassy Trail was considered by park staff to be in the poorest shape of any of the trails in the 5-mile network.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Freeze threatens peaches, early apples, berries

A late winter cold blast could bring up to 3 inches of snow this weekend and — worse news than that for apple and berry farmers — sustained lows in the 20s that could wipe out peaches and early apple varieties and damage strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. Lows tonight were expected to fall to 27 degrees followed by even colder overnight lows through Thursday. The forecast called for an 80 percent chance of snow and 1 to 3 inches of accumulation Saturday night and Sunday. Low temperatures could fall to 20 degrees Tuesday night and 22 Wednesday night, cold enough to kill young buds coaxed into early blooming by weeks of springlike temperatures. "It's going to be rough," said meteorologist Harry Gerapetritis of the National Weather Service office in Greer, S.C. "It's going to be a shock after all the warm weather we've had." An arctic cold front moving across the Plains will settle across the mid-Atlantic this weekend, bringing a January-like deep freeze that we didn't have in January. The National Weather Service called for a 30 percent chance of rain Saturday, turning to snow tonight, with 1 to 3 inches of accumulation. Lows were expected to drop to 27 tonight then just get colder — 21 Tuesday night and 20 overnight Wednesday. "My biggest hope is that they've missed the forecast on how cold it will get," Kenny Barnwell, who grows apples and peaches in Edneyville, said Friday. "It will take out all of the peaches. There will not be any peaches in this county and it will damage a lot of the apples. If it gets down to 21 a lot of the early varieties will really take a beating." The most vulnerable are early bloomers like Galas, Red Delicious and Granny Smith. Barnwell said Henderson County typically sees wide variations in apple damage from early freezes based on location, elevation, wind and other factors. "Some of the late blooming varieties are tight enough (in their buds) to survive it," he said. "I've seen some Romes that are really tight. It's going to be site specific. It'll be a greatly reduced crop if it gets down to 21." Barnwell and the county's other growers have suffered peach crop losses to frost far more often than apple losses. Frosts or freezes have killed his peach crop about every other year, Barnwell said, making that fruit a losing proposition. "I've got about 5 acres and after this year I probably won't have any," he said. "I've already pushed half of them and I've already ordered apple trees to plant in their place." A hard freeze that takes out some of the early varieties is not unusual. Often a cold snap in April or even early May will kill apple blossoms that are much more vulnerable than this stage. Henderson County's apple crop suffered spotty damage from an April 9 frost in 2016. More widespread wipeouts occured in the Easter freeze of 2008 and an April 10-11 freeze of 2012. Strawberry growers will cover their plants with protective blankets, said Karen Blaedow, a small fruit specialist with the Henderson County Cooperative Extension Service. "Growers are using row covers for the strawberries so hopefully that will be enough of a buffer so it won't be a total loss," she said. Blueberries buds appear to be tight enough to withstand the freeze, she added,  but blackberries could suffer leaf burn or freeze damage that kills the crop.     Read Story »

Fletcher News

Dollar General robbers get 7 years in prison

Two men charged in the November 2015 robberies of Dollar General stores in Hendersonville and Fletcher were sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to the chargesin Henderson County Superior Court on Feb. 28.   Read Story »

News Archive