The Daybreaker: 2/10/2025
Good morning! Welcome to a brand new work week! It’s a fresh start, a new opportunity to set goals, tackle challenges, and make progress toward success. Whether last week was a triumph or a struggle, today is a chance to reset, refocus, and bring your best energy to the days ahead. Stay positive, stay motivated, and take each task one step at a time. Let’s make this week productive, purposeful, and rewarding!
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The Latest
» The tornado that struck Deer Lodge Thursday evening, killing two and injuring two more, was on the ground for nearly 14 miles, from near Clarkrange to near the Morgan County Fairgrounds, the National Weather Service said Friday.
It was the first tornado ever recorded in Morgan County during the month of February.
It was the first fatal tornado in Morgan County since the Mossy Grove tornado that killed seven people in November 2001.
It was an EF-2 tornado with peak winds of 135 mph.
Another tornado also touched down in Grainger County Thursday evening.
Fortunately, additional severe weather currently looks unlikely for at least the next couple of weeks. (More details below.)
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» What’s next for liquor in Oneida? After voters approved both liquor by the drink and package stores in November, town officials are making plans for the town’s first legalized alcohol sales and Mayor Lori Phillips-Jones said preliminary discussions would begin towards ordinances governing package stores at the board of aldermen’s next meeting later this month.
The town cannot regulate liquor by the drink; the state sets the rules and governs on-premises consumption of liquor.
The town has some say-so over package stores, including how many it will allow and where it will allow them.
Mayor Phillips-Jones indicated that her preference would be two liquor stores to prevent the appearance of a monopoly while not allowing the town to be inundated by places selling liquor. She said she doesn’t think it’s a good idea to allow them anywhere beer couldn’t be sold — such as near schools or churches. She also favors a requirement that package store owners be residents of the town.
The liquor referendum has also changed “beer hours” in Oneida to match state law. Beer sales will now be allowed until 3 a.m., and on Sunday.
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» Three wrestlers from Scott High qualified for the Class A sectionals by placing in the top four in the region on Saturday in Clinton. Cayden Moffette (third place), Lucas Boles (third place) and Ryder Norman (fourth place) all advanced. These are the first wrestlers from Scott High to advance to sectionals; the program is only in its second year.
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» Oneida traveled to Gatlinburg on Friday to face Gatlinburg-Pittman. The boys’ game was a weird one, with an abundance of fouls called throughout that constantly disrupted the flow of the game. Indians coach Jacob King was assessed a technical foul in the third quarter after he protested what appeared to be a badly missed charge call against his team.
Oneida’s girls also fell to Gatlinburg, but played the Highlanders evenly in the second half after spotting them a 20-point first half lead.
Scott High did not play Friday, but both teams picked up wins at Midway on Thursday. Brittany Morrow had her fifth double-double of the season, and Jacob Lowe had a career-high 18 points.
Our last issue of VARSITY was published yesterday afternoon, and is available here.
This Week’s Weather
⛅️ Decreasing clouds today with seasonal temperatures, ahead of what will be a very wet week.
ALMANAC: Sunrise/Sunset: 7:29/6:15 • Normal: 48°/26° • Records: 68° (2023), -10° (1979) • Year-To-Date Rainfall: 4.3" (Normal: 6.9").
DETAILS: Today will be about as typical as you can get for the middle of February. We'll see decreasing clouds, a light wind, and a temperature that tops out at about 48°. But big changes are coming.
RAIN FOR DAYS: The National Weather Service has issued a Hydrologic Outlook for the entire region. That isn't a Flood Watch, but it's the NWS's way of saying we're going to get so much rain that flooding could occur. Generally, 3-8 inches of rain is expected through the weekend. Round one will begin tonight and continue into tomorrow night. Round two will be Wednesday and Wednesday night. Round three will be Saturday and Sunday. In between, we may actually be dry Thursday and Friday.
ROUND ONE: We'll be dry at sunset this evening, and we may still be dry at midnight. But rain will begin to overtake the entire region shortly after midnight and will continue throughout tomorrow before finally tapering off tomorrow night. Around 1.5 inches or so of rain is possible during this time frame.
ROUND TWO: It won't take long for rain to crank back up again on Wednesday, before tapering off again early Wednesday night. Around an inch or so of rain is possible with this second system. At present time, it appears the heaviest rain associated with these first few days of rainfall will be to our south, where as much as six inches of rain could fall in some areas between Chattanooga and Atlanta. Hopefully that holds true, because while we're running a rainfall deficit for the year, we don't need that much rain in such a short period of time.
ROUND THREE: After drying out and even seeing some sun Thursday and Friday, the weekend will be wet. This time the axis of heaviest rainfall may be further north, over our area. We'll see what it looks like after the first couple of systems get past us, but it continues to seem likely that we see 4-5 inches of rain between now and the end of the weekend.
FURTHER OUT: If you're hoping for an early spring, you can probably forget it. There's going to be a lot of cold air spilling into the continental U.S. during the latter part of February and early March. Will it penetrate south of the Ohio River? That's the big question, and right now it doesn't seem particularly likely that it will. But there's time for change ... and even if we don't see any extreme cold this far south, we also aren't likely to see much extreme warmth. And after a bit of reprieve from the heavy rains next week, we could see another very wet pattern setting up for the end of February and early March.
You can find daily weather forecasts and analysis on our website, Eye to the Sky.
The Week Ahead
» Monday: The Scott County Senior Citizens Center (Main Street, Oneida) will serve lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. The cost is $7 for dine-in or carry-out. Phone: (423) 569-5972.
» Monday: The Scott County Finance Committee will meet at 5 p.m. at the Scott County Mayor’s Office in Huntsville.
» Monday: Scott High basketball will travel to McCreary Central for a 6 p.m. start.
» Tuesday: The Scott County Senior Citizens Center (Main Street, Oneida) will host exercise from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m.
» Tuesday: Pinnacle Resource Center’s food pantry (1513 Jeffers Road, Huntsville) will be open beginning at 10 a.m. There are no income guidelines; however, a photo ID and a piece of mail with a Scott County address are required.
» Tuesday: Boy Scout Troop #333 will meet at the Oneida War Memorial Building on Alberta Street in Oneida beginning at 6 p.m.
» Tuesday: Oneida basketball will Pigeon Forge at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on the IH Sports Network, with the Baby J’s Pizza Pregame Report beginning at 5:45 p.m.
» Tuesday: Wall Builders will meet from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church (1611 Glass House Road, Helenwood) for those struggling with addiction or striving to keep off drugs. There will be preaching, teaching, food, fellowship and personal counseling.
» Thursday: The Scott County Senior Citizens Center (Main Street, Oneida) will host exercise from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m.
» Thursday: The Gerry McDonald Mission House, located on Church Avenue, directly behind First United Methodist Church, is open from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. Thursday mornings, except on the first Thursday of the month, hours are from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. You are eligible to receive food once per month. For more information or requirements, call the church office at (423) 569-8828.
» Friday: Oneida basketball will travel to Oliver Springs for a 6 p.m. start. Scott High will travel to Monterey for a 7 p.m. start. The Oneida game will be broadcast live on the IH Sports Network, with the Baby J’s Pizza Pregame Report beginning at 5:45 p.m.
Have a great week! Our next newsletter will be The Weekender, published Friday morning. This week’s publications will include our regular E-Edition on Thursday, and Varsity on Sunday. — Sam Voss, IH
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