Welcome back and happy Monday morning. It was warm this weekend, and in today’s report we’ll have a little bit of a February outlook for you.

Also we have another installment of our series of place names — I guess we’ll call it “What’s in a Name?” unless someone thinks of a better name for a series about names.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

Road fatality

Terrible news from Dallas County since our last report.

AL.com’s Carol Robinson reports that four teenagers were killed and another was injured in a single-vehicle crash Thursday evening on Hwy 80 just east of Selma.

State troopers investigated the scene and said a Wetumpka 18-year-old was driving a Toyota Avalon that left the road and hit a tree. The driver, two 19-year-olds and a 17-year-old were killed. The passengers were from Pike Road, Montgomery and Selma.

Troopers said none of the five were wearing seatbelts.

Church change

Longtime senior pastor Chris Hodges is turning over the reins of Alabama’s largest congregation.

Hodges founded Church of the Highlands in 2001, when the church met in the Mountain Brook High School auditorium. Since then it has grown to 20 branches in Alabama and two more in Georgia, and several years ago the campuses combined to surpass 50,000 in Sunday attendance. The church’s main campus is in Irondale.

AL.com’s Greg Garrison reports that, on Sunday, Hodges announced that he’ll continue to be chancellor of Highlands College but will step aside as senior pastor to make room for the Rev. Mark Pettus. Hodges indicated that the church needed a younger leader.

Not so chilly

The weekend was so nice it was easy to forget how chilly most of January’s been.

But if you like above-average temperatures in wintertime, your good fortune may hold on for a bit. At least to some degree.

According to AL.com weather reporter Leigh Morgan, short- and longer-term forecasts are showing good chances for above-average temps through the end of the month. As to whether they’re sure about that forecast beyond a week or two, she said, “no way,” but if you’re like me you’ll start fantasizing about putting the long handles back in the storage bin. Don’t put them away yet, but you can think about it.

And this Wednesday, folks, some of us might even see 80 degrees.

Let ‘em roll

Mardi Gras is underway in the Mobile area. The Krewe de la Dauphine rolled on Dauphin Island Saturday to open the season, reports AL.com’s Lawrence Specker.

That season has a long way to go, too. This year, Fat Tuesday doesn’t roll around until March 4. That’s around three weeks later than last year’s.

It’ll put Joe Cain day on Sunday, March 2.

Coming up relatively soon is the Dauphin Island People’s Parade this coming Saturday and the Conde Cavaliers Feb. 14 in downtown Mobile.

Quiz answers

Answers and results to Friday’s Alabama News Quiz:

Several days after a rare snowstorm hit Coastal Alabama, we found out that large numbers of this species didn’t survive the freezing temperatures.

• Mullet (CORRECT) 79.6%
• Manatee 11.8%
• Dove 5.4%
• Winter tourists who packed only Bermuda shorts and “Salt Life” tank-tops 3.2%

What’s currently pushing egg prices higher?

• A bird-flu outbreak (CORRECT) 94.9%
• Across-the-board inflation 2.1%
• Wall Street greed 2.1%
• Tariffs on egg cartons 0.8%

A brick-and-mortar store for this iconic brand is coming to Huntsville.

• LEGO (CORRECT) 93.8%
• Star Wars 4.0%
• Tinker Toy 1.3%
• Mace Pepper Spray 0.8%

Country singer Melba Montgomery, who grew up in Florence, passed away this month at 86 years old. One of her enduring footprints on her genre was her duets with this legend early in his career:

• George Jones (CORRECT) 63.5%
• Conway Twitty 17.2%
• Johnny Cash 12.1%
• George “Goober” Lindsey 7.2%

During the snowy day in Dothan, emergency crews responded to this event in the Krispy Kreme parking lot.

• The birth of a child (CORRECT) 94.1%
• A stranded line of cars in the drive-thru 3.8%
• A snowball fight that turned deadly 1.3%
• A shorted-out Hot light engulfed in flames 0.8%

What’s in a Name?

Arab, Alabama

For this week’s town name we have one that commonly shows up on lists of unusual town names.

I’ve heard people assume Arab (AY-rab) is a country mispronunciation of Arab (AIR-ub). But it’s not.

A lot of towns got their names from the name given when a post office was registered in the community. Well, the first postmaster of this Marshall County location had a son named “Arad,” like the city in the Bible, ending in a “D.” The postmaster attempted to register the office as “Arad,” but apparently somebody at the postal service punched that “B” and it showed up in the listings — then and now — as “Arab.”

More Alabama News

Born on this Date

In 1943, former Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley of Columbiana.

In 1943, singer for the R&B group The Temptations Dennis Edwards of Fairfield.

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