In James Spann’s opinion, it was “probably the worst hour in local TV history.”

When the great blizzard of March 1993 hit Alabama, dumping 13 inches of snow on Birmingham, it wrecked havoc with power grids and roads and brought life to a standstill.

In 2013, Spann said that along with the tornado outbreak of April 27, 2011, the blizzard of 93 was one of the milestones of his career.

“I’ve been doing this since 1979. At my age, I’m confident I won’t see one like that again,” Spann said. “But I never say never.”

“It was a time of year that people are typically thinking about spring break and going to the beach. It was surreal,” he recalled.

It also kept Eddie “Country Boy Eddie” Burns, who died in January, from making it in to WBRC to broadcast his long-running show.

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The Blizzard of 1993

Enter Spann, who was working at WBRC at the time, and spent the weekend at the station once snow started began falling Friday afternoon. He got the nod that following Monday morning to fill in for Burns.

Spann told AL.com the story back in 2013, also recounting how Hoover and Vestavia Hills likely received 20 to 30 inches.

Burns hosted the “Country Boy Eddie Show” on WBRC from 1957 to 1993.

“I picked up the phone and as soon as I heard his voice I knew who it was,” Spann said. “For the first time in all those years he couldn’t make it in and he asked me to host his show.”

Burns, in a 2013 video, recalled asking Spann to start his early morning show with his signature “mule call.”

“I think the reason he became so great was because he run my show that morning when that big snow was on and he learned all about braying like a mule, riding a mule, hanging there like a rusty fishhook,” Burns said in 2013.

Burns gave Spann four rings of the cowbell for his success as a meteorologist, the highest honor on his long-running show.

Spann went on to become his own kind of institution, particularly for his work on April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak, and broadcasting two years ago when his own home was hit during a tornado.