will get towed. no way. coming up, remembering the life of david bowie. >> larry: how a local tribute band is reacting to his death. >> jason: no rain on the ground. a fresh layer coming. >> anchor: who needs snow days. why one mountain community says something called virtual days might be the wave of the future. >> frank: and the powerball jackpot sets a new world record. how much money is up for grabs and your chances of winning. now from western north carolina's news leader, this is news 13 at 5:30. >> frank: temperatures dipped below freezing last night. and it looks like we are in for more chilly weather this evening. >> anchor: jason, how cold is it

>> jason: not quite as cold tonight as we have seen last night and the night before. temperatures easily in the teens for the high country. in fact, we're already there. leicester carpet sales news13 sky cam network. here we are in beech mountain parkway. look at the snow still on the ground. we're likely going to add to that as we go down the road tomorrow with a clipper coming through. right now your air temperature is below freezing in boone. upper 30s right now as you step out the door. a little bit of wind. that does mean we have more of a wind chill factor at this hour. air temperatures currently below freezing in newland and boone. big difference as you went north. there's that wind as you went out of the north at 9. battle between warmer air that ward.

move south ward. the colder air wins out. 11 wind chills in teens and twenties. >> anchor: snow days have always bb been a day of leisure. >> frank: instead of snow days they're planning something called virtual days. >> anchor: john, the district says putting some work in when it snows will be good for everyone. >> john: the idea is to cut back on those saturday make-up days that many families here in the mountains dread. in the meantime, snow days as we know it may never be the same here. when you think of the perfect snow day, several things come to mind. >> such as building a snowman, sledding. >> john: how often do you hear homework?

to make the snow angels, of course. >> reporter: kids in transylvania county are prepared to do more. schools distributed blizzard bads, including materials to be used during inclement weather. >> approximately four hours in each little baggie. >> john: the district calls them virtual days. >> something new that transylvania county schools is trying. we hope not to extend our school year any longer. >> john: middle and high school kids are already up to date. they have chrome books. brevard middle principal jeff bailey says a little learning now will help make up days later, including saturday school. >> it's just building on skills

utilizing some of their strengths. >> john: middle schooler jackson brooks says it won't ruin his snow days. mrs. keever tells us other states have already experimented with virtual days. but transylvania county is the first here. now all we need is snow. and by the way, in the event of power outages, folks here say that those chrome books are still very valuable because they have such a long battery life. for those little kids, blizzard bags now standard equipment. >> anchor: a couple of new hotels have broken ground. but this time it's not in asheville. a holiday day inn express just broke ground.

street said last year 200,000 visitors from 29 countries stopped in. >> we keep numbers on anybody. we try and click as many as we can coming through. and we broke our record this past year. >> anchor: coming up at 6 o'clock, we'll tell you about a third project that could be on the way to henderson county. >> frank: number one ranked clemson fiegtigers are taking on the tide. arizona. what a sight it is. the sight clemson fans have waited 39 years for. this is it. this is the national championship game we're talking about. fans are flooding in i would say

alabama fans right now. it means so much to fans. it means so much to players and coaches. but it means even more to the guys who laid the ground work for this. the former players. guys like taj boyd. boyd, he still lives in clemson. he still trains in clemson. he works with watson. he knows him. he's supporting his tigers. >> i'm proud of them. it's been great to see their progress, their growth from where it started when i was there to where it is now. >> how good is desean watson? >> very humble. great player. couldn't be more proud of that guy. >> part of you jealous that you wish you were out there? >> i had my time with it. i'm just enjoying watching these guys out there.

gladiators. you sit in the arena, you watch and reminisce but you never truly want to head back out there. >> one note for this game tonight, several media outlets says mc kenzie alexander has a tweaked hamstring for clemson. he is their best guy in the secondary. >> anchor: asheville officials say the city's watch for me campaign was a huge success. the campaign which focused on pedestrian and bicycle safety ran from september to november. officials say crashes involving walkers and cyclists were reduced. during the safety push, police officers issued tickets to anyone caught jaywalking. >> frank: before you head out,

>> anchor: jaclyn, we have one report of a wreck right now. >> jaclyn: it happened right there in front of the ingles. it is in the clearing stages and should be out of the roadway shortly. i-240 west bound is still a problem area. get ready for congestion near merrimon avenue. about 45 minutes to get from smoky park highway over to harmon den road. that's a look at your on time traffic report brought to you by debruhl's used car superstore. >> hope: it's got everyone talking and it's already the biggest in u.s. history. now it's even bigger. >> frank: the powerball grand prize has grown to $1.4 billion. probably larger by the time we get to that jackpot numbers. lottery officials say this is the largest jackpot in world >> hope: wednesday night is the night.

>> reporter: the powerball grand prize climbing to $1.4 billion on monday. after no one matched all 6 numbers. there were some million dollar winners, though. someone in massachusetts. >> hopefully it's one of our regulars. >> reporter: in suffix, virginia, too. others are thinking about how they would spend the big winnings. >> pay off bills. live very comfortably for the rest of my life. >> pass it around. you can't spend it all. >> reporter: the cash can be squandered faster than you think. the odds of winning are still one in 292 million. yes, you're still more likely to get attacked by a shark or struck by lightning. but here is a virginia man whose car was struck by lightning and

message of hope. >> the reality is people do get hit by lightning. they do get bit by sharks. so it is possible to be that one in 292 million person who wins. >> reporter: the issue facing venues is what made the prize that big. >> hope: system failures plague blue cross blue shield in north carolina. coming up, the problems it's causing for customers.

david >> frank: mixed results to start off the week on wall street. the dow was up 52 points to finish at 16,398. the nasdaq lost five and closed at 5637. >> hope: some blue cross blue shield customers in north carolina are getting a refund. >> frank: around 3200 customers the money wrongly drafted from their bank accounts.

confirm whether they were insured. over 700 people have already been refunded and the company plans to fix all the problems by the end of the week. >> hope: ringling brothers will stop using elephants in may. that's a year and a half earlier than previously announced. in 2011, the circus was fined $270,000 by the usda for violations of the animal welfare act. news 13 wants to know, do you think circuses should stop using elephants? log on to facebook.com/news 13 to answer our question of the day. >> frank: the iconic playboy mansion is up for sale. it's listed for $200 million.

purchased by playboy in 1971 for, get this, a reported $1.1 million. the five acre property features 29 rooms, a game house and the famous swimming pool. >> hope: i guess if you win the lottery, that's one way you can spend it. >> frank: do the bunnies come with the home? >> jason: yeah, not interested in that. i'd take the cars. i'm sure he's got a good collection. 38 degrees for the high temperature. 17 the low this morning. nowhere near the record of 6 below in 82. that was an el nio year, too. we still have a little bit of a deficit. chilly nights ahead.

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weather. >> jason: nothing but blue skies today. for most of us a few high level clouds. we'll start to see a little trend towards the cloudier side as we go to the overnight and tomorrow. we have a clipper system that's coming down. it's a fast moving cold front coming out of alberta. that's why they call it the alberta clipper. cold, wind, and even some snow. really this is a high elevation event. 30% chance of snow flakes mixed with raindrops late in the day tuesday. probably 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon. back in to a rain event if we see anything by friday of 40% chances of rainfall. you step out the door, there's that wind to greet you. it's going to feel mighty chilly this evening.

in phoenix for the big game. 8:30, we have clemson taking on alabama. the forecast is a little chilly. upper 50s at kick off but only upper 40s by fourth quarter. that's chilly for their standards in phoenix. clear skies for their forecast down there. let's go back home and show you what's happening here in the carolinas. notice the wind vectors here. watch it turn westerly and really pick up here. this is tomorrow morning. clouds advancing in to the tennessee valleys. it looks like the first wave of moisture will be clouds. we get the second push of cold air. that's really going to crank the wind up and give us that mountain snow shower activity right along near the tennessee border. haywood, madison, and also buncombe county. it likely doesn't amount to virtually anything. maybe a light dusting on the

for the most part it's the wind and the cold. wednesday afternoon, the wind doesn't let up anytime soon. we have the wind cranking up tomorrow. our wind chills will get down to the single digits. right now the air temperature is getting below freezing. mostly low 20s in the valleys through western north carolina. 20s for the upstate. your high temperatures tomorrow should get back in the 50s along the i-85 corridor. we're talking about mid to upper 40s to the south end to the north end. it's going to be warmer as you go down to henderson county. the temperatures will trend colder on wednesday. it won't feel that warm with the wind blowing. warmest day on thursday at 51. we start that cooling trend. more chill settles in for the weekend. snowflakes late in the day on saturday once again. >> frank: time to check out

the henderson county sheriff's office sent us these adorable pictures of their two new bloodhound puppies. they'll be trained to locate missing persons and track down suspects. >> hope: i'm holding back my squeal. deputies have asked a school for names. we'll update you. >> frank: remembering rock star

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changes >> frank: iconic musician david bowie has died at 69 following an 18-month old battle with cancer. >> hope: fans were shocked by the news. he died peacefully sunday. >> frank: his career spanned more than four decades. here in asheville, there's actually a bowie tribute band that normally books gigs across north carolina. >> hope: kimberly king spoke with band members about bowie's

>> kim: hope, i've seen the band live at the gray eagle. singing one of his big hits "fame." mark, who sounds like bowie, tonight wants to especially honor the legend. >> i grew up in the uk. ground control to major tom >> i just found myself singing along to his songs. over the years people have compared my voice to david bowie's, which i've always taken as a compliment. >> kim: mark kasen grew up in northwest england. a talented musician himself, mark moved to asheville 15 years ago while he works regularly as

elementary. three years ago, he put together his wham-bam bowie band. his voice clearly with an uncanny resemblance to bowie. his reaction when he learned the musician died. >> first of all, i was a skeptic. nobody knew he was terminally ill. i think he truly pushed the envelope of music. he was an artist in the true sense of the word. >> kim: a bands' cancellation now has the bowie band next month . >> boundary smashing. he really came up with new

belongs with bowie. >> kim: andre's favorite song is five years. the first song in the ziggie stardust record. but mark surely speaks for his band all t tinking of bowie. his contributions as an artist, musician and singular persona as a performer and a true english gentleman beloved by many. >> bye-bye, david. >> kim: and he really does mean that. the group is heart broken but now they really feel they have to pay tribute to him. they work very hard to replicate bowie's voice even studying the play chords as bowie did. they'll be live in our studio on my40 at 10 o'clock.

developing that next great thing that none of us ever thought we needed. >> frank: a program that helps girls get in touch with technology. ugh. i really shouldn't. no, you know what? i should.

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