News and Weather Briefing for Sunday, July 12, 2020

OUTLOOK

A weak cold front approaches from the west today then crosses the area Monday. A hot and increasingly humid air mass moves in for the rest of the week.




Most Recent Local Government Meetings

The Franklin Town Council met on July 6th. [LINK]

The Macon County Board of Commissioners met on June 2nd. [LINK]

The Franklin Town Council met on June 1st. Members of the public and local media outlets were allowed in the town hall. [LINK]



General Forecast Through Sunday Night


Today

A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2pm. Partly sunny, with highs ranging from the upper 70s in the higher elevations to the upper 80s in the lower elevations. Light and variable winds. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Tonight

A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm, then a chance of showers between 11pm and 5am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5am. Mostly cloudy, with lows in the 60s. Calm winds. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Monday

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10am, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Mostly sunny, with highs ranging from the upper 70s in the higher elevations to the upper 80s in the lower elevations. Calm winds in the morning increasing to come out of the northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Monday Night

Mostly clear, with lows in near 60 in the higher elevations and the low to mid 60s in the lower elevations. Light winds out of the north.

Tuesday

Mostly sunny, with highs ranging from near 80 in the higher elevations to near 90 in the lower elevations. Calm winds.

Tuesday Night

Mostly clear, with lows in the 60s.


Hazards

Scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop this afternoon and evening. While cloud-to-ground lightning, gusty winds, and heavy rainfall will occur with any storm, a few of the storms may become severe, especially across the mountains and foothills. Damaging winds will be the main threat, although large hail cannot be ruled out.


Air Quality



Air quality should be in the upper range of green today for the county.

A trough will develop today over the east coast with another shortwave digging through the Ohio Valley. Height falls and potential PVA by Sunday afternoon could trigger some isolated showers and storms especially in the western part of the state. However, it appears coverage will remain low and cloud cover may not be sufficient to prevent ozone formation from occurring at a rate that would allow concentrations to rise into the Code Yellow range in the metropolitan areas. Monday, a shortwave and attendant vort max will swing across the areas sometime during the morning into the afternoon, and could be the catalyst for more widespread afternoon showers and storms, especially along in the Sandhills and Coastal Plain region. Ozone levels will be highly dependent upon the location and coverage of showers and storms, but with the expected coverage likely to be higher in the east, will continue to project Code Yellow ozone in the Charlotte region.

GSP Radar Down for Scheduled Maintenence Until July 15th

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
101 PM EDT TUE JUL 7 2020

...GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG RADAR WILL BE DOWN UNTIL JULY 15...

BEGINNING TUESDAY, JULY 7, THE KGSP WSR-88D RADAR OPERATED BY THE NOAA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GREER, SC, WILL BE DOWN FOR APPROXIMATELY SEVEN DAYS FOR THE REPLACEMENT OF THE GENERATOR, FUEL TANKS, AND ACCOMPANYING COMPONENTS. THIS ACTIVITY IS IMPORTANT TO SUPPORT THE RADAR'S OPERATION DURING PERIODS OF COMMERCIAL POWER OUTAGES, SPECIFICALLY WHEN HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS PRESENT.

DURING THE DOWNTIME, ADJACENT RADARS CAN BE USED FOR RADAR INFORMATION. FOR DIRECT ACCESS TO ANY OF THESE SURROUNDING RADARS, GO TO THE FOLLOWING WEB PAGE: HTTPS://RADAR.WEATHER.GOV/INDEX.HTM

THE RADAR IS SCHEDULED TO RETURN TO SERVICE ON JULY 15.





---BEGIN SPONSOR SEGMENT ---


Weather Sponsor



Adams Products, a Division of Oldcastle is underwriting the daily weather briefing & public safety updates for the month.

Open 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM, M-F, located at 895 Hickory Knoll Road, Franklin, NC. Visit our Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/Adams.Oldcastle.Franklin.NC/

All your masonry needs are available. Our phone number is 828.524.8545, the public is welcome, we’ll help you with your next project.


---END SPONSOR SEGMENT---


Tropical Weather
(The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th)








Tropical Weather Outlook
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL
200 AM EDT Sun Jul 12 2020

For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:

Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days.


End Daily Weather Segment

---

---

Begin COVID-19 Update



Macon MEdia posted a COVID-19 update yesterday afternoon. [LINK] http://thunderpigblog.blogspot.com/2020/07/covid-19-update-for-saturday-july-11.html

Here are some numbers from the CDC, the NCDHHS, and the Johns Hopkins Dashboard. Macon Media prefers the Johns Hopkins Dashboard because the counts include those non-residents that are left out of the CDC and NCDHHS numbers.

The CDC website [LINK] reports 81,331 people in North Carolina are infected, 1,479 have died, and infections are widespread, the NCDHHS website [LINK] reports 83,793 confirmed cases from 1,176,058 targeted tests, and 1,093 hospitalized and 1,499 deaths in the state. The Johns Hopkins Dashboard [LINK] reports 83,906 people infected and 1,513 deaths.

North Carolina Coronavirus Map and Case Count [LINK] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/north-carolina-coronavirus-cases.html

Data from Macon County Public Health as of July 11th and graph by Macon Media of data from May 30th to July 11th [LINK]





325 Detected Cases (unchanged)
113 Active Positive (unchanged)
211 Recovered (unchanged)
1 Death (unchanged)

Testing Data for Macon County

3403 MCPH Tests (unchanged)
951 Tests by Others (unchanged)
4354 Total Tests unchanged)
413 Tests Pending Results (unchanged)




Resources for Reliable Information about the Corona Virus (COVID-19) [LINK]



CROWDFUNDING OR DAY SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES


If you receive value from what Macon Media provides to the community, please consider becoming a supporter and contribute at least a dollar a month. Those who support Macon Media with at least a dollar a month receive early access to video of some events and meetings before they are made public on the website. Videos and news involving public safety are not subject to early access.



Become a Patron!
Or, if you prefer Pay Pal, try PayPal.me/MaconMedia






Published at 6:00am Sunday, July 12, 2020