News and Weather Briefing for Friday, August 7, 2020

OUTLOOK

Passing upper-level disturbances will help generate showers and thunderstorms again today. A return to more typical isolated to scattered summertime thunderstorm activity is expected over the weekend as modest drying arrives from the west. Deeper moisture will gradually return early next week and support a more active pattern for the rest of the week.

---BEGIN SPONSOR SEGMENT---

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





---END SPONSOR SEGMENT---


News Brief

Macon County to Hold Community Testing in Franklin on Thursday, August 13th.

Macon County Emergency Management and Macon County Public Health will be hosting a COVID-19 testing clinic for the community in Franklin on August 13th, 2020. The clinic will be held at Macon Middle School from 8AM to 11AM. Persons may get a COVID-19 test regardless of their ability to pay and do not need to schedule an appointment.

WHAT: COVID-19 Testing Clinic
WHEN: August 13th, 2020, 8AM until 11 AM
WHERE: Macon Middle School at 1345 Wells Grove Road

For those who would like to receive a COVID-19 test, you are asked to fill out your paperwork ahead of time, which is available at the following link: https://bit.ly/MaconCoCOVID. You are also asked to bring your insurance card, if you have insurance. There is no cost for a COVID-19 test, with or without insurance.

Read the COVID-19 Briefing for August 6th. [LINK]





The Starlink 10 Mission successfully launched this morning and deployed 57 Starlink satellites plus two satellites, BlackSky Global 7 and 8, the 5th and 6th BlackSky Global satellites, which were flown as rideshare payloads. All of the Starlink satellites are outfitted with the sunshade visor that was tested on a single satellite on June 4, 2020 launch.

Starlink is a satellite constellation being constructed by SpaceX to provide satellite Internet access. The constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit, working in combination with ground transceivers. SpaceX also plans to sell some of the satellites for military, scientific, or exploratory purposes. The SpaceX satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington houses the Starlink research, development, manufacturing, and on-orbit control operations. The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in May 2018 to be about US$10 billion. The bulk of the profits of the venture will help fund Elon Musk's plan to colonize Mars.

The Governor has issued Executive Order #155 to keep North Carolina in a Phase II Pandemic Restriction for five more weeks. You can see the news briefing where he made the announcement and read the executive order for yourself in the COVID-19 Update published by Macon Media [LINK] 



General Forecast Through Saturday Night


Today

Patchy fog in the morning. Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly in the mid to late afternoon. Otherwise, partly sunny, with highs ranging from the low-to-mid 70s in the higher elevations and the low-to-mid 80s in the lower elevations. Light and variable winds. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Tonight

A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 9pm, then a slight chance of showers between 9pm and midnight. Partly cloudy, with lows in the upper 50s in the higher elevations and the lower 60s in the lower elevations. Calm winds. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Saturday

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with highs ranging from the upper 70s in the higher elevations ti the upper 80s in the lower elevations.

Saturday Night

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm. Partly cloudy, with lows in the 60s.

Sunday

A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly after 5pm. Sunny, with highs ranging from the upper 70s in the higher elevations to the upper 80s in the lower elevations.

Sunday Night

Partly cloudy, with lows in the 60s. A few locations in the higher elevations may dip into the upper 50s.

Hazards

Scattered thunderstorms can be expected, most likely in the afternoon and evening. A few storms will be strong and possibly severe with strong to damaging winds, frequent lightning, and locally heavy rainfall.


Saturday through Thursday...

Isolated to scattered thunderstorms can be expected Saturday and Sunday and scattered to numerous thunderstorms Monday through Thursday. A few storms will be strong to severe with strong to damaging winds, frequent lightning, and locally heavy rainfall.

Air Quality



Macon County, including the ridegtops, will be a the mid-to-upper range of green today.



---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 Fri Aug 7 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




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 129,288 people in North Carolina are infected, 2,050 have died, and infections are widespread, the NCDHHS website [LINK] reports 131,267 confirmed cases from 1,904,750 targeted tests, and 1,147 hospitalized and 2,092 deaths in the state. The Johns Hopkins Dashboard [LINK] reports 131,802 people infected and 2,126 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 yersterday afternoon and graph by Macon Media of data from May 30th to August 6th [LINK] 

Please note there is a gap for Saturdays and Sundays starting two weekends ago since the health department will no longer be reporting numbers on those days.







469 Detected Cases (+5 in one day)
64 Active Positive (unchanged)
402 Recovered (+5 in one day)
3 Deaths (unchanged)

Testing Data for Macon County

4266 MCPH Tests (+20 in one day)
1427 Tests by Others (unchanged)
5693 Total Tests (+20 in one day)
226 Tests Pending Results (-10 in one day)


And here is the weekly Demographic Update from Macon County Public Health released on Wednesday, July 29th. The next demographic update will be on Wednesday, August 6th.






Infographic from Johns Hopkins University [LINK]





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






Published at 5:35am Friday, August 07, 2020