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Friday, August 14, 2020

News and Weather Briefing for Friday, August 14, 2020







OUTLOOK

Numerous to widespread showers and thunderstorms are expected through Saturday with highs slightly below normal. Thunderstorm chances diminish Sunday then slowly increase through the week. Highs will be around normal through the first part of the week then fall below normal.



News Brief

Cody Reappointed to NCDOT Board Robbinsville resident represents 10 westernmost counties [LINK]


Daily COVID-19 Update for Thursday, August 13, 2020 [LINK]

The NCSHAA Releases Calendar for high school sports [LINK]

The Macon MEdia COVID-19 Briefing for Wednesday, August 12th [LINK


The Macon County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday night. [LINK]

The Macon County Board of Education also met Tuesday night in a Special Called Meeting and voted to approve a plan for Franklin High School students to meet once a week for in-person instruction. Details, as well as video, are in the article. [LINK]


A fourth Maconian has died due to COVID-19 and the number of detected cases has increased to 480 (an increase of ten since Friday) and the number of active cases is 63 (an increase of two since Friday). [LINK]



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 Sunday Night


Today

Areas of fog in the morning. Showers and thunderstorms likely, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 5pm. Highs ranging from the lower 70s in the higher elevations to the lower 80s in the lower elevations. Light and variable winds. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Tonight

Showers and thunderstorms likely. Patchy fog after 10pm. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with lows in the 60s. Calm winds. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Saturday

Patchy fog in the morning. Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 11am, then showers and thunderstorms likely between 11am and 1pm, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 1pm. Highs ranging from near 70 in the higher elevations to near 80 in the lower elevations. Calm winds. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.

Saturday Night

Showers and thunderstorms likely before 11pm, then a slight chance of showers between 11pm and midnight. Mostly cloudy, with lows in the 60s. Light winds out of the northwest. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Sunday

Mostly sunny, with highs ranging from the lower 70s in the higher elevations to the lower 80s in the lower elevations.

Sunday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 63.

Hazards

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will produce heavy rainfall and the potential for localized flooding today where multiple storms occur. An isolated strong storm or two is possible with gusty winds.

Scattered to numerous showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast for Saturday. The primary threats with any of these stronger storms will be gusty winds and heavy rainfall which could lead to isolated flash flooding where multiple storms occur.

Air Quality



Macon County, including the ridgetops, will be in the upper range of green today.



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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 14 2020

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

The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories on Tropical Storm Josephine, located over the tropical Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands.

1. A broad area of low pressure over eastern North Carolina is forecast to move east-northeastward across the north Atlantic well to the southeast of New England and to the south of the Canadian Maritime provinces over the next several days. This system could acquire some subtropical or tropical characteristics during the next few days while it moves over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...30 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days...medium...40 percent.


Tropical Depression Eleven



Tropical Storm Josephine Discussion Number 11
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL112020
500 AM AST Fri Aug 14 2020

As has been the case for the last couple of days, the center of the tropical storm is displaced to the south of the main area of deep convection. Some new convective cells have been forming nearer to the estimated center, but the overall cloud pattern is quite ragged-looking at this time. ASCAT data from a few hours ago indicate that the intensity is near 35 kt, which is consistent with the latest Dvorak estimates from TAFB and SAB. NOAA data buoy 41040 confirmed that the system still has a closed circulation since it reported light westerly winds while the center of Josephine passed to its north. An Air Force Reserve Unit Hurricane Hunter aircraft is scheduled to investigate the storm later today. Josephine is beginning to move into an environment of increasing vertical shear associated with a large upper-tropospheric trough over the western Atlantic. Therefore, the window of opportunity for strengthening is closing soon. The official intensity forecast allows for some intensification during the next 24 hours before the upper-level winds become prohibitively strong. However, the NHC forecast is now above most of the model intensity guidance through 72 hours.

The storm continues its west-northwestward motion and is moving at about 300/15 kt. Josephine should continue this general motion as it approaches a weakness in the subtropical ridge in 48 hours or so. Then, the cyclone should turn northward and move through the weakness in 3-4 days. Late in the forecast period, Josephine or its remnants are expected to turn north-northeastward while it approaches the higher-latitude westerlies. The official track forecast is essentially the same as the previous one, and also lies close to the latest corrected multi-model consensus.

Josephine should pass far enough to the northeast of the Leeward Islands over the weekend to prevent major impacts. However, interests in the area should continue to monitor its progress until the storm has passed north of that area.


FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

INIT 14/0900Z 15.3N 53.3W 35 KT 40 MPH
12H 14/1800Z 16.5N 55.3W 40 KT 45 MPH
24H 15/0600Z 18.0N 58.1W 45 KT 50 MPH
36H 15/1800Z 19.1N 60.6W 45 KT 50 MPH
48H 16/0600Z 20.3N 62.9W 40 KT 45 MPH
60H 16/1800Z 21.6N 65.1W 35 KT 40 MPH
72H 17/0600Z 23.1N 66.7W 35 KT 40 MPH
96H 18/0600Z 26.0N 67.8W 30 KT 35 MPH
120H 19/0600Z 30.0N 66.5W 25 KT 30 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW






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.

CDC [LINK]

139,061 Detected Infections
2,249 Reported Deaths


NCDHHS [LINK]

140,824 Detected Infections
1,850,689 Total Tests
1,070 Reported Current Hospitalizations
2,289 Reported Deaths

Johns Hopkins Dashboard [LINK]

140,824 Detected Infections
2,287 Reported Deaths


North Carolina Coronavirus Map and Case Count [LINK]

Data from Macon County Public Health as of Monday afternoon and graph by Macon Media of data from May 30th to August 10th [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.








484 Detected Cases (+7 since Friday)
53 Active Positive (unchanged since Friday)
427 Recovered (+7 in one day since Friday)
4 Death (unchanged since Friday)

Testing Data for Macon County

4477 MCPH Tests (+97 since Friday)
1733 Tests by Others (+30 since Friday)
6110 Total Tests (+265 since Friday)
194 Tests Pending Results (+83 since Friday)


And here is the weekly Demographic Update from Macon County Public Health released on Wednesday, August 5th. The next demographic update will be on Wednesday, August 12th.






Infographic from Johns Hopkins University [LINK]





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



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Published at 5:10am Friday, August 13, 2020



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