News and Weather Briefing for Monday, August 17, 2020

OUTLOOK

Thunderstorm chances return to typical mid-August levels today through Tuesday, then increase through the rest of the week as an upper-level trough becomes well established. Highs will be around normal through the first part of the week then fall below normal for the latter half of the week.


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Macon Calendar

Read2Me Yard Sale

Read2Me will have their annual "Donation Only" Yard Sale on Saturday, August 22nd from 8:00 am to 12 noon. Location: Premier Marketing parking lot, 261 E Palmer Street across from the downtown Farmer's Market. Proceeds go to sponsoring Macon County children age Birth to 5 in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

Rain Date: August 29.



News Brief

Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement held a candlelight vigil at Speaker's Corner on Friday night as opponents of the movement gathered near and in Rankin Square and on the corner near the Gazabo Square. Videos and photos will be published later today.




General Forecast Through Sunday Night


Today

Areas of fog in the morning. Isolated showers before noon, then isolated showers and thunderstorms through the early afternoon hours. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with highs ranging from the lower 70s in the higher elevations to the lower 80s in the lower elevations. Calm winds in the morning increasing to come out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Tonight

Patchy fog after midnight. Otherwise, increasing clouds, with lows ranging from the mid-50s in the higher elevations to the upper 50s in the lower elevations. Light winds out of the northwest.

Tuesday

Patchy fog in the morning. A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Otherwise, cloudy through midmorning, then clearing, with 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 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Tuesday Night

A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 4am, then a slight chance of showers. Partly cloudy, with lows in the 60s. A few locations could dip into the upper 50s. Calm winds. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Wednesday

A chance of showers, then showers and thunderstorms likely after 9am. Partly sunny, with highs ranging from near 70 in the higher elevations to near 80 in the lower elevations. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Wednesday Night

Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 7pm. Mostly cloudy, with lows in the lower 60s. Some locations in the higher elevations could dip into the upper 50s. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Hazards

Hazardous weather is not anticipated for today.

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 Mon Aug 17 2020

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

1. A fast-moving tropical wave located about 400 miles east of the Windward Islands continues to produce disorganized shower and thunderstorm activity. This disturbance is expected to move westward at about 20 mph during the next few days, and that fast forward speed is likely to limit significant development while the system approaches the Windward and southern Leeward Islands today, and moves across the eastern and central Caribbean Sea on Tuesday and Wednesday. After that time, however, the system is expected to move more slowly westward across the western Caribbean Sea, where upper-level winds could become more conducive for the development of a tropical depression during the latter part of this week.

Regardless of development, locally heavy rainfall and gusty winds are expected over portions of the Windward and southern Leeward Islands beginning this evening through Tuesday morning.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...20 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days...medium...50 percent.

2. Another tropical wave located over the far eastern tropical Atlantic well to the south-southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands is producing a large area of cloudiness and disorganized showers. The wave is forecast to move westward to west-northwestward at 15 to 20 mph during the next few days, and environmental conditions are expected to become more conducive for the development of a tropical depression during the middle-to-latter part of this week while the system moves across the central tropical Atlantic.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...10 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days...medium...60 percent.

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End Daily Weather Segment

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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]

143,706 Detected Infections
2,343Reported Deaths


NCDHHS [LINK]

144,952 Detected Infections
1,924,646 Total Tests
934 Reported Current Hospitalizations
2,347 Reported Deaths

Johns Hopkins Dashboard [LINK]

144,952 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.







490 Detected Cases (+6 in one day)
56 Active Positive (+3 in one day)
430 Recovered (+3 in one day)
4 Death (unchanged)

Testing Data for Macon County

4480 MCPH Tests (+3 in one day)
1733 Tests by Others (unchanged)
6113 Total Tests (+3 in one day)
192 Tests Pending Results (-2 in one day)


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 5:00am Monday, August 17, 2020