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Weather
Hazards and Tropical Weather
Almanac
Macon Calendar
Local and StateNews
Special Section: The Situation in Ukraine as of February 16, 2022
National News Roundup
COVID-19 News and Updates
Science and Technology
On This Day
Support Macon Media
OUTLOOK
A low pressure system and associated cold front will bring widespread rain to the area through tonight. High pressure builds in from the west Friday and persists through early Monday. Low pressure from Texas is expected to bring more rain Monday night and Tuesday. From there, a stalled out front will keep rain chances over our region through much of the week.
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Local Weather
General Forecast Through Sunday Night
Franklin Area
Today
Mostly sunny, with highs in the upper 40s. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Tonight
Mostly clear, with lows in the low-to-mid 20s. Winds out of the northwest around 5 mph becoming calm before midnight.
Saturday
Sunny, with highs in the low-to-mid 50s. Light winds out of the northwest in the morning increasing to 5 to 10 mph by midmorning. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.
Saturday Night
Clear, with lows in the mid 20s. Winds out of the northwest around 5 mph becoming calm before midnight.
Sunday
Sunny, with highs in the mid 50s.
Sunday Night
Mostly clear, with lows around freezing.
Highlands Plateau
Today
Mostly sunny, with highs in the low-to-mid 40s. Winds out of the northwest 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph.
Tonight
Clear, with lows in the mid 20s. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday
Sunny, with highs in the mid 40s. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Saturday Night
Clear, with lows in the mid 20s. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable after midnight. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.
Sunday
Sunny, with highs inb the mid 40s.
Sunday Night
Mostly clear, with lows around freezing.
Otto and South Central Macon County
Today
Patchy fog before 7am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with highs in the upper 40s. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Tonight
Clear, with lows in the mid 20s. WInds out of the northwest around 5 mph becoming calm before midnight.
Saturday
Sunny, with highs in the low-to-mid 50s. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Saturday Night
Clear, with lows in the mid 20s. Winds out of the northwest around 5 mph becoming calm before midnight.
Sunday
Sunny, with highs in the mid 50s.
Sunday Night
Mostly clear, with lows around freezing.
Nantahala Area
Today
Patchy fog between 8am and 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with highs near 40. Winds out of the northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Tonight
Mostly clear, with lows in the mid 20s. Winds out of the northwest around 5 mph becoming calm before midnight.
Saturday
Sunny, with highs in the mid 40s. Calm winds in the morning increasing to come out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph by midmorning. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.
Saturday Night
Clear, with lows in the mid-to-upper 20s. Winds out of the northwest around 5 mph becoming calm before midnight.
Sunday
Sunny, with highs in the low-to-mid 50s.
Sunday Night
Mostly clear, with lows in the mid 30s.
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Hazards and Tropical Weather
Widespread showers and embedded thunderstorms will cross the region Thursday evening through Thursday night. Isolated flooding will be possible, especially in locations near the border between North Carolina, South Carolina, and northeast Georgia, and also along the upper reaches of the French Broad River. The storms may also pose a threat of isolated damaging wind gusts.
Overview of Hazards and Timing
▪ A cold front will bring widespread showers and a few embedded thunderstorms across the area between this afternoon and early Friday. ▪ The main threat will be heavy rain causing localized flooding. ▪ A few severe storms, producing locally damaging wind gusts, are not out of the question this evening or very early Friday morning.
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Almanac
Air quality is in the middle range of green for most of the county, with the ridges and other higher elevations today being in the middle upper range of green.
Fire and Smoke Map
Pollen
Pollen levels are expected to be in the low-medium range (3.4 out of 12) today with Juniper, Elm, and Alder being the main culprit. Tomorrow is expected to be in the medium range (6.3 out of 12).
Record Weather Events for February 18th
Record weather events for this date in Macon County
(1872-2016)
Highest Temperature 73°F in Franklin in 1890
Lowest Temperature -6°F in Highlands in 1900
Greatest One-Day Rain 2.59 inches in Highlands in 1940
Greatest One-Day Snowfall 11.0 inches in Highlands in 1979
Record weather events for January in Macon County
Highest Temperature 79°F at the Coweeta Experimental Station on 02-28-1996
Lowest Temperature -19°F in Highlands on 02-13-1899
Greatest Rainfall 6.37 inches at the Coweeta Experimental Station on 02-13-1966
Greatest Snowfall 15.0 inches in Highlands on 02-14-1912
All-time record weather events for Macon County
Highest Temperature 101°F in Franklin on Jul 29, 1952
Lowest Temperature -19°F in Highlands on Jan 21, 1985
Greatest Rainfall 21.15 inches in Highlands on Jul 29, 1879
Greatest One-Day Snowfall 25.5 inches at the Coweeta Experimental Station on Mar 13, 1993
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Macon Calendar
(send your event to calendar@maconmedia.com)
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Local and State News
• What could latest proposed legislative maps mean for WNC voters? [WLOS-TV (Asheville, NC)]
• NC lawmakers OK bill giving student opt-out to mask mandates [Ashevuille Citizen-Times]
• Smokies, Parkway, top NPS visitation list for 2021 [Smoky Mountain News]
• Join the Highlands Nature Center for the Great Backyard Bird Count [Plateau Daily News]
• Video of Raleigh police kneeling on model's neck goes viral [WRAL-TV (Raleigh, NC)]
• Cooper calls for NC schools, cities to lift mask mandates. Legislators pass mask bill. [Raleigh News and Observer]
• 22 NC stores fined for overcharging customers at checkout [WCNC-TV (Charlotte, NC)]
Franklin Town Council - January 2022 Regular Meeting
Asheville Citizen-Times COVID-19 Tracker [Asheville Citizen-Times]
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National and World News Roundup
Secretary of State Blinken: "I am here today not to start a war, but to prevent one."
Western nations warn shelling in Ukraine could provide false pretext for Russian invasion
Russia threatens military actions if security demands not met amid Ukraine crisis | English News
• Russia Expels Deputy Chief of U.S. Mission in Moscow – Reports [Moscow Times]
• As Russia builds up around Ukraine, NATO navies put 3 different carriers on display. Here's how their flattops stack up. [Business Insider]
B-ROLL: Neptune Strike 2022
Family urges US to save Marines jailed in Russia
• Despite rising wages, 61% of Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck, report finds [CNBC]
• Taiwan fears attack from a China emboldened by Russia's aggression [ITV News]
• Unexplained injuries similar to previous "Havana Syndrome" cases afflicted U.S. officials on White House grounds [CBS News]
• 100-car Pile-up Shuts Down Interstate 39 Near El Paso, Illinois [WLS-TV (Chicago, IL)]
• Tigrayans storm EU-Africa summit in Brussels, call on EU leaders to halt support for “African dictators” like “Abiy Ahmed Ali” of Ethiopia • Tigrayans storm EU-Africa summit in Brussels, call on EU leaders to halt support for “African dictators” like “Abiy Ahmed Ali” of Ethiopia [Today News Africa]
• Afghan rescuers scramble to save boy trapped down well [Al Jazeera]
• Sources: 19 Austin police officers indicted over protests [AP News]
• 38 convicts in Ahmedabad blasts case sentenced to death, 11 get life in jail: Report [Hindustan Times]
• Trump and two of his adult children must testify in New York attorney general probe, judge says [CNBC]
• Conflicts to Watch in 2022 [Council on Foreign Relations]
Global National: Feb. 17, 2022 | Ottawa police make arrests as occupiers face stronger warnings
NBC Nightly News Full Broadcast - February 17th, 2021
PBS NewsHour Full Episode February 17th, 2021
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COVID-19 News and Updates
Since it looks like we may be in for a new wave of infections, here is a section on COVID-19. It will include local, regional, state, national, and global items.
COVID-19 Numbers for Macon County: [November 18, 2021]
• WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard [World Health Organization]
Globally, as of 5:13pm CET, 10 February 2022, there have been 402,044,502 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 5,770,023 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 7 February 2022, a total of 10,095,615,243 vaccine doses have been administered.
In United States of America, from 3 January 2020 to 5:13pm CET, 10 February 2022, there have been 76,448,067 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 902,189 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 4 February 2022, a total of 527,784,089 vaccine doses have been administered.
• California adopts nation’s 1st ‘endemic’ virus policy [AP News]
• Fauci says time to start 'inching' back toward normality [Reuters]
• SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 Variant Evades Neutralization by Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies [SOURCE]
• US has suffered more than 1m excess deaths during pandemic, CDC finds [The Guardian]
• Ilhan Omar scolds journalists for promoting harassment of Canadian Freedom Convoy donors: 'Unconscionable' [Fox News Channel]
• Canada protests: Police arrest leaders of trucker convoy [BBC News]
• Distinguishing Admissions Specifically for COVID-19 from Incidental SARS-CoV-2 Admissions: A National EHR Research Consortium Study[MedRxiv (PDF)]
• Why does the Omicron sub-variant spread faster than the original? [Nature]
• Protection against SARS-CoV-2 after Covid-19 Vaccination and Previous Infection[New England Journal of Medicine]
• Monitoring COVID-19
• COVID-19 Vaccine FAQs Part I [Reddit]
• COVID-19 Vaccine FAQs Part II [Reddit]
[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]
[Outbreak.info]
• CDC Releases Emergency Guidance for Healthcare Facilities to Prepare for Potential Omicron Surge [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]
• COVID-19 case rates by county in 2021 [AXIOS]
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Science and Technology News Roundup
• Wordle Is Watching You [Gizmodo]
• DOJ official warns companies 'foolish' not to shore up cybersecurity amid Russia tensions [SOURCE]
• Meta, formerly Facebook, is no longer one of the world's top 10 most-valuable companies [Business Insider]
• Cheaper, faster internet for apartments could be coming soon [Digital Trends]
• Apple-1 Mystery Is Finally Solved 45 Years Later [Gizmodo]
• NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suffers camera glitch, stalling science [Space]
• Activision Blizzard employees and management clash over union process in Zoom hearing [Washington Post]
• Bionic eyes: Obsolete tech leaves patients in the dark [BBC News]
• Google and Mozilla are ready for Chrome and Firefox version 100 to break some websites [The Verge]
• Hybrid AI: A new way to make machine minds that really think like us[NewScientist]
• Dozens of new Tesla Model Ys spotted being prepped for deliveries at Gigafactory Texas [electrek]
• A Father Accidentally Shut Down His Town's Whole Internet in an Effort to Limit His Kids' Screentime [Gizmodo]
• EXPLAINER: Will burglar alarms still work after 3G shutdown? [AP News]
Podcasts and Long Form Videos
Anything from educational, entertainment, history, current events and technology
Level1 News February 18 2022: Chocolate Rain and Satellite Pain
Special Guest: Mars Helicopter Team Lead - Intrepid Museum LIVE w/ NSF
99 Problems and Chrome is One - DTNS 4215
New Ship Aft Section Mated with Booster Section | SpaceX Boca Chica
Starship Launch Tower in Florida Coming Soon | Cape Update - Narrated
Objections to Open Source | Ask Noah Show 273
The top secret plan to explode a nuclear bomb in Yorkshire
But how does bitcoin actually work?
The First Civilization to Emerge in the Galaxy
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On This Day
February 18th is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 316 days remain until the end of the year (317 in leap years).
Historical Events
(Please note that the Wikipedia articles often contain a bibliography and links to where you can learn more about a historical event)
1229 – The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
1268 – The Battle of Wesenberg is fought between the Livonian Order and Dovmont of Pskov.
1332 – Amda Seyon I, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces.
1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.
1637 – Eighty Years' War: Off the coast of Cornwall, England, a Spanish fleet intercepts an important Anglo-Dutch merchant convoy of 44 vessels escorted by six warships, destroying or capturing 20 of them.
1735 – The ballad opera called Flora, or Hob in the Well went down in history as the first opera of any kind to be produced in North America (Charleston, S.C.)
1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opens his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa (present-day Ghana).
1791 – Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.
1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: Sir Ralph Abercromby and a fleet of 18 British warships invade Trinidad.
1814 – Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Montereau.
1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
1861 – With Italian unification almost complete, Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
1873 – Bulgarian revolutionary leader Vasil Levski is executed by hanging in Sofia by the Ottoman authorities.
1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
1885 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.
1900 – Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.
1906 – Édouard de Laveleye forms the Belgian Olympic Committee in Brussels.
1911 – The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.
1915 – U-boat Campaign: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Great Britain and Ireland.
1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
1932 – The Empire of Japan creates the independent state of Manzhouguo (the obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) free from the Republic of China and installed former Chinese Emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi as Chief Executive of the State.
1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: During the Nanking Massacre, the Nanking Safety Zone International Committee is renamed "Nanking International Rescue Committee", and the safety zone in place for refugees falls apart.
1942 – World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore.
1943 – World War II: The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
1943 – World War II: Joseph Goebbels delivers his Sportpalast speech.
1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors
1947 – First Indochina War: The French gain complete control of Hanoi after forcing the Viet Minh to withdraw to mountains.
1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.
1955 – Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.
1957 – Kenyan rebel leader Dedan Kimathi is executed by the British colonial government.
1957 – Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.
1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1970 – The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
1972 – The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.
1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.
1979 – Richard Petty wins a then-record sixth Daytona 500 after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash on the final lap of the first NASCAR race televised live flag-to-flag.
1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.
1991 – The IRA explodes bombs in the early morning at Paddington station and Victoria station in London.
2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
2001 – Sampit conflict: Inter-ethnic violence between Dayaks and Madurese breaks out in Sampit, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, ultimately resulting in more than 500 deaths and 100,000 Madurese displaced from their homes.
2001 – NASCAR Champion Dale Earnhardt dies from an accident on the final lap of the Daytona 500.
2003 – Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea.
2004 – Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur, Iran, when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.
2007 – Samjhauta Express bombings occurred around midnight in Diwana near the Indian city of Panipat, 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of New Delhi, India.
2010 – WikiLeaks publishes the first of hundreds of thousands of classified documents disclosed by the soldier now known as Chelsea Manning.
2013 – Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.
2014 – At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kyiv, Ukraine.
2021 – Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission, lands successfully.
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Published at 5:00am on Friday, February 18, 2021
Author: Bobby Coggins
Resources used to compile the information in this article include, but are not limited to the following websites or books: MaconMedia.com, youtube.com, weather.gov, airnow.gov, wikipedia.com, onthisday.com, ncdcr.gov, ncsu.edu, utah.edu, https://www.microbe.tv/twiv/, wolfram.com, biorxiv.org, aps.org, nejm.org, plos.org, cell.com, researchsquare.com, cureus.com, spc.noaa.gov, nhc.noaa.gov, ncdenr.org, medrxiv.org, archive.org, ncpedia.org, nasa.gov, https://ww2days.com, nih.gov, carolinapublicpress.org, microbe.tv, smokymountainnews.com, psypost.org, blogspot.com, pollen.com, franklinnc.com, maconnc.org, spaceweather.com, solarham.com, loc.gov, ncleg.net, senate.gov, house.gov, whitehouse.gov, drudgereport.com, politico.com, realclearpolitics.com, ushmm.org, This Day in North Carolina History, World War II Day By Day, The Holocaust Encyclopedia, The Timetables of History, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The World History and Book of Facts (multiple years), On This Day In History: Over 4,000 facts, The NASA Archives. 60 Years in Space, This Day in North Carolina History, The Smithsonian History of Space Exploration: From the Ancient World to the Extraterrestrial Future, Spaceflight, 2nd Edition: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Curiousity, The Story of Civilization (11 volumes), The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, American History, Volume 1: 1492-1877, American History, Volume 2: 1877 - Present, A Complete Chronolgy of the Second World War. Weather and Almanac data and information sources: Sources (except where otherwise credited): heavens-above.com, Ian Webster's Github, National Centers for Environmental Prediction, The National Weather Service, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center, Penn State University Electronic Wall Map, The State Climate Office of North Carolina, Storm Prediction Center, U.S. Naval Observatory, University of Utah Department of Atmospheric Sciences, and the Weather Prediction Center. Back to Top
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