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Thursday, March 16, 2023

News and Weather Briefing for Thursday, March 16, 2023



Here is an index to assist you in moving from section to section within the article.

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Weather
Hazards and Tropical Weather
Almanac
Macon Calendar
Local and StateNews
Russo-UKrainian War Updates
National News Roundup
COVID-19 News and Updates
Science and Technology
On This Day
Support Macon Media


GENERAL OUTLOOK

Cold and dry high pressure will remain in control today before a cold front arrives on Friday bringing widespread rain. Cool and dry weather returns for the rest of the weekend. A possible low pressure system could bring another round of precipitation to our area toward the middle of next week.





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Local Weather

General Forecast Through Saturday Night





Franklin Area

Today

Mostly sunny, with highs in the low-to-mid 60s. Calm winds in the morning increasing to come out of the south 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight

Mostly cloudy, with lows in the low-to-mid 40s. Winds out of the southeast 5 to 10 mph.

Friday

Showers. Highs near 60. Winds out of the south 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of rain is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Friday Night

Rain showers before 4am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Lows in the upper 20s. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with highs near 50.

Saturday Night

Partly cloudy, with lows around 20. Windy.
Highlands Plateau

Today

Mostly sunny, with highs in the mid 50s. Winds out of the southwest 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Tonight

Mostly cloudy, with lows around 40. Winds out of the southwest 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Friday

A chance of rain before 8am, then showers, mainly after 8am. Highs in the lower 50s. Winds out of the southwest 15 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of rain is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Friday Night

Rain showers before 3am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Lows in the upper 20s. Winds out of the northwest 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with highs in the low-to-mid 40s. Windy.

Saturday Night

Partly cloudy, with lows around 20. Blustery.
Otto and South Central Macon County

Today

Mostly sunny, with highs in the lower 60s. Calm winds early in the morning increasing to come out of the south 5 to 10 mph by midmorning.

Tonight

Mostly cloudy, with lows in the mid 40s. Winds out of the south 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Friday

Showers. Highs in the upper 50s. Winds out of the south 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of rain is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Friday Night

Rain showers before 5am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Lows around 30. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with highs in the upper 40s.

Saturday Night

Partly cloudy, with lows in the lower 20s.


Nantahala Area

Today

Mostly sunny, with highs near 60. Calm winds becoming south southwest 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Tonight

Mostly cloudy, with lows in the mid 40s. South southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Friday

Showers. Highs in the mid 50s. Winds out of the southwest 15 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. Chance of rain is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible.

Friday Night

Rain showers before 3am, then a chance of rain and snow showers. Lows around 30. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with highs near 40.

Saturday Night

Partly cloudy, with lows around 20.


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Hazards and Tropical Weather

Hazardous weather is not expected today.





Latest US Drought Monitor Map for North Carolina.

Space Weather Mystery Farside Blast and Earth-Directed Storms Launch | Solar Storm Forecast: 14 March 2023




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Almanac

24 Hour Smoke Forecast

No known appreciable smoke field will be crossing Macon County today or tonight.















PM2.5 AQI is 50 (GOOD) for most of the county, and the ridges and other higher elevations PM2.5 AQI is 50 (GOOD)


Fire and Smoke Map




Local Air Monitor







The reduced air quality in southern Macon County was due to multiple prescibed fires by state and USFS agencies. The Syrock AP Fire in Occonee County, South Carolina was 1718 acres in size. Over 2,000 acres further south in South Carolina were also burned yesterday. Most of theat smoke drifted into the southern section of Macon County.

Pollen

Pollen levels are expected to be in the medium-highrange (8.9 out of 12) today with Elm, Maple, and Juniper being the main culprits. Tomorrow is expected to be in the medium range (6.5 out of 12).



Record Weather Events for March 16th

Record weather events for this date in Macon County
(1872-2016)

Highest Temperature 82°F at the Coweeta Experimental Station in 2016
Lowest Temperature 6°F in Highlands in 1916
Greatest One-Day Rain 4.10 inches in Franklin in 1880
Greatest One-Day Snowfall 3.3 inches in Highlands in 1915

Weather Extremes for Macon County for the month of March Data available from 1872

Highest Temperature 87°F at the Coweeta Experimental Station on 03-29-2020
Lowest Temperature -7°F in Highlands on 03-07-1899
Greatest Rainfall 6.61 inches in Highlands on 03-26-2021
Greatest Snowfall 25.5 inches at the Coweeta Experimental Station on 03-13-1993

Record Weather Events for March 16th in North Carolina

Highest Temperature 90°F in New Bern, Craven County in 2016
Lowest Temperature -4°F in Mount Mitchell, Yancey County in 2017 /> Greatest Rainfall 6.59 inches in Roanoke Rapids, Halifax County in 2016
Greatest Snowfall 12.0 inches in Mount Holly, Gaston County in 1912
Weather Extremes for North Carolina for the month of March Data available from 1872

Highest Temperature 98°F in Belhaven, Beaufort County on 03-27-1921
Lowest Temperature -11°F in Mount Mitchell, Yancey County on 03-03-1980
Greatest Rainfall 10.10 inches in Lake Toxaway, Transylvania County on 03-04-1979
Greatest Snowfall 36.00 in Mount Mitchell, Yancey County on 03-13-1993




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Macon Calendar
(send your event to calendar@maconmedia.com)

Tuesday, March 14th

Macon County Board of Commissioners Monthly Meeting at 6.00pm in the Commissioners Board on the third floor of the county courthouse. Access is through the rear parking lot. [Download PDF of Agenda Packet]





No events have been submitted for Macon Calendar.
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Local and State News



NC Governor Cooper Releases Proposed State Budget for 2023-2025 [Download PDF]



• NC House Speaker Tim Moore Responds to Governor Cooper’s Unrealistic Budget Proposal [Speaker Tim Moore]

• Macon County Board of Commissioners March 2023 Regular Meeting [Macon Media]

• Eating an elephant: Canton, county will solve huge mill problems by taking small bites [Smoky Mountain News]

• N.C. Forest Service celebrates Arbor Day and the importance of the tree-planting holiday [Macon Media]

• NC Supreme Court reconsiders law requiring photo ID to vote [WRAL-TV (Raleigh, NC)]

• NC Democratic Gov. Cooper calls for 18% teacher raises, 8% raises for state employees [Raleigh News and Observer]

• Job fair planned for March 16 in Canton as hundreds face impending mill closure [WLOS-TV (Asheville, NC)]

• Tackling Rural America’s ‘Hidden’ Housing Crisis [BPR]


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National and World News Roundup

• How Goldman’s Plan to Shore Up Silicon Valley Bank Crumbled [WSJ (video and audio)] [WSJ (article archive)]

The SVB Collapse Investigations: What to Know | WSJ



What's the impact of two banks failing in the US? | Inside Story



• Markets Shudder as Bank Fears Go Global [New York Times]

• Credit Suisse to borrow up to nearly $54 billion from Swiss National Bank [CNBC]

• North Korea fires ICBM-class missile ahead of South Korean President's trip to Japan [France 24]

What's Happening with AUKUS | Center for Strategic & International Studies



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• WATCH: Charlie Kirk’s UC Davis Event Disrupted By Protestors Smashing Through Windows in Front of Cops, Leading to Arrests [MEDIAITE]

• In the mob’s eyeline: A senior Republican’s close brush revealed in new Jan. 6 footage [Politico]

• Georgia Grand Jury Hears Recording of Trump Trying to Pressure ANOTHER Republican Official to Overturn the Election [MEDIAITE]

Washington Today (3/13/2023): POTUS Biden insists banking system is safe after 2 bank collapses | C-SPAN RADIO



Global National: March 15, 2023 | David Johnston named special rapporteur on foreign interference



Nightly News Full Broadcast (March 15th)


PBS NewsHour full episode, (March 15, 2022




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COVID-19 News and Updates

Here is a section on COVID-19. It includes local, regional, state, national, and global items.



COVID-19 Numbers for Macon County:






• WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard [World Health Organization]

In United States of America, from 3 January 2020 to 6:21pm CET, 7 March 2023, there have been 102,247,392 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1,111,342 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 10 February 2023, a total of 662,514,513 vaccine doses have been administered.

Globally, as of 6:21pm CET, 7 March 2023, there have been 759,408,703 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,866,434 deaths, reported to WHO. As of 12 March 2023, a total of 13,232,780,775 vaccine doses have been administered.


• China to reopen to foreign tourists for first time since Covid crisis [ The Guardian ]

• Tilda Swinton Is Over COVID Film Set Rules: ‘I Was Told to Wear a Mask at All Times, and I’m Not’ [ Variety ]

• SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines decouple anti-viral immunity from humoral autoimmunity [ Nature ]

• Two-thirds of Americans believe that the COVID-19 virus originated from a lab in China [ YouGovAmerica ]

Ep 126 Osterholm Update: Truth in the Midst of Political Theater | Osterholm Update: COVID-19



• TWiV 991: The cancer mRNA shot [Microbe TV]

• TWiV 990: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin [Microbe TV]




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Science and Technology News Roundup

• FCC officials owned stock in Comcast, Charter, AT&T, and Verizon, watchdog says [ARS TECHNICA]

• • ChatGPT posed as blind person to pass online anti-bot test [The Telegraph]

• Tesla Says No to Millions Worth of Incentives Because of Supercharger Payment System Integration [Clean Energy Revolution]

• Volkswagen confirms £17,000 ID 1 as entry-level EV [Autocar]

• It Sure Seems Like Amazon Is Making a New Web Browser [Gizmodo]

• South Korea to build ‘world’s largest’ chip center with $230 billion investment from Samsung [CNN]

• The unintended effects of minimum wage increases on crime [Journal of Public Economics Volume 219, March 2023]

• California educators sue TikTok, Snap and YouTube for allegedly delivering harmful content to kids [Brunswick News]

• High blood caffeine levels may reduce body weight and type 2 diabetes risk [Imperial College London]

• T-Mobile to buy Ryan Reynolds’ Mint Mobile in a $1.35 billion deal [CNN]

• Z-Library returns, aims to avoid seizures by giving each user a secret URL [ARS TECHNICA]


Evergreen Links

• Red Dead Online player bids farewell to Google Stadia save by releasing horse they named after their departed daughter [Games Radar]

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History 69 - Twilight of the Æsir



Hardcore History: AddendumEP24 Manifesting the Muse with Rick | Dan Carlin



• Neal Stephenson’s Lamina1 drops white paper on building the open metaverse [Venture Beat] [PDF of White paper]

• Yes, the Great Books Make Us Better People [New York Times]


How Do We Know What We Know? Philosophy of Science | Fraser Cain






Podcasts and Long Form Videos (History, Culture, Science, Space, Technology and Current Events)
Anything covering educational, entertainment, history, current events, and technology topics

The Level1 Show March 15 2023: FDIC You Later | Level1Techs



Bally's Bankruptcy Banishes Blackouts? - DTNS 4477 | Daily Tech News Show



How Scammers Destroyed an Entire Country | Cold Fusion



Great Decisions 2023 - Economic Warfare | Manitowoc Public Library



This is the spacesuit NASA's Artemis astronauts will wear on the Moon | Engadget



OpenAI Unleashes GPT-4 | TWiT TV



4 Telescopes Tested: Doublet vs. Triplet vs. Quadruplet vs Quintuplet | Nebula Photos



New Superconductor Breakthrough -- What's Up With That? | Sabine Hossenfelder



What If Space & Time Are Created By Our Brains? | PBS Space Time



Sam Harris: Trump, Pandemic, Twitter, Elon, Bret, IDW, Kanye, AI and UFOs | Lex Fridman Podcast #365





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Special Section: The Russo-Ukrainian War
(sharing of a particular source is not an endorsement)



• Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 15 [Institute for the Study of War] [PDF for March 15th]

• Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 386 [Al Jazeera]

• Russo-Ukrainian War. Day 385: US drone brought down by Russian aircraft over Black Sea [Euromaiden Press]


• Pentagon chief speaks to Russian counterpart after drone incident [Al Jazeera]

• Dangerous spy network seized in Poland [TVP World]

• How NATO sees the recent Russian jet incidents [DW News]

• A Republican ‘civil war’ on Ukraine erupts as Reagan’s example fades [Washington Post]

• The Russian rebels fighting alongside Ukraine [Le Monde]

• title [SOURCE]

Ukraine planning counteroffensive with new weapons | DW News



Pentagon chief speaks to Russian counterpart after drone incident | Al Jazeera



They located Russian mercenaries in the woods and all hell broke loose - Military Mind | TVP World



The heart-stopping moment a Ukrainian suicide drone hunts down a Russian tank | New York Post



What a sniper saw fighting Russian soldiers in key city | CNN



How a Russian win in Ukraine could lead to war with NATO | Times Radio



The Economic War in Ukraine a Year On - The energy war, politics and production | Perun




News from Russian or pro-Russian outlets or Video About the Russian Perspective

• Drone incident confirms US involvement in Ukraine conflict – Russia [Russia Today]

• Down with the Reaper! Long live Su-27! [Pravda]

• Attack on Russian plane in neutral airspace to be seen as declaration of war — diplomat [TASS Russian News Agency]





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On This Day

March 16 is the 75th day of the year (76th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 290 days remain until the end of the year.



Historical Events

(Please note that the Wikipedia articles often contain a bibliography and links to where you can learn more about a historical event)




934 – Meng Zhixiang declares himself emperor and establishes Later Shu as a new state independent of Later Tang.

1190 – Massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower, York.

1244 РOver 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burnt to death after the Fall of Monts̩gur.

1621 – Samoset, a Mohegan, visits the settlers of Plymouth Colony and greets them, "Welcome, Englishmen! My name is Samoset."

1660 – The Long Parliament of England is dissolved so as to prepare for the new Convention Parliament.

1792 – King Gustav III of Sweden is shot; he dies on March 29.

1802 – The Army Corps of Engineers is established to found and operate the United States Military Academy at West Point.

1815 – Prince Willem proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.

1872 – The Wanderers F.C. win the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.

1898 – In Melbourne, the representatives of five colonies adopt a constitution, which would become the basis of the Commonwealth of Australia.

1916 – The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US–Mexico border to join the hunt for Pancho Villa.

1918 – Finnish Civil War: Battle of Länkipohja is infamous for its bloody aftermath as the Whites execute 70–100 capitulated Reds.

1924 – In accordance with the Treaty of Rome, Fiume becomes annexed as part of Italy.

1926 – History of Rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.

1935 – Adolf Hitler orders Germany to rearm herself in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription is reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

1936 – Warmer-than-normal temperatures rapidly melt snow and ice on the upper Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, leading to a major flood in Pittsburgh.

1939 – From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.

1941 – Operation Appearance takes place to re-establish British Somaliland

1945 – World War II: The Battle of Iwo Jima ends, but small pockets of Japanese resistance persist.

1945 – Ninety percent of Würzburg, Germany is destroyed in only 20 minutes by British bombers, resulting in at least 4,000 deaths.

1962 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 disappears in the western Pacific Ocean with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.

1966 – Launch of Gemini 8 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott. It would perform the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit.

1968 – Vietnam War: My Lai Massacre occurs; between 347 and 500 Vietnamese villagers are killed by American troops.

1969 – A Viasa McDonnell Douglas DC-9 crashes in Maracaibo, Venezuela, killing 155.

1977 – Assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, the main leader of the anti-government forces in the Lebanese Civil War.

1978 – Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is kidnapped; he is later murdered by his captors.[

1978 – A Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 crashes near Gabare, Bulgaria, killing 73.

1978 – Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time.

1979 – Sino-Vietnamese War: The People's Liberation Army crosses the border back into China, ending the war.

1984 – William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Lebanon, is kidnapped by Hezbollah; he later dies in captivity.

1985 – Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut; he is not released until December 1991.

1988 – Iran–Contra affair: Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Vice Admiral John Poindexter are indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

1988 – Halabja chemical attack: The Kurdish town of Halabja in Iraq is attacked with a mix of poison gas and nerve agents on the orders of Saddam Hussein, killing 5,000 people and injuring about 10,000 people.

1988 – The Troubles: Ulster loyalist militant Michael Stone attacks a Provisional IRA funeral in Belfast with pistols and grenades. Three persons, one of them a member of PIRA are killed, and more than 60 others are wounded.

1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.

2001 – A series of bomb blasts in the city of Shijiazhuang, China kill 108 people and injure 38 others, the biggest mass murder in China in decades.

2003 – American activist Rachel Corrie is killed in Rafah by being run over by an Israel Defense Forces bulldozer while trying to obstruct the demolition of a home.

2005 – Israel officially hands over Jericho to Palestinian control.

2014 – Crimea votes in a controversial referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia.

2016 – A bomb detonates in a bus carrying government employees in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 15 and injuring at least 30.

2016 – Two suicide bombers detonate their explosives at a mosque during morning prayer on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Nigeria, killing 24 and injuring 18.

2020 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (1929). This follows the U.S.

Federal Reserve announcing that it will cut its target interest rate to 0–0.25%.

2021 – Atlanta spa shootings: Eight people are killed and one is injured in a trio of shootings at spas in and near Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. A suspect is arrested the same day.

2022 – A 7.4-magnitude earthquake occurs off the coast of Fukushima, Japan, killing 4 people and injuring 225.

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Published at 5:00am on Thursday, March 16, 2023
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. 

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