News and Weather Briefing for Monday, February 26, 2024

Here is the news and weather briefing for Macon County.

Much warmer weather returns today with high temperatures well above normal. Rain showers are expected tomorrow, which will keep temperatures cooler, but still above average. A sharp cold front moves through the area Wednesday into Wednesday evening with a brief return of dry weather Thursday before unsettled conditions return late week into next weekend.

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General Forecast Through Wednesday Night

Franklin Area

Today

Sunny, with highs near 70. Calm winds by midmorning increasing to come out of the southwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight

Increasing clouds, with lows in the mid 40s. Winds out of the southeast around 5 mph.

Tuesday

A 40 percent chance of showers, mainly before 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with highs in the mid 60s. Winds out of the south 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Tuesday Night

A 20 percent chance of showers before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with lows in the lower 50s. Winds out of the south 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Wednesday

Showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with highs in the upper 60s. Windy. Chance of rain is 70%.

Wednesday Night

Showers likely, mainly before 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with lows around 30. Windy. Chance of rain is 60%.

Today

Sunny, with highs near 60. Winds out of the southwest 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Tonight

A 20 percent chance of showers after 4am. Partly cloudy, with lows in the mid 40s. Winds out of the southwest 5 to 10 mph.

Tuesday

Showers likely, mainly between 10am and 1pm. Cloudy, with highs in the mid 50s. Winds out of the southwest 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. Chance of rain is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Tuesday Night

A 20 percent chance of showers before midnight. Cloudy, with lows around 50. Winds out of the southwest 15 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph.

Wednesday

Showers, mainly after noon. Highs near 60. Windy. Chance of rain is 90%.

Wednesday Night

Mostly cloudy, with lows in the upper 20s. Windy.

Today

Sunny, with highs near 70. Light and variable winds in the morning increasing to come out of the southwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight

A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly after 5am. Increasing clouds, with lows in the mid-to-upper 40s. Winds out of the southeast 5 to 10 mph.

Tuesday

Showers likely, mainly between 9am and noon. Cloudy, with highs near 60. Winds out of the south 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of rain is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Tuesday Night

A 20 percent chance of showers before 1am. Cloudy, with lows in the low-to-mid 50s. Winds out of the southwest 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Wednesday

Showers, mainly after noon. Highs in the mid 60s. Windy. Chance of rain is 100%.

Wednesday Night

Mostly cloudy, with lows in the upper 20s. Windy.

Humidity levels will drop below 30% for this afternoon, so please use caution of you chose to burn outdoors.

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Record Weather Events for February 26th

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

Highest Temperature 77°F in Franklin in 1977
Lowest Temperature 3°F at the Coweeta Experimental Station in 1967
Greatest One-Day Rain 4.25 inches in Highlands in 1899
Greatest One-Day Snowfall 6.5 inches in Franklin in 2015

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

Highest Temperature 79°F at the Coweeta Experimental Station on 01-28-1996
Lowest Temperature -19°F in Highlands on 02-13-1899 (also a state record)
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

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News Briefing
—STATE AND LOCAL—

• The Wrap: Primary money, Leandro redux, historic capitol records [WRAL-TV (Raleigh, NC)]

• Under the Dome: The top issues lieutenant governor candidates want to address in NC [Raleigh News and Observer]

• Federal authorities find Mission Hospital in compliance with plan of correction, HCA says [BPR]

• Officers in Kloepfer shooting won’t face charges [Smoky Mountain News]

—RECENT LOCAL AND STATE NEWS— • Surge in Duke Energy bill complaints prompts clarity from NC Utilities Commission [WLOS-TV (Asheville, NC)]

• Decision due soon on Fontana Regional Library [Sylva Herald and Ruralite]

• A lawsuit that seeks to radically change NC education is back before the state Supreme Court. Here’s what you need to know [WRAL-TV (Raleigh, NC)]

• GOP candidate for NC governor on the state of the party and frontrunner Mark Robinson [Raleigh News and Observer]

• Mission sets 10-minute goal for emergency patient care, document obtained by Watchdog shows [Mountain Xpress]

• Former Mission Health doctor describes ‘slow-speed train crash’ that led to state lawsuit [WLOS-TV (Asheville, NC)]

• Lawsuit filed against HCA by local municipalities can proceed, judge rules [BPR]

—NATIONAL—

International News Headlines

‘Putin is a warlord now, wants to get back all USSR colonies’: Estonian Foreign Minister | The Economic Times

Soup kitchens in Argentina struggle to feed needy as government introduces economic cutbacks | Associated Press

• One of the world’s biggest cities may be just months away from running out of water [CNN]

• Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil’s former president denies coup allegations [BBC News]

• Russia’s economy is now completely driven by the war in Ukraine – it cannot afford to lose, but nor can it afford to win [The Conversation]

• Germany: Hamburg, Dresden protest against the far-right AfD [DW News]

• 700 dead from Zambia cholera outbreak as cases surge [Africa News]

• Defense minister, U.S. naval chief discuss N. Korea, defense industry cooperation [Yonhap News Agency]

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—Science, Technology, Culture, and History News Roundup—

What if Singularities DO NOT Exist? | PBS Space Time

• The Sky This Week from February 23 to March 1: Catch a chilly Full Snow Moon [Astronomy Magazine]

• This Week’s Sky at a Glance, February 23 to March 3 [Sky and Telescope Magazine]

The Level1 Show February 23 2024: Accosted By Acorns | Level1 Techs

Baby Come Back, To iPad Mini – DTNS 4709 | Daily Tech News Show

Leica Liking Friends – Android Faithful #32 | Daily Tech News Show

• How to view the 2024 eclipse, a step-by-step planning guide [Astronomy Magazine]

• Gotcha: Firm Evidence for a Neutron Star in Supernova 1987a [Sky and Telescope Magazine]

• Nvidia briefly surpasses $2 trillion in market cap during intraday trading [CNBC]

• No, electric vehicle sales aren’t dropping. Here’s what’s really going on [CNN]

• These major companies are using AI to snoop through employees’ messages, report reveals [Fox Business]

• AT&T is giving customers a $5 credit for its cellphone outage. Some angry customers say it’s not enough. [Business Insider]

—Science, Technology, Culture, and History Video Section—

Why did the Mongols Leave Europe | Kings and Generals

How is SpaceX Starship Revolutionizing Our World!? The Epic Future Awaits! | Marcus House

Cordkillers 491 – The FULL Experience

This Week in Linux #254 – Linux Laptops, Fedora, DreamWorks Open Source, LXQt Desktop & more Linux news

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—COVID News Roundup—

Beyond the Noise #30: Why I wrote a book about COVID | Microbe TV

TWiV 1090: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin | Microbe TV

• SARS-CoV-2 rapidly evolves lineage-specific phenotypic differences when passaged repeatedly in immune-naïve mice [nature communications biology]

• Effectiveness of BNT162b2 BA.4/5 Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccine against Long COVID Symptoms: A US Nationwide Study [National Library of Medicine]

• SARS-CoV-2-infection- and vaccine-induced antibody responses are long lasting with an initial waning phase followed by a stabilization phase [Cell Magazine]

• US flu levels stubbornly high as COVID declines further [Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP; "SID-wrap")]

• Beyond the Noise #30: Why I wrote a book about COVID [Microbe TV]

• TWiV 1090: Clinical update with Dr. Daniel Griffin [Microbe TV]

• TWiV 1091: Skeeter poo and obelisks too [Microbe TV]

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—Russo-Ukraine War News Roundup—

The Ukraine Air-War in 2024 – Interviewing Professor Justin Bronk | Perun

Day 731: Ukraïnian Map | Ukraine News TV

Ukraine War Update NEWS (20240225b): Geopolitical News | ATP Geopolitics

• Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, February 25, 2024 [Institute for the Study of War]

• Russo-Ukrainian war, day 732: Zelenskyy breaks silence, reveals 31,000 Ukrainian troops killed [Euromaidan Press]

Russia-Ukraine two years on: towards an endless and wider war? | UpFront | Al Jazeera

Can Alexei Navalny’s Widow, Yulia Navalnaya, Challenge Putin? | WSJ

• Iran has the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. Now it’s sending them to Russia [CNBC]

• The Spy War: How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin [Wall Street Journal]

• Zelenskyy: 31,000 Ukrainian troops killed vs 180,000 Russian losses in war [Euromaidan Press]

• Ukraine updates: Kyiv marks 2 years since Russian invasion [DW News]

• Macron seeks to rally Western leaders to bolster support for Ukraine [France 24]

• Ukraine says it has downed second Russian A-50 spy plane in weeks [BBC News]

• Should Russia pay Ukraine to rebuild – or even to defeat its own invasion? [Al Jazeera]

—PRO-RUSSIAN NEWS OUTLETS—

• First Abrams tanks sighted near Avdeevka – local officia [Russia Today]

• Putin flies Tupolev Tu-160M strategic aircraft and shares his impression of the flight [Pravda]

• Russia’s Battlegroup East thwarts advance of Ukrainian armored group south of Donetsk [TASS: Russian News Agency]

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On This Day

February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 308 days remain until the end of the year (309 in leap years).

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Published at 5:00am on Monday, February 26, 2023
Author: Bobby Coggins

Resources used to compile the information in this article include, but are not limited to rthe 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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