Weekend News and Weather Briefing for Sunday, February 18, 2024

Here is the news and weather briefing for Macon County.

Expect a brief winter mix at the higher elevations this morning before cooler and drier weather spreads over the area and lingers through the middle of next week. A dry, warming trend will then develop, with temperatures climbing well above normal for mid February.

General Forecast Through Tuesday Night

Franklin Area

Today

Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with highs in the low-to-mid 50s. Calm winds in the morning increasing to come out of the northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.

Tonight

Mostly clear, with lows around 20. Winds out of the north around 5 mph becoming calm before midnight.

Washington’s Birthday

Sunny, with highs in the mid-to-upper 50s. Calm winds in the morning increasing to come out of the northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.

Monday Night

Mostly clear, with lows in the mid 20s. Winds out of the northeast around 5 mph becoming calm before midnight.

Tuesday

Sunny, with highs in the upper 50s.

Tuesday Night

Clear, with lows in the upper 20s.

Today

Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with highs in the mid 40s. Winds out of the west 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Mostly clear, with lows in the mid 20s. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph.

Washington’s Birthday

Sunny, with highs near 50. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph early in the morning shifting to come out of the south by midmorning.

Monday Night

Mostly clear, with lows around 30. Winds out of the west around 5 mph shifting to come out of the northeast before midnight.

Tuesday

Sunny, with highs near 50.

Tuesday Night

Clear, with lows around 30.

Today

Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with highs in the mid 40s. Winds out of the west 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

Mostly clear, with lows in the mid 20s. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph.

Washington’s Birthday

Sunny, with highs near 50. Winds out of the northwest 5 to 10 mph becoming south by midmorning.

Monday Night

Mostly clear, with lows around 30. Winds out of the west around 5 mph becoming northeast before midnight.

Tuesday

Sunny, with highs near 50.

Tuesday Night

Clear, with lows around 30.

Very dry air in place across the region will permit afternoon relative humidity values to fall to between 20 and 25 percent for several hours across the region. Although winds will be fairly light from the southwest, drying fuels and brush will combine with the dry air to increase fire danger this afternoon.

Please refer to your local burn permitting authorities on whether you can burn today. If you do burn, use caution since fires can quickly get out of hand under these conditions.

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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 Rainfall 2.59 inches in Highlands in 1940
Greatest One-Day Snowfall 11.0 inches in Highlands in 1979

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—

NC Lawmakers take steps toward banning ‘gas station heroin’, tianeptine | WXII-TV (Winston-Salem, TV)

• ‘Every dollar matters’: Attorney General Josh Stein appeals Duke Energy rate increase [WRAL-TV (Raleigh, NC)]

• A ‘history changing’ moment in NC education as universal private school vouchers arrive[Raleigh News and Observer]

• Report reveals patient safety issues, including patient death in hallway at Mission Health [WLOS-TV (Asheville, NC)]

—RECENT STATE AND LOCAL NEWS—

• North Carolina program seeks applications for bike, pedestrian project plans [WLOS-TV (Asheville, NC)]

• Warrant: 12-year-old boy found cold, stiff at NC wilderness camp [WBT-TV (Charlotte, NC)]

• (video) NC candidates, experts respond to Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson comments House Bill 2 [WRAL-TV (Raleigh, NC)]

• Under the Dome podcast: Primary endorsements, Black voters and Cotham challengers [Raleigh News and Observer]

• Swain County Manager headed to Jackson [BPR]

—NATIONAL—

International News Headlines

• Russian nukes in space: Why the intelligence leak might be more serious than the threat itself [France 24]

• China Revives Socialist Ideas to Fix Its Real-Estate Crisis [Wall Street Journal]

• In Germany, protesters against the far right are hoping for a political jolt [Le Monde]

• Indonesia-China ties: will president-elect Prabowo confront Beijing or maintain Widodo’s economic deals? [South China Morning Post]

• China’s intimidation of Taiwan is a global issue [Taiwan News]

• Japan ‘paying attention’ to remarks from N. Korean leader’s sister: top gov’t spokesman [Yonhap News Agency]

Global National: Feb. 17, 2024 | Will Moscow hand over the body of Alexei Navalny?

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir Full Broadcast – Feb 17 2024

“CBS Weekend News” Full Broadcast | Feb. 17, 2024

Nightly News Full Broadcast – Feb 17 | NBC News

PBS NewsHour full episode, (February 17, 2024)

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

EP28 Superhumanly Inhuman (The Holocaust) | Dan Carlin

• EP28 Superhumanly Inhuman (audio) [Dan Carlin (via Google Podcasts)]

• The Sky This Week from February 9 to 16: Comet Tsuchinshan and galaxies galore [Astronomy Magazine]

• This Week’s Sky at a Glance, February 9 – 17 [Sky and Telescope Magazine]

The Level1 Show February 16 2024: A Sellout of Epic Proportions | Level1 Techs

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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).

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Published at 5:00am on Suniday, February 18, 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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Source: http://thunderpigblog.blogspot.com/2024/02/wx20240218.html