Anyone who’s ever turned on the weather channel to plan their weekend knows that predicting the weather is a delicate task. It’s gotten even more complicated in recent years, with extreme weather phenomena becoming more commonplace. Luckily, residents of Macon County have access to free local weather monitoring, and one great source for it is the Local Yokel.
Preston Jacobson inherited from his father a passion for studying the weather. Ever since he was a student at Western Carolina University, he’s been keeping an eye on the forecast for this little patch of the mountains. Today, he runs the Local Yokel weather service as a very ambitious hobby and tries to help Western North Carolina residents better understand what’s going on in the atmosphere right outside their front doors.
“Living there, being there is the way to have a hyper local forecast in a mountainous terrain in an area that is truly underrepresented data-wise,” Jacobson said.
Part of what helps Jacobson forecast accurately for smaller areas is a large collection of weather stations at various locations. One such station is at the Macon County Public Library, where Jacobson visited on Wednesday night to answer questions about recent trends in local weather. Library assistant Kristina Moe said the library invested a lot in the weather station using STEM education grant funding because it’s important to them that citizens with questions about the environment can come to them for answers.
“It’s just one more way that we can be a resource for information in the community,” Moe said.
That investment in education has definitely resonated – a small but impassioned crowd at Jacobson’s seminar kept him answering questions for an hour and a half about weather in Macon County. Many had taken notice of how drastically rainfall is increasing in the area, especially in Highlands, where each of the last three years have averaged over 110 inches. They also learned more about the implications of that rainfall and how it could impact their homes. For example, flooding isn’t much of an issue in the higher elevations, but proximity to mountains means greater risk of landslides in inclement weather, something that many insurance companies won’t provide coverage for.
“We live right next to a steep hill and I didn’t know about landslides and insurance,” said Barbara Bull, an attendee at the seminar. “I learned a lot.”
Despite a few mountainous hazards, Jacobson thinks that Macon County residents have it pretty good when it comes to weather. Not every scientist agrees on the exact origins of climate change, but the Earth is certainly getting warmer and weather phenomena are certainly getting more extreme as a result. There may be some frustrating inconsistency day-to-day – every day this summer either seems to be torrential rain or blistering sun – but high elevation, geographical position and access to water all offer Macon County a very livable climate.
“Where we sit in the Southern Appalachians is almost the perfect spot,” Jacobson said. “If my son were to ask me where to buy land that’s protected against climate change, I’d tell him right here.”
For more information on Local Yokel weather coverage, go online to www.mtnwx.com.