This Morning’s Bulletin — 4.17.20

Good Morning!

• We’re expecting increasing clouds throughout the day today, with a high near 48 degrees but wind chill values between 20 and 30 early, with a west wind 11 to 17 miles per hour. We’re expecting rain overnight, with a steady temperature around 44. Rain is likely Saturday, mainly before 9 a.m., with a high near 49 degrees. Sunday will be mostly sunny, with a high near 57.

• New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has extended the executive order requiring non-essential businesses and schools to be closed for an additional two weeks, through May 15.

• The governor pointed out in his Thursday morning press briefing that the Covid-19 infection rate in New York is now .9, meaning each infected person is infecting an average of .9 people. The state has a narrow window of acceptable infection rates, he said, adding that if that number goes up to 1.2 when the state relaxes social distancing, infections will begin to rise exponentially again.

• Mr. Cuomo has added a requirement that anyone riding on public transportation, in cars for hire or taxis must wear a mask at all times to his executive order requiring everyone to wear a face covering in public if they are in an area where they can’t maintain social distancing. Children under two years old and people who are medically unable to wear masks are exempt from the order, which goes into effect at 8 p.m. tonight.

• Suffolk County is putting together a Covid-19 Fiscal Impact Task Force, an “independent panel that will conduct an extensive review of the county multi-year plan and determine the financial impact that the pandemic has had upon it.”

• There were 23,752 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Suffolk County as of Thursday evening, including 357 cases in Southampton Town, 254 in Riverhead, 253 in Southold, 109 in East Hampton and six on Shelter Island.

• Hospitalizations in the county are also declining, said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on thursday, with a decrease of 45 patients hospitalized and a decrease in 25 patients in ICU reported in the prior 24 hours. In that time period, 152 people had been released from the hospital. In total, 706 Suffolk residents had died of Covid-19 as of Thursday, according to the New York State Department of Health.

• The Great Montauk Cleanup, scheduled to be held April 25 in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, is a great place to help Mother Nature while staying socially distant from other humans. So, the Concerned Citizens of Montauk are going ahead with this annual event. More details are online here.

The high tides on the East End for the next two days are as follows:

April 17
Plum Gut Harbor: 6:56 a.m., 7:23 p.m.
Montauk Harbor: 6:04 a.m., 6:31 p.m.
Greenport: 7:33 a.m., 8 p.m.
Mattituck Inlet: 8:15 a.m., 8:46 p.m.
Sag Harbor: 7:28 a.m., 7:55 p.m.
New Suffolk: 8:55 a.m., 9:22 p.m.
South Jamesport: 9:02 a.m., 9:29 p.m.
Shinn. Bay Entrance: 5:41 a.m., 6:20 p.m.
Shinn. Inlet: 3:50 a.m., 4:29 p.m.

April 18
Plum Gut Harbor: 7:46 a.m., 8:07 p.m.
Montauk Harbor: 6:54 a.m., 7:15 p.m.
Greenport: 823 a.m., 8:44 p.m.
Mattituck Inlet: 9:10 a.m., 9:35 p.m.
Sag Harbor: 8:18 a.m., 8:39 p.m.
New Suffolk: 9:45 a.m., 10:06 p.m.
South Jamesport: 9:52 a.m., 10:13 p.m.
Shinn. Bay Entrance: 6:38 a.m., 7:12 p.m.
Shinn. Inlet: 4:47 a.m., 5:21 p.m.

And that’s the way things look at dawn’s light here today.