This Morning’s Bulletin — 7.17.20

Good Morning!

• Today will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 78 degrees and a slight chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. The wind will be out of the south at 9 to 13 miles per hour. There’s a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms overnight, with mostly cloudy skies and a low around 70. Skies will clear throughout the day Saturday, with a high near 90 degrees, and Sunday will be sunny, with a high near 92.

• The families of the four young women who died five years ago tomorrow in a limousine crash at the intersection of Route 48 and Depot Lane in Cutchogue gathered Thursday at the street named after the women near Smithtown High School West to demand Southold Town and Suffolk County work to make that intersection safer. Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone declined to comment on their remarks Thursday, citing ongoing litigation, but did say the crash “was one of most tragic incidents that has occurred in the time I’ve been county executive. It certainly is a terrible tragedy.”

• As the arts world awakens from the Covid slumber of the past several months, projects that were in the work when New York’s economy shut down in March are just now beginning to see the light of day. Here are some details on art shows underway, opening this weekend or in the works in the weeks ahead.

• Suffolk County reported 66 new cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours ending July 16, with .9 percent of people tested turning up positive — a number County Executive Steve Bellone called “good news.” The county also saw five days in a row with no Covid deaths as of Thursday, the longest stretch since the pandemic hit Long Island. But the county did report an uptick in Covid hospitalizations, with 58 people currently hospitalized (an increase of 10), and 13 patients in the ICU. The county’s death toll stands at 1,993 people.

• The comet NEOWISE, named for the NASA space telescope used to discover it in March, has been visible to the naked eye in the early evening sky on the East End for the past couple nights, and should be able to be seen on clear nights just below the Big Dipper in the northern sky. If you want to check it out, head northward on a clear night to somewhere with an unobstructed view like a bay beach on the South Fork or a Sound beach on the North Fork — it will be just above the horizon, heading higher each night through July 23. Here are some more details from NASA.

• The Southold and Greenport Rotary Clubs’ annual Great Lobsterfest will be a takeout-only event this year, to be held next Saturday, July 25 at Greenport High School from 4 to 7 p.m. There will be music and raffles, with a choice of a lobster or steak dinner ($40) for adults and one free kids meal of a hot dog and corn with each adult meal ($5 for additional kids’ meals). Tickets can be purchased at 2020lobsterfest.eventbrite.com.

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

July 17
Plum Gut Harbor: 8:15 a.m., 8:32 p.m.
Montauk Harbor: 7:23 a.m., 7:40 p.m.
Greenport: 8:52 a.m., 9:09 p.m.
Mattituck Inlet: 9:40 a.m., 9:50 p.m.
Sag Harbor: 8:47 a.m., 9:04 p.m.
New Suffolk: 10:14 a.m., 10:31 p.m.
South Jamesport: 10:21 a.m., 10:38 p.m.
Shinn. Bay Entrance: 7:09 a.m., 7:25 p.m.
Shinn. Inlet: 5:18 a.m., 5:34 p.m.

July 18
Plum Gut Harbor: 8:58 a.m., 9:12 p.m.
Montauk Harbor: 8:06 a.m., 8:20 p.m.
Greenport: 9:35 a.m., 9:49 p.m.
Mattituck Inlet: 10:28 a.m., 10:36 p.m.
Sag Harbor: 9:30 a.m., 9:44 p.m.
New Suffolk: 10:57 a.m., 11:11 p.m.
South Jamesport: 11:04 a.m., 11:18 p.m.
Shinn. Bay Entrance: 8 a.m., 8:11 p.m.
Shinn. Inlet: 6:09 a.m., 6:20 p.m.

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