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Noon News on WRAL - Friday, July 5, 2024
A rare excessive heat warning has been issued as parts of Central North Carolina are expected to see a heat index over 110. I'll break down when the big heat finally backs off coming up. What a day to lose air conditioning. That's what happened to hundreds of people in Durham today because of a crash that knocked down power lines. We have a live update on the effort to get the power back on. And what exactly was the technical problem that brought the Dix Park fireworks show in Raleigh to an abrupt halt causing confusion and disappointment? It's a question we're asking organizers and city leaders today. Today is now at W-R-A weather alert day because of the extreme heat. Thanks for joining us. I'm Renee Chiu. And I'm Jeff Hogan. Glad you're spending this noon hour with us. Let's get straight over to meteorologist Kat Campbell with more on those triple digit temperatures on the way for today. It's really going to be a dangerous day out there in terms of the heat. I know that it is hot in North Carolina in the summer months, but today is exceptional. It's pretty rare that we see excessive heat warnings issued. And all of the triangle, much of our viewing area and pink here, is under the excessive heat warning. The heat index should be near 110 for a couple of consecutive hours. A heat advisory in effect for our southern counties. And that's where the heat index is between 105 and 109. The excessive heat warning is a step up in severity. And both of these are in effect until 8 p.m. this evening. Let's talk about how rare these are. We only average one to two excessive heat warnings a year in central North Carolina. We average about eight to nine of the heat advisories per year. It's 94 right now in the triangle. Our high so far today, I've gone back and looked at the five minute temperature readings, has been 98 already today. The heat index 106, 102 the heat index of Rocky Mountain 108 is what it feels like in Clinton at this hour. It is really going to be a sizzling hot day out there. 102 our forecast high here in the triangle. 101 for Durham 102 Raleigh, 100 in Rocky Mountain South Hill and 101 in Fayetteville. We do have about a 30 percent chance of a storm later this afternoon and into the evening. For the next couple of hours, I think that will be dry and just really hot out there. We should hit 102 by about three or four o'clock this afternoon. It's as we get towards six, seven, eight o'clock tonight that I think we have the better chance of a few of these hit or miss thunderstorms to pop up. I'll have a closer look at that on future cast and better storm chances on the way this weekend coming up. Kat, thank you. Fireworks were a dud at Dick's Park in Raleigh last night. Thousands showed up for the 4th of July event, but it all fizzled when it started to rain with little communication from the city about what was going on. W.R.L. Sean Gallagher is at Dick's Park right now today. And Sean, what has the city told us about why things went so poorly? Yeah, Jeff Renee, they tell us that it was a mix of weather and then technical difficulties, but there were a ton of people here expecting a spectacle in the sky, but they just walked away after this fireworks failure. Now massive crowds of people showed up hours before the fireworks event was set to begin here at Dick's Park. Even after 9 o'clock, rain moved in, which did delay the fireworks, but there was little communication about what was happening from the city. The fireworks did start later after the delay, but many had already left or were waiting for a ride home. And then when they did restart, the fireworks only lasted about 10 minutes. The city saying a technical difficulty was to blame for that. Now a text alert system was created for people to sign up for updates about the show, but when we checked, there were no notifications about the weather or the delays. Now Mayor Marianne Baldwin provided a statement on the debacle to WRAL saying in part that they did have a rain delay and then that threat of lightning, but then technical difficulties again, shortening the show once they decided to restart. Now despite these shorter than expected show, the city tells us there are no plans to reschedule the fireworks event. Mayor Baldwin does tell us that the city is planning to debrief about this event later today, but no word if anyone will share any information on that meeting with us later today. It's the City Gallagher WRAL News, Gicks Park. Almost everyone in Durham has power back on after a long hot night. Police responded to a rollover car crash around 2 30 this morning. That car was tangled in power lines and almost 2,000 people were without power. WRS Monica Casey is live there now and Monica, just a few outages still remaining. Yeah, Renee, that's right. That number has decreased significantly in the last hour. We're here on Washington Street right now and you can see the sheer amount of damage to Duke Energy's equipment is one reason this restoration took most of the morning. Two broken poles had to be replaced and all of the equipment on the broken ones now has to be moved to the new ones. You can see those crews are still working here right now. Here's what it looks like earlier. Jeff Brooks with Duke Energy tells us in situations of extreme heat or cold, crews have to move slowly to bring people back up to ensure they are not knocking others out of power. We live and work in these communities as well, so we take out it is very personally and want to help get customers back up as quickly as we can. You know, in this incident, our crews have been out since early this morning out there working to try to get power back up for customers. We did also ask Brooks about self-healing technology, which shuts off a problem area and re-route power. Brooks says that can help in situations like this, but there are moving parts, other lines have to be able to take the power from the downed one and that just wasn't possible in this case. Brooks says right now about 30 to 40 percent of customers benefit from lines with self-healing technology. Duke Energy wants that number to be up to about 80 percent over the next five years. Now Brooks tells us the people who are closest to the crash site are the only ones still impacted at this time. We have reached out to Durham Police about the condition of the driver in this crash and whether that person faces any charges, we are still waiting to hear back on that. Now Durham County Libraries are open as cooling centers right now. That's the main library, the South Library and the Southwest Regional Library. We have a full list of cooling centers in Wake, Durham, Johnson and Cumberland counties over on our WRL website and our app. In Durham, Monica Casey, WRL News. To Raleigh now, a heads up for homeowners, your trash collection may be delayed due to the extreme heat. The delay is one way to help prevent heat-related injuries or illnesses from solid waste service crews working their routes. You can check the website for updates. You can also download the free Raleigh Reuse app to get information on service changes as well as updates. A 14-year-old boy is still missing after disappearing in the water off North Topsel Beach. We've confirmed he is from Goldsboro. Police say two brothers waded into the water at New River Inlet about 50 yards out. The brothers were fishing when the 14-year-old was swept away and was yelling for help. The other brother made it to shore. A large search operation is underway for the other boy. Two other people were also pulled from the ocean yesterday in North Topsel. Just south of there, crews are investigating a possible drowning in Curie Beach. That happened near the Curie Beach Pier. A fireworks accident killed a man on the 4th of July in South Carolina. This happened in Dorchester County near Somerville. Authorities say last night around 10-30, 41-year-old Alan McGrew ignited a large firework device and set it upon his head. The device exploded, causing massive head injuries. McGrew died at the scene. Join me here in the WRIA Live Center as we continue to look at the wind and the power that is Hurricane Barrow. Good afternoon. I'm Chris Lovinggood. Look at this right here. Do you see how strong those winds are? This is actually video from Cancun on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Obviously, Cancun is a very popular tourist destination. Wind speeds have slowed since Hurricane Barrow made landfall. But we're still talking about wind speeds of 100 mph. Maybe you're all just predicting that Hurricane Barrow will move back over water. And it could regain some strength as it head towards other parts of Mexico and Texas as well. So we'll keep looking for more videos to see just how strong this storm is. But this right here, pretty good indication of how strong those winds are. A person is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries after an early morning shooting in Durham. This happened around 1 a.m. in a neighborhood on Glenbrook Drive. Video from the WRIA Breaking News Tracker shows a handful of the nearly 100 evidence markers that were left there on the ground as police investigated. We're working to learn the name of the person who was shot and if any arrests have been made. A family of five is out of their home after an early morning fire in Raleigh. This happened on Wenzley Court near Lewisburg Road in US1 in Raleigh just after 1 30 this morning. The WRIA Breaking News Tracker was there on that scene. About 35 firefighters responded to the call. They were able to get that fire under control in about a half hour. The Red Cross is helping the family. We're working to learn the name of the person who was shot in Raleigh yesterday and the person arrested for it. Officers responded to Body Island Lane and found a man whose injuries were serious. He was taken to the hospital. Investigators also made an arrest but have not released that information. They have yet to say what led to the shooting. Let's take a look at stocks this noon as we close out this week's trading on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is relatively unchanged on the day at this point right now. The S&P 500 is up 19 points here at noon. The NASDAQ is up 17. Governor Roy Cooper passed a series of bills this week. One of them introduces digital driver's licenses for our state. DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin says the digital licenses would be more secure than the physical laminated licenses. People can decide whether or not they want one. It wouldn't be forced upon anybody. The option will become available around this time next year. Film crews will be setting up to shoot the popular TV series. The summer I turned pretty on UNC Chapel Hill's campus today. The director of the Chapel Hill Orange County Visitors Bureau confirmed this during a June town council meeting. The crew will film Monday through Wednesday which may impact traffic in that area. UNC says filming will largely take place outside McCorkle Place and surrounding buildings. If you'll be around that area during that time you can expect delays, road and parking closures. A special event tonight will give people a chance to meet the U.S. Olympic swim team. The Triangle Aquatic Center in Kerry is hosting the Stars in Stripes Sware. TAC is also where the Olympic swimmers are training before they head to Paris. Ticket holders will get a private viewing of the team's practice. They will also get to chat with Olympians Cullen Jones, David Fox, Claire Donna Hugh White and Charlie Hauchen. For ticket information you can go to TAC's website. The Stars in Stripes Sware is from 445 until 730 tonight. President Biden is headed into a make or break stretch for his presidential campaign. Next at noon what he's saying ahead of a critical TV interview tonight plus a major Democratic donor now cutting off funds to Biden's campaign. Also ahead a historic change in the U.K. as the government swings from the Conservative to the Labour Party for the first time in more than a dozen years. And later a why more Americans are choosing not to take a summer vacation even if they want to. Keep watching WRL news over the Air Channel 34 and Spectrum Channel 1257. President Biden is looking to calm the concerns of his party as he sits down for his first televised interview since last week's debate. The next few days of his campaign are critical after last week's disastrous debate performance. NBC News has learned the president is privately torn between defiance and acceptance amid calls to step aside according to four people familiar with the matter. The president acknowledged his poor debate performance in a radio interview that aired yesterday. "That's screwed up. I made a mistake. That's 90 minutes on stage. Look at what I've done in 3.5 years. We're going to win this election. We're going to just beat Donald Trump like we did in 2020. Now the president is contradicting his own press secretary. He says he had a brief checkup a few days after the debate and was fine. But his press secretary said Wednesday that he was not checked by the doctor. A prominent donor to the Democratic Party is withholding donations until President Biden decides to drop out of the presidential race. Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Disney's co-founder, says she will no longer donate. In a statement to CNBC, Disney said in part, "If Biden does not step down, the Democrats will lose. Of that, I'm absolutely certain." The president has said he has no plans to withdraw from the race. Meanwhile, anonymous sources tell CNBC Vice President Kamala Harris' past donors are privately discussing what her candidacy would look like if Biden steps aside. Keir Starmer is officially the prime minister of Great Britain. He met with King Charles III for a ceremonial event this morning. Starmer replaces his conservative party counterpart, Rishi Sunak. Sunak conceded that Labor had won the election last night and he took responsibility for the loss. Unlike the US, Britain has no month-long transition of power. It happens immediately. People in Iran are voting in a runoff election to select their new president. This election comes after President Ibrahim Rishi died in a helicopter crash in May. None of the four initial candidates who replaced him got more than 50 percent of the vote in last week's election. Crews in California are dealing with stifling heat as they try to put out a wildfire. The Thompson fire has now burned more than 3,500 acres. Crews have finally been able to get a foothold after a day of favorable winds. Now they're facing extreme heat. Fire officials say at least four first responders were injured. The flames have also torn through several buildings. Many other parts of the country also dealing with excessive heat. Now it's our turn for a heat alert. Including us and we're in drought situations as well as dangerous for fire conditions out there. Cat Campbell is right in the middle of the fire because it is hot out there today. It is hot. So far today, the high has been 98 already. It already is. It's only noon. We still have four hours to go of heating potential. It is going to be significant heat today. I know it's somewhere in North Carolina, but we're talking about a excessive heat warning. Those are pretty rare in our area. And that's why we have a W. Mario weather alert day. The heat index should be at or above 110 for several hours. This is through eight o'clock tonight. That excessive heat warning. You need to limit your time outside today. Find some shade and stay hydrated if you can at all. Try to stay in the air conditioning for at least part of the day today. 102 are forecast high. That is not the heat index, but the actual high today. We do have a 30% chance of a storm this afternoon and evening. That chance is up to 60% tomorrow. We've got a cold front on the way and that front just kind of dissipates over North Carolina Sunday. So we still have a pretty decent chance of a storm on Sunday. Here's the cold front that we're tracking. You can see the storms in eastern Tennessee, a few popping up in the North Carolina mountains. The best chance of a severe storm would be closer to Virginia, West Virginia for this evening. But there is a level one threat just north and west of the triangle for this afternoon and evening. The best chance of a severe storm is to our West. But let's talk about tomorrow. Tomorrow, I think we've got a good chance of these scattered storms firing up and they should pop up a little bit earlier in the day. I think we'll have a few storms on the radar already by one or two o'clock and then numerous storms could develop as we get closer to dinner time and into tomorrow evening out ahead of this front. Any storms that develop could have some heavy rain in them and the potential for some strong winds as well. But we need that rain. That's for sure. Sunday morning, a lot more clouds around to kick off the day and that's why it shouldn't be quite as hot. And then that same front just kind of dissipates. It falls apart, but it's still around enough energy to help create some scattered storms through the afternoon and evening on Sunday. Sunday is still near 90s, still very humid outside. So I wouldn't let that 89 volume. 97 right now in Durham and Raleigh. 92 in Fayetteville, boy, it is hot out there today. Make sure that you are staying hydrated sunscreen. If you're headed to the pool, it really is going to be dangerous heat outside today. 98 degrees out one o'clock, 100 by two, three, four o'clock. 102 are forecast high today. So we are nearing the record for today's heat and we stay hot into the weekend and a little bit closer to normal as we get into next week. But today is the worst of the heat and the worst of the heat so far this year really with that excessive heat warning at play. We did have 103 last week. However, it wasn't as humid as it is out there today. Once we get past the weekend storm chances about 40% Monday, 30% Tuesday and Wednesday. High temperatures next week are in the lower 90s. It is still going to be very humid into next week. So be prepared for the heat index to be in the triple digits for pretty much the next seven days. But once we get past today, at least we're headed in the right direction. It shouldn't be quite as bad. Get through these next two days and finally a dip in the temperatures. Kia's and Hyundai's are among the most stolen cars in the country last year. 11 and every thousand of those cars were reported stolen ahead on our news at four. How the town of Garner is helping those car owners keep their vehicles secure. Then at five, a leak was dripping water into a box of food at one local restaurant. Five on your side shows us the problems inspectors found coming up in this week's restaurant ratings and still ahead this noon. Summer vacations are a tradition for many American families, but a growing number of them won't be traveling this season. We'll tell you why. Also ahead, patriotic pride used to be a given. What a new survey reveals about Americans' attitudes towards their own nation. A hacker gained access to OpenAI's internal messaging system last year and stole details about the company's technology. The New York Times reports the hacker obtained the information from an online forum but did not access systems where OpenAI, the maker of chat GPT, houses and builds its AI. The company informed employees and the board about the breach but decided not to share the news publicly since no information about customers or partners was stolen. They also did not believe the breach was a national security threat. Jeff Bezos is planning on selling five billion dollars worth of Amazon shares and it comes after the stock hit a record high. Bezos disclosed the proposed sale of the 25 million shares in a regulatory notice filed after the market closed Tuesday. Amazon's stock also hit an all-time high during that day's trading session. Following the sale, the Amazon founder would still own 912 million shares, which is nearly 9% of the company. Bezos unloaded over 8 billion dollars worth of shares earlier this year. A spokesperson for Amazon has declined to comment. A pair of buyout firms are reportedly raising their takeover offer from Macy's to just under 7 billion dollars. The Wall Street Journal says our house management and brigade capital would be buying shares of the department store they don't already own. Macy's ended a board fight with those firms in April by adding two of their nominees to the board. In May, Macy's reported sales fell in the first quarter but less than Wall Street expected. A new poll finds some Americans can no longer take the summer vacation they had hoped for because they can't afford it. The Newsweek poll found 44 percent of respondents say they won't be able to take a vacation for the next three months because the cost of living is too expensive. 53 percent say they'd go on a trip if it was cheaper. Meanwhile, 64 percent of respondents who are planning a getaway say the high cost of living has impacted their itineraries. A new poll from Gallup shows American Pride is staying near an all-time low. The survey found 41 percent of Americans say they are extremely proud which is up 3 percent from 2022 when the Gallup Survey found national pride was at its lowest level. 18 percent of those surveyed say they are moderately proud and 5 percent say they are not proud at all. Gallup points out the highest level of American pride was after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. More than a thousand people took part in this survey which was conducted from June 3rd to the 23rd. Cesar's salad is officially 100 years old. The popular salad is said to have been invented in 1924 by an Italian immigrant named Cesar Cardini and it was done at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. Cardini's great nephew says they came up with the recipe on the fly with the ingredients they had on hand. Now the city of Tijuana and the original restaurant is commemorating the dish with a four-day Cesar salad festival. The hair outside is hot and streets and sidewalks are even hotter dangerously so and still ahead we'll explain what's being done to ease the temperature under your feet. Also why you need to be extra careful on the roads this weekend even though the 4th of July holiday is behind us. First here's a look at the winning North Carolina Education Lottery numbers. Shot in 4k ultra high definition. Your number one source for local news. WRAL news coverage you can come on. Today's extreme heat is prompting a WRAL weather alert day. It is a scorcher and if you live in the city it's even hotter. WRAL climate change reporter Liz McLaughlin tells us where the heat is amplified today. Liz good afternoon. Jeff Renee it's absolutely sweltering here. Feels like 107 it's even hotter. Check out the sidewalk here 129 degrees. That's because Raleigh is actually an urban heat island so all these paved areas can absorb more heat than say across the street here at Nash Square where we have lots of shade and greenery heat maps of the city show that the roadways are particularly hot. I just did a temperature check there a second ago 144 degrees and that heat is just expected to amplify. You can see an example with this image from NASA that roadways in Phoenix are 160 degrees so that can be really dangerous. Raleigh city planners are actually working to address this problem by putting a coating on the roads that can absorb more heat. It's called titanium dioxide and it's actually reflective so it can make those roadways a lot cooler and cut through those urban heat islands. And we actually just recently in our budget we're able to make that a permanent thing that we do. It has to happen a couple years after the pavement has been put down. They put this extra technology on the top a few years later and it actually extends the life of the pavement as well so there's a lot of really good benefits from it. The North Carolina Department of Transportation says that they are working on putting more of that coating on more roads around the city and that they're prioritizing vulnerable populations so maybe where there's not as much air conditioning people who have to use public transportation more might be waiting at bus stops so they can really help to mitigate those heat islands. Jeff Renee. All right this will go off at live in Raleigh for us and with all that heat in the asphalt it's going to be a busy weekend on the North Carolina lakes. There will be an increased law enforcement presence on the water over the holiday weekend as part of Operation Dry Water a national campaign to encourage boater safety. Last year the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission made 40 arrests for boating under the influence and issued more than a thousand tickets during the stretch. The main thing we're doing is just making sure everybody's safe whether that's wearing a live jacket, you know making sure people aren't drinking and driving and then just you know making sure everybody gets home safely. And boaters be sure you have enough life jackets on board for everyone everybody has to have one kids under 13 have to wear those life jackets while they're on the boat. So far this year 37 boating incidents have happened in North Carolina. Seven were deadly. A Raleigh man has been charged with attempted first degree murder after a barricade situation on Live Oak Road. Police were first called to the home around 4 15 yesterday afternoon. Police tell us a man was barricaded inside for more than an hour and was taken into custody without incident. Police charged 60 year old Ronald Wright with attempted murder. No injuries were reported. The town of Apex confirms a ransomware attack was behind the problem with their computer system. In a statement the town says quote nothing more about the cyber criminals is known at this time including their demand. The town of Apex has not and will not communicate with, negotiate with, nor make payment to those responsible. This all started Wednesday. The town says cyber criminals hacked into their system forcing them to take everything offline. They contacted the state cyber security task force to help sort it out. Our county by county coverage takes us to Cumberland person and Chatham counties. In Cumberland county they'll soon roll out a new app. It's called the my CCNC Gov mobile app and it'll help you get important notifications straight to the palm of your hands. You'll also be able to report any issues and stay up to date with upcoming events, meetings, and classes the app will be available to download starting Monday. More than 14 miles of roadway will soon get upgraded in person county. It's part of a $2.4 million contract from the state department of transportation. The project impacts US 158 between John Dadee winds dead road and the Caswell county line. Also six secondary roads. Those roads will be milled and resurfaced. Shoulders will also be reconstructed. Work will start late this summer and is expected to be finished in the fall of next year. Chatham county is offering mulch for free every Wednesday this month. The first mulch giveaway happened two days ago but there are four more opportunities 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st. County employees will load the mulch for you but hauling it is your responsibility. All loads must be secured. The mulch is available from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the solid waste and recycling main facility on county services road in Pittsburg. The 45th annual festival for the Eno is underway in Durham. You're looking at video from a previous year. The event is happening at West Point Park. It raises awareness about protecting and restoring outdoor spaces and will feature live music and other fun activities for the family. Eno Fest runs today and tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Stay hydrated. Find a shady spot. Tickets are on sale now. The Holly Springs Independence Day celebration today will offer live music, food trucks, games, and spectacular fireworks. They're scheduled to begin at 915, the fireworks portion. Admission is free. The North Carolina Museum of History is always a worthy visit even now when the family-friendly venue is in the midst of renovations. Visitors can still browse through the museum's first floor through October 7th. Last month, the third floor sports hall of fame closed for renovations. That exhibit opened in 1993 and not much has changed. Curator Katie Edwards says sports legends like Buck Leonard deserve better. I was quite a bit dated the technology and we run out of space. Getting our thinking caps together about how we can present these artifacts and we're going to preserve these artifacts forever and tell their stories for future audiences. The trophies and banners, jerseys and uniforms are coming down to be safely stored away. Renovations at the North Carolina Museum of History won't be finished for at least another two years. Some frightening incidents in the surf over the 4th of July just ahead where there were reports of shark bites on the holiday. Also ahead how a local non-profit hopes to prevent a far more common danger in the water, the risk of drowning. Fourth of July was a scary day in Smyrna Beach, Florida after a man was bitten by a shark. A 21-year-old man from Ohio was throwing a football in knee-high deep water when a shark bit him. He was hurt mostly on the foot and ankle. There were several people on the beach who saw that man drop in the water. The lady came screaming and said we need help, I need help and the man was kind of limping in and fell on in the kind of the shallow part of the water and next thing you know paramedics were coming up to him. He could tell he's in pain and you could see the blood coming off him into the sand. Lifeguards tended to him before paramedics arrived and officials say he'll be okay. U.S. Coast Guard in Texas is warning people not to go in the water because of recent shark bites. One person was taken to the hospital with severe injuries. Others were injured in separate incidents as well. The severity of those is not known. The Coast Guard deployed drones, boats and helicopters to monitor those waters. The CDC estimates 40 million Americans don't know how to swim. Black and Latino people are most at risk of drowning. 72 percent of Hispanic adults and 63 percent of black adults say they never had a swim lesson. That's compared to 48 percent of white adults. Local non-profit Carolina Swims Foundation is hoping to change that. They're proving they're providing free swim lessons to low income and children in foster care. The group is also installing free life jacket loner stations. Sadly there'll be another drowning and it'll be a non-white person and it'll be a male and they'll be over five years old if it's an open body of water. If it's a backyard swimming pool they'll be between the ages of zero four. So far Carolina Swims Foundation has provided free swimming lessons to 750 children. Good initiative. Drivers need to be extra careful and even more alert on the roads this weekend. Just ahead why the safety risk lingers even after the Fourth of July. Also still ahead. Funny money in Las Vegas. Restaurants in Sin City are getting hit with counterfeit cash while the crooks behind the bogus bills will likely continue to get away with it. Statistics show that the Fourth of July is one of the deadliest holidays on the roads. The extra long holiday weekend could increase the risk. Caroline Childy reports poor choices play a significant role in the problem. Your biggest worry this long holiday weekend might be where to watch the fireworks or how to find a good spot in the beach. But the National Safety Council warns this is one of the most dangerous times of the year to be on the road. Estimating 599 lives could be lost in preventable traffic crashes during this four-day weekend. The council says that 40% of road deaths involve an alcohol-impaired driver. Another factor? Speed. If you slow down and if you get into a crash your chances slightly really depends on how fast you travel it. So really slow down. Then there's the traffic. Triple A projects that over 60 million people are traveling by car this week. More than 2.8 million more than last year. It's not so bad getting there. It's usually coming home. Maybe that's because we have less patience on the way home. But traffic is always miserable. The traffic is something to deal with. But if you leave it a little early and adjust your time and your schedule you know you can fit it in. Even if you're staying local and walking or taking public transportation crowded holiday events will bring more pedestrians and cars together. And of course timing is everything. If you have to be back at work on Monday and plan to drive Sunday, Triple A says the best time to hit the road is before 11 a.m. The worst is between 2 and 8 p.m. Caroline Chiveley reporting there. Your holiday weekend cookout will cost you more this year compared to last year. That's according to the American Farm Bureau. To host a group of 10 you can expect to shell out $71.22 for the celebration. That's up 5% from last year. Nationally this means we are surpassing the $7 per person mark for the first time by 12 cents. Meat will put the biggest dent in your budget. Two pounds of ground beef will cost an average of $12.77 more than a dollar from last year. Only two dishes decreased in price compared to last year. Chicken and potato salad. A half gallon of ice cream will add $5.65 to your grocery bill up 7% from last year. Bet on this businesses in Las Vegas are getting hit by bogus bills. $50 bills in fact. The fake money looks and feels real. The bills pass the traditional UV light and marker tests. But the banks can tell the difference. They know their counterfeit and that's an ugly surprise when restaurants and shops go to deposit that cash. To get a fake bill you're not only losing that change but you're losing the product as well. So you lose twice. The markers in the UV lights just don't work anymore. The counterfeit money has gotten so advanced that these things are not working. They're not helping. At District Attorney's say these cases are hard to prosecute because it's difficult to prove intent. Right now there's really no solution. Experts say this will remain a problem until counterfeit detection technology improves. What a problem in Vegas. It's still thinking about the cookout prices going up and ice cream going up. I'd splurge anyway. And we're going to have a lot of ice cream this weekend I think right? The temperature is a lot. I would think so. It's time and get it before it melts because it's not up there yet. Right Kat? Oh yeah. I mean you got to eat that ice cream fast. It's going to be melting for the weekend. We've got a hundred degrees today. Today should be our sixth day in the triple digit so far this year. We actually only average one day in the triple digits each year. The max we've ever had was 12 back in 1999. But this year as we approach six of them it's pretty significant. 97 degrees right now. The highs so far today has been 98 degrees. 109 our current heat index and 111 is the current heat index in Clinton. Boy it feels hot out there. 106 is what it feels like at this hour in Goldsboro. Feels like 108 in South Hill and 99 in Roxborough 108 in Southern Pines. You can see the expansive heat advisory here in Orange. We've seen heat advisories this year but today is our first excessive heat warning for the year and that's why today is the W. R. A. L. Weather Alert Day. These are not common. We only get one maybe two of these per year so today's heat really is exceptional even for summer and July here in North Carolina. It's 92 degrees out at Carolina Beach right now. The wind blowing. You can see it. At least there's a nice little breeze. A lot of people are in the water right now and this is concerning because there is a high risk for rip currents at the North Carolina coast today for most of our coastline. Please folks if the red flags are flying I strongly encourage you to stay out of the water. There were more than 70 rip current rescues just yesterday at Carolina Beach and Ritesville Beach alone so it's really been a pretty significant risk and we're likely to see that again today. Make sure you review your rip current safety with your family. If you get caught in one you need to swim parallel to the shoreline to escape it before you head back to shore. 87 degrees the high tomorrow at Ocean Isle Beach 86 at Topsobeach 88 degrees in Oak or Coke and Sunday. It'll be partly cloudy with some scattered storms possible temperatures tomorrow and Sunday should be in the mid to upper 80s for most of the coast but a couple 90s possible and at the coast tomorrow I think the best chance of a storm would come later in the evening and into tomorrow night. So let's talk about Hurricane Beryl. Top winds 85 miles per hour. It has weekend since making landfall in Mexico near Tulum. It's going to likely re-strengthen into a hurricane before it hits right on the Mexico and Texas border. This would happen on Sunday when we would expect to see the landfall and notice the new trend. This curvature up to the north and east will continue to watch that as that remnant moisture continues to kind of drift off to the north and east. It still doesn't look very likely that we'll be able to tap into any of that. However we have better storm chances on the way regardless thanks to a front tomorrow. Tomorrow's storm chances 60% and those should really ramp up during the afternoon and evening check in with us at four o'clock on WRAL news of the new model data to help you plan your weekend hour by hour around storm chances. You're going to be planning around the heat as well as 97 tomorrow. The heat does back off a little bit as we get into Sunday and early next week. Jeff and Renee. Kat thank you. Still ahead the 4th of July maybe over but fireworks are still going on at least in space. Coming up what this extraordinary new NASA telescope image is actually showing us. Beautiful. As we wrap things up here's a look at a few of the headlines we're following today. The fireworks show was a dud at Dix Park last night. Thousands showed up for the 4th of July event but it all fizzled when it started to rain with little communication from the city about what was going on. The city says the fireworks will not be rescheduled. Mayor Baldwin tells us the city will debrief today about the event but no word if anyone will be available to share information from that meeting with us today. Almost everyone in Durham has power back after a long hot night. The police responded to a rollover car crash around 2 30 this morning and that car was tangled in power lines. As you see here almost 2,000 people were without power. We have reached out to Durham police about the condition of the driver and whether that person faces any charges for hitting that utility pole. We're waiting to hear back. And a 14 year old Goldsboro boy is still missing after disappearing in the water off North Topsel Beach. Police say two brothers waited into that water at New River Inlet about 50 yards out. The brothers were fishing when the 14 year old was swept away and was yelling for help. The other brother made it to shore. A large search operation is underway for the other boy. Two other people were also pulled from the ocean yesterday in North Topsel. A spectacular new image from a NASA telescope shows what appears to be fireworks in the galaxy. Look at this. This fiery hourglass shape contains a new and growing star and you can see it in the neck of the hourglass. The star creates outflows as it consumes the cloud which is made up of gas and dust. That's a scientific explanation. Eventually this oppressive display will end. The star itself will become more visible by telescope but how perfect for a fortune to celebrate the 4th of July out in space. It's got the colors correct as well the formation of a star. That is so neat to see. There is a new study that's revealed some interesting facts about the hippopotamus. Researchers looked at videos of 32 hippos and found they can get airborne when moving at high speeds. All four legs off the ground at the same time. They also generally only move fast when they're chasing a rival hippo or a predator is chasing them. And another interesting fact, hippos almost always trot when they aren't in the water. Interesting. So much for a heavier BMI. They can move. Time for a bet of the day. Raisin. Raisin is a four-year-old neuter male dog weighing 50 pounds. He's a sweet boy who gets a little nervous around new people and environments. So keep that in mind. And that's made the animal shelter a tough place for him to be. So he would do so much better in a home surrounded by his people and his things. Raisin seems to be most nervous about men in particular. But after a little time together, he becomes trusting and more comfortable. Once Raisin feels comfortable, his true spirit starts to shine. He is excitable and playful, always keep you on your toes. He has a whole lot of love to give and thanks. Raisin's adoption fee is $120, which includes his neuter, microchip, vaccines and more. And you can get more information by going to spca-wake.org. Very tough time for animals around the 4th of July, right? Kia's and Hyundai's are among the most stolen cars in the country. Ahead on our news at four, how the town of Garner is helping owners keep their cars secure. NBC News daily is next on WRAL. Your next local news update in 30 minutes. You can get breaking news updates at any time with our WRAL News app. Have a safe holiday weekend. Here's we roll into our Friday. [Music] Keep watching WRAL News over the Air Channel 34 and Spectrum Channel 1257.