Several wildfires are burning in New Jersey creating a thick, smoky haze in New York City, drastically reducing air quality.
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00:00Well thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Weekend. As we take a look across the northeast,
00:0430 days, just the last 30 days, it's been hard to buy a drop of rain in cities like Philadelphia,
00:10New York City, even Boston for that matter, which has meant all of those leaves that
00:15have fallen off trees recently are extremely dry. And they're just the perfect fuel for a wildfire
00:20and we've seen several of these spark over the last several weeks and even in the last couple
00:27of days new wildfires are popping up day by day. And that is our continued risk, but there is good
00:31news. I want to take you across the nation right now to show you there's a front on the way and
00:36there's green on the board, Anna. Yeah, unlike the other cold fronts we've seen move through the
00:40northeast over the last couple of weeks, this is going to bring actual rain, actual measurable rain
00:46to the northeast. Some very welcome news. Also some thunderstorms towards portions of Louisiana,
00:51Mississippi. There's a new storm system getting ready to work into the northwest and it brings
00:55mostly just showers today in Seattle in the 50s there. 50s for New York as well, still a little
01:00warm as we head down south though, 82 today for Houston. Yeah, we want to return though to our
01:05top story now, which are those fires that continue to burn across the northeast as the dry weather
01:10persists from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts. We're dealing with hundreds of acres that are burning.
01:16Unfortunately, one fire along the New York-New Jersey state line has turned deadly for a fire
01:20ranger. Yeah, and also new overnight, New Jersey officials say they've actually made an arrest in
01:25connection to a different wildfire burning in Jackson Township. They say a brick township man
01:32is facing an arson charge plus a charge for violating firearm regulations. Officials say
01:37he fired a gun and the ammunition he used is prohibited and sparked that fire. We'll give you
01:44the views of New York City now because all of it has led to reducing air quality for millions. New
01:49York City yesterday versus New York City today. You can see that same camera shot and we can see
01:55much farther off in the distance. So that's some great news for us currently as we have limited how
02:00much smoke is out there. But these fires are still burning. They're still going to continue to put
02:05smoke into the sky as we go throughout today. Yeah, and it's one of those situations anyone who
02:09steps outside, you're probably going to smell the smoke. It's going to smell like, you know,
02:13a campfire. A lot of people say you also probably feel your eyes burning a lot of times. And then
02:19for those insensitive groups, you're really going to notice a difference. And actually I have
02:23AccuWeather.com pulled up right now. We have an air quality feature here and I've pulled up air
02:27quality for New York City. You can see we are under poor conditions today for that air quality. It's
02:33at 60. This all means that sensitive groups are going to be impacted by the particles in the air,
02:39by that wildfire smoke and the air quality today. So you will want to take precautions if you have
02:44asthma, any other kind of lung or breathing conditions that could make you more vulnerable
02:49to that smoke and to that decreased air quality. Now let's take a look at what to expect as we head
02:56into the next couple of days here with this ongoing fire threat. We have fires burning and
03:04it's blowing that smoke towards New York City. That's what we've been dealing with yesterday.
03:08It's what brought you that camera shot that we saw today. Things are going to start to change.
03:13Take a look at the winds. They're shifting north as we go throughout the day today. So while we're
03:18still having that poor air quality in New York City for today, changes are coming because as
03:24that wind direction shifts, the smoke is shifting too. So air quality will actually improve for New
03:30York City going forward. So we're moving in the right direction there. We still have several
03:35fires though burning throughout New Jersey. A couple of these at zero percent containment. I
03:40know firefighters are working around the clock to change that, but with new fires popping up,
03:45there's just a lot of resources that have to be used here to address these fires. Many of them
03:50burning more than a hundred acres. We still will have that increased fire risk throughout the day
03:56today. So there is a chance new fires could pop up. That's why officials are urging everyone to
04:00take precautions. Make sure you're paying attention to any burn bans, things like that, to avoid
04:06having any new wildfires for everyone in this red area today because it is just so dry
04:12in these areas. Now changes are on the way, like we mentioned that rain. Let's zoom in here.
04:16Take a look at future radar. This is moving in tonight. This is a look at 8 p.m. We're going to
04:20see that widespread rain across New York City, New Jersey, into Connecticut, and this is going
04:26to continue as we head into the overnight hours. Then by tomorrow morning, that rain clears out,
04:32and then by about 10, 10, 30, the clouds clear out as well. So how much of a difference is this
04:37going to make? It's going to be measurable rain, but it's going to be on the lighter side. So
04:41it's not going to solve any of our drought problems, but it will help with that increased
04:46fire risk. Don't expect it to go away for good, though, because especially as we head later into
04:50next week, we're going to have another cold front move through that's going to be on the drier side,
04:55and so then we'll have heightened fire risk once again. Temperature-wise, we're looking at
04:5950s and 60s for today and taking a look at temperatures throughout the week for New York
05:03City. Definitely going to continue to feel like fall. We're actually looking at a couple days
05:08with some of that rain there with another day of showers popping up on Thursday.