As chilly weather embraces the Northeast, wildfire risk continues

The risk for quickly spreading brush fires and wildfires remains across much of the Northeast this week.

Transcript

00:00Our top story is the continuing fire threat in the northeast. While some smoke from ongoing fires,

00:05it's kind of been sweeping through the New York metro at times. Look at this simulated smoke plume

00:10for tonight and tomorrow morning. Low humidity, gusty winds and dry air will result in elevated

00:15fire dangers, fanning flames of current fires across the region. You know now some areas are

00:20also seeing a shot of cooler air today with highs 10 and 20 degrees lower than we saw on Monday.

00:27Much needed rain though is set to return to the northeast later this week. It's just a few days

00:33off but unfortunately till we get there Jeff, we're still monitoring that fire threat and it's

00:40not the last time this week we'll see it either. It's going to be returning Friday, Saturday and

00:45Sunday. Look at the lights there at the top of the Empire State Building. Very nice, kind of a cool

00:49effect there and we're falling into the 40s now at Central Park. We're down to 47. Heading up the

00:55road though to Burlington up to 30 or down to 39 there. Buffalo 39. Getting a little nippy out

01:01there tonight and other areas to the south. 57 still at Virginia Beach. So even with cool air

01:07you can have fires. Here's the smoke plume. You can see how it's been kind of sweeping

01:10and then tonight it's going to sweep a little bit from south southeast to south and then

01:14eventually southwest early tomorrow morning. We're looking at the Jennings Creek fire. 5,000 acres

01:18burnt. Some of that in Orange County, New York. Some of that in northern Passaic County, New Jersey.

01:23One young man lost his life with this. A volunteer who had a tree fall on him. Sometimes if the base

01:32of the trees are exposed to fire then the fire moves on. The fire compromises the integrity of

01:37the tree stump or at least the timber there and that may have been how that played out. I don't

01:42know the specifics but a tree did fall on someone claiming the life of an 18-year-old man there.

01:48Celebrated much in his community according to school officials. Well we are going to be

01:53dealing with his life was celebrated much I should say. Obviously this terrible loss of his life.

01:58This area where we've seen a new little fire break out today. Don't know the size. A little

02:03bit of preliminary information but between New York City and New Haven, Connecticut there's a

02:07rail line operated by Amtrak. A brush fire somewhere east of New York City, east of Penn

02:13Station has caused power loss for trains and therefore there is no operation of that particular

02:19line right now. There could be some residual impacts between Boston and New Haven on the

02:24other side as well depending on how things all behave. But overall the reservoir levels are

02:29running low here. About 15-16 percent below average levels. We're typically around 79 percent of

02:35capacity. We're at 64 percent of capacity for the greater water supply area to the north upstream

02:40of New York City. But overall it's still breezy out there. We have 31 mile per hour gusts coming

02:45in at Boston. It's cool. It's breezy tonight. Tomorrow we're going to stay much cooler than

02:49we were back on Sunday for sure and even Monday. And on Wednesday bright and dry. At least the wind

02:55will be less active tomorrow Bree. But with the dryness the fires will still be active for now.