Rain coming for parts of the Northeast, but not brush fire-stricken New Jersey and New York

AccuWeather

Fires continue to rage amid dry conditions in New Jersey and New York, but the rain that will make it through most of Pennsylvania on Nov. 14 will peter out before it can get to the burning areas.

Transcript

00:00The winds are calming in the northeast as crews continue to fight wildfires like the Jennings Creek fire.

00:04That's tonight's top story.

00:06That fire has burned over 5,000 acres between the New Jersey and New York sides of Passaic and Orange counties.

00:1233 million people today were under some degree of fire alert regarding red flag warnings and so forth.

00:18And we've got some chance for more rain for some tomorrow, but not for everybody.

00:22Not for everyone.

00:23And you know what, Jeff, on top of this, it all lies on the tropics as well.

00:28As we continue to keep a close eye on showers and thunderstorms in the Caribbean,

00:33we expect those storms to become named Storm Sarah, first tropical storm,

00:38but we are anticipating a intensification to a hurricane,

00:42and it could bring impacts to the U.S. by next week.

00:45We'll have more on that in just a moment,

00:47but we'll start you off where that fire threat has been high or at least close enough.

00:52But there's been fires in New York City here, Jeff.

00:55Yeah, there were apparently two wildfires near one another that shut down the line

00:58between New York City and New Haven, Connecticut.

01:01Initially, there was a little confusion whether it was a brush fire or a transformer fire.

01:04Turns out there were two separate brush fires.

01:06One of them did involve a transformer and power was shut off.

01:09So there were some of you who had some really nasty evening commutes

01:12when you rely on that Amtrak line, New York to New Haven.

01:16Without electricity, the trains stop, and that was a problem yesterday.

01:19We're in better shape today.

01:21Fire danger still continues.

01:22The initial surge of moisture aloft is moving in.

01:25So just for a little perspective, this is a 5,000-acre wildfire,

01:29and we've had bigger fires in the Northeast,

01:31but we often don't think about large fires in the Northeast compared to our friends in the West.

01:36Last year, the Matts Creek Fire in Virginia was about twice the size of this particular fire.

01:40Granted, this one's getting a lot of attention, and rightfully so,

01:43because it's not too far from the New York metro,

01:45and it sent fire—smoke, I should say—into New York City at times.

01:49Back in 2007, the Warren Grove Fire in New Jersey was about three times, three-and-a-half times the size.

01:55Now, in 1947, there were some highly destructive fires in Maine that burned 175,000 acres.

02:00The Black Saturday Fire in New Jersey, some of you may remember this, 183,000 acres burnt there.

02:06And then none of us remember the Adirondack Fire from 1903.

02:10It was 100 times the size of the current one, devastating much of the Adirondacks.

02:16But then life returned there.

02:17And as we take a look at what's going on with the reservoirs, you can see the numbers were well under 100 percent.

02:22But keep in mind, 100 percent would be the—basically, we'd be up to the top of the spillway there on the dams.

02:29So regarding where we are compared to capacity, we're at 62 percent of capacity.

02:33We should be at 79 percent of capacity.

02:36But the problem is that we're down about one or two percentage points from earlier this week.

02:41So the dryness is beginning to take its toll here on the reservoir levels.

02:45We're down to 33 degrees, cold up in Burlington.

02:48But we're still at 59 in Charleston, West Virginia.

02:50Here comes the rain for some—for some, but not for everybody.

02:54This only makes it so far.

02:56So if you're looking at this from Pittsburgh, you're going to get guaranteed rain tomorrow.

02:59And even a little bit of ice or maybe a few sleep pellets may bounce around with a few wet snowflakes in the highest elevations,

03:06eastern Westmoreland County, for example, in the morning.

03:08And then the rain takes over D.C.

03:09You're going to see some rain, maybe a few sprinkles in Philly.

03:12This hits a brick wall with high pressure in charge.

03:15It never makes it to New York City.

03:17Another storm system backs over Nova Scotia.

03:19That stays in Maine and east.

03:22So we stay dry in many areas.

03:23Here we have a big NFC East matchup.

03:25Thursday night football, maybe a sprinkle in Philly.

03:27That's about it. A lot of clouds.

03:29And there's that Maine storm system.

03:30So we have fire danger returning.

03:32Breathe southwest of that storm system on Friday, back into New York once again.

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