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.
