to. thank you for waking up with fox 5 morning news. i'm sarah simmons. >> i'm allison seymour. steve is off today. >> let's say good morning to tucker barnes. he has been watching the forecast for us. i would like to say it is going to be pretty but it doesn't sound pretty. >> no, not pretty. you two are pretty. this weather is not pretty. >> we can't do enough to make everything pretty. >> hang in there. today will be another one of those days where we're talking thunderstorms, lots of humidity, lots of gray, you know, maybe two moments of sunshine. that will be about it. i want to get right to our vipir and show you have is that is one of our radar systems. >> sounds ominous. >> i know it does. it sounds cool. check out these showers and thunderstorms just to the south and west of the city. some of these storms have been on the strong side already this morning and many counties here including parts of fauquier county, stafford county, king george county, viewerrers down in -- viewers down in king george, be ready for these. this is going to be the theme around here today. i think once these thunderstorms get through here, we'll get a bit of a break for the late morning hours and then we'll watch these redevelop later this afternoon. you can see that line of thunderstorms is really holding together here as it is approaching the washington area. so this will likely slow some commutes particularly south of the city here down toward fredericksburg over the next hour or so. temperature right now at reagan national, 70 degrees, humidity 90%. fog as well off to the north and west. visibilities in some of our communities in some of the mount tapes out to the west about a quarter of a mile right now. showers and thunderstorms back in the forecast. high temperatures, you know this routine, upper 70s to about 08 later today and look out, some of these storms will be on the strong side later. >> thank you. let's check in with lauren demarco now. she has the latest on traffic for us. >> good morning. >> good advice, tucker. do want to mention the accident fauquier county. 616 closed south of aquia harbor if a crash that took down a utility pole. we have delays through dale city and then a slowdown again heading past the prince william parkway. we have that disabled vehicle there to the right of the road. you find some slow traffic again heading in towards springfield. 395, no real problems for report from the beltway up to the 14th street bridge. we do have a wreck westbound on the freeway report at the case bridge. watch out for that. no incidents reported on the beltway right now. got a nice bit of volume right there heading across the 11th street bridge op bridge in both direction but you are moving. your lanes are open. traveling in the district, unbound new york avenue at bladensburg, same story here. everybody running, your lanes open well running at speed. in northwest d.c., 1th street remains closed for a gas leak at kalorama road. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. the scene outside of a los angeles courtroom frenzied as michael jackson's family left following the first day of the trial of dr. conrad murray. murray is charged with involuntary man slaughter. in court, prosecutors played a recording of a conversation between murray and jackson taken from murray's cell phone. >> this is very difficult to listen to. it is very disturbing. jackson's speech is slurred and he is obviously drugged. the prosecution wanted to drive home their argument that murray should have stopped giving jackson the drugs. >> the defense cop tends murray had been trying to westbound jackson off the powerful anesthetic propofol but that jackson was begging him for it in order to help him sleep. testimony continues today in the trial of a grandmother accused of killing her 2-year- old granddaughter. carmela de la rosa has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. she is accused of throwing the little girl off a bridge at tysons corner last notch the girl's father took the witness stand weeping as he described his daughter's death. checking our other top stories this morning, a high achieving d.c. school welcomes president obama today. the president delivers his annual back to school speech at 1:30 this afternoon at benjamin banneker academic high school. mr.obama plans to tell student they are the current are you's future and that, quotes, whether we fall behind or race ahead in the coming years is up to you. students across the country can watch the president's speech online and we will stream the president's remarks on our web site at myfoxdc.com. now to an update on the banana man story. dr.karen spillman, principal of colonial forge high school, has resigned. brian thompson was suspended after running across the field wearing a banana costume. the superintendent of stafford county schools is apologizing to the students saying many of the asks taken by the school were inappropriate. thompson's suspension was lifted early and he returned to school on monday. engineers working for the national park service are going to try once again this morning to rappel down the washington monument. >> they had to stop because of bad weather. we get the late of the now from fox 5's stacy cohan live at the monument. >> good morning. >> reporter: there were a lot of tourists out here yesterday appear i expect this will be today. although the lightning did stop what was supposed to be some rappeling down the side of the monument, they did get a lot done. there was an expert climber who popped out of the hatch at the tip of the monument and began using slings right around the top of the monday machine and then lower a system of ropes that now bisect each of the four sides of this obelisk and today, architects and engineers are expected to begin the painstaking process of going down the sides of the monument checking for cracks. the earthquake gave this monument quite a shake. this is some interior video that shows the building shaking violently. people inside reported large chunks of the monument falling from the ceiling. the monument is closed for the foreseeable future. there is no word yet on exactly how long it will be closed but this effort, this rappeling effort, is expected to last several days. i'm stacy cohan. back to you. >> it will still be something for tourists to see. coming up next, aformer d.c. employee accused of stealing more than $400,000. officers working overtime to keep the streets safe. d.c.'s police chief says it was all part of the job and wasn't going to come with extra pay. but now those officers will be compensated. more on that after the break. a 15-year-old is facing rape charges in olney, maryland. police say a 22-year-old woman arriving home from work last month was getting out of her car when alvick omenga grabbed her. they say he forced her to a nearby playground and raped her. omenga is charged as an adult and being held on $5 million bond. he is due in court october 7th. d.c. police officers would worked extra hours during the city's all hands on deck initiatives will get paid for that extra time. the city says it will not challenge an arbitrator's decision that it has to pay police officers extra for all hands on deck back in 2009. chief kathy lanier believed the law allowed her to change officer's schedules to accommodate the program without paying them extra. officers who worked those owe indications will receive extra pay for the hours they worked outside of their usual schedule. more trouble out of d.c.'s office of tax and revenue. mary ayers zander faces federal wire fraud charges. she is also good of stealing more than $400,000 from the office of tax and revenue by biman i'm lating the numbers in several accounts between 2007 and january of this year. in 2007, the same office was at the center of a separate $48 million embezzlement scheme. tucker has a check on your forecast coming up next. a taste of fall is heading our way just in time to the weekend. nasa says it has figured out exactly where pieces of that satellite fell last week. more on that when fox 5 morning news continues. we have the answers, everybody. it caused quite a stir when it fell to earth last week. we have a much better idea of where the satellite fell when it broke up on re-entry. according to air force calculation, the pieces wound up in part of the south pacific, not canada as some reports had initially claimed so there you go. >> we talked about this earlier, allison. we decided they need to do a better job tracking satellites when they are falling to planet earth because there is a big difference between the south pacific and canada. >> i guess i'm just hung up on the fact that i don't know why this won't have been bet year why are we not more advanced in that. >> next time we will be. >> we need to start company that tracks -- okay. >> we could makes tens of of dollars. >> let's get right to the weather forecast because we've got some strong thunderstorms that are now moving into communities to our south and west and they've been holding together for the past hour or two. the flashing you see, that is cloud-to-ground lightning and you can see it is moving through fredericksburg as we speak, right up 95 through culpeper in the past half hour sorrow. still getting rain in culpeper but the worst of it is over. you can see the dark yellows and reds pushing to the north. i want to mention here on the sort of eastern periphery of the storm, it has been holding together so right through king george county and that will be pushing up into charles county across the potomac shortly. if you are watching off to the south, be ready for at least a brief period of rain. these storms will redevelop during the course of the afternoon. let's do temperatures. right now at reagan national, we are at 70 degrees, another very mild start. very humid out there, fog in spots. 68 in gaithersburg. 73 in annapolis. not a comfortable start. plenty of clouds around. and there will be a peek or two of sunshine from time to time. let's talk about changes in our forecast. finally, we'll kick the area of low pressure that has been out to our west out of here over the next couple of days. we'll see a series of cold fronts move on through. that will deliver canadian high pressure, something we haven't talked about much this month. this will be the coolest air of the season set to get in here for the weekend. get ready for it. here in the washington area, by saturday, our daytime highs will be in the low 60s and we could be talking about the possibility of frost for some of our western viewers by overnight saturday and early sunday. so this will definitely feel like october around here. we'll go right to the summertime to that crisp october feel for the weekend. lots of clouds, scattered showers, storm back in the forecast. 80degrees your daytime high. winds out of the east at five miles per hour. and then later tonight, a few early showers and storms. 56 your overnight low, winds out of the south and east at about five miles per hour. tomorrow, we'll finally start to get it out of here. i think you will notice the huge starting to decrease tomorrow afternoon. friday looks great. saturday and sunday look great too. although that is cool. no one will be wearing sleeveless dresses on the weekend with overnight lows in the 40s. let's do in on-time traffic with lauren demarco. >> are you trying to say something, tuck officer. >> summer is coming to an end. >> okay. it is rinse and repeat. not repeat and rinse. >> sorry about that. >> i was going to leave you alone. before a disabled vehicle blocking the right lanes. you have delays out of dale city. things hook good making the trip from newington towards springfield. 395, your lanes are open. here we are crossing the 14th street bridge. you've got a little bit of congestion there but everybody is moving. we do have an accident blocking the left lane. 66 eastbound heavy through manassas and centreville and then leaving route 50 fair oaks, things look pretty good approaching the beltway. beltway in montgomery county to the left of your screen is the outer loop. seeing that volume start to build as you head into silver spring near colesville road. that's a check of your fox 5 on-time traffic. coming up next, we're going to go live to fox business network in new york for this morning's business beat with open enrollment around the corner for many companies. don't be surprised if you find out you have to pay more for health insurance next year. >> ghosts and gob lips add -- goblins add up to good news for this year. halloween spending will jump 18% this year. but the average person is shelling out about $72 for costumes, candy and decorations. >> it's so much fun. i love halloween. t things like fresh fruit, fruit juices, have acids that can soften our enamel. once you've lost your enamel it's gone for good. pronamel iso-active is different, it's new, it's a toothpaste in a can. it starts off as a gel, transforms into a foam and actually surrounds your teeth and gets into all those nooks and crannies. dentists recommend pronamel. pronamel iso-active rehardens enamel and helps protect against the effects of acid erosion. don't be surprised if you have to pay more for health insurance next year. we'll have more on that coming up in just a moment. let's tech a look at the mark -- let's take a look at the markets. lawyeren simonetti is live in new york with this morning's business beat. >> good morning. >> stocks plummeted yesterday, not so good with news of the greece bailout. what do we expect today? how are things looking? >> actually, stocks are higher this morning. pretty sharply higher here in the pre-market so that would extend today's rally, today, number four. dow is up 147 points yesterday but at one point, higher by 325. what took the gains out of the market? more news or unconfirmed reports that euro grown officials are bickering over how to deal with the greece situation once again t shows you how sensitive investors are right now to every headline and every point of tension amok european leaders. so in the end, we were much high are but not nearly as high as we had been but higher again this were nothing. there is green on the screen this week on wall street. >> we like that. we've been talking about this morning this new government report that shows people spent less on food and entertainment and more for gas and health care and apparently, that is true not just for he go refer day people but even for employer -- for regular everyday people but even for employers. >> health insurance is up 9% for this year. for the first time ever, the cost of premium foys family of four is $15,000. employs are would pay about $11,000 of that and the employees would pay about $4,000. many health care analysts are saying that because of the shocking and really high numbers, maybe many of the employers won't be giving as high of raises this year because they're forking over so much more for those premiums. >> not the news anybody wants to hear. >> all right. lauren simonetti, thank you so much. we'll check in with you tomorrow. a common accessory in many cribs but maryland health officials say crib bumpers are dangerous. now, they are posterioring for what could be the first ban of -- they are pushing for what could be the first ban of its kind in the nation. an emotional day for the family of name as the trial begins to the doctor accused of killing him. you will hear part of a cell pone conversation between jackson and dr. conrad murray that the prosecution hopes will help prove murray was negligent. we'll be back in a moment. you're always looking ahead... to what's next... to what's possible confident... that taking action now, is the way to create... a better tomorrow. that's why we're announcing, that with the planned merger with t-mobile, at&t will begin bringing five thousand jobs to america from overseas. we will invest eight billion dollars more... and deploy the next generation of wireless broadband to nearly everyone in america. this investment will create as many as ninety-six thousand american jobs. here at at&t, we believe in the future. we're not hesitating. we're investing in america now. why? well, we know it's good business. because america... has always been... and always will be... a smart investment. at&t. that have earned the keurig brewed seal of approval. the keurig brewed seal is our commitment that the coffee inside will deliver a delicious cup of coffee every time. keurig brewed. look for the only mark of genuine keurig quality. we are halfway through the week, guys. we are making it. >> hump day. >> there you go. >> that is a good spin on it. >> that is a good spin on it. that will be the best spin we can give you because the weather forecast continues to look rather gray. a couple more days of it but it will get nicer around here by friday and for the weekend. >> that is when it really counts if we're being honest. >> then it will be cool. >> that's okay because it will be nice though, right, crisp. >> crisp. >> i like that word. >> let's get right to the radar. i want to show you the thunderstorm complex holding together very nicely here overnight and now approaching the city from the south and west. places like fredericksburg and culpeper and now gainesville and manassas, you are see something brief heavy downpours. still some lightning associated with this. it will impact the viewers to the south. so charles county, if you are watching just south and west of the city, be ready for the possibility of some rain to slow your morning commute. this will be the theme around here today. i think once this gets out of here, we'll get a break and later this afternoon, we'll see showers and thunderstorms redevelop. that frontal system we were talking about yesterday that came through, well, it never really made it. that will serve as i anice little focal point to provide some lift out there for showers and thunderstorms during the course of the day. -- that will serve as a nice little focal point. 6 68 with a thunderstorm in fredericksburg. a mostly cloudy day. look out for the possibility of some afternoon storms. 80 your daytime high in washington. 77 in manassas. coming up, i've got the weather guy question. it is a good one. >> i love being up here for that. >> can you give us a hint. >> it is weather-related. >> not otherwise. >> lauren demarco has the latest on traffic. >> we do have a new accident in college park. we've got live pictures of that as you travel the outer loop. it is after route one just trier to 95. look at. this you've got a lot of equipment there at the scene. everybody moving over to the left. it looks like at least a couple of lanes to get by it but anticipate delays heavy approaching the college park area to get past this if you are heading toward 95 and new hampshire avenue. let's move on to trafficland, see what else we've got going o northbound 95 at the prince will item parkway still dealing with that disabled to the right side of the screen there and you are heavy and slow as you head up dale city. right lane is blocked. further north, you we'll fine a brief delay heading in towards springfield. 395 starting to see a typical volume delay. no problems heading across the 14th street bridge. but westbound on the freeway, we've got the accident just before the entrance to the express lanes that takes you onto route one crystal city. can you not access that left exit. 66 eastbound heavy through manassas and then again in centreville, and leaving route 50 fair oaks, but you do look pretty good approaching the beltway. that's a check of your fox 5 on-timetraffic. we just wanted to see it. this is michael jackson at his best. but in court yesterday, a different, heart-breaking side was revealed painting a sad port raid of the pop star in his final days. jurors heard recordings taken from dr. conrad murray's cell phone. it is michael jackson talking about his upcoming tour. >> now, his speech is slurred in this recording. his voice nearly unrecognizable. fox's adam housley has more from the courtroom. >> reporter: prosecutors opening up the trial by playing a dramatic audio recording of a drugged-up michael jackson talking about his upcoming concerts just a month and a half before his death. >> reporter: the d. a. using the audio to bolt sister their point that he should have known better than to continue giving jackson i apowerful anesthetic. >> on may 12th, he orders another shipment of propofol and midazalam. he orders 40 of the 100- milliliter bottles of propofol just two days after that recording was made. >> reporter: murray pled not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. defense lawyers say the king of pop caused his own death by taking the anesthetic after the doctor left the room. >> the science will show you that michael jackson swallowed eight two-milligram lorazepam pills, a dose of propofol, that with the lorazepam created a perfect storm in his body that killed him instantly. >> reporter: at time during the opening statements, the jackson family was noticeably upset as they sat in the second row. if convicted, dr. conrad murray could face four years in prison as well as the loss of his medical license. adam housley, fox news. now to some other top stories this morning. president obama will be at d.c.'s benjamin banneker high school today where the president will give his annual back to school speech to students. kids across the country can watch the speech online at 1:30 this afternoon. we we'll stream the president's remarks on our web site at myfoxdc.com. also coming up in our 8:00 hour, we'll talk with the principal at banneker about the honor of hosting the president. now, for an update on the banana man story. you've heard about this over the past couple of weeks. dr.karen spillman, principal of colonial forge high school, has resigned. 14-year-oldbury appear thompson was suspended after running across the field during a football game wearing a banana costume. his classmates protested wearing free banana man t- shirts. some of those shirts were actually confiscated. the superintendent of stafford county schools is now apologizing to the students saying many of the asks taken by the school were inappropriate. thompson's suspension was lifted early and he returned to school on monday. engineers will try once again later on this morning to start rappeling down the washington monument checking for damage from last month's earthquake. >> weather forced them to abandon their inspects yesterday. let's get more now from stacy cohan live at the monument. quite a sight to see when they were working. >> reporter: it is quite a sight to see down here right now. i know we'll have a beautiful day today. they were saying some showers but i bet this draws quite a bit of attention. this spectacle is all to ensure that, when they repair the mopment, that everything is safe. they had a lot of interior damage, fallen stones from the ceiling during last month's earthquake and this is an effort to survey the exterior damage to this building. now, yesterday, they did get things done before the lightning set in. there was an expert climber that went to the very tippy- top. the monument and slung some ropes around the tip. there is now a rope ladder of sorts down each side of our obelisk here in the center of our city. engineers and architects will start with the uppermost stopes and slowly work their ware -- stones and slowly work their way down so they can judge how many repairs need to be done. this process will be a slow process regardless of whether or not the weather incident fears. it will take about five days to complete this. monument is closed to tourists. it has been since that earthquake last month. however, there were quite a few people out here yesterday photographing what you will never see again quite likely being folk rappeling down the monument. we'll bring that to you. a grandmother accused of of throwing her 2-year-old grand daughter to her death apparently told detectives that she lost if t. in that moment because she wanted to hurt her son-in-law. jurors hearing the case of carmela de la rosa watched a video of an interview with detectives. prosecutors say he did it to exact revenge on her son-in-law for getting her daughter pregnant before they were married. in court tuesday, jurors also heard from the little girl's father would wept as he described her death. de la rosa has plead not guilty by reason of insanity. police are trying to track down a missing man, electricky harris, a well nope community act -- a well-known community activist. >> investigators fear he may have been abducted after someone used his bank card just hours after he was last seen. >> reporter: lenny harris is well known here in old town as a man would looks out for others, mainly those less fortunate than he. >> he mentors kids. he loves kids. he plays basketball with them. he takes them places, you know, like to the theater and to movies and to other events. that is why he gives the one love event. >> one love is an annual festival of games an entertainment that harris has been sponsoring for the last 10 years. >> he is a man of god and i think, being that, he act that out and that is to help people whenever he can, wherever he can. >> that is what harris may have been doing when he took a phone call last wednesday night and drove away from the recreation center. four hours later, police say this man tried to use harris a bank card at an atm minneapolis on king street. when deborah harris hadn't heard from her husband, she tried to track his iphone using gps. a police officer found it on the woodrow wilson bridge. >> i'm doing what he would do, i think. i know that he would have a lot of faith in god because that is who he is. seriously, that is who he is appear i'm doing the same thing. i'm just going on i think maybe air or steam or something. >> it is extremely troubling. mr.harris is a prominent member of the community and well very much like to find him. >> reporter: police are all still looking for lenny harris' car. it has been described as i light blue 1994 toyota corolla with virginia tags xkg 8385. >> i'm just hoping that he will come home no matter what. he might come home beat up or he might come home okay or he might come home whatever kind of way. i don't care how he comes home. i just want him to come home. >> reporter: paul wagner, fox 5 news. if investigators know who called henry harris last night at the rec center, they are not saying. no one knows where he is heading. if you see the car or recognize him, you are asked to call the police. cheap's efforts to save endangered panda apparently are paying off. we'll show you more of the adorable proof coming up. aren't they cute? >> they looked like stuffed animals. >> they are adorable. >> it is easy for parents to feel overwhelmed when they were getting the room ready for a new baby. why maryland officials are pushing for a ban on crib bumpers. hey, guys. want to try a new hamburger helper tonight? [ female announcer ] new ultimate cheeseburger macaroni hamburger helper. our cheesiest macaroni flavor. helpers. forty dishes, all delicious. gives us the most nutritious of gifts. but only when they are ready to be given. that's why we pick vegetables at their peak. ...and freeze them fast, locking in nutrients ...for you to unwrap. ♪ ho, ho, ho. green giant maryland's state department of health says crib bumpers are dangerous. >> the state could become the first in the nation to ban them. >> melanie alnwick has more now. >> reporter: the officer appendectomy nursery for their little one is what many new parents dream of but plush padding can put babies at risk. now, maryland wants to make it illegal to sell crib bumpers. >> this is not part of a safe sleep environment and as a result, we shouldn't be selling them in maryland. >> reporter: maryland's sex of health is a pediatrician himself. after looking ain't faint death cases in the state an advisory panel concluded. >> there are rare but real risks of serious injury. >> reporter: chief medical examiner dr. david fowler explains that babies with their small lungs can't push air in and out very well. >> so you don't have to have the bumper on top. child. you just have to be up close and it restricts that air flow and that is enough. >> reporter: so the central question is whether bumper pads, although they're pretty, have any real useful bends and whether those bensz outweigh the risks maryland's advisory panel found no health benefits. >> there has never really been any mass injuries as far as hit egghead against the slat, perhaps a minor buoying but nothing that can take the life after i child. >> reporter: at great beginnings in gaithersburg, maryland, they stopped ordering crib bumpers eight months ago. managing partner brian green says they tell customers not to use them when a baby is in the crib. >> people love the cute look of t we have worked with manufacturers to do safe alternatives to the bumpers. that is where we think the industry will go. >> alternatives include these wonder bumpers that cover each slat and the mesh breatheddable bumper that alloweds more air flow. maryland wants his it's ban to send a strong message that the safest place for baby is alone on her back in an empty crib. melanie alnwick, fox 5 news. companies that make those crib bumpers say they are safe as long as they are flat and secured properly. if maryland's ban as proved, it will take effect in 2013. >> so human babies are cute but panda babies are really cute and boy there is some proof of that this morning. take a look. these photos -- that is cute cute. >> it is sort of like we're having a benefit us my first five. these were snapped of a dozen baby pandas, some of them napping. some wanding to play at the giant panda breeding center in china. theseling ones have just made their first public appearance. another angle of the cuteness. china is in the midst of a panda sent us to see how many are in the wild and what their living conditions are like. a decade ago, there were nearly 1600 wild pandas in china. >> i lot the one that is sitting up. >> he has his front paws up. >> oh, my gosh. is that a panda baby bumper there in the corner or is it just me? >> when you have kids, they sometimes take a nap and their arms are straight up. one of those little panda babies had his arms straight up. do this call them arms? i guess so. we forget they are going to grow up to be dangerous bears. >> exactly. >> but they are cute. >> they're adorable right now. not adorable is this weather forecast because it is more of the same. sorry. clouds, thunder, lightning, you know, the whole -- >> humidity. >> the h word. >> one more day of it and then some improvement as we get into later in the day tomorrow and friday. there you go, and impressive line of showers and thunderstorms. still some flashing. you will see it there crossing the potomac down towards leonardtown. we have a pretty good thunderstorm pushing into king george county and up towards dale city. this will be approaching the southwestern side of the beltway shortly. we'll see how well it holds together. the thinking has been that it won't hold together but to be honest, it still look very impressive. expect some brief periods of very heavy rain. could be some ponding on the roadways. plenty of cloud-to-ground lightning. the kids are going to the bus stop and you are watching the storms approach. you might want to wait i few minutes. they are moving pretty quickly to the north and will be through here before long. an incredible swirl in the atmosphere. it continues to sit out there and spin and spin and spin and spin and spin some more. with ill meander off to the east and north. we'll kick it out of here and we'll see a gradual improvement as the cold front comes through. we have another day of what we've been dealing with. i think once we get rid of this morning complex, we'll see the showers and thunderstorms redevelop this afternoon. so be ready for it because some of the storms could be strong later today. 70 right new at reagan national. 62348 gaithersburg. 68 in fredericksburg. here is your forecast. -- 68 in gaithersburg. 08 your daytime high and later tonight, early shower, mild overnight, 65 your overnight low and your five-day forecast, next couple of days, 79 tomorrow. check out how cool it is going to be this weekend. saturday and sunday, daytime highs only 60 degrees. that's it. so get ready for jacket weather. it is time to ask the weather guys. that is the fine segment where tony perkins and i put our fabulously large heads together to answer your most pressing questions weather-related or otherwise. today's question comes from c. bodie. can you explain if a fire whirl could really happen. >> it has a couple of names, fire whirl, fire tornado or a fire devil. yes, they do occasionally occur. they are very rare and most often occur in extreme wildfires. so the chances of us seeing one around the washington year, close to none. nothing is impossible. we see the wildfires rage across the states, oregon and arizona. fire whirls are most frequently spawned as mentioned by wildfires and qoibs. we - - earthquakes. it is a sort of a localized fire tornado and what happens is that the conditions with the wildfire cause an extreme updraft and the flame get picked up and for a moment, you get a tornado and they can reach 20 to 200 feet high. they can cause enormous damage. firefighters absolutely hate them because they can sort of help a fire jump, jump the lines. they can be pushed along very quickly at 30, 40 miles per hour. they can jump a roadway. they can do that kind of thing and start a wildfire somewhere else. some of most famous fire whirls or fire tornadoes, after an earthquake in general and in 1923, a fire tornado got going that we've got some pictures of it. and it burned a big -- a large swath of tokyo in a very short period of timeen and sadly 3,000 people died in the fire -- 38,000 people died in the fire that happened after the earthquake and a lot of that responsible was a fire tornado. they can be very dangerous and very uncommon. don't tip inally see them here. >> does it have to be windy like during the wildfires to have that or it s. it something the fire itself just starts it? >> it is a little of both. a strong wildfire will be start its own weather conditions. >> if you have a question, write us whenever you have a chance. >> we do have a few things going o if you are traveling on the beltway heading into college park on the outer loop, you are going to anticipate some very heavy delays. heavy and slow from before kenilworth toward route one because just past that is where we've got the crash. effect was getting by single file to the left. you can see the heavy delays or the left of your screen. that is the outer loop approaching that wreck. 395 northbound, accident off to the right shoulder. you have delays at edsall road. heavy and slow there. westbound on the freeway, the exit to the express lane bridge is blocked. you can't head onto route one crystal city because of the accident there. northbound 9 # at courthouse, we've got reports of a wreck blocking the left lane. further north, prince william parkway, the right lane remains blocked. >> next hour, break out the bratwurst, slap on some sauerkraut. sound so good. >> holly is live in northwest hanging white well-known chef to show us easy ways to bring the celebration to your house. we'll be right back. --holly is live in northwest hanging with a well known chef. cksi