glimmering in the light as it floats down back to earth. there s the envelope once more. there was a huge restricted piece of air space put in place by the faa. what i think is likely the largest piece of restricted air space ever put in place by the faa. we re talking about 150 miles by 150 miles. to put this into context, that s about five times the size of the restricted air space over washington, d.c. twice the size of the state of massachusetts because these military fighters were essentially circling like sharks waiting for the right moment to strike here. we have found out from president biden, he said getting off of air force one in hagerstown, maryland, earlier today, that he ordered a shootdown of this chinese spy balloon on wednesday but the department of defense wanted to wait until the balloon was out over the atlantic ocean and not putting any risk to those on the ground below it. the other really critical thing
guard, but do we know anything more about how they will retrieve the debris? reporter: no indications from people here at the white house how that will all play out. of course, president biden is expected to land in hagerstown, maryland, in about half an hour. we will see whether the president might have anything to say about this operation. but they are taking careful steps to try to find hold site. we ve got video right now. i m being told that this is video of the actual takedown of that balloon. let s see if we can see the contact there. obviously, we see something in the air. i don t want to presume that was a missile. now we see a portion of something. maybe that is the balloon deflating and now falling. i didn t get a chance to see the
for today, we ll see a little rare area of severe weather possibility. joplin, missouri, eastern and western oklahoma, areas of concern today. tomorrow, i think we could have another severe weather outbreak tomorrow with tornadoes. possibly north texas once again, up into western kansas. as far as travel impacts go, look out in the northeast. this is our first really big severe weather day of the season. areas here from state college to hagerstown, maryland, scranton, into philadelphia, new york city late in the day. we have 47 million people at risk of severe storms. again, this is tomorrow afternoon and evening. maybe isolated tornadoes in areas of the northeast. then we ll talk about this as we go throughout the holiday weekend. we could see temperatures at record highs in the southeast. right through saturday and sunday and into memorial day. active weather pattern continues across the country. at least today, we get a little bit of a break from our tornado outbreak. new york city
braves secured the club s first-ever n.l. east crown. now for a look at your weather, let s check back in with nbc meteorologist bill karins. he has your weather channel forecast. good morning to you, bill. how s that fantasy football team doing? how was your weekend? it s returning. it s 2-2. all right. you know, it was a rough start to the year, but we re making a comeback. i feel like every year that s what you say. i m not trusting your fantasy skills. no, you definitely shouldn t. good morning, everyone. speaking of washington, d.c., looks like this rain is going to skirt the outer beltway. we ve got a good shield of rain out here all the way now up into maryland, around frederick to hagerstown, over to winchester on 81. as far as d.c. itself, on the western portion of the beltway, you may get sprinkles. i think downtown will avoid this batch of rain. there will be more later today. have the umbrella definitely with you. as far as the forecast will go for today, eventu
exactly. this is not going to be a pretty week for areas from d.c. up to boston. if it s not snowing, it will probably be raining. that s the case this morning. we are watching snow and rain. let s track it for you. right now we re watching the d.c. area, rain from the winchester locations to hagerstown. that s going to slide through d.c. and baltimore in about a half hour to 45 minutes from now. it will abe slow morning commute. the rainfall that s now in the new york city area is very light. this area of white, that s snow in upstate portions of pennsylvania through new york, that s going to slide through albany and boston. you ll see snow flakes in boston, not a lot of accumulations. the heavier snows will be up there in northern new england. it s a wet morning for everyone. it will be a drier afternoon. middle of the country looking just fine. nice still from texas to florida. you re watching morning joe, brewed by starbucks. [ sneezes ] allergies?