. >> meteorologist bill cairns has the latest. and we want to start with dausha burns at newark international, and are flights staying on time there? >> in short, aaron, no. the flightboard here is showing more and more delays here by the hour, and at the same time, the clouds are building up, and this storm is moving into the new jersey area here in the form of heavy rain that is only going to be worse here, and tomorrow, we will see the heavy wind here as well, and the flood watches all as the travel levels are hitting prepandemic levels. look, the authorities here at newark are expecting the travel here at the airport to exceed 19 levels between now, and january 2nd, and expecting around 11 million people to come around the tristate levels and the tunnels and the bridges, and it is airports and also on the roads, and the folks we are meeting here are very worried about getting to where they need to be on christmas. take a look at what we heard. >> we were originally going to leave at 8:00 this evening, and then we kind of saw t

and bill cairns, thank you. >>> and now, the fed is announcing a 0.5% rate hike. >> this is important to maintain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return a rate of 2% over time. >> and that is the consumer price index to indicate that inflation is 7.1% year over year, which is down two points from june. nbc news correspondent tom costello is joining us from d.c., and you have been watching this, so tell us about the conditions that the fed had to consider before making this rate increase, the modest increase? >> well, it is still in a pickle here. it has a challenge. the problem is that unemployment rate is still at 50-year lows and we have far more workers than jobs available, but it is going to drive up the wages, and feeds the inflationary cycle, and the inflationary is very high, and very high, and that is because the target that the fed has is 2% inflation, and so now, the fed has one tool in the tool box, and this is to keep hiking the interest rates, and it is like a sledge hammer, and they only have a scalpel, and so they have to slowly drive it

>>ly so i will pick it up here, and bill cairns, where did this start? it seems like it has lasted for days. >> yes, it has taken about four days here to make foyt east coast. we have not had any tornados and cleared the i-95 corridor, and we will watch this line of strong storms going through places like vero beach. there is a chance to spin one up, but so far, so good. this is day four for the dakotas, and areas of wyoming and portions of nebraska, and it is windy, but it is not going to snow so much more, but it is blowing all over the place, and the winter storm has begun in areas of pennsylvania and the catskills are starting to get the snow, and tonight, it is going to go into northern new england, and all rain in the i-95 corridor, and up to hartford and boston. as far as snow and ice go, but it is not fun driving in the rain, and all of this mess will be in northern new england tomorrow. as far as the ice accumulation, not worried about harrisburg to cumberland, but we will be watching the heavy snow for the next 24 to 36 hours in new england. >>