rick reichmuth following all of that.the fact of the matter is a good many of you are on the road probably as we speak, probably listening to me on the radio, i hope. even if you hear me, it's better than missing me altogether. anyway, i digress. jeff flock, he's out on the roads,es and he's discovering one thing that you probably realize, gas is pricey and getting pricier. jeff, what do you have for us? >> reporter: well, people don't seem to care, neil. and really what can they do, by the way. but gas prices are on the rise. get to that in a second. but first, the travel, huge travel this fourth of july, especially compared to last year. i think this year we're around 47 million by air and car. last year was about 34 million, so that's about a 40% increase. and it's almost as much as we had pre-pandemic. we've got a lot of traffic out on the roads. we're on interstate 55 outside chicago, and it's going to be a record for people driving on this fourth of july holiday. they tell us 43 million plus, can that will be more t

rick reichmuth has more. what are we looking at? is early to get a major hurricane, a little early, especially in the eastern caribbean where this storm is right now. it's an area that is unfavorable for hurricanes this time of the season. there's a lot of wind shear that breaks these storms apart. an 85 miles an hour hurricane became a hurricane just about ten hours ago in across parts of the eastern caribbean. symptom track, a good feeling of what will happen. very close to cuba, hispaniola, haiti. the mountains rip storms apart. if it gets close, we'll see the storm weaken. if it stays over water, more timetables to organize. things are in quite good agreement it's running over or parallel to these islands here and makes this right-hand turn. a lot of disagreements still a big spread in the modelling that we look at here. the official track is that when you see the red, the official track to the national hurricane center, that would bring to it the west coast of floor, not to the east coast where sun rise is. that said, we'll get

will: let's turn to chief meteorologies rick reichmuth. bviously, because we've had such dry conditions, the drought continues to spread. no break in this anywhere up and town the western part of the country. out across the east, too much moisture this week. take a look at this really heavy rain overnight across participants of the central plains -- parts of the central plains, a little bit of severe weather across participants of texas later on today. guys, back to you. rachel: thank you rick. pete: maybe all time high? freudian slip. [laughter] will: we're less than an hour from launch, we're monitoring the crew's arrival any moment so stay with us. ♪♪ intergalactic planetary ♪♪ this isn't just a walk up the stairs. when you have an irregular heartbeat, it's more. it's dignity. the freedom to go where you want, knowing your doctor can watch over your heart. ♪♪ ♪ you are rocking that grill. family: guy fieri? but that pulled pork could taste even better on king's hawaiian slider buns. thanks, guy! (whispers) thank you. my work here is done

pete: turn now to chief meteorologist rick reichmuth for our fox weather forecast. ishes in there as well. we talked about the drought so much already this summer. no rain we are getting, obviously. all the fires. this the is latest in the drought monday tomplet across parts of the four corners this is updated every tuesday. i think we are going to see pretty big improvement because of a lot of moisture we had this week. some spots three to four inches of rain across parts of the southwest is a lot of rain. because of that we have all kinds of flood watches and warnings in effect. we too still do have a lot of fires improving across parts of the southwest. fires across the northern tier, especially across parts of idaho and in towards washington bringing a lot of smoke we have dealt with over the last couple of weeks across parts of even the eastern seaboard. we have a really great day today across parts of the northeast after storm moved on through. we are going to start to see some of that smoke filter back on in throughout the day tomorrow. so if you have any resp

now to chief meteorologist rick reichmuth who is live in the weather center with the latest on the hurricane'st moisture out of this. i think the worst will be to the west side, that's what we're hoping, the opposite side of where surfside is. a category one storm, so a minimal hurricane. became a hurricane this morning. not typical this time of year to see hurricanes staying in formation across parts of the eastern caribbean. usually there's a lot of wind that rips these storms apart. it's in that area right now, continuing to pull off towards the northwest, moving very quickly in its forward rah trajectory, and there's a lot of islands it's going to have interaction with. it'll depend on how strong the storm is if and when it gets out of the caribbean and in towards the gulf. from our model es, very good agreement that it's either parallel or other hispaniola and cuba, again, really determining how much of a storm is left by the end of the time it is around these islands. and then we see a big spread on what happens here. maybe some solutions across parts of the gulf, some solution across pa

pete: let's now turn to chief meteorologist rick like newt for our -- rick reichmuth for our weather pete, outside right now it looks like "fox & friends" right here for fourth of july weekend. it's amazing. fourth of july weekend, well, a lot going on. take a look at the weather map. the first thing we're talking about is the tropics, hurricane elsa across parts of the eastern caribbean moving really quickly, and it is going to have some sort of impact around florida maybe tuesday or wednesday. this is the official track bringing it maybe tropical storm strength, tropical storm strength across the western side of florida. these are what our models look at, i think we're talking about the western side of florida. but that means everybody in south florida's going to get some of this moisture, some of it very heavy and, obviously, in the surfside area maybe starting monday we're going to have problems associated with that. a big front moving across the eastern seaboard. not a great day today across the northeast, better tomorrow. so your fourth of july and out across much of the sos to

let's go to our fox weather forecast live from coney island, rick reichmuth -- rachel: wow. see some showers again with that front stalled there and then by later on tomorrow, moisture coming this from tropical storm elsa. all right, guys, i've got jack -- no -- >> james -- rick: i almost called you johnnie walker. >> by the way, i'm not a professional weather forecaster, but i do think today's weather calls for nathan's famous hot dogs. rick: this is the day, how many years? >> we go back to 1916. so you can do the math, over 100 years of the amazing spectacle of the hot dog eating contest. are. rick: last year, joey chestnut, who's the legend in the competition, ate 75 hot dogs in telephone minutes? >> 75 -- ten minutes? >> 75 hot dogs and buns. rick: all right. bring me that right there. there's a technique to in that joey does, and he eats hot dogs -- >> so two at a time in three bites. you're already behind. all right. two hot dogs together and then dips the bun in water. some of our professional eaters use water, they'll use kool-aid, between tea. now -- green tea. now

brian: really in front of rick reichmuth? pete: in front of rick reichmuth. brian: he cried. that was not in your run down. janice: get an award for this. steve: maybe a "fox & friends" trophy. janice: i would like to thank my family and my mom. brian: normally one toss a block is enough for us but no. ainsley: hand it over to our favorite headline reader -- headline executor. jillian: i hope carley is not watching. relentless. carley, i love you. turning to headlines. the pandemic has thrown the internal revenue service into chaos. the national taxpayer advocate reports the agency is facing a backlog of nearly 35 million unprocessed tax returns as of may. the report also shows that only 3% of calls to the agency's customer support lines are being answered. president biden plans to increase the agency's budget to help deal with the challenges. and then to this. tense mommy's when a georgia state trooper reports a driver doing donuts. watch. [screaming] >> turn the car off. >> the trooper shouts at the street race tore stand down in an atlanta parking lot. the trooper's cruise

let's turn to chief meteorologist rick reichmuth for a fox weather forecast. t of the country can't catch a break with the heat, and they think generally the pattern is going the stick with us all across the central part of the country. this morning already really warm, really humid. the northern plains cooling down a little bit, and that's behind a bit of a front i'll show you in a second. one area we're going to be watching and that's down across just the east coast of florida, a little bit of a disturbance, could watch a tropical adopt sneak up -- development sneak up on us. this is that front across parts of the northeast, scattered showers throughout the day, match maybe even a thunderstorm or two to the north of that. then we've got all this moisture down across participants of the southwest, this monsoon season has been incredible especially for arizona. i think we're going to see some rain spreading across parts of california, into nevada and utah. but in the short term, so much rain so quickly, we're watching significant flooding especially across ariz

let's go to rick reichmuth in the fox weather center with what he's looking at, the potential for thistorm. hey, rick. >> reporter: yeah, looking a little bit less organized than it did yesterday. hurricane hunters are in there flying around right now, so maybe we'll see this change down to a tropical storm at the 11:00 hour. either way, it's got a lot of land mass from haiti, dominican republic and cutting over cuba that will certainly weaken it some. but then it gets back over the eastern gulf of mexico here. south florida, southeast florida where surfside is, i don't think we're talking about a direct impact from this storm. however, we're going to see a lot of rain, and some of that will certainly be across parts of southwest -- excuse me, southeast florida. and so where we are talking about surfside, any moisture coming in there is certainly problematic. that's a monday-tuesday time frame when we're going to be seeing impacts. we've already had five named storms this short hurricane season, that is earlier than we've ever seen it. this is typical activity around september 10th, an

will: turn to chief meteorologist ricky reichmuth. rick: we don't have to explain never time.big problem again, remember we saw this a few weeks ago with this record breaking heat. we are going to be pushing 1:30 in death valley over the weekend. probably close to an all-time record ever in las vegas as well. all right, also a lot of moisture going on. move forward to satellite radar picture. we had big storms obviously across much of the northeast. caused all kinds of flooding problems. move forward, there you go. incredible flooding problems all across parts of the northeast. that moisture is gone. enjoy today. tomorrow we start to see a little bit of moisture move this back in there move forward one though and you can get a look at this. obviously a much nicer morning throughout parts of the northeast. we will still see a few clouds. stray shower no washout by any means. guys back to you. pete: authors seizing more than $1 billion in illegal marijuana as officials warn their county is turning into the wild west. l.a. county sheriff alexville know wava as a stark warning for