NEW YORK — Heavy rain battered the New York City area one day before the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium, while smoke from Canadian wildfires also continued to create poor air quality in the region.
Spain and Argentina will face off Sunday afternoon in the final at the outdoor stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. While heat and storms have been longstanding concerns for the match, the air quality in New York and New Jersey this week—which exceeded 200 on the air quality index on Thursday—have added an extra layer of uncertainty.
Big storms brought flash-flood warnings to New York City on Saturday, and many parts of the city were impacted by flooding. Roads in New Jersey also flooded, and the FAA issued a ground stop at Newark Airport on Saturday afternoon.
MetLife is one of the least accessible venues of the tournament, and many fans take public transit in New York and New Jersey to get to the match. Saturday’s storms impacted transit in the area, including parts of the subway system flooding, issues and delays for Amtrak, and canceled NJ Transit bus routes. The Brooklyn Queens Expressway, a major inter-borough thoroughfare, closed in both directions for about two hours on Saturday due to flooding. Major highways in New Jersey also shut down because of the storms.
