Rain chances rise in South Florida this week as wildfires burn in Broward, Miami-Dade

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Always tracking, always alerting. This is Next Weather. Good morning. We are tracking two active wildfires reducing air quality and lowering visibility.

[00:00:11]That is a possibility as we head throughout the day today and rain chances rising as we head into the week.

[00:00:16]Let's take a closer look at those wildfires and the details here as of the latest update. And the first one is over in western Broward County. It's called the Max Road fire. It's near US 27 and Miramar and 4,800 acres has burned.

[00:00:31]About 20% contained and we have the 172nd Avenue fire. That is in Southern Dade County near Florida City where about 210 acres have burned, 30% contained. Now, we want to look at the smoke tracker here for that fire near Florida City. And yes, if you live in and around Florida City near Homestead, Southern Dade County, smoke is likely going to be lingering here over your neighborhood. So, if you have any respiratory conditions, you want to try to limit your time outside. And this is the reason Card Sound Road is currently closed. US 1 is so open if you're headed from Southern Dade to the Keys. And then the second fire here near western Broward County and US 27 west of Miramar, the smoke from this is likely going to just kind of remain stagnant this morning. But then as we head into to the afternoon and evening, notice how some of that smoke does start to push westward across the interior over the Everglades. But overall, the winds are fairly light or calm right now even though right now we're seeing some of the smoke plumes moving a little bit more north, but could be impacting if you're driving along US 27. And then we're noticing on our Next Weather radar a little bit of smoke there associated.

[00:01:33]That's a smaller fire near Florida City where the winds are calm in Homestead.

[00:01:38]But right now in Miami and in Fort Lauderdale, we have that wind currently out of the southeast and that's the reason why some of that smoke is currently moving northwest. Visibility's so far, so good. Air quality is okay for now as we do have some of the winds helping to steer the smoke away from the metro areas. But as we take a look at what's next, if you are thinking of walking your dog, especially if you live over in western Broward or southern Dade County, you may want to wait and see what happens with these fires because of the smoke and lower air quality later today. Plus, we're going to be warming up quickly to the mid-80s, but you know what, later this evening, hopefully things improve and then tomorrow, especially. But, you can send your photos to [email protected].

[00:02:20]Highs today climbing to around 90 in Miami, 80 in Fort Lauderdale, 91 in west and Kendall, upper 80s across the Keys.

[00:02:27]More importantly, our next weather rain tracker is showing that we are going to need the umbrellas later this afternoon around 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Make sure to tune in to our new meteorologist Nick Merianos. He's going to be on this evening tracking all this wet weather, which we desperately need. Now, tomorrow, even higher rain chances, we could see some more widespread showers and storms and downpours even looking ahead to Wednesday, still unsettled due to frontal boundary and moisture. Our next weather 7-day forecast is showing that as we head through the next few days, you're going to definitely need that umbrella handy as we're going to see the return of the rain, which is much needed and beneficial with these fires and the ongoing drought. Highs will remain around 90 degrees. The rain chance won't be as high as we get into Friday, but still some passing showers and storms this weekend.