Waves of eager sun and sand thirsty people. In Sea Isle City resident are disappointed the townsend bridge in opened yet. Its a popular way for drivers to jump to different shore points especially to avalon. Very inconvenience for me the bikers. Everyone down here and its a shame for the businesses. Reporter but other shore spots started the weekend without any major detours. In wildwood, officials turned the giant key in the sand to officially unlock the ocean. The Lieutenant Governor encouraging people to come on down. I think people should get in the car right now and drive to cape may come to wildwood especially and look at this beach. This is a huge beautifully well kept beach. People are welcoming them and theyre waiting for them. Reporter one gorilla is eager to make his footprint in the sand, that is king kong, wildwood shoregoers have missed the big guy for decades but now his statue tops a new 1. 6 million ride at surf side pier in north wildwood. The kite festival coincides with the memorial day weekend too. Already by midday works were packed hopeful al good sign for a summer full of fun and plenty of people to keep the jersey shore in business. Were excited. The things that were hearing this year about the season, were hearing good reports from our hotel hotel owners. Reporter were hanging on cecilys words. Its perfect out here with a little bit of wind. If you want an alternate route youll have to go outside of the city, take route nine or the garden state parkway and as for wildwood, that International Kite festival tonight, theyre going to light up those kites and its going to be absolutely beautiful. For now reporting live in Sea Isle City, Annie Mccormick channel6 action news. Jim. Thank you, annie. You said it. Nothing is more important for a fun Holiday Weekend than the accuweather forecast. So, cecily tynan whats the deal with that . The pressure is on, jim. We are starting the weekend seasonable. Im tracking a lot of sunshine for the weekend but we do have to pretty big swings in temperatures. Right now, though, its comfortable. 77 degrees in philadelphia. Its breezy. Good amount of sunshine. Youll notice, though, pittsburgh its 65 degrees. Theres a cold front moving through. This has been kicking off a couple sprinkles north of philadelphia. Its mainly coming through dry and what will happen behind this front, another area of High Pressure builds in. This will bring us loads of sunshine tomorrow but a big drop in the temperatures. Overnight tonight temperatures dropping down into the 40s in most of our viewing area. 30s in the Lehigh Valley and the weekend kickoff for tomorrow showing not a cloud in the sky. Wall to wall sunshine but temperatures running about 6 degrees below normal so its going to feel a little bit on the cool side. Philadelphia 70 degrees for the high. At the shore take a sweatshirt. It will be cool on the beach 67 degrees in the poconos tonight frost advisories in effect. Tomorrow will be chilly for may, 61 degrees. But it doesnt stay cool. Future tracker showing as we head into sunday, temperatures up near 80 degrees and memorial day will be very warm and humid. Ill talk more about that, the shore and the poconos and track a potential heat wave next week in the full accuweather 7day forecast. Jim. Thank you cecily. So lets go live to Independence Mall where action News Reporter eva pilgrim, eva let people think that the shore has a monopoly on weekend fun. Whats on tap in philadelphia. Reporter yeah, jim, not everybody is heading out of town for the long Holiday Weekend. If you are planning to stay in town theres plenty to do. As many roll out of town to head down the shore,. Beat the track, im going to ocean city. Reporter others are kicking off their Holiday Weekend with a bang. Right here at home. Like have a good nap time. Keep busy during the day. Reporter spruce street harp harbor park opened today for the new season with lots of food game and funs. We were here last year and theres so much more this year. Seemed like a fun thing to do today on a beautiful day. All kinds of roving entertainment as well. Today theres circus performers, steel drummers. Every day theres different action and Different Things you can take in. Reporter just down the street at penns landing summer fest is in full swing. I think its awesome. The roller skating rink was a big draw for us. Were so excited about that. Reporter the river rink a wintertime favorite is now a roller rink. Beautiful that it overlooks the river and the boat and everything. Its just so nice out here. Reporter from reading books in a hammock to catch something rays on the dock and even taking a few lapse around rink there is something for everyone this weekend right here in the city. Really is the greatest city ever. Reporter now there will be free events all weekend here at Independence National park to honor those who gave their lives for our country. On monday it is free to get into the National Constitution center. Jim, really, there is something for everyone for families for singles for couples, you can find something to do in the city here this weekend. Were live here at Independence Mall, eva pilgrim channel6 action news. Thank you eve v please dont forget 6abc. Com weather ashas you covered with Storm Tracker radar and hourly forecast this weekend and be sure to visit 6abc. Com traffic on your way to and from your recommend destinations. We have breaking news in south philadelphia, this is our sky six airport camera. We have turned it around. Can we take that graphic off so we can see the thick black smoke that is arising from the old sunoco refinery in south philadelphia. This incident was reported in the 3000 block of penrose avenue just about 20 minutes ago and as you can see it looks like something is on fire at the refinery. Dont have any word about injuries. The refinery is now known as Philadelphia Energy solutions girard point refinery. Obviously we are gathering information as quickly and as best we can. When we find something out we will let you know. This one is causing quite a buzz on north broad street. The United StatesJustice Department is saying that the chairman of the Temple University department of physics is an international spy. Passing off Technology Secrets to china. Live on the temple campus tonight is action News Reporter wendy saltzman. Wendy. Reporter jim professor xiaoxing xi was the head of temple physics at Temple University specializing in soup are conductors but this federal indictment alleges he used Defense Department funds to build physical that he later leaked to leaders in his homeland. Xiaoxing xi has worked at temple since 2009. This world renowned physicist. Im shocked he was giving these details to people he was not supposed to. Reporter drexel physicist knows xi and explains the technology the professor was working on. Super conductor has no resistance so it can pass electrical current without any loss. Reporter theyre conductors like copper wire that pass electricity and data but much faster. In the case of a thin film you can back up a lot of circuitry in a very small space. Reporter xi turned over technology and offered to help chinese entities become World Leaders in the field and also recruited his postdoctoral students from china to assist in the scheme. Science and technology its all about details. If anybody knows the secrets before somebody else does, you have an up are hand. Reporter xi built these super conductors using a Defense Department grant. They would allow those who possess the technology to build the fastest Electronic Devices in the world and they could be used in antimilitary Defense Systems among other applications. In return for the information, xi allegedly sought lucrative and prestigious appointments in china. He faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison if convicted. Dont get involved in this kind of stuff. So this was quite a shock. Reporter xi has been replaced as the head of physics in light of this indictment today. A spokesperson for the University Says they are aware of the case and they are interested in speaking with xi who is still a professor here at the university. Live at temple, im wendy saltzman, channel6 action news. Thank you wendy. A car collided with a septa bus this afternoon injuring eight people. The accident happened at 2 30 at the intersection of germantown avenue and tioga streets in hunting park. Police are investigating what caused the car to crash with the route 23 bus. Eight people were taken to the hospital with nonlifethreatening injuries. A 2,500 reward is now being offered forly information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects involved in a gun shop robbery. The crime happened at 4 oclock yesterday morning at the suburban armory store in collingdale. This is surveillance video. The thieves stole 19 weapons. Collingdale police and atf agents are looking for two vehicles a silver gm sedan and a maroon important whack montana with the partial license plate yz. Hundreds of scouts honor war veterans on this memorial day weekend an former wrestler from drexel takes to the ring in vegas this weekend. Ahead in sports well introduce you to the ufc fighter living out his dream. Certainly a beautiful start to the Holiday Weekend. Breezy and seasonable with a high of 77 degrees. Im tracking a very cool saturday and then a big warmup including the possibility of a heat wave next week. Ill have the details in the accuweather forecast. Those stories and more when action news continues tonight. Chopper six is now in the air with a good view of what is going on at the old sunoco refinery in south philadelphia. This is now the Philadelphia Energy solutions girard point refinery but regardless of the name part of this refinery, something on this refinery is on fire. And as you can see firefighters are pouring water on this very smoky blaze. Its very difficult for us to see whether the situation is improving. I think it is because when we looked at it just a few moments ago there were these big plumes of black smoke. It seems to be dissipating a little bit as we speak. And as you can see fire trucks are pouring assaulting this fire with water at the refinery. Were keeping track of it for you as best we can. A roadway in hamilton township, new jersey, looked more like a rodeo this morning. Chopper 6hd was over the i295 offramp to route 29 north. Thats where officials choralled a cow that was running loose. They had to tranquilize the cow to move it off the highway and it later died. State police say the cow escaped from a trenton slaughterhouse about 3 miles weigh. An action news viewer Audrey Cooper sent us this video showing the wayward cow on the move right past her car window. Meanwhile viewer acadia rivera was recording from an overpass as the animal ran from the grassy median and onto the roadway. You can join the action as well when you see news happening, just email us your photos and video to join the action at 6abc. Com. Or use the 6abcaction on social media. More than 1,000 scouts spent today honoring what memorial day is really all about. The boy scout, girl scout cub scout and brownie troops decorated the graves at the Brigadier General william c c. Doyle Veterans Cemetery in wrightstown. They placed a fag at each of the 58,000 graves. The scouts received a patch for their Community Service today. Phillies will spend their Holiday Weekend taking on the team with the best record in the National League east. And a red hot team at that, too. The phillies will have their hands full. They have a series with the nationals that begins tonight followed by one with the mets. Those two teams are first and second respectively in the nl east. Chase utley and ryan howard seem to be breaking out of their slumps. Utley has anyone hits in his last six games. His batting average is now up to. 169. Nothing to brag about but two weeks ago it was below 100. Howard is driving the ball once again. He has five home runs in his last 15 games. Manager Ryne Sandberg is pleased and he would like to see more. They both made adjustments theyre both on a hot streak and those are a couple of big bats veteran bats that we need right in the middle of the lineup. Yes, so to see them both contributing and being a threat up there in the middle of the lineup thats definitely good for the guys around them. Lets switch gears completely. Ufc187 takes place in las vegas saturday night. Call it fight night. Jeff skversky mixes it up with a relatively small fighter who has big dreams. Reporter do you know the saying dont judge a book by its cover. Well at 5foot four, 125 pounds, Zach Makovsky doesnt look tough. Until you get him into the octagon. Despite his stature and the nickname fun size, the bethlehem native is an ultimate fighter ranked in the top 10 of the ufcs fly weight division. Ive been taking short jokes my whole life. I wasnt really affected by short jokes. I got bullied a little bit because i was so small. Reporter thats ironic. Yeah. Reporter well, nobodys picking on makovsky now. How did zach get his start in ufc . Started here in the drexel wrestling world. He led them to the most wins in School History in 2006. Done competing College Wrestling and youre not olympic caliber wrestler, theres kind of not much of an outlet to still compete and mixed martial arts kind of gives you that. Reporter the former drexel walk on and biology major believes wrestling in this very room a decade ago prepared him for the biggest stage in mixed martial arts. Wrestling is very similar really. I mean its a combat sport and in my opinion probably the most effective combat sport to lead you to mixed martial arts. Reporter makovsky found an outlet. He getting set to fight john dobson in las vegas. Jeff skversky channel6 action news. Report for mrs. Skversky, hes okay. Hes okay as he typically is. Some young people in camden spent today helping to pay tribute to a group of men who fought for freedom while being denied their own. Students from the Urban Promise Academy dedicate add new sign at Johnson Cemetery honoring the soldiers buried there. Those soldiers include africanamerican soldiers who fought in the civil war and the spanishamerican war. For the past few years these students have been working to restore this site and with it the dignity of these brave men. Here we go. The all important Holiday Weekend forecast. And jim a good amount of sunshine through the weekend. It starts cool and it ends very warm. Storm tracker six live double scan showing that most of our region is rain free but we do have a couple light showers in the poconos just north of jim thorpe, lake harmony penn argyle between a cold front that will drop temperatures as we head into saturday and right no comfortable out there. Philadelphia 77 degrees its breezy, reading 72 wilmington 74. Sea isle see 72 and allentown currently 66 degrees. The wind gusts will show you its quite blustery. Winds 31 Miles Per Hour right now gusting to 36 Miles Per Hour in wilmington. Once this front moves through and the sun sets, the winds will be diminishing tonight and the skies will be clearing. Satellite6 along with action radar showing this cold front doesnt have much moisture but it does have a push of some very cool air behind it. So tonight the skies clearing out, the winds diminishing and the temperatures dropping like a rock. 48 degrees the low in philadelphia. Thats 8 degrees below average. Some of the north and west suburbs, though, even cooler. Reading and lancaster 40. Allentown all the way down to 39 degrees. So, your saturday will start cool but well see a good amount of sunshine. High pressure in control of our weather so the high 70 degrees. Thats 6 degrees below average. Low humidity, not quite as windy as today so all in all a pretty nice saturday. If you like it a little bit warmer though, that happens on sunday. The High Pressure moving off the eastern seaboard brings us that return flow out of the southwest. So, temperatures up to 80 degrees. Again, low humidity. Heat and humidity will be waiting in the wings and a memorial day on memorial day when we take the time to remember those who fought and died protecting our freedom its going to be muggy. Some clouds in the morning mostly sunny skies by the afternoon. At 8 oclock 69 degrees. By noon, 81. By 4 oclock, 86 degrees. So, memorial day will definitely be at the warmest of the three days this week. The poconos tonight frost advisories in effect and it will be chilly tomorrow despite all the sunshine, the high only 61 degrees. So if youre heading up to the mountains definitely take a sweater. Sunday sun mixing with clouds, 73 degrees and monday cant rule out the possibility of a popup thunderstorm. Otherwise, partly sunny and warmer with a high of 78 degrees. Heading to the beach the ocean temperature 59 to 60 degrees. And tomorrow bright sunshine but cool, 67 degrees. On sunday, quite a bit warmer, 73 degrees. It will be breezy and on memorial day, at the shore 75 degrees. You lit that around lunchtime and that sea breeze will kick up and drop temperatures down into the 60s. So the exclusive accuw