A strange smell and pillars of smoke enveloped part of the New York City area on Monday due to a large fire in New Jersey's Wharton State Forest, located about 90 miles south of Manhattan.

The forest fire, which was first reported around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, spread through 1,500 acres of woodland and was 50 percent contained by Monday morning, reports the New York Times. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear, but there were no reports of injuries or property damage.

The NYC Office of Emergency Management sent a notice via Twitter warning that people in Staten Island and Brooklyn might smell smoke from the fire burning in the Wharton State Forest, a large preserve northwest of Atlantic City, reports NBC News. However, people who live on the Lower East Side and in other neighborhoods in Manhattan also reported the odor.

Meteorologists say that a unique weather system carried the smoke into the city Sunday night and prevented it from dispersing into the atmosphere. Once winds died down overnight, the odor settled over the city and became trapped under an "inversion" in the atmosphere. This happens when the air above is warmer than the air near the ground and the air doesn't rise. As a result, the smoke did not escape into the atmosphere and remained near ground level.

"It was remarkable that the fire continued to burn overnight and kept putting out smoke," said Tim Morrin, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, according to the NYT. "Normally, the humidity would have put it out. The inversion is acting like a lid, trapping the smoke," Morrin said.

The cause of the forest fire is under investigation.

People in parts of Brooklyn complained that the smell was really strong. "It was so thick, I thought the house on the corner was on fire," said Jeremy Floto of Crown Heights.

Weather experts said the smell should be gone by early afternoon, once a rain moves into the region.