Morning and moving up to the north so huntersville, concord youre driving in on the wet roads. But overnight it has been a mess, wbtvs Ashton Pellom is live this morning joining us with a what would what folks are seeing. Reporter good morning, chris. It is sloppy out here this morning. Very damp around the city, metro area. Ive been driving around there are branches and some things strewn in the street just from the storms we had overnight so if you have to be out here, drive carefully and take your time out here because stopping distance will have to increase because of the wet roads, very wet and sloppy like i said earlier around the streets of charlotte. Right now currently on hawthorne, this lane is still blocked off right here near Central Avenue due to flooding. A lot of heavy rain around the area overnight. Out here on the streets. Christine ashton, thank you for the live report. Now 33 minutes after 5 00. Get to Kristen Miranda, she is following more Severe Weather and how it is affecting flights this morning. Are we seeing that impact . Kristen we are, christine. Not huge, but moderately significant. This is the radar you can see where all the mess is now, from wbtvs website, all along the east coast there, so ive been watching just some airline and flight information, went to the Charlotte Douglas website, looked at departures, not too much impact but arrivals and from places like florida and dc and just different spots along the east coast, there is flights cancelled, i didnt see too many delays, mostly cancellations. If you have to fly, check with the airline. This is the map from flight aware, you can see new york city, flights coming and going from new york city pretty significant. Laguardia having the largest cancellations, newark and jfk second and third on the list. If youre flying or know someone that is flying, call ahead or check online to see if they will have any problems but looks like anything from here to the west looks pretty okay. If youre headed west you should be all right. Northeast, little bit of a problem. John looking ahead, Mecklenburg CountyCommission Chairman trevor fuller will a dd vision for Mecklenburg County today in the state of the county address. Fuller told our News Partners at the Charlotte Observer that jobs, education and health care are at the top of his agenda. Much of the address will focus on ways to eradicate poverty in the county. The address is 10 30 this morning at the Government Center center. Christine the smallest marijuana cases police can write a story done in the last two years, 26 of African Americans charged with possessing small amounts of pot were arrested. During the same time period, 9 of whites were arrested. John North CarolinaSupreme Court deciding whether or not legislators can strip away a tenure for teachers. The courts hearing arguments when a law passed in 2013 violated the rights of teachers. They can be fired for poor foremans and morality and insubordination. Christine South Carolina will hold primaries for republicans this saturday and Democratic Candidates a weeking from this saturday. That means many of the candidates will be in the carolinas in the coming days. Republican marco rubio has stops plan in beaufort and north mere actual beach. Donald trump will hold a rally as for the democrats, bill clinton will rally today in greenville. A group is honoring those who served our country. Charlotte stands for hero is honoring 30 wounded military veterans today and tomorrow. Today the veterans will be treated to Carolina Panthers experience at bank of america stadium, tomorrow they will have a day at the spa. Benefit concert featuring sinbad and Darius Rucker will be held tomorrow night. A live look at the commute, 5 36, you can see the roads are plenty wet you see the water kicking up off the interstate as cars are are driving by but this stretch going north and southbound looking good. Remember, youre never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. Here is meteorologist al conklin. Al still tracking rain this morning, christine you can see the five sweeps of power doppler radar, the Northeast Quadrant of the viewing area still getting still a little bit around Cleveland County but by and large heaviest, steadiest of the rain pulling off toward the east. With that well get breaks of sunshine as we go deeper through the morning the skies will open up and warm up as well getting back to 54. There will be more way of cloud cover late this afternoon in advance of the next front coming through. Big catch time, gray huddleston sent in a picture, gray on the left, proud of his big catch, that is his nephew with a beautiful bass that he hauled in out of lake norman. Gray didnt expect to catch month but he was happy to be out fished by a fifth grader. Sunup at 7 09, sets at 6 07, wont have much sunshine but sunshine. Stick around, seven day forecast minutes away. Christine . Christine it is one of the most talked about moments from last nights grammy awards. Kendrick lamar made with his 5 37, 23 minutes before 6 00. Christine i should put the coffee down. 5 41, look at whats trending. John hersheys trying to get in the easter spirit with an interesting new flavor you could call it. They released the carrot cake hersheys kisses. White Chocolate Base with orange and carrot flavoring. Kristen miranda says no. Christine i say yes. That sounds yummy. John the candy is available at walmart which is where i kristen i love carrot cake but i dont want carrot cake traditionalist. John imagine taking a christine nasa commissioned tourism posters, imagining what ads for interplanetary vacation cost look like. The posters imagined trips to mars, Jupiter Venus and other planets. They want to get people excited what could happen one day. Two men have taken the quest for the perfect selfie to the extreme. John on the roofs climbed a huge sky scrape near china. Spires near 1300 feet above the ground, yep, that is a little high. Making the moment more intense, the ladders which reached the top of the spires did not have if youchanges. Al sincecages. Al since were showing it they must have made it. Temperatures close to freezing. Seeing at the bottom of the scroll that we have a lot of schools that are either closed or delayed because while it is warmed appreciably in the charlotte area and points eastward, not so much north and west. The five sweeps of power doppler radar, little bit of rain still back to the west, Cleveland County, extends up toward west of lincolnton toward maiden and hickory, the back edge approaching statesville down to cornelius, i77. South of there, extends to the east of ballantyne parkway, over toward weddington, indian trail, mint hill, allen community, monroe in the rain. Quickly moving off toward the east. Mountains dont clear out, rest of us will see decent amount of sunshine. The clouds but look at this by 8 00, back edge of the clouds according to the model is just to the east of us here on i77. While the mountains deal with showers. By late morning were all until a decent amount of sunshine, but increasing clouds as we track our next frontal system which will arrive tonight, you can see high clouds at first and low clouds, most of this is going to be light rain, some snow in the mountains, nothing all that heavy. Current conditions in charlotte, from hd tower cam, we have rain falling, 38 degrees, not much of a breeze right now. We will warm up nicely, already youve got temperatures in the 50s around rockingham, cheraw, wadesboro, monroe, albermarle that will push eastward. Everybody outside of the mountains winds up in the 50s today. Charlotte perhaps closing in on 60 late this afternoon. Most of the sun during the middle part of the day, less so deep through the day as the next frontal systems moves in. Here is to days front the one were dealing with with the heavy rain, snow up to the north west the next one, not nearly as robust as the one that came through over the last 24 hours. This will move out pretty quickly, lets stop this at 8 00, getting rain and snow showers for the mountains, rest of us a few rain showers. Overnight this exits and clear very quickly tomorrow, lots of sunshine tomorrow and plenty of sunshine here courtesy of High Pressure thursday and friday. Our rain chances really go down. Small chance today, next round of rain is monday and with that, as the storm pulls out, warmer air comes in, 50s until we get doored saturday and sunday, then talking about temperatures in the 60s. Very, very nice. Today, mostly cloudy, parting shower, then mostly cloudy tonight, low of 36. In between, pretty nice, 59 degrees. Partly to mostly sunny, 56, total sunshine, mid to upper 50s, thursday, friday and mid to upper 60s, little more cloud cover around, but looks dry for both days of the weekend, very nice if youre a that is the forecast, 5 44, check in with chris, first alert traffic. Chris first alert traffic is sponsored by toyota of north charlotte. Were still seeing an injury accident right in the heart of center city. That is east 4th at south mcdowell off 277, if that is part of your morning commute, expect that you will see emergency crew theres for the next little while. Roads are wet, i77 northbound coming toward you at lasalle street, southbound toward center city, traffic running along fairly smooth. Central avenue, flooding problems at the corner of hawthorne lane, that intersection has been blocked off because of the flooding there and the roadway near construction site. Taking in the overall charlotte commute this morning, most of the major highways are continuing to run in the green and one other accident to point out, this is johnston, highway 521 at john j. Delaney in the heart of ballantyne. Youre never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. John a gas price war had gallon of gas. Coming up in the 6 30 half hour, well tell you where and how this happened. Christine pennies, okay. Kristen miranda getting you some video you havent seen yet this morning and headlines that are just in, well check in with her 5 46 right phone ringing you cant deal with something, by ignoring it. But thats how some president ial candidates seem to be dealing with social security. Americans work hard, and pay into it. So our next president needs a real plan to keep it strong. elephant noise donkey noise youre planning your day with wbtv news this morning. Christine ten minutes before 6 00. Welcome back to wbtv news this morning. John incredible video of an explosion in russia that came in the alert center. Kristen you can see incredible things from a drone and in this case, take a look at this video if youre getting ready look at your screen, three people were killed, nine others injured after this, this is a morning at a building in russia. This is drone footage from the department of emergency situations there, shows the emergency workers at the scene just sifting through what is left of that portion of the building, an entire section of the five Story Building came crashing down and a criminal case now open in the circumstances of the explosion, just incredible view and such clear quality from that drone so you can see exactly what is left after that massive explosion this morning. Back to you. Christine what a vantage point, thank you, kristen. A case about the extreme hazing of a High School Student in tennessee is heading to a grand jury. Three employees at Ooltewah High School is charged with not reporting a rape of a. A basketball player. Three students are charged in the assault. John Obama Administration approved the first u. S. Factory in cuba in more than half a a company in alabama will build a plant to build tractor tractors. Christine Kendrick Lamar made a Strong Political statement during the grammies last night on wbtv. [ music ] his performance divide in three acts. First in a jail cell with him singing blacker the berry then sang all right the third act the fake bruise, lamar did bring home five awards last night. The most nominations. Disney announcing new cast members for the next big star wars movie episode iv. John laura dern, ben icio the movie will hit theaters in december of 2017. A spin off movie opens this year on december 16th. Christine what do you think about that cast. John i always liked her. Kristen she was in the movie wild. Christine Benicio Del Toro a great actor. Youre never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. And a little star wars conversation. Oil show you the five sweeps of power doppler radar, getting rain here and perhaps this is freeze, temperatures close to freezing yet here this morning, as we approach daybreak across the foothills. Rest of us rain pushing east, getting rain though down around union county, so you can see how the heaviest has gone but we have a little bit of rain falling here and there and that will be the case for the next 8 00, a lot is well to the east of us. Here is what were forecasting for temperatures then, above freezing through the foothills, 39 charlotte, rock hill, 42 monroe, 52 wadesboro. Toward noon we get in the 50s outside of the mountains. Where you stay in the 30s all day but the rest of us well up in the 50s this afternoon, a nice temperature turn around out there. Now our headlines this morning again the rain is pushing off toward the east, i am tracking our next front which arrives as quickly as tonight, talk about that plus a big weekend warmup in the seven day planner. Traffic. Chris first alert traffic is sponsored by toyota of north charlotte. We do have a new injury accident, this is out on beaties ford, beaties ford at miranda road right below 485, injury accident there, emergency crews working their way to the scene. Roads are wet, this is live at independence boulevard, as you make your way in toward center city, and most of our major in the green, so no significant problems on area interstates. As you come in toward the Plaza Midwood area, hawthorne and Central Avenue, flooding in the road there is creating stop and go conditions they have part of the road blocked off. That is a check of the morning commute, christine, over to you. Christine still much more to come for you on wbtv news this morning in a few minutes at the top of the hour, the weather is tapering off some but the roads remain wet and slick in other areas. Were live watching those conditions for you on the road across the area. John the u. S. Supreme court could make a decision as soon as today about North Carolinas redistricting case. Very important story here coming up in the 6 30 half hour. Well hear from some of the Public Comments made to lawmakers on the issue. Youre watching wbtv news this morning where youre never from weather and this broadcast sponsored by subaru south boulevard and subaru concord. Wbtv on your side wbtv news starts right now. Christine storm system that brought snow, sleet and freezing rain is moving out youre looking live at our power doppler radar, weve been watching this all morning, meteorologist al conklin tracking warming temperatures for today. John and heres a live look at king street in boone courtesy of resortcams. Com, rain moved through the area overnight, melted some of the snow that was on the streets and sidewalks up there. Well keep you posted on that. The weather has caused more than a dozen School Districts to close or delay this morning. But charlottemecklenburg schools are operate on a normal schedule, you can find the full list of closings and delays scrolling on the bottom of the good morning, welcome to wbtv news this morning here on tuesday, february 16th, good to have you with us, im john carter. Christine im christine sperow. Our Kristen Miranda live in the alert center, what are you seeing at this hour . Kristen i got new updated power outage numbers both here in the charlotte area and foothills and mountains, ill get you caught up with those coming from the alert center. John get things started with charlottes most experienced morning meteorologist, al conklin con. Al heaviest and steadiest of rain is pushing off toward the east. You probably heard it on the roof, thunder and lightning, the works. An inch of rain in charlotte, still tracking and there may be a few pockets that are close to 32 around the foothills, there may be a little bit of rain freezing on contact. Lincolnton getting rain, startown, newton, hickory, statesville east of i77, rowan county, cabarrus county, albermarle still getting the rain, stanly, union, chesterfield. Dried out for most part and we should see a big drying trend as we go through the day. The rain is very spotty and light here in charlotte, that is our metro school camera, there is a little bit of fog. Well wind up as we get in the midday hours. A lot of sunshine and we will wind up close to 60 late this afternoon. Im tracking our next front, let you know when that arrives plus the seven day planner, youre never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. Here is chris, first alert traffic. Chris traffic this morning sponsored by toyota of north charlotte. We have seen accidents already this morning, most of those not on area interstates, injury accident beaties ford at miranda road, that is miranda right before you make your way up toward beaties ford road. Taking a live look this is i77 at woodlawn, volume picking up here, just after 6 00 this morning. If Central Avenue is part of your morning commute, they have it closed down between hawthorne and central because of some flooding from a construction scene there. Looking at the overall charlotte