pelley: good evening. tonight, a u.s. official tells cbs news there is high confidence that a captured american aircraft shown on iranian television is, in fact, one of this country s most sophisticated spy planes. the pentagon declined to comment but the american official says analysis of the video now confirms the r.q.-170 unmanned drone was captured. we asked bob orr to bring us up to date. reporter: the aircraft presented as the unmanned u.s. surveillance drone appeared to be nearly intact, though the undercarriage was obscured by propaganda banners draped below the wings. the message on the left proclaimed america cannot do any harm to us and on the right, against a background of american flags and skulls, the message read we have trampled on america. u.s. officials still studying the video are convinced the aircraft is the stealth drone reported lost over the weekend. but the pentagon declined to comment; spokesman george little citing intelligence concerns.
missions, we call them sensitive for a reason. reporter: military officials originally said controllers lost contact with an r.q.-170 drone as it flew over western afghanistan but sources say the spy plane wassin actualy on an intelligence-gathering mission deep inside iran. the stealth drones, capable of sending back real-time screaming video, have been used for several years to monitor iran s nuclear sites and search for other covert operations. u.s. officials have denied iran s shifting claims that the drone was either shot down or commandeered by a cyber attack. but the displayed aircraft showed no signs of a crash impact, meaning it came down in a relatively flat, controlled descent. u.s. officials can not explain how the plane landed apparently undamaged. iran now says it will exploit its propaganda prize, a reverse engineering the classified systems and sensors. a weapons expert joseph cirincione says that may prove difficult. you can get dimensions, you can get ch
morning, december 7th, 2011. good wednesday morning. i m erica hill. i m chris wragge. nice to be sitting next to you again. good to be sitting next to you. boy, talk about the weather headed our way. yes. a winter blast headed for the east coast. at this hour, snow is falling as far south as memphis, tennessee. this is the same storm that caused a whole lot of trouble in the southwest earlier this week. it could drop half a foot of snow along parts of the atlantic seaboard from north carolina up to maine. areas that don t get snow will get a lot of rain. this is not going to be pretty. chief meteorologist lonnie quinn of wcbs is here this morning. let s get to the satellite and radar picture for the whole u.s. of a. only one game in town and it s on the eastern portion of the country. a lot of rain right now but showed you that picture from memphis. sure enough, memphis picking up light snow. i think you ll pick up a dusting to an inch or snow and by 10:00,
on the eastern portion of the country. a lot of rain right now but showed you that picture from memphis. sure enough, memphis picking up light snow. i think you ll pick up a dusting to an inch or snow and by 10:00, it s gone. then focus on the rain. it s rain right now, because my goodness look at the temperatures. in new york city yesterday, hit 61 degrees. you re not getting snow with 61 degrees. we have had all of this warm, muggy air in place. as of right now we take the temperatures up to around 50 degrees in boston, 55 for new york. that s not going to be snow. strictly rain. what happens is tonight, the cold air filters in and we drop down to the 20s and the 30s and we will be switching over on the tail end of this system. i got to be clear, this is going to be a big rainmaker first, all right? the last two, three, four hours of the storm it will turn over to snow. from roanoke to banger picking up at least an inch of rain and some spots around new york city will be cl
and good wednesday to you. i m erica hill. and i m chris wragge. nice to be sitting next to you. talk about this weather heading our way. a winter blast coming to the east coast. right now, there s snow falling as far south as memphis, tennessee, this same storm caused trouble in the southeast earl earlier this week. from north carolina all of the way up to maine, in areas that don t get snow will get a lot of rain. which is not going to be pretty. lonnie quinn of our wcbs tv. let s get right to the big satellite and radar picture. look, you can take a peek here and you see there s one game in town on the eastern portion of the country. we have a lot of rain right now. we showed you that picture from memphis, memphis picking up light snow. maybe a dusting to an inch or so, but 10:00 this morning it s gone. then we focus on this rain, it s rain right now, because, look at the temperatures. in new york city yesterday, it hit 61 degrees. you re not getting snow with 16