on msnbc, the tsunami warning in japan after a series of powerful earthquakes erupted off the country s coast. fires breaking out, collapsed homes, tremors felt even in the capital city of tokyo. we ll have a live report with the latest in israel, a barrage of rockets fired toward tel aviv with prime minister netanyahu saying the war is expected to go on for many more months. what that will look like. the rising tensions in the region after a u.s. helicopter sunk three houthi rebel ships. just two weeks left before the caucuses. candidates barnstorming the states. who will come out on top. happy new year to you, it is 10:00 a.m., i m frances rivera reporting from new york city. we begin with the breaking news out of japan. overnight a series of strong earthquakes in the sea of japan prompting a tsunami warning among the nation s western and coastal regions. one quake reaching a magnitude of 7.6 grounding commercial flights and halting rail services for the affected
hearing the word tornado in december. reporter: nearly 20 tornados touched down on wednesday in minnesota, iowa and nebraska. across the great plains and the midwest yesterday, a record was set for a single day in the u.s. at least 55 reports of hurricane-force thunderstorm wind gusts of over 75 miles an hour. that s according to the national weather service s storm prediction center. certainly the last week of severe weather, the tornados last friday and the windstorm and tornados yesterday are very unusual for december. the winds on wednesday, that s just something we haven t seen this time of year ever. reporter: about 400 reports of severe wind came in from across those regions on wednesday. the alerts impacting at least 80 million americans. high winds whipped up fires in the southern plains and the southwestern u.s. the fires breaking out were being fanned by 100-mile-per-hour winds. one fire grew to 200 acres in less than two hours. reporter: much of this is due