and rain that s starting to fall in texas to the carolinas. by thursday, it could reach all the way to the northeast. and then the real worries come into play. it could be very bad for a lot of people. hundreds of flights have already been canceled. in alabama, it began overnight. want to show you pictures from overnight just north of birmingham. you can see snow falling and accumulating on the roads already. the entire state will be under a state of emergency beginning in just a few hours. crews were out late trying to get ahead of it, spraying down the roads in advance of the storm. many schools are already closed and residents there are being told just to stay at home. all right, look at this. the store shelves nearly wiped clean in the state of georgia as folks scrambled to get ready for the storm. 45 counties are now under a state of emergency. most schools there have been closed, including the city of atlanta. and unlike the last time, road crews will be out early, this time
state of emergency, most schools are closed, including in atlanta. we re told road crews are ready to go. they re poised to try and prevent that, another paralyzing shutdown like the one that left thousands on the frozen roads two weeks ago. we re going to have 120 pieces of equipment available to us. we already have the contractors in place. we have the material that s needed for deicing in place, and we re partnering with the state. and i ll let the results speak for themselves. mayor kasim reed there, promising not to be caught flat-footed. a state of emergency also in mississippi. the crews there loading up on salt and sand to treat those roads. the governor is also warning to be prepared for power outages, outages due to the ice that builds up on electric lines in the north and central parts of that state. indra petersons is watching this storm for us. with reexpe are we expecting this to be a snow-maker or really cold or both? unfortunately, more than that. it s easy to s
so, to give you a little perspective, atlanta only had several inches, and you can see the difference for places that are not used to it, what kind of devastation they can see, and unfortunately, that is going to be the same situation again today. why? look at the temperature difference, from below freezing to above freezing. when you see that kind of contrast in a short area, that s where you have all three prescriptio precipitations. you re talking about ice, sleet and snow behind it. this is what we re already seeing. this is what we re expecting, guys. looking at atlanta, could see upwards of an inch of ice. that s just one of the mod yeltz, some saying a quarter of an inch. either way, not a good situation, looking for almost over an inch out towards columbia, south carolina. all this means power lines could be coming down, and it s not just ice, guys. we re talking about the threat of snow. already today atlanta seeing some snow chances, and then eventually, a low will form, make
the temperature difference, below-freezing temperatures, you look at nashville and memphis, just barely at that freezing mark at birmingham. then notice right along the coastline, you re seeing temperatures above freezing. why does that matter? because it gives you all three types of precipitation. notice we re seeing rain closer to the coast where it s warm. you see ice and maybe some sleet right in the middle. and behind it, you see snow where those temperatures are colder. that is why these forecasts are so tricky. how much ice or how much snow you get depends on exactly that line of where that cold air goes. but here s one of the models. look at the potential here. we could see when all s said and done almost up to an inch of ice in atlanta. look at these numbers. columbia seeing a little over an inch of ice. only half an inch is what it takes to take power lines down. now, talking about snow, the models are all over the place. i wanted to give you the extreme case here. notice we
we ve got a lot of things in the budget and ways and means committee i m working on, and after this session, i m keeping my options open. can two republicans from the same state run for president at the same time? ive even other things happen like that. so you d be okay running against scott walker? scott and i are close friends. he wished me happy birthday this morning. scott and i are focused on 2014. we ve got to focus on solution in 2014. that s where our minds are. we ll figure the rest of this stuff out later. well. you brought it up, i meant to close it this way, happy birthday. thanks. appreciate it. thank you for coming on. you bet, chuck. take care. we want to remind you 10:00 eastern, the mayor of atlanta plans to hold a press conference on the efforts to clear the mess that is on his city s area highways. look at these pictures, they re out of atlanta, just a few moments ago. this tells you what we re talking about here. this is, i guess you call it traffic