here s why. the road behind me may look passable but it could be a sheet of black ice. matt gutman, abc news, nashville, tennessee. sheet of black ice and there s no immediate relief for nashville in today s forecast. bitter cold in the middle of the country with dangerous windchills as low as 40 below in the upper midwest. snow in the upper great lakes and six inches of snow in new england today. showers in the pacific northwest. single digits in minneapolis and chicago. teens in kansas city and detroit. 30s in memphis, new york and boston. 50s and 60s from seattle to new orleans. the western half of the nation has largely been spared by all of this arctic cold and snow but those spring-like temperatures may come at a price. each day without snow this mountains increases the chances of a water shortage this summer. for the pacific and northwest, meteorologists say mountain snow levels are just two to five percent of normal in some places. those oil-filled tanker cars are still
interstate 95 corridor. i will tell you what, the cold might be worse in the north. real feels in the minus double-digits. ryan, reena, back to you. the derailed tanker cars in west virginia are still smoldering this morning and hundreds of families are still evacuated following the derailment that sent fire balls in the sky. two dozen tank cars derailed, each loaded with 30,000 gallons of north dakota crude. a more flammable type of oil. trains like this go through thousands of american neighborhoods. so the feds are working on rules to require tougher tanker cars. terror experts are dissecting the latest chilling isis video that shows the brutal execution of 21 egyptian christians. abc news is not showing the actual video. they are paying close attention to the accent of the english-speaking jihadist thinking perhaps he might be an american. today we are on the south of rome. he says south instead of soth. so he is not from canada.
rainfall in place along the eastern seaboard. drying out from the i-95 corridor inland. spotty showers there. along the coast watch for continued flooding. a very different story across the west with temperatures soaring here, we re talking 80s and 90s. many spots setting new records including seattle, portland, 96 in l.a. breaking the record of 89 but that s mainly a function of the santa ana winds bringing the warm air out of the deserts. gusts 40 to 50 miles an hour. that will cause power outages adding to the extreme fire danger across the region. john and diana, back to you. in virginia, a train carrying crude oil derailed in downtown lynchburg and sparked a massive fire. thick, black smoke could be seen for miles. the area was evacuated and the firefighters let it burn out. three tanker cars spilled an unknown amount of water. there have been eight train
mmm! this is delicious katie. it s not bad for canned soup, right? pfft! [ laughs ] you nearly had us there. canned soup. [ male announcer ] they just might think it s homemade. try campbell s homestyle soup. funeral services are taking place for some of the victims of sunday s train derailment in new york. four people died in the crash, 67 others injured, 2 survivors already filed notices they noon sue for negligence. one is seeking $10 million in punitive damages because of his injuries. another train accident today shut down part of the new jersey turnpike. authorities tell our affiliate two tanker cars carrying a flammable liquid derailed interchange 12 on the
crash in quebec. 47 people were killed in the july 6th explosion and fire. investigators say documents incorrectly described fuel in the tanker cars as being less volatile than it actually was. they aren t sure if the error was deliberate. the investigation is ongoing. yet another twist in the crisis in syria. today bashar al assad is confirming he will hand over his chemical weapons according to an interview with the russian tv channel. assad is giving all the credit to russia for his decision, not to the united states. david kay is the former chief weapons inspector in iraq and joins me now from washington. welcome. good morning, carol. so, assad said he will hand over all of his chemical weapons. should we believe him? we should verify. belief is not something that i think you want to have in this process. you go ahead. it s a play on the ronald reagan saying though in this case i wouldn t use the word trust. it is important to verify.