meteorologist alison in atlanta. what are you most concerned about now? pretty much concerned about most of the people along the eastern 4568 of the country. the reason for that is you have power outage numbers, those are increasing by the minute but the temperatures inable places have yet to bottom out. so if you lose the power and temperatures continue to drop, the big concern becomes those people without access to heat for prolonged periods of time. in atlanta, the temperature is 19 degrees right now but it s expected to get colder into the weekend. atlanta could have its coldest christmas eve on record. we re not the only location. look at this. well, at one point was a towel. it is now frozen solid, a rock of ice right there but, again, as we mentioned we re not the only place cold. you have roughly 60% of the u.s. population under some type of winter alert. mostly windchill alerts at this point in time. all of that air, however, is
over the u.s. about 70 million people are under winter weather alerts. and that number is expected to grow over the coming days. our cnn meteorologist derek van dam is tracking the storm for us. that s right. all the ingredients coming together for a blockbuster winter storm. this is a multifaceted winter storm with the potential for blizzard conditions, flash freezes, and an arctic outbreak like i ve never seen before. this storm means business. we have 70 million americans under some sort of winter alert. note the blizzard washes across south central minnesota, likely to see those expand in coverage as we go forward. stretching from the border of canada all the way to the gulf of mexico. 75 million americans under windchill alerts as we speak. here is a look at a term known as a bomb cyclone. and we will certainly meet this criteria with this strengthening and deepening low-pressure
coast-to-coast. winter snow. parts of the south getting hit next. plus, a suspect in the lockerbie bombing now in custody, almost 34 years after the attack that killed 270 people. and a russian spy being held right now in germany, could he be the key to getting imprisoned american paul whelan back home? hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m kristin fisher. this morning, snow walloping from coast-to-coast as a powerful storm moves across the country. 14 states under some sort of winter alert right now. the storm has shuttered major highways in parts of the west, even bringing avalanche warnings. snow has blanketed parts of
hey, there, jonathan. well, it s looking wet in the northeast, at least to start out tomorrow, and then it s going to dry out sunday. today millions are waking up to winter. wind alerts. we re tracking rain in california. 6 million under a winter alert, whether it s winter storm advisory, watch, or warning. it s through the west, the inner mountain west, northern plains, and the west. some mountains could see up to 2 feet of snow. that would be in the sierra mountains. 2 million are under wind alerts. we could see winds gusting up to 65 miles per hour, even as high as 85 miles per hour in the highest elevation. as we go throughout the day, we re watching that storm system bring rain, snow, and also wind and a system moving out to the west. that s going to bring more rain to california and more heavy mountain snow. as we go throughout saturday,ite going to be piling up. also the rockies. up to 2 feet of snow where you see the pinks and purples, those are the highest amounts.
snowfall is set to hit on top of the huge storm that came through the region on saturday. people are being told to stay off the roads, most flights are canceled. the governor of new york has doubled the number of national guard members checking on people in the hardest hit counties. nearly 9 million people are on winter alert for new york and other states along the great lakes. we have more from buffalo, new york. reporter: still snow in the forecast, not in the quantities we ve seen the last 48 hours. now the focus is cleanup. as you can tell in downtown buffalo, we ve seen crews working nonstop to clear the streets, roads and a light rail system used to transport residents in buffalo.