Advance of the storm. Again, these are blizzardtype conditions. Expect easily 2 feet. Even the potential of pressing on towards 3 feet of snow. And i want to emphasize. This will not just be snow. There will be very windy conditions. We expect wind speeds of 35 Miles Per Hour or more. There will be low visibility. So im going to say this today, and youll hear me say it over the next few days. New yorkers should not underestimate this storm. Assume conditions will be unsafe. Assume that you do not want to be out in this storm. When you can stay indoors, stay indoors. When you can stay off the roads stay off the roads. Use mass transit or make plans to travel another day, but try with everything you have, to avoid being in the middle of this storm. The storm it is expected, the initial flurries, late morning, early afternoon tomorrow. Increasingly heavy going into monday evening and then continuing on into early tuesday. Well be constantly monitoring the storm and its path. Were in constant touch with the National Weather service. We also know storms are unpredictable. They can change. They can get bigger smaller, faster, slower. Were ready for different scenarios. The one we are describing to you is the one we expect, but were also being cautious and making sure were prepared for the worstcase scenario not the rosiest scenario. Now, Road Conditions in particular will be treacherous. There is no other word for it. They will be treacherous. So all new yorkers should stay off the roads tomorrow. If you go out in the morning, youre going to have to come back in the evening and by evening it will be pretty heavy. So stay off the road tomorrow. Certainly stay off the roads tuesday. Again, use mass transit if thats an option. If you have the option to stay home or make other plans you should do that right now. Change your plans right now in advance of this storm. If youre even Walking Around in your neighborhood expect unusually icy conditions. Unusually slippery conditions. So even walking should be kept to a minimum. Were asking people starting tomorrow afternoon to stay out of city parks. There is always a potential with rapid snowfall extra burden on tree branches, that you could have some branches coming down. We want people to stay away from the parks for their own safety. Every new yorker should know that any problem with heat or hot water, we want them to call 311 immediately. If you experience a problem we want to work immediately to fix it. But we need you to call. Anyone with a heat or hot water problem, please call 311 immediately. Im asking all new yorkers to look out for your fellow new yorkers. Look out for your neighbors. Particularly if you have neighbors who are elderly or disabled. Check in on them. Check in on them today, make sure they have what they need in anticipation of the storm. Check on them during the storm to make sure theyre okay. Were announcing now that alternate side of the Street Parking will be suspended tomorrow, monday it will be suspended tuesday as well, potential further suspensions thereafter. Definitely no alternate side on monday or tuesday. Garbage and recycling collections will be suspended so we can focus on snowclearing operations. Any questions or concerns people have or they need information call 311 or go online at nyc. Gov. If you have a real emergency a lifethreatening situation, call 911. But, again, for information, for updates, 311 or nyc. Gov. The city is doing everything we know how to do to keep you safe. Were asking you to keep yourself safe and your neighbors safe as well. One more important update. Tomorrow school will be open tomorrow but there will be no afterschool activities or trips. So school will be open monday, but no afterschool activities or trips. We will make a final decision tomorrow related to tuesday, but it is likely that schools will be closed on tuesday. So, again, likely School Closure tuesday, but a final decision will be announced at an appropriate hour tomorrow. A few words in spanish. [ speaking spanish ] were going to break away now that the mayor of new york is speaking in spanish and he often will do this. Hell give his remarks. He may go back and have more to say. I want to bring in now meteorologist janice dean. Ive been keeping my eye on this News Conference. We have a lot of other officials who may step forward. When a storm like this hits your city. I lived in minnesota. I have lived in those areas where you can get three and four feet of snow, janice. What you do on the front end makes a lot of difference. You cannot react mid storm. Set it up for us. I see a lot of color on the map behind you. We heard the strongest words i have heard from the mayor of new york city in terms of this storm. Even with super storm sandy i never heard language like the mayor is telling new yorkers today. Be prepared for the worst. And really just within the last hour harris, weve been upgraded to blizzard warnings. 20 to 30 inches of snow with blizzard conditions. So this is a major event, one that perhaps new york has never seen. Janice, im going to step in. I want to go back to the News Conference. Sanitation commissioner is talking now. They were talking 1500 snow plows and 500 snow trucks in one city alone. Please dont tail gate behind vehicles. We need to be out there. This will be difficult storm for us to fight. We have handled blizzards before, though. While this is likely to be an historic amount of snow, weve been preparing. We are well staffed and weve gotten a lot of support from our Agency Partners such as d. O. T. , dep and the Parks Department who will be providing additional plows and frontend loaders from us. I want to thank local 831 who has been incredibly supportive of this administration and has said to me to quote, his members are ready to protect the city. Im going to turn it back over to the mayor. Thank you very much, commissioner. I mentioned earlier the 6,000 miles of roadways. The everyday upkeep of those roads, what makes life in this city possible it handled by our tremendous transportation commissioner Polly Trotenberg who has been a key partner in preparing for this storm. Commissioner. Were going to pull away again. 6,000 miles of roadway that theyre tasked with protecting in this state alone new york. This is going to hit new jersey connecticut, on up the coast where you have dense populations. Thats the hallmark of living on the east coast. Its great until you get Something Like this. Then youre on top of your neighbors and fighting for resources. When the winds comes through theyll knock out utilities. The mayor said something, and i want you to put this into context for us. He says we should all be prepared for something you have never seen before. Yep. Whats he talking about . He is talking about a crippling and potentially historic storm. Just within the last hour we got word from the National Weather service here in new york city saying that 20 to 30 inches of snow is very possible, maybe even up to 3 feet or more with we could see potentially 2 to 4 inches of snow an hour, which is incredible. People cannot be outside with this type of weather, and they cant be on the roadways. So his language has been very severe, and not only for new york, okay. This stretches down into Central Jersey, all the way up the coast. The reds are blizzard warnings. They have just upgraded the watches to warnings. Over 50 Million People affected here on the northeastern coast here, all the way up towards maine where well be dealing with epic snow. New york city central park has never seen 30 inches of snow in a twoday event. If that happens that has never happened before and thats why were getting language from the mayor saying you need to prepare for this. We dont have a lot of time. The blizzard warning starts at 1 00 p. M. Tomorrow harris. People need to be prepared now. They need to know what theyre doing. Your kids will be with you possibly for the next several days. There is the possibility of Power Outages for millions of people here. I was talking earlier when mayor bloomberg was talking about super storm sandy, i didnt hear language like we heard today from mayor de blasio. This is a huge, huge event. Unprecedented probably for the northeast. A couple things. When you compare Something Like this to super storm sandy you put fear in the hearts of men and women. We want to make it very clear. We were able to watch that off the coast and tick up from florida on up. We had days to prepare. Thats not the case here. Its a matter how bad the storm may be. Weve got to get with it very, very quickly. Having said that its easy to be skeptical, janice. Weve seen the buildup before, and then you get there and its like a little bit of ice and snow. But thats youre sure now, though that there are some hallmark signs with this. Its like the echo in a entered, right tornado. The National Weather service has come out i have been conservative with the snowfall totals. You have the problem of we blew it. We said two feet of snow and it didnt happen. For the National Weather service to come out and day 20 to 30 inches of snow with wind gusts of 60 Miles Per Hour with blinding conditions of two to four inches of snow per hour for a period of hours is dire. No, we dont have a lot of time to prepare. I want people to know that this is this could be a dire situation for millions of people, and you need to be making your preparations now to completion, because this is going to start really tomorrow morning. You have to know where your kids will be. Theyre not going to be atcal if you live from northern philadelphia, northern new jersey towards maine. Your kids will be home. Not just tomorrow but for several days. There is the possibility of Power Outages that could last for days. Because if you have winds in excess of 60 Miles Per Hour along the coast with blinding blizzard conditions for hours upon hours this is a potentially lifethreatening crippling situation. And thats why we saw the language coming out of new york city with mayor de blasio. All right. A couple things. The Power Outages that youre talking about, i saw temperatures tell me if the forecast has changed some areas up and down the coast at night will get down into Single Digits. 10 11 degrees. People will have to watch out for frozen pipes. This gets really complicated now. It does. And i grew up in canada. I know you grew up in parts of the heartland, harris. I have had ice storms that have crippled cities for weeks. This is the time where people and their neighbors and their communities need to get together and help one another. You absolutely do. All right. Janice, youll be with me as we do this. Youll be able to talk about the ice and snow coming in on top of the situation that weve all reported on fox news channel. I live in edgewater, new jersey. It has been bad for a week. We had a massive fire there. Weve got over a thousand people displaced still in our town. Many of our children are not back in school yet. Now you are talking about lets pop up the picture so people know what were talking about. We lost a structure last week in a tiny town on the hudson river. You could see the ash and soot coming in as far away as this building in manhattan, more than a mile away. The flames the smoke. It was horrific in our city. Were getting back on our feet through the prayers and good graces of people who have been so nice. This is tough. Now you have the storm moving in. We have people in community areas. Janice, talk to me right now about the bitter temperatures. Because this is hard. Were trying to get enough coats for people in our community for instance. The temperatures will be cold. Were not talking about wind chills in the Single Digits but were going to be talking about temperatures in the 20s and teens in some cases overnight. These are blizzard warnings in effect until 1 00 p. M. For the coastline starting with Central New Jersey up towards new york and long island where 20 to 30 inches of snow is expected. Thats from the National Weather service. Thats not me making it up. 50 to 60mileperhour gusts. Any Power Outages well need help. We need communities and neighbors getting together and helping those in need. I want to show you the storm, harris. Its a fastmoving clipper system. Once it moves off the midatlantic. And we think the time line has moved up a little bit and thats why there is a warning right now for the areas i showed you from Central Jersey all the way up to coastal maine. This will be starting really tomorrow morning, and there is a 12 00 p. M. Noontime already seeing that snow for philadelphia all the way up towards new york. There is the 32degree line. So the freezing line. The last few winter storms weve had have been rain events because it has been so warm. This is an indication that this will be all snow. This wont be an event where were going to get a changeover rain, sleet, freezing rain. All snow for a duration of 12 to 20 hours. Wow. I mean, this is an unprecedented event thats unfolding. And, again to see the dire warnings from the mayor de blasio were going to start to certainly see the boston mayor get out there and tell his folks that they need to be prepared and they need to help their neighbors. Because for boston, west of the boston area they could easily get 3 feet of snow as well. I want it tell everybody, were still monitoring the situation, this News Conference thats come together in new york city that we were following. Janice, i would imagine were seeing this up and down the coast as municipalities come out and prepare people who live in their towns. Im looking at the National WeatherService Warning that was issued for the edgewater area and all up and down northern new jersey. Communities are getting this. One of the things theyre telling people about, too, this is interesting, about your cars and not being trapped in your cars. We remember on the long island expressway i think just a year or two ago we had a heavy snowfall and people were trapped in their cars and they couldnt get to the cars because the roadways were so thick with snow. We want to remind people if you go out, you better have a way to come back in. If its falling 12 to 24 hours and you do the math, thats more than an inch an hour. In some cases 2 to 4 inches an hour with thunder snow. This is going to be an intense event. The pressure is dropping incrementally with just a matter of hours. So a very, very strong coastal storm in this sweet spot thats going to bring all of this snow and wind for hours on end. So, again some of these cities probably have never seen an event that could unfold. And agess you mentioned, you do not want to be in your cars. You have a snow drift thats several feet high, and you are going to be buried. You know that our First Responders are going to be busy with phone calls. So you need to take accountability for your own actions. Youre from canada. I have lived in minnesota and many parts of the midwest. What youre talking about, the snow drifts are something people may not have seen. My family lived in colorado for many years. You cannot anticipate what its like to get hit with six feet of snow thats moving. You cant. It can easily happen in these conditions. I dont want to scare people, janice. I know people will say it might not happen. Bottom line it for us. Is there a way, because it hasnt quite come together, what happens how are you watching this . 12 hours from now whats the signal to you . Were looking at our forecast models. We always talk about that. This is the european model the one thats forecast hurricane sandy, super storm sandy, so well. All through this over the past few days this model, this computer model has been indicating a really big event. As you can see, this is the latest forecast modeling. Over 18 inches for philadelphia up towards new york. Then you get over 2 feet as you get into new england. We look at this forecast. Then we look at one of our other forecasts, reliable forecast tools, the gss model. Right on the cusp of over a foot of snow. Then new england gets pounded. So the National Weather service to home in on their local forecast and say 20 to 30 inches with 2 to 4 inches an hour, thats incredible. Thats incredible amounts of snow. There is the forecast again. Were looking at 18 to 24 inches easily of snow for all the big cities. 50 Million People affected here. I know that folks at home are probably saying youre always so northeast focused. This is going to affect the whole country, especially if you are traveling this week. Excellent point. Affect the whole country if youre traveling. There is also the ripple effect. When were in trouble we saw this with sandy. People came from a thousand miles away to come to the east coast. If we end up having those severe Power Outages well need the engineers and utility specialists. They always come. Were blessed in that regard. It feathers out and america is affected. 50 Million People in the path of this. Janice, well bring you back in for some more clarification. This News Conference, by the way, is still going on. They mean business as they try to get ahead of this. Were also checking with some of the other governments around also in new jersey and connecticut and seeing how theyre coming together. As we get more information for you, well let you know. Well have more continuing coverage of that plus all the days big stories. Stay close. soft, calm music. hi, youve reached emma. Im out of the office right now, but will get back to you just as soon as i possibly can. Your call is important to me. Join us for exclusive discovery at sea experiences. Enjoy cruises from 499 during