At ski resorts everywhere. Santa claus is coming to town and is santa coming early this year . What is that mysterious light seen streaking across the night sky. I have no idea what that is. Reports all across the west of that fireball just two nights before Christmas Eve. Good morning, america. That would be bre aking news. Santa coming early. Yes, i believe we do have reports. I dont want to take any but doesnt rudolph have a red nose. That is correct but its far away, george. Even all over the west. Well get to the bottom of what that really could be. No trouble for santa getting around obviously but the extreme weather could cause problems for a lot of us. 100 million americans heading out for the holidays and it is not going to be easy. Our team is standing by this morning. Take a look at the lines already at Chicago International airport. Before 6 00 a. M. Right there, already so crowded. Well begin with the weather here and rob is out in times square. Not here. 70 degrees on Christmas Eve. Yeah, were going to blow the records right out of the water. No overcoat required even this morning across much of the east coast including new york city which seems like a good deal how this warm air amplifies through the holiday but has travel issues in the form of fog, flooding rains and springlike Severe Weather. Fog, so thick in arkansas that it triggered these two frightening Chain Reactions on interstate 49 close to the texas louisiana border. Three trucks colliding in the northbound lane, one spilling glue all over the road. Directly across the highway, a tencar pileup leaving at least three dead. Seven hospitalized. In california, wind gusts up to 80 Miles Per Hour picking up and tossing at least seven tractor trailers. Many drivers pulling off the roads and waiting out the winds. Its crazy, man. Its like 80mileanhour winds. Reporter theyre also responsible for toppingle over this gas station in the mojave desert. In colorado drivers pulling off the road to put on chains as they cautiously creep across loveland pass. In utah, whiteout conditions dropping visibility. People opting to stay off the roads. Parts of the state getting 24 inches of snow in the past 24 hours. And three feet falling in lake tahoe, winter storm warning posted for. Of the intermountain west. We are looking for more know there but Severe Weather across the midsouth all the way from shreveport to cincinnati but chicago to new orleans youre in the realm as well, over 50 million at risk. Heavy rains across parts of the south, atlanta through the carolinas and piedmont, flood watches posted through Christmas Morning and this is all tapping into some recordbreaking heat, tomorrow Christmas Eve temperatures 20 to 30 degrees above average. We will blow these records right out of the water. No snow for santa on the east coast. So if you love snow you got to go out west. Back to you. Thats for sure. Lots of concern about the weather if youre heading out this morning. Heres a look at the roads in some major cities across the country as youve heard, today is expected to be the busiest on highways across the country with more people driving than ever thanks to low gas prices. Abcs linsey davis is at a new york state Traffic Command Center in huh torn, new york. Good morning. Reporter good morning. Yes, we are in the Central Nervous system with a massive look at the roads in several new york counties, an estimated 100 million expected to hit the roads this Holiday Weekend so if you want to miss the worst traffic you may want to pack up the car and kids now. As you said today is expected to be the busiest travel day between 3 p. M. And 6 p. M. The best day to drive is said to be on Christmas Day if you might be able to manage to swing that. The second worst day for travel is expected to be sunday, so do yourself a favor and stay in place until monday if thats possible. Also some good news for drivers, aaa is saying that the National Gas Price now below 2 for the first time in more than six years. That also explains why there may be more drivers on the road. Right. All right, linsey, thank you very much. Stay off the road, 3 to 6 p. M. Great tips. Long lines forming at the airports this morning. Abcs alex perez is at ohare with that and good morning to you, alex. Reporter hey, good morning, lara. Long doesnt begin to describe it. Take a look. We are at terminal 3, the american terminal and the line seems to be going and going and going snaking around the security checkpoint. Of course, this is expected to be busy. 38 million will be getting on planes 3. 5 million right here, all that due to part to lower airfares, down 4 this year because of lower jet fuel prices. And there is some more good news for the chicago area. Usually this time of year were dealing with snow, with ice, with cold, but right now temperatures here are extremely mild. So everyone here is hoping that is going to help keep things moving along. Lara. All right, alex, thank you very much. George. We move on to the race for president and Hillary Clinton hitting back at donald trump, her Campaign Calls his words disgusting sexist slurs as a brandnew Poll Shows Trump Holding on to one of the biggest leads yet in the republican race. Jon karl in washington with all the latest. Good morning, jon. Reporter that new poll from cnn has trump with a 21point lead over his closest republican rival. But it is his war of words with Hillary Clinton that is now getting ugly. After Donald Trumps crude comments monday aimed at Hillary Clinton. She was going to beat obama. She was favored to win and she got [ bleep ]. She lost. I mean, she lost. Reporter overnight clinton responded to trumps comment in an interview with the Des Moines Register saying hes shown a penchant for sexism. I dont know that he has any boundaries at all and his bigotry, his bluster, his bully have become his campaign. Reporter the Clinton Campaign is blasting trump calling him out for, quote, degrading language and disgusting sexist slurs. Even clintons democratic rival Bernie Sanders hit back at trump at a rally in iowa. This is a guy who wants to be president of the united states. He must have a very unusual relationship with women. Reporter and clinton doubled down on her claim that isis is using trump as a recruiting tool saying reports on Arabic Television like these are fueling isis. [ speaking a Foreign Language ] if you go on Arabic Television as we have and you look at what is being blasted out with video of mr. Trump being translated into arabic, it is playing into the hands of the violent jihadists. Reporter jeb bush joined in to criticize clinton. Shes great at being the victim. Reporter he didnt spare trump either. Its not a sign of strength to use profanities. Were two days before christmas. Lighten up, man. Reporter overnight trump tweeted the term he used is not vulgar. He said he was just saying that Hillary Clinton had been beaten badly by obama and that that term is often used in politics. His evidence, george, was unnpr reporters use of that term about four years ago. Yeah, i saw that. Jon, thanks very much. Lets bring in matthew dowd who has worked in campaigns for both parties, matthew, back to that cnn poll showing donald trump way at the top. One more time, ted cruz in second place. Now, both cruz and trump are saying its now a twoperson race on the republican side. Well, i think its actually going to be a threeperson race. Its two people dominant. Really one person dominant at this point, george but i think it will come down to a threeperson race based on what happens in New Hampshire and that will either be marco rubio or Chris Christie if they surprise in New Hampshire so i look for this to be a threeperson race. One thing i wanted to say is the last time a republican was this dominant in the primary was in 1999 2000, the last time a republican has been this dominant right before christmas. And that was george w. Bush who you worked for who went on to get the nomination, become president of the united states. So you believe now that donald trump has a legitimate chance to be the nominee . I think he has more than a legitimate chance to be the nominee. I think right now the odds favor him in the course of this. He has a 20, 21point lead. Everyone else is way down the list. Hes probably going to win New Hampshire. I mean i think he is the problem he has, theres one electorate that the republicans like him and the general electorate has a real problem with him, thats his achilles heel. Matthew dowd, thanks very much. Turning now to a major scare at one of the biggest malls in the country, a gun going off during a robbery sending shoppers running for cover during one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Abcs linzie janis is at the mall in garden city, new york. Good morning, linzie. Reporter everything is back to normal at this mall. Its opened bright and early for Holiday Shopping but it was a scary afternoon. Hundreds of shoppers trying to pick up lastminute gifts ended up fearing for their lives. Terrified shoppers sent scrambling. Some racing for the exit. It was like pure pandemonium. Everybody was running. Reporter all of a sudden just heard a loud gunshot. The first thing we thought was terrorism. Reporter others hiding wherever they could. Im pretty sure something just happened. We locked the doors and ran to the bathroom and waited. Reporter area schools locked down as dozens of police swarm the packed Roosevelt Field mall in long island. One of the largest indoor malls in the country after Authorities Say a suspect tried to hold up the rolex section of this Jewelry Store. This was a robbery. This was not an active shooter. The Stores Security guard struggling with him. When the suspects gun fired a single shot out into the mall hitting a 67yearold mall employee. An offduty nypd officer shopping in the mall helping hold the gunman down until Police Arrived hauling him away. We have a significant and very Robust Detail after paris. We heightened our response to the soft targets and heightened a number of patrols and we maintain that at this time. Reporter within 90 Minutes Police giving shoppers and mall staff the all clear. This morning, the man who was shot in serious but stable condition. The shoppers we spoke to say they heard that shot and reacted immediately instinctively running or hiding fearing another mass shooting. Lara. I bet, that must have been terrifying. Move on to the nfl. They are speaking out about concussion which tells the story of the doctor who sounded alarm bells about the brain injuries in pro football. The league wants know theyre doing everything they can and ryan smith has this report. Youre going to war with a corporation that owns the day of the week. Reporter this morning, the National Football league speaking out exclusively to abc news just days before the premiere of concussion. Do you want fans see this movie. I think theres a benefit that well elevate the conversation around health and safety of our game. Reporter the films trailer suggesting back then the league didnt want to face issues concerning head trauma. The nfl does not want to talk to you. When a movie like this comes out and fans or maybe others say, this is a sign that the nfl tried to cover things up before. How do we know that theyre not giving us all the information now . I say take a look at what weve done. Reporter the league saying a lot has changed since 2005. Updates to 39 rules related to health and safety in the last decade. Implementing new concussion protocols and investing millions to improve equipment. Like special straps that aim to regulate Head Movement in the helmet. But is this enough . Dr. Omalu telling Robin Roberts no matter how protective the helmet it wont stop head injuries. Look what happens when you have an impact, the brain bounces around this so assuming you take a padding, the padding will simulate the helmet. No matter how thick it is, look at what happens. What difference does it make when a headtohead impact or some sort of very hard impact could traumatize the brain no matter how thick the outer protection layers are . You can improve the rules and you can improve the safety of the equipment. Reporter do you think we can ever stop head injuries in football . Is. Probably not but can minimize them to make the gape as safe as possible. Reporter for good morning america, ryan smith, abc news, new york. This is becoming such a major issue and we just learned the nih announced a major new study of the whole issue of concussions and brain injuries, as well. We want to get to the other top stories. Cecilia is here. New developments in the Bowe Bergdahl case. Good to see you. Happy almost Merry Christmas. The Army Sergeant who walked off his base in afghanistan and spent five years as a taliban hostage has some decisions to make before his next military Court Appearance in three weeks. Bergdahl right there in his dress uniform for a hearing faces charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He did not enter a plea and still must decide whether he wants to face a courtmartial with a jury of soldiers or just with one judge. And busted here in new york, a socalled hacker to the stars accused of stealing the personal information of as many as 130 celebrities. Authorities say 23yearold Alonzo Knowles hacked into emails to steal the scripts of upcoming tv shows and movies then he tried to sell them, also, he is accused of trying to sell sex tapes. The victims names not released. A highprofile murder trial set for next summer in los angeles. Robert durst is accused of killing one of his friends to keep her from cooperating with an investigation into the disappearance of his wife. Durst is currently jailed in new orleans on a weapons charge. Hes agreed to be extradited to l. A. After that case is resolved. Take a look at this in china. Terrifying moments as a firefighter escapes a burning apartment building. His body right there covered in flames as he jumps from a window. Somehow he suffered only minor injuries. Hard to watch. Finally, one bad guy left hanging. Watch what happened when a man tried to break into this store by climbing from the roof through the ceiling. He only made it halfway. The other half, yeah, thats him stuck right there. Needless to say the cops eventually showed up and arrested him so this happened in siberia wearing shorts. Were thinking this just in probably not the smartest criminal in the books. What was he trying to steal though . Pants. It was worst the risk then, right . Worth the risk. Sorry. Cecilia, thank you and thank you, t. J. That mystery in the sky. That white light seen streaking across the west caught on camera by so many raising a lot of questions as to whether santa was getting an early start. Nick watt with the story. I have no idea what that is. Reporter a bird, a plane, the death star . Its like a missile. Reporter from las vegas, nevada, all the way to santa barbara, california, reports and bona fide Video Evidence shared on social media, a bright white light shooting across the night sky. Tv anchors across the west all in a lather. Mysterious. What is this . Reporter twitter chatter it landed somewhere between vegas and death valley denied by the Sheriffs Office there. Too early for santa, right . The federal aviation administration, no ideas. The l. A. Police department, we have not had any reports of a weird light. Vandenburg air force base, no scheduled operations around here. Oh, my gosh. Reporter something similar happened in Southern California early november, a weird inexplicable light turned out to be a u. S. Navy missile tested we werent aware of ahead of time. Wow. Reporter something called the meteor shower is winding down right now. Could be, but that peaked eight or nine days ago. I cant believe were looking at that. Reporter i dont know. Santa on a training run perhaps . Okay, this is photoshopped funny but photoshopped. Late last night confirmation it was actually the booster rocket from a Russian Mission to the International Space station reentering orbit. For good morning america, nick watt, abc news, los angeles. All that. Im sorry. I got to laugh. He went on for a minute and a half and it turns out we were captivated. Saying its space junk, right . Exactly. Rob, santa would have trouble here. A lot of fog. Rudolph would certainly come in handy. Fog really from atlanta all the way up to maine. Some visibility less than a quarter mile so ground delays in effect from philadelphia to lga here so look for that to continue. Heavy rain across d. C. And storms across memphis and heavy rain across parts of atlanta. You want snow, heres your snowiest cities brought to you by burlington. 60s. Tonight cloudy with patchy fognd steady to risin temmpetures. Toorrow,ostly cloudwi a few swers, espececial