[Blitzer:] A major story breaking this hour. A massive snowstorm hammering much of the northeast, the worst of it bearing down right now in the immediate hours ahead. Here in Washington, D.C., where the federal government is shut down, as much as ten inches of snow is expected with wind chills as low as 15 degrees below zero. Off the coast in Philadelphia and New York, up to a foot of snow. And in parts of Massachusetts, they're bracing for more than a foot of snow and whiteout blizzard conditions with the warnings not to venture outdoors. CNN has team coverage of this monster storm up and down the east coast, but let's begin with our Jennifer Gray. She's over at the CNN Severe Weather Center. Jennifer, give us the latest forecast.
[Jennifer Gray, Ams Meteorologist:] Well, Wolf, it could not be more messy for the evening commute across the northeast when you have D.C., New York, and Boston all covered in snow right now. And the snow is continuing to come down. This is that light, fluffy snow and so with very strong winds over the next couple of hours and even during the overnight. You can expect visibility to be down less than a quarter of a mile in a lot of places. So, dangerous outside. D.C. is still getting the rain the snow, rather as we look at the radar. Philly, New York as well, even Boston getting in on the snow, as we speak. Also, a blizzard warning for the cape and that begins at seven o'clock this evening. Let's take this storm hour by hour. You can see, this is the evening commute, still snow in D.C., New York, and Boston as of 11 o'clock evening. It does push out of D.C., New York, and Philly as we get into early tomorrow morning. However, areas like Boston and the surrounding areas, and that includes the cape, could still some see lingering snow showers as we go throughout the early hours of tomorrow morning before this thing starts to push off shore. Now, snow totals are impressive. We could see anywhere from eight to ten inches of snow in New York, Long Island, isolated amounts, up to a foot in some areas and Rhode Island and Massachusetts, could see anywhere to a foot of snow or more across those areas. Now, we're going to see very, very cold temperatures as well. Overnight tonight, we could see wind chills 12 degrees below zero in New York City, Boston. During the overnight hours, you could feel like 11 degrees below zero and then those temperatures will be moderating as we go throughout tomorrow, but look at the three-day forecast for some of the major cities. Atlanta, your high temperature on Tuesday. We were at 48. We will be at 37 high temperature on Wednesday, Wolf. So, it is going to be cold, cold across the east coast the next couple of days.
[Blitzer:] Very cold, indeed. Jennifer, thanks for that forecast. CNN meteorologist and severe weather expert, Chad Myers, is up on a pier in Plymouth, Massachusetts right now. Chad, Plymouth considered ground zero for this storm. What are the conditions like where you are?
[Chad Myers, Ams Meteorologist:] Not that far from Plymouth Rock, Wolf. It's cold. We're dress sport. It doesn't feel too bad. On a normal summer day, people would walk up to this booth and ask for a sunset cruise. Not today, because it looks like that. They said blizzard warning seven o'clock, I'm telling you, the blizzard is pretty much already here. I think seven o'clock is going to be really good. Folks over here, at the Shanty Rose, they're invited us for coffee, but they're just having a little party out there. But if you look downtown, if you look down this way, you just don't see anybody else out there. The police have been by. The fire trucks have been by. We've got a couple of scoopers going by, but otherwise, I think people are staying home. I think they realize that this, although, may not be the biggest storm of the year, certainly is a big enough storm when visibility can be down to a quarter or an eighth of a mile. This snow is really going to come down. It's going to come down all night long, and we will be right here on the same pier for the next six hours Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Right. We're going to check back with you frequently, Chad. Thank you. Poppy Harlow is over on Eastern Long Island right now. Poppy, you could be experiencing some near blizzard conditions. Are you ready?
[Poppy Harlow, Cnn Correspondent:] I'm ready, Wolf. I mean, you know where from. I'm from Minnesota. You're from Buffalo. We can deal with this and so can the folks here on the north shore of Long Island. I want to take you. This is Main Street. You see how slow the traffic is. This would usually be busy every night with people going into the stores and their way home from work. Not all. Let me just give you a sense of how tough it was for us to get out here today. Left in New York, 12:30 p.m. and didn't get here until 4:30 p.m. A drive that should take an hour or less took four hours in the middle of the day, not even in rush hour. We've got about four inches of snow right now. We're going to get eight to 12. The big story here is going to be the freezing temperatures that Chad and Jennifer were telling you about. It's going to be about eight here overnight. It's going to feel like negative 10. That's going to persist through the day tomorrow. What does that means? That means all of these roads that aren't necessarily iced over now will be iced over by the morning. That's the big concern. The power company here telling us, we're not worried about the snow. We're worried about the ice and the winds bringing down the power lines. He will try to get in and out of work, but Wolf, you know what is open here? The pizza shop and the liquor store and that's about it. We went inside, and the liquor store owner said, hey, people need to drink in a blizzard. So, I'm staying open for my customers. He said the best seller is single malt scotch and a cab to ride it out Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Got to warm me up a little bit. All right. Thanks, Poppy. Poppy Harlow on Long Island. Zain Asher is in New York City for us. What are the conditions like there, Zain?
[Zain Asher, Cnn Correspondent:] Hey, Wolf. Well, the snow is still pretty light right now, but the winds are picking up. So, what that means is that it's a lot colder than it actually look. I'm cold and I've been in a long time. And I know, Wolf, you're from Buffalo. So, you're used to this. I certainly am not because I'm from London. This is all very new to me. But I will say, though, that the big question right now is really how is this weather going to impact the evening commute? I'm sure a lot of people are watching this at work, at their desks wondering, OK, Wolf, you know, what is the best way to get home tonight. If you guessed mass transit, give yourself a gold star that it's absolutely right. You don't want to be driving in these conditions. Let me show you why. So, take a look behind me. You can see Columbus Circle, which by the way, which is usually very busy this time of night, absolutely empty. Obviously, drivers are taking the warnings very seriously. There's low visibility. And by the way, even if you did leave work 45 minutes early or so, chances are you would be sitting in traffic. So, your best friends right now are the MSA and the Long Island Railroad Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Good advice, Zain. Thanks so much. Zain Asher in New York City. Athena Jones is here in the Nation's Capital. She's out on the national mall. So, what's it like outside, Athena?
[Athena Jones, Cnn Correspondent:] Hi, Wolf. Well, it's very, very cold here. We've been watching this snowfall heavily and steadily since 10:00 a.m. and it's going to be falling for several more hours. It's not supposed to stop until possibly after nine o'clock when we could see accumulations of eight or ten inches. I just want to show you about the consistency of this snow. You can see that it's really light. It's not too heavy. So, it blows and blowing snow is one of the issues that we've heard, one of the concerns, I should say, from the National Weather Service as part of their winter storm warning. They talk about decreased visibility. Half a mile. As low as half a mile. They're urging people to be careful and not to be out on the roads, unless, they have to be. And if they are out on the roads, in their cars, to make sure they're packing a blanket, food, water, a flashlight in case they come into any trouble. So, even though today we saw a lot of people trying to build snow men and making snow angels and having snowball fights, there's a real concern because these are potentially dangerous conditions, not just the roads, of course, but also the cold weather. The National Weather Service says we could see wind chill factors of five to 15 degrees below zero overnight. So, we're still in the midst of this and it won't be for several more hours until it ends Wolf?
[Blitzer:] There's not much traffic, not just because of the bad weather. They've shut the government early this morning. They've shut down virtually all of the local schools in D.C., Maryland, Northern Virginia. So, you don't see any cars on the road, right?
[Jones:] That's right. There's been very little traffic for much of the day. We know that the D.C. government had 200 plows available as of 8:00 a.m. this morning. We've seen numerous trucks going back and forth, spreading salt on the road to try to keep them from icing over and keep the snow from accumulating. But you're right, because the federal government was shut down, because many of the school systems, not just in D.C., but in the wider area were shut down, we're seeing a lot less traffic than we usually see, even though places like the Supreme Court were opened and the Smithsonian Museums are open, it's not your normal day and we're not going to see any kind of rush hour like we usually see, Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Athena, thanks so much. The storm also is wreaking havoc on travel across the area. Close to 3,000 flights now canceled in and out of United States. CNNs Rene Marsh, she's over at Washington's Reagan National Airport with the latest information. What can you tell us, Rene?
[Rene Marsh, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Wolf, I could tell you at this point, roughly 2,500 delays. We should that is not as many as we saw during that so-called polar vortex. Still, though, if you're one of those people trying to get on that flight, it makes a big difference to you. We're inching towards 3,000 cancellations just for some perspective here on a regular day we usually see about 200 cancellations. So, we're well above that. Take a look at this video we just shot a short time ago. We went out on the air field right here at Reagan National Airport, and this is what airports along the northeast corridor, they are dealing with. It looks a lot like it looks right here at Reagan. We're seeing some deicing. The visibility is dropping. I want to talk to you a little bit about those airports which are just simply getting slammed by these cancellations. The top airports are getting slammed, Philadelphia, LaGuardia, Newark, JFK, and right here in the Washington, D.C., Reagan National Airport. Wolf, at a time like this, when this weather is coming at these airports, it's a team effort working with the airlines. All hands on deck. We were inside the operation center here at Reagan National today. You're looking at that video. They are keeping tabs on everything. The weather conditions, the temperature of the runway, that sort of thing, all to make sure that these people get to where they want to go in a timely fashion Wolf.
[Blitzer:] All right. Rene, thanks very much. Rene is over at Reagan National Airport. She reported on the situation in the skies, not so good, but what about the situation on the ground? CNN's Jason Carroll is actually driving through the snow in New York right now. How bad are those roads? What are you seeing, Jason?
[Jason Carroll, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, you know, Wolf, as you may have heard, New York City and the surrounding area expected anywhere between six and 10 inches before all of this is over and I have to tell you from being out on the roads here for the past half hour or so, it already feels like much of that snow has already fallen. It's been very slow going. Right now, we're on 14th street here in Manhattan headed towards the west side highway. We've been going at a snail's pace at about 10 miles per hour. Thankfully, Wolf, just from being out in the roads already, it's very easy to tell that this is what rush hour looks like in New York City. Normally, you can see right out here on the road, this road here, this road here would be packed with cars, but that's not what we're seeing. A lot of drivers, obviously, took Mayor de Blasio'r warning which he gave earlier today and said if you did not have to be out on the roads, unless you're an emergency vehicle or you're having to work in a news organization like we are, do not be out on the roads. And that's what we're seeing out here right now. Even so, still, very slow going. Visibility at about a quarter of a mile. Snow is very thick here along 14th street here and Manhattan as we head towards the west side highway. The good news for New Yorkers is some 1,700 plows and spreaders will be out on the roads here tonight and through the early morning. Also, 2,000 sanitation workers are going to be working extra duty here in the city as well. Slow going, but the message is, stay off the roads if you don't have to be out here Wolf.
[Blitzer:] Good message, indeed. Jason Carroll, thanks very much. We'll stay on top of the breaking news. We'll have much more later. But just ahead, Chris Christie starts his second term with a state of an emergency, because of the snow. Not scandal. But can he ride out the political storm swirling about him? Also, is an American being held in North Korea one step closer to freedom? His sister is standing by to join us live right here in the SITUATION ROOM.