Of anywhere from three to four feet of snow being dumped in some of the borrows in new york city, some of the snow working from east to west down the coast, along through rhode island. Were going to go to rehema ellis who is on the road in massachusetts. What are conditions like there, rehema . The conditions are getting worse by the minute one of the things i wanted to mention as we were driving around as we have been driving around tonight is that people have been heeding the warning, theyre getting off the roads, theyre taking their time, theyre going slowly. We have not seen one wreck on the road and i hope i dont spoil that and we start to see a lot of accidents. But we have not seen one. No one pulled over on the side no one spinning out, not yet. And the good news is that people are getting off of the roads. We have got a lot of crews that have been out here that have been trying to prepare these roads with salt and sand to make it easier for people to get around, but heres the thing, in an hour a travel ban goes into effects here in massachusetts and only essential vehicles are to be out on the roads so as to make it easier for these snowplows when they come through to clear the streets. The snow is coming down its blowing sideways, more than coming down in a vertical direction amend that makes it harder out here on the roads. And its good that more and more people have decided to heed the warnings and get inside. As youll notice across the area, of course there are travel bans in effect. Here a travel went into effect at 11 00 p. M. No one out on the streets, but we do have for the latest forecast, our very own legend, al al roker of nbc. Are we looks like we may not have al. We are working to get al roker with the latest forecast. Earlier i was talking with bill karins there was talk of two or three feet. The earliest ban that left the city have sorted there were competing models as to how much snow was going to be dumped. The earlier returns suggested that perhaps new york wasnt going to get it as bad, it was going the focused more in massachusetts and boston. Cape cod getting lashed by 780mileperhour winds as we speak. So unclear were going the get what we have been promised were certainly going to get a foot at least, new york city essentially shut down, the same for to the city of boston. Schools closed Public Transportation shut down. All the governors in a band from new jersey all the way up to New Hampshire essentially closing their states down as much as possible. Worrying about being able to provide necessary Emergency Services and deal with Power Outages should those happen. Right now i want to go out to long island. Reporter im taking it all over. Its getting bad out here the winds have picked up you can see the snow is kind of going sideways now, and its been falling for the last several hours, as we have been out here late this afternoon. And roughly, i dont know about six inches on the ground its light snow and its accumulating. Look over on these bushes its been blowing and drifting. Its coming down pretty good. And the wind has picked up and of course this is long island so were expecting winds to come whipping in on the island and thats going to cause some surf problems some beach erosion some storm surge, perhaps, along the water fronts. And meanwhile we have this, as you see, nothing. There is no traffic, there up there, the lights in the distance is the long island expressway, where normally this time of night on a typical evening, there would be countless cars zooming along, now all were seeing are snowplows or utility vehicles every now and again moving by and moving quickly which means the streets are clear, theres no traffic. The gas station here has been empty, we have seen them come out once in a while to check on things but theres no customers. Its 11 00 on the east coast. There is now a travel bang in new york its a fine, its a ph. D. 380 if youre caught out on the roads. Oddly we saw a guy walking by a while ago, who was coming to visit some friends at this hotel after going to another hotel, he said. A hoetel that i cant see because its too far. Its not completely whiteout conditions, but if you were in a vehicle, you could probably see two or three feet ahead of you maybe. I would think under normal conditions, it would be hard to see very far. Earlier this evening, we had traffic jams grit lock as people were racing slowly to get home at 4 00 or 5 00 when offices were closing early. Well see what we have in the morning, were expecting two to three feet more. And the wind is whipping it around, making it hard to be out here. Now were back with al roker. Al are my kids going to get enough snow to sled tomorrow and how many days are schools going to be shut down . Are the questions the kids want to know. Are they in manhattan . Theyre in brooklyn im in manhattan. If you watch the radar, the brighter bands of snow of white, thats the heavier snow. And what were seeing we have been on the air since 8 00 and there was nothing over manhattan manhattan, nothing over brooklyn or queens now were looking at one to two snowfall amounts per hour backing up from east to west. So theres a heavier band getting ready to come in, i think, yes, your kids will have snow to sled in and no they will not videohave school tomorrow. And i would be willing to wager that they will not have school on wednesday. How do you recalibrate, as the storm comes u through, im skourlt of curious to see the National Weather service which earlier had been saying two to three feet. The map i was looking at was similar to the map that they had three or four hours ago, but it seems likes the forecast that we have been doing in house, changes dramatically. How do you tell when a storm comes in whether its essentially on track with what you anticipated or not . Its a living breathing thing almost in a way, this was interesting because the National Weather service initially a few hours ago, about 7 or 8 hours ago, dropped the amounts and then they brought them back up again. I think theyre looking at this bangeding, and, chris, ive been talking with my meteorologist producer, and what were watching youve got this pink line green, which is the rain and the white is the snowy. And the green is pushing south, which means this storm is probably intensifying now and were seeing more colder air drawn into it. And were seeing a lot and you notice all this white . Very bright. So theres still plenty to go through, were not done yet in the new york tristate area. So, you know hold on lets bite and see before we proclaim a forecast a bust or not. Al roker, who will be of course joining live through the night and then joining today tomorrow morning. Thank you very much al we really appreciate it. Joining me now from Providence Rhode island, chris warren of the weather channel, and providence is on track to get hit pretty hard . Reporter for the past few hours, the snow has coming throughlike this. Talking about the winds, things are going to be sfrel variable its not a uniform snowfall. And you can see this right here. This is completely dry concrete. And im going to crawl over here, kind of knee my way over here. Youre starting to see some snow and this is that wind drift, that the wind blowing the snow, maybe an inch right here. Got a little bit closer now were down if you can see this youre more like five inches right here and thats the way its going to be its not a uniform event. And also look at how light and fluffy this is. This is that whiteout conditions that you can get. Once the snow is on to the ground, its bad enough thats falling down heavy, but even when its on the ground you get whats called the ground blizzard, the wind picks up the snow from the ground and blows it around. So were still at the front end of this at Providence Rhode island you have to be off the roads at midnight. You can be given a ticket or you can be arrested if youre on the street. People are going to be at home not likely to get out for days its possible that they wont have power. That is a serious concern because the parking lot right next to us is filling up right now with utility trucks. Chris warren in Providence Rhode island. Governors across the country have taken pretty heavy steps to make sure cars are off the road theyre clear for emergency vehicles, some Lessons Learned from previous storms particularly sandy. Also coastal areas are preparing themselves for massive storm surge. Even in the winter. Paul douglas talked about the possibility of five feet in new york harbor. That ocean water being warmed up through a long process that includes global warming, its now about 13 degrees warmer than it should normally be in joorn, and part of that extra warmth is providing that kinetic energy. Its creating more winter storms in the last we got craig melvin driving arrange new york city in the snow right now, hopefully very safely and slowly. Craig, what are you seeing . Very safely very slowly up Upper West Side were in the Upper West Side community here in new york city. And i can tell you one of the things that we were looking for, especially, the travel began, as you mentioned there, as we have been talking about, 11 00, that is when all nonessential nonemergency personnel were supposed to be off the roads, off the highways within the past five minutes, i have seen not one, just two cars out here in the Upper West Side. And as im talking to you, theres a third car here coming up. Just to kind of give you a sense of what were looking at here in this particular part of new york city. I can also tell you that the snow has started to come down once again, we had seen that snow taper off a bit. The snow has picked up a fair amount, i would say, within the past 20 or 30 minutes, take a look here this is columbus avenue and 74th and its a ghost town, you see a hand full of folks walking the sidewalks, theres a man who appears to be out taking some pictures as well. Live television sir, please dont use any profanity. Absolutely. Reporter you live here on the west side . Its a nice peaceful evening, since basically the travel ban is going to barren the city streets, might as well see what its like outside. Reporter it seems like by and large people have been respecting the travel ban, wouldnt you say . And theres bsh a cop thats been patrolling for the last few minutes or so and i dont know if ill see the tax city get pulled over. What about snowplows . Thats one thing, i actually havent seen so many snowplows, i know theyre probably waiting for the last trickling vehicles to the get off the roads and thats my guess, and then theyll come in with the bigger plows. But from everything ive been hearing about the changing forecast, the jurys still out as to what its going to be like out here. Our man al roker said dont go changing your plans yet. Again, chris, by and large, we see an emergency vehicle, we have seen a couple of those making their way up and down the streets. Thanks very much for that report this is of course a big test for mayor de blasio and the mayor of new york and washington. Every executive will tell you that the worst thing you can do politically is mishandle an emergency. We saw that of course with tremendous tragic consequences during katrina. We saw it to some extent in the wake of sandy, we saw mayor after mayor fail. The mayor here very much on high alert. Theres a map of what streets are being plowed. Governors up and down the eastern seaboard also working overtime to make sure they are able to provide what their constituents need to stay safe at this hour. Lots more to come, im chris hastes hayes. We are back in the middle of the blizzard thats pounding the northeast at the moment. Bands of snow are making their way across a ghost of new york city which has been for all intents and purposes shut down. Boston essentially shut down about 60 Million People under Winter Weather advisory, seven states having declared a state of emergencies. I want to bring in paul douglas, one of my favorite meteorologists. Paul, this is the question i have for you, if the forecast turns out to not be correct, are we going to be jail time . Public floggings. In all seriousness, right, these things strike me as pretty difficult to predict because they are by their nature right, statistically improbable events they dont happen very often, but what are the kind of factors going into figuring out what is happening, how soon can you figure out when a stormlike this is forming and what its going to do. It has been said that economics is the dismal science, as you know the problem is that every day is different, every storm is different. U you never have an identical scenario where you can go back use and analog method and say on this day in 1976the art, the dirty art if you will is trying to figure out which model to you believe, which model works best in this situation . Some of that is science, some of it is intuition, some of it is gut feel. But i can tell you this certainly Television Meteorologists have a reputation to overpredepicting snow. No secret about that. If you took all of the predicted snow over the years, over the decades, there would be an ice ages right now. There would be about a twomile slab of ice above new york, and its simple if you predict a foot of snow and you wind up with four or five inches most are forgiving. If you predict flurries and you get two feet of flurries for example, youre done. We have seen instances where policymakers trapped in a bad environment and essentially try to blame forecasters. Here were seeing precautions, an unprecedented step. New york city has never been shut down for snow in history, we are seeing them err on the side of caution, we see that same kind of asymmetry in the response of policymakers but they have to depend on more or less the same forecast right . Theres no inside dope that if youre the governor of rhode island that u youre getting that essentially were not getting right now and people with access to the internet or television are getting . I keep waiting for someone to hand me the answer key. Again, there are cores of models and a lot of this just depends on personal history. And experience. And after a while, you get a feel for the models but in this case, this storm, chris, just about all of the models were in alignment alignment. You look for all the models to agree. There might be some discrepancies, but they came into very tight alinement. And if new york city gets only various shades of gray but again in this situation, with lives on the line an historic storm, a deadly storm, you have to err on the side of safety, and i think officials have done the right thing with this . Are we better at predicting things kinds of things of modeling them than we were 10 years ago, 20 years ago . Absolutely, its human nature, you remember the busted forecast, you dont remember the 85 , or 95 of the time the local moolgtseteorologists got pretty close. The perception is you should be able to predict right down to the inch from my backyard paul. My favorite profess store said we dont have the technology and we never will to predict down to the inch. There are nuisance storms bad storms and crippling storms. This is certainly a plowable snowfall for new jersey. Its going to be crippling from new york to montauk and boston. Were somewhere between plowable and crippling. Ill tell you one thing, if you got 90 feet of snow in Rockefeller Center the good people at Rockefeller Center would have the place plowed, theyre indominable. One of the very few good things about this kind of devastating winter event is that we get to learn new terms. A polar vortex a derecho or a reporter this storm is expected to bomb out offshore thats a short word for the meteorological word bombogenesis. Its a catchy meteorological material. First off it seems to have an invisible touch. Low pressure system reaches in and grabs hold of another system. The storm we see right now, two storms meet, theres a pressure drop. Normally one system could leave but it wont go. Now the eastern seaboard cant feel a thing from their head down to their toes thats bombo bombogenesis. This is the state of emergency we live in and this is what we live in. We are given a state of the emergency. We are given state of emergency. All right, as the stormy wingd swirls around us the storm hitting the northeast. What is the latest forecast . Hey, chris, we are looking at pretty much those heavy bands now that are setting up from are we are looking at this band that was trying to make it into new york and thats whats been is so hard. So the confidence for the forecast is really trending from providence up to boston. And thats where were sure were going to get the heaviest of the snowfall. New york is a little bit questionable. So from new york down to philly it looks like lesser snow amounts, but still a very dangerous situation because the winds and the white house conditions will still be per sis tent through the overnight. Heres a look at the overnight and you can see where that white want of white is thats the heaviest band that is making it through long island. So we are seeing some very heavy snow making its way across lodge island. Its trying to make it into the city, but its hard because that low is sitting off the coast. Temps are in the 20s we do have that cold air locksed in place. The winds are picking up, the visibility is also becoming a concern, we have been seeing that for several hours now, visibility a concern. Heres the forecast, 10 to 14 inches likely again the worst of this storm will be overnight until about 10 00 in the morning, still on track for 22 to 26 in boston serge right along the mass pike thats when we could see some of the heaviest and even isolated higher amounts than that along cape cod as well. Hartford 14 to 18 philadelphia the less amount. It just doesnt look like the snow will make it that far inland. So were calling for three to skix right now in philadelphia. Heres a look at the winds, its 124 in new york. The winds will be picking up through the overnight and through tomorrow as well. So this is where were concerned for the whiteout conditions with blowing and drifting snow and certainly that is going to be the case upthrough southern evening. Visibility also a problem and you can see that pretty clearly here from new york on north where victim is a mile or les and that will continue as well. And thats why we still have these blizzard warnings that will be in effect through all of the overnight and through much of tomorrow. Because visibility is going to be at times down to zero with that blowing and drifting snow. And heavy snow bands moving through. So this storm is definitely still on track, it ramps up overnight. It will all start to diminish as we head closer to lunchtime tomorrow, this storm will come to an end. Unfortunately, the cold is going nowhere, so thats also something well be updating you on throughout the evening as well. Michael, were hearing massachusetts is getting pounded pretty hard. What does it look like right there right now . Reporter well this storm is really starting to ramp up in one of the turns along the massachusetts coastline just south of boston and you can see that the wind and snow really starting to be two main factors here as we get into this storm, bigtime. You can see down here were in the middle of one of the side roads, you can see all of the snow, maybe four inches or so has already piled up. And this is in the middle of one of the side streets, but you can tell that driving here would be nearly impossible at this point. In fact there will be a travel ban in massachusetts taking effect in the next 20 minutes or so. The big story besides all this wind and snow is that the local Power Company and the utility crews have decided to turn off power to about 50 homes here along the coastline, were right near the beach. They have been through this before. So theyre very afraid with all the sand and water and debris that could be in the middle of the roads in the next several hours, theyre afraid if a fire pops up in one home it will spread quickly and that fire trucks just wont be able to get into the homes bhuz of all the dpree in the streets so. They decided to cut off power for about 50 homes here along the coastline community. The town was hoping that people would voluntarily evacuate at 6 00 tonight, it was not mandatory, they were just hoping that al of people would pack up and ship out for the next couple of days or so. We do understand that some people somewhere taken shelter at the nearby high school. This town has been through this before, they have been battered by storms, they know how to get through these things still it is not easy we have seen a lot of homeowners board up their windows and doors to keep their homes protected from all this snow thats really starting to come in. Joining me now from boston is chris palone hes msnbc News National continue. Obviously the two biggest concerns at this point in boston arent the accumulation the wind, the possibility of Power Outages, and possibly storm surge, how are things looking there right now . Thats the big concern, boston can handle snow although something in the 25 to 30inch range would certainly be unprecedented or not often happening here in the area. Right now things where just really getting cranking and where you saw Michael Rosen felt thats where the worst of it is right now, along the coastal areas, i just saw that nantucket registered a 62mileperhour wind gust thats just 12 miles short of Hurricane Force winds down along plymouth, around cape cod, youre seeing 40 to 50mileperhour wind gusts. Here in boston compare tyly we have only had a 28mileperhour wind gust. It will get worse as we go along. Ive been monitoring the forecast and were expecting to see the worst of this storm staerlt to roll through in the next three hours or so up until about noontime. The snow thats falling in boston right now, which is a very fine, powdery dry snow its piling up very slowly over the course of two to three hours, it only piled up about threequarters of an inch to an inch in the city of boston. Thats going to get more moisture in it as the front moves on and well see a lot more accumulation, is so people who go to theyre going to be really surprised by what they see and the winds will certainly match that we have gusts and sustained winds anywhere north of 40 50mileperhour here in the boston area. But right now, the trouble is really along the coast, all the way up to plum island on the north shore of massachusetts, down to the tip of cape cod, chris. Chris, in boston thank you very much. Hopefully everyone will stay state of tonight, listen to the authorities that are calling for folks to be inside obviously those road closures now in fife states, starting to kick in, they have already kicked in here in new york. The good news if everyone can make it through this storm safe and sound is that tomorrow morning, a lot of happy kids making up all throughout the northeast and heading outside. Well be back with more live coverage of the blizzard after this break. Working middle east to southwest. Seven states have declared a state of emergency tonight. Fife states right now, essentially banning all nonemergency, nonessential vehicles that are on the road. Right now, we are looking at a sort of midway point through the blizzard and i want to bring in rehema ellis, nbc national continue, shes in the nadic framing dps ham area people are still out on the roads, another 20 minutes if im not mistaken. I want you to take a look at the view from the camera thats mounted on the windsheild and youll see one lone car in front of me. The ice is starting to build up on our windshield wipers its getting heavier and heavier. Its very fine wet, heavy snow. Its going to make the roads out here very difficult to dprooieprive on. Which have seen caravans of snowplows out here that were also making the conditions here a lot better. But there are some icy spots. A travel began goes into effect for all of massachusetts, starting at around midnight. They want everybody to stay off these roads. The worst of the snow is approaching, they tell us. Were going to see much heavier snow and they stay at times it could be anywhere from one to two inches of snow per hour. Its going to build up very quickly overnight. Chris . Thank you, rehema, joining me now msnbc reporter at the salt depot here in new york city which is a key part of the mayors plan the keep the city operable. Whats the situation there, maam . Hi, chris, the snow may be coming down pretty lightly, but were getting that bitter burst of wingd that goes through here in lower manhattan. Theyre keeping tons upon tons of salt here. For a visual were talking about 6,000 miles of roads that theyll be covering throughout the night. If you wafbt to have an idea if your street will be plowed in any borough here in new york city. You can go online the city has an app where you can go plow nyc. It shows you a map of what streets have been plowed. They give you a time frame of one to three hours, three to six hours, so you can have a good idea of what roads you want to go on in the morning if you do choose to go out manda, how active is the situation there . You have to imagine that theyre work around the clock. Are trucks just pouring in and out of there . We have seen trucks come in and out throughout the past day, and there are some 29 locations across the entire city where theyre able to fill up and do this route. Though some, especially on the internet, it hasnt been coming up to the expectations of the snowfall coming down. Do you remember that back in 2010 when mayor Michael Bloomberg was running the city, he and the administration got a lot of heavy criticism for not coming out in front of the snow and not plowing it heavily before it got really bad. And we saw people had to abandon their cars in the middle of the street, which made it so that Emergency Services could not plow certain roads. It became a huge debacle. Really the issue here is making sure theyre coming out ahead of the snow, making sure theyre being very preemptive about their service here and making sure they keep people safe. Amanda references complaints on the internet. I never encountered complaints on the internet and i dont imagine that will be starting during a weather situation like this. Ron allen in plainview, long island. Ron has been out in it for probably about seven days at this point. Ron, how are you doing. Were doing okay yeah its pretty bad. Its been snowing pretty con consistent consistently. One car over there at the gas station, fueling up. The road behind that building is the long island expressway. Were not seeing any cars or trucks moving by the is winds are gusting, theyre going to gust even more 50 forecast or so. This is an island and were surrounded by water. You know its getting bad. Its hard to imagine it is going to get even worse. This is not even the storm so much as this is the beginning of the storm. Overnight, were expecting as much of two feet or more of snow. Look around we kind of eyeball it and we have i dont know six or seven inches or so out. There you can see if you can pan out there quickly, you can see a line of blinking lights go by. Those are convoys of snowplows and they are moving easily and freely which means the roads are clear. Theres no traffic. One truck in the opposite direction. Trucks banned on the highway from 4 00 in the afternoon and motorists have been banned since 11 00 tonight and seems people are heeding the warning. So well see. It is only going to get worse. Its not getting better. Chris, back to you. Thank you very much. As you can see it is coming down in new york city. I dont know if you can tell through the camera and the Television Screen it is cold out here but it is real cold. Thats why im out here to dem en straight to you we are not lying. There is a winter storm. You can see me. This is information coming straight to you. We will continue to cover the storm live after the break. Roads are already shut down here in new york. I believe in rhode island they have shut down as well. There are five states that have travel bans as we head in to the evening. Nonessential vehicles asked to stay off the road. Seven states under a state of emergency. 60 Million People under a weather watch. We are looking at historic highs, possibly through parts of the northeast. In situate, massachusetts, getting pounded right now. The snow and wind picking up in new york. The subway system shut down in an unprecedented move. Second guessing from folks whether it was strictly necessary. We will see tomorrow morning when the city wakes up totally paralyzed. No matter how much snow there is because the subways arent running. Craig is driving in the snow at this hour. What are you seeing . Are people off the streets, i hope. Where we are, no. This is times square. You shouldnt be surprised. You can see a taxi cab in front of us. We have seen dozens upon dozens of taxi cabs. Just saw some folks hop in to this one. Not adhering to the traffic ban. I can tell you, it appears as if blizzard tourism is a booming industry in the big apple at this hour. 300 is the fine that was mentioned earlier. I do not believe. It will be tough tone force that. I dont believe people are being pulled over and ticketed. Yeah yeah it is. It is difficult sometimes to discern here n this part of new york city especially whether the snow is coming off the building or falling from the sky. At this point i can tell you it is clearly falling from the sky can. The wind has died down a bit. We have seen the plows out in full force. We have seen a number of salt trucks, as well with. The temperature right now 26 27 degrees. Not unbearable. We continue to be struck by the number of people who see lets look down that way, the number of people who see this as an opportunity to get really Cool Pictures in new york city. Yeah theres always something pretty striking about the image of new york city emptied out in conditions like these. It does have a ghostly feel to it that is hard to replicate during any other time except for these special moments except during periods of storms like sandy where everything locks down. You understand why people want to go out in it because it is so distinct and bizarre. Yes. That is an excellent assessment. I would imagine we will see more of this tomorrow as well considering you have a lot of folks that dont have to go to work or school. This will be all there is to do. Yeah. We will see tomorrow what new york city looks like. Obviously i said before the subways are shut down. That renders most of new york essentially inop frabl the standpoint of any basic commuting or business. At this hour we are seeing the blizzard intensify. Obviously it has been lashing areas like cape cod and scituate massachusetts. It has been pounding eastern long island. National Weather Service essentially sticking to something that looks like the forecast they had before. Craig, i imagine tomorrow even if we have another foot this looks like its going to be if it is another foot it looks like it will be doable for the city tomorrow from a logistical standpoint. From a logistical standpoint i would say it will be. As you indicated Public Transportation. I was going to chat with this dog. Whats the dogs name by the way. Leo. Leo . Cute sweater and shoes hes sporting. What part of the city do you live in. Down the block. Just out surveying, is that what we are doing. Only time he can come to times square. Taking a walk. Have you been impressed with the citys response. If you dont do anything they are going to kill you and if you do they will kill you because you shut down everything. Thats a good spot to leave it and bring it back to you. Dammed if you do and dammed if you dont. Thats the motto, second guessed either way. The consensus along the eastern sea board for the storm has been to take maximum precautions. Leaders have opted for the maximum preparation in the face of the storm. We will see what the final accumulations and damage are storm. Hopefully people will not lose power. That will do it for all in this evening and i will hand the microphone over to msnbc live coverage of blizzard 2015 continues now. Riff ard lieu richard lui with, here you go. You started earlier together and quieter. This is the real deal right now. It has finally hit manhattan. Get out of here chris. Good to see you. Thank you for the work. Welcome to our live coverage of the blizzard of 2015. Im richard lui tonight along with betty wen. We have hit midnight on the east coast. It is picking up in terms of wind gusts and the amount of snow in the sky behind us. At this hour we have states of emergency in seven states including new york city. Travel ban s in connecticut, mass