be one of the biggest storms on record. well this storm system is going to affect the bay area today as well. take a look at the radar here. you can see storms inching toward us from the gulf of mexico. you should see showers and possibly strong storms later this morning. we do have team coveraging for. thousandsover flights canceled because of this storm -- thousands of flights canceled because of this storm. adrienne pedersen is live at tampa international airport. but first, straight to meteorologist leigh spann. >> as the day goes on, the conditions are worsening quickly. at this point, i am already tracking the threat for tornadoes up around the panhandle and this is the snow system. there's where i'm expecting the strongest storms in the next 10 minutes or so, right around the panama city area tallahassee. and we may see light showers ahead of the main line. but here's what will happen through the next 12 hours. 8:30 this morning, light the majority of the rain well back to the west. as the day goes on, this line of storms is going to get closer to us. this is 10:00 a.m. at that point, places like citrus, hernando, pasco town is, you could be see -- pasco county, you could be seeing your first strong storms. still staying west of polk county and pasco county, manatee. and then past 1:00, the rain inches east of i-75, heading into polk county. and as it gets toward the end of the day, i expect the rain to get lighter and the winds to get stronger. so the rain will be exiting by 4:00 4:00 p.m., 70. but the possibility of isolated strong storms is possible. at 4:38, i will give you the possible threats that you could see with the storms. right now, if you get out early, the roads are really nice. not seeing any congestion so no threat of that. let's look at what we do have with travel times. bridge, easy breezy, five minutes. bearss avenue the to i-4, 10 minutes southbound on 275. and a look at sarasota. quick reminder again, overnight construction there. it should wrap up within the hour and that's on northbound i- 75 exiting to university parkway, a lane or two blocked but no delays. overall, a great drive in sarasota. and that goes for brandon as well and bradenton and brooksville to brandon, 44 minutes. that's weather and traffic. now back to gene. >> thank you. right now, the winter weather is causing major misery at airports. according to the flight aware website, we are waking up to more than 2,000 cancellations across the country. news channel 8's adrienne pedersen is tracking flights at tia this morning. how is the board looking there? >> reporter: good morning, gene. we are expecting a stressful day at airports across the country. even here at tampa international. let's go ahead and look at the board here. you can see all the charlotte some others, looking at baltimore, to chicago flights, las vegas, washington, d.c. as well as raleigh durham. so several cancellations here. no delays though, you're either point. so winter weather advisories stretch across the country from arkansas the to the northeast. and no other parts of the u.s. and we won't be dealing with the same type of storms but definitely feeling the delays. american airlines canceled all flights into and out of charlotte douglas international airport today. we were just showing you those here. and with more than 2,000 cancellations today total, we will see a chain reaction, even if you're not headed to the northeast. if you don't want to mess with this, check with your airline because they are giving out some waivers but of course, there are different rules and regulations for that. so double check before finalizing any of your plans. and we will be staying here at tampa international all morning to bring you the very latest. >> definitely want to make the thank you. developing this morning, the search is on for the person area little league. the bandits broke into a concession stand and took hundreds of dollars worth of information. 8 on your side's ryan hughs is live at the northwest little league baseball field in town and country. ryan, any arrests yet? >> reporter: well, gayle, at this point, we're told the thief hasn't been caught and it comes as the league is settle for opening day tomorrow. . this is the concession stand that was broken into. >> it felt really bad. my heart dropped to the ground honestly. >> reporter: now league leaders tell 8 on your side the equipment like bats and balls plus players' personal information disappeared wednesday night. someone broke into the concession stand and swiped around $800 worth of equipment from the team. then made a mess of the building. and now the hillsborough county sheriff's office called in to stopping players or coaches. they'll continue to make the best season yet. and you can help the team by donating money so they can buy new equipment. and we have put a link to their website on our website. and gayle, we're told the hillsborough county sheriff's office is investigating some leads at this point so hopefully somebody is caught soon. back to you. >> that would be fantastic. thanks, ryan. an overnight fire sparks at a home in tampa. the flames broke out on north 9th street. firefighters tell us fortunately no one was home at the time. the cause of the fire is still under investigation. a pair of brothers are facing charges this morning accused of shining lasers at a sarasota sheriff's helicopter. deputies tell us that you can see the men shining the lasers on this night video and then ducking behind the trees to hide. deputies noticed both red and green laser lights directed toward them. night, a very dark area and somebody were to take a very bright flashlight and shiny your eyes for a second. it's hard -- shine it in your eyes for a second. it's hard to maintain the car. well a laser does the same thing over a larger distance. >> from the air, deputies directed other deputies to the house. both are charged with misuse of laser devices. a 52-year-old man is accused of taking pictures of a little girl up her skirt. and now he is facing a video voyeurism charge. witnesses photographed him leaving the good will and then called detectives. when investigators tracked him down, robbie smith confessed. there's a growing concern over end of the year testing in one bay area school district. now the district is planning to hold community meetings on the issue. the polk county school district made changes this school year to its policy. it now wants the end of the year exams to count toward a some students started a petition drive. they believe the new policy is unfair. >> if i worked all year for an a and i take a test that i wasn't prepared for and it drops me to a b, that's not fair to me because i still worked hard to get an a. and if i had a b, it would go to a c. >> the petition now has nearly 4,000 signatures and the attention of the school district. school officials are now planning to create a student review process. all right, the time right now is 4:38. and it certainly warmed up as we got into the weekend time. >> yeah, much warmer ahead of the strong storm system. and i just saw a couple of light showers come-on shore in the pinellas county area. not any thunderstorms, just enough to wet the ground. the stronger storms are on the way but right now from new port richey, clearwater, again, light rain. i left in just a 20 to 30% chance this morning. rain chance goes up to 70% and during that midday time frame, that's when think we could see the strongest storms. by 2:00, 3:00, the rain is exiting. the winds are picking up. it's going to dry out and it's going to cool off quickly this evening as well. what about the storm threats? not a lot about lightning and hail. you could see isolated heavy downpours. the most thing i'm concerned about between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. is strong damaging wind gusts, the isolated threat for a tornado. again, got a cold front off the gulf of mexico. it's not as big of a threat as what we had on sunday but i'm keeping an eye on it. and then the quick dip in temperatures. saturday is going to be windy and 55. still 58 on sunday. and let's check on traffic on the 8s. again, we are now starting to see a few roads that are wet. yeah, when it first rain, that's the slipperiest time. you got to be extra careful. run into the wet weather. brooksville, no delays, wonderful drive in hernando county, u.s. 98, u.s. 41, all looking very good. and your drive on i-4 away from polk county looks great into plant city. and paul buchman highway into downtown tampa, a fast 22 minute commute. a live look at 275 and sly avenue, things look great into downtown. that's weather and traffic on the 8s. back to gene and gayle. >> thank you. flint, michigan is still in a state of emergency amid a toxic water crisis. >> and now someone is out of a job. the drastic measures epa officials are are now taking -- officials are now taking. and a tragic helicopter crash off the coast of hawaii. ask the pirate invasion. we have everything you must know to survive the big and [cough, cough] mike? janet? cough if you can hear me. don't even think about it. i took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. yeah...but what about mike? he has that dry scratchy thing going on. guess what? it works on his cough too. cough! guess what? it works on his cough too. what? stop! don't pull me! spoiler alert! she doesn't make it! only mucinex dm relieves both wet and dry coughs for 12 hours with two medicines in one pill. start the relief. ditch the misery. after five days of searching, the marine corp now believes the missing marines in the coast of hawaii are dead the. later, debris and rescue rafts were found in the ocean. the lost marines range in age from 21 to 41. a miami police officer is recovering this morning after being stabbed in the face at a casino. it happened at the magic city casino when officers tried to remove a customer. officer then shot the customer in the face. the suspect went to the hospital the to receive surgery. okay. a regional director with the u.s. environmental protection agency is off the in flint, michigan. she is stepping down starting february 1st. officials denied the lead contamination in the drinking water until october. michigan's governor released more than 270 pages of documents about the crisis. the epa chief issued an emergency order to ensure the city takes action to protect the leader of an armed group occupying a wildlife refuge in oregon claims he is in talks with federal authorities. the stand-off is in the third week. he says his group is not going to escalate the situation and will speak to fbi officials again today. the group took over the refuge in eastern oregon to protect federal land use policies. a convicted murder in alabama is at a higher security facility after being caught live streaming inside prison and now an investigation is underway. he went live for several days on periscope using a cellphone. he even asked viewers to send money through gofundme accounts. the victim's sister was not amused. >> if i ever see him on media again, i'm going to do this again and again and call the department of corrections and let them know, you need to tithen down. he don't need to be having that kind of fun because this still ain't no fun. >> officials took the cellphone. how he got the phone and who else was involved in this. one skier is dead after an avalanche buries him in salt lake city. and this morning, another person is trying to recover. the avalanche happened 10 miles east of salt lake city. a group of skiers was in the area when the slide started. the skier who survived is going to be okay. the midwest is experiencing its own winter blast and in mississippi, trees uprooted falling on homes and trees. there are reports that a tornado touched down. forecasters believe the weather will be calmer today in this area. a dog fall s -- falls michigan. take a look at this video. he was with a dog sitter when he spotted ducks. yards offshore. first responders report he had hour. hundreds of people are participating in the python challenge to conserve the ever glades and just take a look at this catch. ready. there it is. a florida fish and wildlife commission officer wrangled a 16-foot python sunning itself on a levy in the glades. now we're told the snake was humanely euthanized. the competition runs through february 14th. a word of advice, take a look in the water before you take the plunge. one florida homeowner discovered a crocodile taking a swim in his pool. he found this eight-foot crocodile in the pool in the florida keys. i would hang out at that house too. look at the view. the resident called fish and wildlife officers but he got out on his own. he climbed out of the pool and went right back to the ocean. sometimes you like the beach front. sometimes you like the pool. it's all about the kids this weekend. tomorrow is the gasparilla children's parade. >> the festivities for the the tiniest pirates take over at 1:30 during the preschoolers stroll. the children's gasparilla parade steps off at 3:30. pack your patience because there's going to be a lot of traffic in the area. and now the grown-up pirate, they invade next saturday, january 30th. and our own pirates josh benson will be there. and jenn will be our pirate reporter on the street. don't miss our coverage starting at 2:30. you can find all the information you need to know on wfla.com. always such a good time out there. and let's check in with leigh spann on the weather. >> well, we have a lot of changes in the next 24 to 36 hours. obviously our big concern for us is this strong line of thunderstorms well back to the west of panama city right now. but i am already tracking, kind of zoomed in here, some light sprinkles from northern pinellas county over the courtney campbell causeway and but the intense rain and thunderstorms coming later in the day. more clouds certainly around at 8:00 a.m., 61 degrees. midday, i expect the strongest storms. and by 3:00 p.m., clearing out but it's going to be very windy. it's much warmer out today. we are in the upper 50s to low 60s. let me time this system outing for. a few isolated showers between now and about 10:00 this morning. at lunchtime, you may want to take your lunch to work today so you don't have to get out in this. that's when the strongest storms will be coming onshore along the i-75 corridor. toward early afternoon, look how quickly the system has pushed east of i-75 into polk county, highlands county. and right behind the cold front, we will get strong winds. number one, it's going to bring cold air in but it's coming from the gulf of mexico so during the day tomorrow, during that children's parade, it will be windy and it may pick up some isolated stray showers. i left in a 20% chance but tomorrow. how about traffic on the 8s? well you what, 55 saves more lives. that's the speed limit for most of the areas out there. and traffic is flowing at good speeds. on i-75 right now through sarasota, we have a great drive, a little bit of construction tying up the two aright lanes northbound 75 exiting to university. but you can still get by and there are no delays. travel times through ybor, looks nice 301 to 275, just six minutes. and nine minutes on the veterans expressway from ehrlich to 275. let's go ahead and look here at polk county. for those in lakeland, say heading into ybor city or downtown tampa, a wonderful drive on i-4 by the polk parkway. as you can see, very light trafficking for right now. that's a look at weather and traffic on the 8s. back to gene and gayle. >> thank you. he lost his life protecting our country and now that he's back home, he is moving mountains. coming up, find out what one iraq war vet is doing to protect his community. it's 4:50. you're watching news channel 8 on iraq war veteran in nebraska is giving back to the same community that gave him so much during his struggles. >> and he is doing in a way. he found a way to hook up a snow blade the to the sidewalks. and now every snow fall he has seen plowing along. he just wants the community to have a safe way of getting around. parents to, you know, slip or have to go through the snow and possibly hurt themselves. >> he explains the community has been there for him during some of his toughest feats like his recent amputation and current fight with brain cancer. when neighbors see him out plowing, they never fail to say thank you. >> what a generous thing to do. >> incredible. so many problems of his own yet he's out helping others. >> maybe that's the way he copes. weather and traffic on the 8s is three minutes away. anticipation is building as we wait to see who the next member will be in the buc's ring of honor. the person our sources believe will receive the award today. it's 4:54. traffic on the 8s. we have changes in the next few hours. i want to break it downing for. find where you live and i'm going to tell you when you see rain. citrus, hernando, coastal areas of pasco and northern pinellas, starting as early as 7:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. and then the strongest storms toward tampa and points to the east between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and then if you live farther to the south and east like eastern polk county, over toward highlands county, the rain will start later and end later between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. exiting by 4:00, while it's here though, there's the chance of stronger storms and a high of 70. but the winds will start gusting out of the west tonight, bringing in cooler air with a low of 51. i will talk more about the weekend forecast coming up. we are still flowing at good speeds despite overnight construction. should be clearing soon on northbound 75 exiting to university parkway. the two right lanes take anway but they are trying to wrap it up right now. that's a wonderful drive. a great reminder for the children's gasparilla parade, we have early closures. the bay shore boulevard crossovers are blocked. and also today they're going to start putting in the no parking signs. keep that in mind.

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