passengers have to wait to fly? russia s deadly new attacks in ukraine the city liberated just weeks ago and now back in putin s crosshairs ukrainian families defiant and determined to keep christmas alive. holiday messages of hope. the services around the world. the faithful now back in person, the pope s message of peace and the royal family s first christmas without the queen. and the nfl players making music with a mission this is nbc nightly news with jose diaz-balart. good evening at a time of year so many of us want to be with loved ones, intense winter conditions and sub-zero chills are making it dangerous or altogether impossible to travel safely 100 million people are under winter weather alerts coast to coast. lake-effect snow have hamstrung parts of the midwest and blizzard-like conditions have stranded drivers and all bu shut down buffalo. at least 23 people have died across the country and at a time of year filled with twinkling lights, hundreds of
consideration. another thing, too, monday night into tuesday the winds are going to be kicking up. gusty 30, 40 plus miles per hour. clean the drains. all right. thanks very much. we will be back at 6:00. hope you join us then. nightly news is next. tonight, the historic deadly storms that hit the nation on christmas eve. more than 100 million now under some type of winter weather alert, blinding snow, wind and brutal cold. the catastrophe unfolding in upstate new york this may turn out to be the worst storm in our community s history. cars stuck and drivers trapped. now the life and death race to save those stranded up and down the east coast, massive flooding power knocked out for hundreds of thousands as temperatures fall the christmas eve chaos at the airports the storm shutting down thousands of flights for travelers desperate to get home for the holiday. how long will
delivering heavy rain, and it could be dangerous ice and snow and it continues to be throughout the great lakes. we ve seen this in the leadup to the weekend and it will continue through the weekend, heavy, lake-effect snow around buffalo and watertown. that could leave three to five feet by the time this storm wraps up on tuesday and then the cold continues into the day tomorrow, windchill advisories from montana to new york and down to florida, and hard freeze warnings over the south and southeast. christmas morning and you re waking up to single-digit windchill in nashville and atlanta and 20 below in chicago and by monday we are slowly making our way out of the deep freeze jose matt brickman, thank you. turning now to the war in ukraine. no christmas cease-fire there as russia renews its deadly attacks. our matt bradley reports, but first, a warning that some of the images are disturbing tonight s ukraine s christmas in russia s crosshairs after air strikes hit
i m just really thankful for three other people that were willing to just pick up their things and say, let s just go. reporter: the faa says winter weathe headaches are improving even with the brutal cold still slowing down operations on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. jesse, i know you said it could take days for operations to get back to normal. what s it looking like right now? reporter: according to flight aware, jose, today we ve seen nearly 7,000 cancellations or excuse me, delays nationwide and more than 3,000 cancellations in the u.s. and already for tomorrow flight aware is tracking more than 600 additional cancellations. jose jesse kirsch in newark thank you. wnbc meteorologist matt brickman is tracking it all for us matt, there s intense cold across the country and now the new threat out west. jose, we re watching this storm coming in off the pacific northwest capable of