The season, today, monday, november 25th, 2013. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And good morning everyone. Welcome to today on a monday morning. Im Savannah Guthrie. Im David Gregory. Happy to be here. Matt is off today. Im here with al roker and Natalie Morales as well. Did you guys see the game . It ended after midnight. Yeah, 12 20 a. M. Horrible first half. Tom brady did it again. I woke up for the end. Perfect. Perfect timing. That was just an amazing second half. And weather, a big factor in the game. Always about the weather with you. Listen, the weather is already the top story this morning because we have a big winter storm that could impact tens of millions of Holiday Travelers. We have full coverage including dylan dreyer and tom costello on the roads and the airports. But al, we will begin with you. Before this thing is over it will effect 25 states, 40 Million People and of course it will culminate with thanksgiving day or wednesday travel right before thanksgiving. We have Winter Weather advisories, winter storm warnings, that area of pink is the icy conditions were going to see. This storm will transfer its energy to the gulf. Tons of moisture available to it. So by early Tuesday Morning were looking at heavy thunderstorms, wind and rain, snow developing to the north. During the day it lifts up inland so that the heavy rain will stay along the coast as you get to the north and west. By early wednesday morning its mostly snow and then by wednesday evening snow showers, cold, windy conditions behind this system and look at the rainfall amounts. We are talking 5 to 7 inches of rain through the south. As you get up along the east coast were looking at anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of rain and look at the snow. Were talking about 3 to 6 inches. Some areas as much as a foot. Interior sections of pennsylvania and new york. The big story the icing conditions making their way into the northern dallas area on into arkansas. We have dylan dreyer right now live in dallas and dylan, temperatures hovering just above freezing. If it drops much, its going to be a nightmare. Reporter thats absolutely right, al. This is our saving grace. We have stayed above freezing in dallas. This storm system is being blamed for 13 deaths. Most of those because of the dangerous road conditions. To protect and serve. And push. A Police Officer helps out in new mexico. Across the southwest, it was best to stay off the roads. Spinouts and pileups. Too many to count. It was good when i got here. Now it is sleet and windy. Reporter over the weekend, the same storm system lashed california with heavy rain which led to heavy flooding. And one helicopter rescue. Strong gusts ripped down power lines. The wind fuelling a wildfire north of San Francisco. And then theres the snow. 15 inches in parts of nevada. Great for ski resorts, but dangerous driving in oklahoma, texas and new mexico. Now millions of Holiday Travelers are in the part of the storm are worried about the travel plans. A driver in oklahoma has advice worth following. Go slow and keep your distance. Reporter as the east braces itself, preparations can be measured in cords of wood. We watch the weather and anticipate people coming. Reporter now this area here in dallas is called the high five. It is five levels of chris crossing overpasses. It is a really good thing we stayed just above freezing in dallas. The bridges and overpasses that freeze first. We escaped that threat here in dallas, but we are now seeing some of the heaviest freezing rain from just northeastern texas right across arkansas. It is glazing the roads and were being told and getting reports it is a sheet of ice. We certainly are seeing travel conditions just to the north of here and that means that the Holiday Travel week is off to a horrible start. Dylan, thank you very much. Expect delays and cancellations. The storm makes its way from dallas and up the east coast. We have tom cost tekos tecost t with the latest at reagan. Reporter david, good morning. A balmy 25 degrees here in the nations capitol. We have smooth sailing around the east coast and midatlantic but thats going to change in the coming days. 3 Million People are taking to the skies. We have about 340 Flight Cancellations today according to flightaware. Com. 650 cancellations yesterday. So far today at dallas, 300 flights have been cancelled. Thats about 180 departures and 104 arrivals. 170 American Eagle flights cancelled as well. Dallas is a big choke point we will be watching. Take a look at the cam from Reagan International airport here in washington. So far today its going to be a nice day but thats going to change in the coming hours. Heavy rain and heavy wind across the midatlantic up into the east coast and well be watching closely, everything from washington to new york to boston. The midsection of the country as well. Chicago, st. Louis. In the coming hours and days this is going to change dramatically with rain and heavy wind and snow as well. Guys, back to you. Tom costello in washington for us this morning. Thanks. Now to politics. The fallout with the Historic Nuclear Deal with iran. Critics are already lining up. Andrea mitchell is our nbc chief correspondent and is on the story. Andrea, good morning. Reporter good morning, savannah. The iran deal came together after a year after secret talks between top u. S. Officials and iran all without the knowledge of israel or other key american allies. In the wake of the iran deal the big question this morning, what next . Its the effort to get the comprehensive agreement which will require enormous steps in terms of verification, transparency and accountability. Reporter the agreement temporarily freezes the Nuclear Program for six months. In return iran gets what the white house calls modest sanctions relief. The burden is on iran to prove to the world that its Nuclear Program will be exclusively for peaceful purposes. Reporter but israels Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu quickly condemned the agreement. Its a historic mistake. Reporter the president called netanyahu sunday but they disagree on the threat and the goal. The Obama Administration wants to prevent iran from developing a Nuclear Weapon but netanyahu wants to stop them from having the capability to even produce one. We think its important to keep the pressure up. Not to ease pressure before you get them through the heavy lifting before they dismantle their centerfuges. Reporter on this saudi arabia agrees with israel and many worry the threat isnt diminished. I just want to see this all the way through. They now have Nuclear Weapons and i dont want to see that happen in iran. Reporter even some experts remain skeptical. Youre not going to know how significant, whether this is the historic breakthrough many claimed or a historic mistake for at least another six months. Andrea, you mentioned there were secret talks that went on for a year with the u. S. Officials and iranian counterparts. What can you tell us about that . Well these all went on with bill burns and other leaders in the gulf country and all without the knowledge of the arab leaders, israel and the western powers as well. Israel, netanyahu was told by the president in september and thats why he has been so fiercely angry at the United States. That as well as the saudis. Thank you so much. A deal tied to u. S. Involvement in afghanistan hit a road block this morning. Natalie is here with that. Good morning to you all. Enable u. S. Troops to operate in the country beyond next year, but afghan president karzai indicated it may have that wait. Richard engel is in eastern afghanistan with the latest on this on going debate. Good morning. Reporter good morning, we just finished a battlefield circulation with commander of u. S. Troops in this part of eastern afghanistan. He showed us how afghan troops are now leading the fight and that he used to have about 50 outposts in this area and now american troops only hold about 13 bases including this one. This is one of the socalled enduring bases. Bases that could stay on in this country beyond 2014 if the government in kabul and washington approve a joint security deal that could see thousands of american troops staying in this country for years to come. Over the weekend, a group of tribal elders in kabul decided they want this deal. They want u. S. Troops to stay because its good for security. It helps the Afghan Security forces fight al qaeda and fight the taliban but then afghanistans president said not yet. He wont sign the deal until the United States shows more signs of good faith and does more, in his words, to bring security to this country. For now it seems this joint security deal and the future of american troops in this country is on hold. Natalie. Shootings will be released today. The report comes almost a year after a gunman took the lives of 20 students and six staff members. It was expected to be released in june but was pushed back to the fall. Families of the victims were briefed in advance of the report being released later today. The vatican for the first time publicly unveiled a handful of bone fragments reportedly belonging to the first pope, st. Peter. They were displayed during a mass sunday. Pope francis prayed before the bone fragments at the start of the service and then clutched the case in his arms for several minutes. No pope has ever definitively declared they belonged to peter. Some archaeologists dispute the findings. As you heard it was a comeback for the ages, the battle of the quarterbacks as Peyton Manning faced tom brady on sunday night football. This lived up to the hype. The Denver Broncos lead the new England Patriots 240 at halftime, but the pats came roaring back. New england took the lead when edelman got a touchdown. The game went into overtime and it was a critical mistake by denvers tony carter accidentally touching the ball after a punt. The equivalent of a fumble there. New england rae covered and the pats were left with an easy 31 yard field goal attempt. Gostkowski kicks it in. A game that ended after midnight at 12 20 a. M. Pats win it 3431. I think the celebration is still ongoing. A lot of us blearyeyed. I was going to say, i cant even stay up for the 4 00 p. M. Game. It started well after 8 00. I was in rem sleep. Thats impressive. I kept waking up during the second half for these great highlights. Without having it to sit there and be up the whole time. Yeah. Mr. Roker, you cant stay up late. You have too much work to do in the weather department. Not only do we have the moisture to talk about, we have for the eastern half of the country arctic cold to talk about as well. Philadelphia today setting a record low dropping down to 20 degrees. First record of the season. That High Pressure moves off but then theres reinforcing cold air coming in. By thanksgiving day, the eastern half of the country going to be 15 to 30 degrees below average with brisk winds. You can see that cold air really starting to come on in. But if you look out to the west, they have good news. Around the backside of that high, weve got warmer than usual temperatures anywhere from 10 to 15 degrees above normal for our friends out west. Were going to get to your local forecast coming up in the next 30 seconds. Get to your local 7 14. Happy monday morning to you. Im meteorologist christina loren. Temperatures are chilly out there, this is one of the coldest mornings ever the season so far. Overall pretty good. San francisco, mostly clear conditions, we have low clouds clinging to the coast but pretty good. Temperatures are going to end up in the 60s, the peninsula, San Francisco, south bay, nice day in santa rosa, 56 for you and 62 in fremont. Ur latest weather. Guys . All right, al. Thank you so much. Now to a story thats been developing for the last week or so. Attackers, mainly in their teens, targeting victims at random. And we struggled with how to bring this story to you because the images are so disturbing. But over the weekend, there were several new incidents and an arrest. Today National Investigative correspondent jeff rossen is here with the latest. Good morning. Good morning. This is something we wanted to warn you about, because clearly, this keeps on happening. Can you imagine just walking down the street, minding your own business, when somebody punches you in the face for no reason at all . Its called the knockout game. Teenagers knocking people out for the fun of it. They even target women and children. Now cases are piling up, and Police Across the country are on high alert. This morning, youre going to see how vicious it gets. Watch this woman walking down the street. A stranger runs up and clocks her from behind, a sucker punch so brutal, the victim lays on the sidewalk, unable to move. In new jersey, it appears these guys filmed their own attack. Oh the suspects laughing and bragging about it. Quitter in pennsylvania, watch this man on the right side of the screen. A group of teenagers knock him out in broad daylight. No warning at all. He drops face down on to the curb. The victim, this school teacher, who was simply walking home. I was hit with one punch that knocked me to the cold concrete. My body and face were bruised. Its a horrific thing to see, and im fortunate that im alive here to tell you about it. Police fear the knockout game has been spreading with cases from san diego to st. Louis and chicago. In syracuse, two men were killed in possible knockout cases. In new york city, police are investigating at least seven attacks and have made one arrest. It appears these are just random acts of violence. Theres no robbery. Its just simply youths making the decision theyre going to try to punch somebody out, sometimes as simple as a 5 bet between themselves. Like 17yearold marvel weaver, who admits he played a marvel weaver who admits he played a version of knockout using a stun gun. He was caught and is now in jail. Its just a lesson learned. People go along with it and one thing leads to another and it just goes all downhill. Reporter downhill for the teens who do it and the victims who continue to suffer. These kids are acting maybe not thinking and not knowing the consequence of what could happen. Reporter here in new york city, the man arrested for playing the knockout game has been charged with a hate crime. Police believe the victim was targeted because hes jewish. Now as these videos end up on youtube and elsewhere online, officials are worried that theyre are going to be copy cat attacks elsewhere in the country. Thats why i wanted to bring this to you. Theyre targeting anybody. Maybe a severe penalty will put a little sense into some of these guys. Jeff, thank you very much. Lets head over to tamron. She skois covering for carson t morning. You have a wild night to talk about, the American Music awards. Like you i was asleep so i saw the highlights this morning. The 39th annual American Music awards last night and yet again taylor swift took home the top honor, artist of the year. Guys this is her third time getting this honor. Pretty cool. And katy perry last night, her performance as a geisha causing a little stir online. Some people not appreciating her selection of costume. Take a listen to miss perry. [ music playing ] some people believing her geisha costume was disrespectful. You can look at what people are saying. I love this moment, rihannas mother presenting her the icon award. Shes only like 10 years old. I am a fan not a hater. I just think icon we throw that around a lot. And yes, miley cyrus. But it wasnt just miley guys. It was miley with a lip singing cat and of course a onesie. Is that the cat on the trapper keeper . Yeah. Im trying to understand. Im not cool enough to get the cat behind her but i do know today i cant stop singing he came in like a wrecking ball is that singing . Thats the only part of the song i know. I sound like a cat. But thats the only part. But whats life without a cat . Im i came in like a wrecking ball and i thought i was bad. Oh my gosh. Were begging you. Bye bye tamron. Call us later. Well check in with you in a bit. Coming up, were going to have a lot more on the thanksgiving week storm that could really spell trouble for Holiday Travel plans. How about this, prince harry snowed in. Imagine that in antarctica. Forecast on this . But first, this is today on nbc. Back now at 7 22 with the sunrise from the top of the rock. Where will you spend your Holiday Shopping dollars . A look at reports. And then the gent in the kitchen on live television. Shell be along to tell us exactly what happened. Ld. Like the last three weekends. Asthma doesnt affect my job. You missed the meeting again last week it doesnt affect my family. Your coughing woke me up again. I wish youd take me to the park. I dont use my rescue inhaler a lot. Depends on what you mean by a lot. Coping with asthma isnt controlling it. Test your level of control at asthma. Com, then talk to your doctor. There may be more you could do for your asthma. Our plan is in place. Weve rigged up a trap to catch sight of his face. If only we could, just stay awake. You get your coffee here. You get your hair cut here. You find that certain thing you were looking for here, but actually you get so much more. When you shop at these small local businesses, you support all the things that make your community great. The money you spend here, stays here. In this place you call your neighborhood. This saturday is Small Business saturday. Get out and shop small. Which is why hes investing in his heart health by eating ke