A travel ban. Absolutely. This is a big storm you are seeing right now with 30 Million People in its path. Depending where they are as the storm continues to move in millions are in for a night of heavy snow and gusting winds. Coastal areas are preparing for storm surges. Emergency personnel are watching for possible Power Outages. I want to start with the latest from our weather team. For that bring in our meteorologist. People want to know what kind of conditions we are seeing out there right now and wheres the storm the strongest . The storm is strongest over new england, southern new england. Thats where we are looking at the worst conditions and where this historic storm is ramping up. Providence to boston is where the worst is. Blizzard warnings are in effect from coastal new jersey to bangor, maine. With blizzard warnings it is not necessarily the amount of snow you will get but the winds and visibility and all of those things that make it treacherous on the road. We are going to have those conditions up and down the coast as we are seeing the winds ramp up. The worst of the winds right now are definitely through new england. They are getting the heaviest snow. The winds are picking up. Wind in providence town of 48 miles an hour. Nantucket picked up a wind over 60 miles an hour. They are at 62. 47 vineyard haven. These are strong winds that are causing blowing and drifting snow and also they will see some big waves along the coast with these winds, as well. Thats causing a decrease in visibility. Thats also something that creates these whiteout conditions which is pretty much making for the blizzard warning. Less than a mile in boston right now. Were down to a mile in hartford. Less than a mile in new york and then it gets better the further south you go. Philadelphia is not too bad right now. Again it is pretty much the cut off from hartford down where we will see the lesser amount of snows. Conditions will be tough but not as bad as we will see them through new england. Heres a look at the radar. It is faint here but we have some bright blue bands that you see with this storm. The bands push to the west with. Thats where we get snowfall rates of two to four inches per hour. Thats significant snow right now thats coming from providence to boston. As we go further down to the south, new york is trying to get in on that heavier snow. The eastern part of the tristate is getting heavy part of the snow. Long island are getting hammered. In manhattan the snow hasnt been that heavy, which is good news. Were not looking at as much snow but will see bands of heavier snow that will move in overnight. We are still calling for a lot of snow in manhattan. Its just we are not looking at as a much snow as we will see through new england. Close to two feet in some cases in new england. Philadelphia is not getting in on as much of the snow either. We are looking at five to eight inches of snowfall for philadelphia. Much of that is already fallen. Heres a closer look. You can see these heavier bands now that are setting up to the north from boston to providence as well. Not only do we have the heavy bands moving in the low pressure system is moving in and starting to deepen. The cold air is locked in place. It is very cold out there. Look at the windchills in the single digits. Five for the feels like temperature in boston. Four in harter ford. A little better for new york down to d. C. But still very cold. And that cold will be a problem for several days to come. Even when you say goodbye to the snow the cold will stick around and that means we will have a lot of freezing behind it and a lot of freezing snow to shovel if you cant get out to shovel it right away. Heres what we are looking at for the forecast. This is a call we are making. Remember this storm will go until tomorrow afternoon. It will die down through new england by late tomorrow afternoon. We are calling for 22 to 26 in boston. 22 to 24 in portland. We are looking at a couple of feet of snow through the new england area. Lesser amounts through new york. Ten to 14. Long island will see higher amounts and then philadelphia is definitely on the lower end. It just doesnt look like that storm can carry the moisture over that far west which is certainly good news. Everybody is going to be in the zone. Not only for the cold but extreme winds, as well. So this storm is definitely underway, and the worst is still yet to come. Were going to continue to see the worst of the storm through new england over the next several hours and through the early part of tomorrow for what with would be a commute but isnt going to be a commute in many cities. Betty. Never a good sign when you say the worst is yet to come. Already seen snow for hours on end today. Unfortunately but we still have high tide to get through. We still have a long ways to go. Its going to be a long night, a long night for southern new england because now we will start to get Power Outages. The winds are howling there and that is something that will persist through the overnight. So when i say it gets worse, it just means all of the effects of this storm are going to start to ramp up. All right. Stay inside, stay safe and stay warm. Our richard lui is doing none of that. He is outside braving these conditions. Richard, back to you. You know betty, i just checked the temperatures and sustained winds reported by the Weather Channel right now. About 12 miles an hour. Feels like 15 degrees out here. That means the salt they normally put on the ground behind me will not work as well with. The snow is picking up up. Now we see the plows behind me in front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza now working with. Thats because this is the bewitching withing hour as new york city city mayor bill deblasio was talking about today. He said around 11 00, 12 00, expect one to two inches of snow per hour. And his concern is you would have whiteout conditions. We are seeing a little bit of that increase the bewitching hour that the mayor was so concerned about. Well see how things work out but the plows behind us are starting to work again. It was quiet for a good amount of time. Now over to msnbcs craig melvin who is out in the city driving around and was at Rockefeller Plaza earlier. Craig, you have a great perspective you can give us in terms of the arc of the day. Now we are after midnight the key time the mayor was telling us about, what would you say. Great way to put it my friend. I would say earlier today, several hours ago it was interesting and refreshing if you will to see the sheer number of people that seem to be listening to their elected leaders saying this thing could be bad. Go home now if you can. Get ou of the city now if you can. We saw a lot of folks doing that. We have also seen the lions share of people abide by the mayor and governors request to stay off the roads. As you know a travel ban was put in to effect at 11 00. Nonessential vehicles not on the roads, nonessential people on the other hand are all over the roads. A lot of people are using this as an opportunity to go out and snap some really Cool Pictures before the worst of the storm hits. We are on fifth avenue heading away from 30 rockefeller. Heading to the flat iron district. You can probably tell richard, the streets in front of us they may look like they have not been plowed but they have been. Fifth avenue has been plowed. Parts of fifth avenue have been plowed several times. Governor cuomo saying several hours ago, one of the major problems we will see the next 24 to 36 hours is the amount of snow and the speed at which the snow is falling. It is going to make it virtually impossible for the plow trucks to keep up. Thats what we are seeing right now along a fairly empty fifth avenue. Craig, what are you seeing in terms of wind gusts, winds us sustained. Are you seeing a pickup in the areas where you have been at . Shortly after 6 00 when we were right outside the location right now, the wind was pretty intense. It was whipping fairly fiercely off of those sky scrapers there in manhattan. We have seen it die down and saw it pick back up. And now it looks like last time we were outside of the vehicle ten minutes ago, it seems the winds died down once again. The same can be said for the snow. You have seen periods of heavy snow intense snow. Then other periods tonight where theres barely no snow at all. Again, based on what we have been reading and hearing from our meteorologists in house and at the National Weather service, this is not just figuratively but literally the calm before the storm. Right. And craig, you can maybe hear the plows behind me. How many have you seen out in the areas that you have been looking at . Dozens. Dozens of plows. Dozens of what i call primary plows. These are vehicles that were clearly purchased to be plows. And then there are makeshift plows, as well. Garbage trucks that have been outfitted in the front to be plows, Police Vehicles that have been outfitted to be plows, as well. We have heard from a number of mayors, a couple of governors as well throughout the course of the day who have said all hands are going to be on deck. It was interesting to hear from Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier. He was in Sussex County and telling the story about buffalo. Back in november they saw seven feet of snow. They are not going to see anything like that this time. But Governor Cuomo saying that the folks in buffalo to repay the favor, to pay it forward so to speak they shipped a lot of resources, manpow er and vehicle resources, as well to help new york city recover from what is undoubtedly going to be one of the worst storms in the history of the city. They are so worried about the big number 26 inches the record set back in 2006. Craig melvin whos been driving in the streets of manhattan, surveying and reporting back to us in terms of what you have been able to see for the storm, the blizzard of 2015. Thank you as always, my friend. Robert ron, your reports throughout the evening have seen a consistent amount of snow and wind gusts. Youre telling me. Yeah. It has been getting worse by the hour. It started snowing here 2 00 3 00 this afternoon. Yeah now it is kind of blowing in this direction, which is why im standing this way. It is swirling. The winds are gusting. Definitely picking up. So far, i guess we look around it seems theres about, seven or eight inches of know on the ground. It is light and fluffy. Back there in that direction is the long island expressway which is a busy heavy commuter route that is basically abandoned now. We see some snowplows go by once in a while. We see utility vehicles go by which is good news. Motoristst have been staying off the road and thats great. Earlier it was gridlock on these roads as everyone was rushing out of the yards heading home. Going in that direction is east which is where the storm is even worse or forecast to be worse than it is here if you can believe that. Right now, it seems that people have have hunkered down. It seems colder or maybe i am colder because i have been here so long. It is hard to imagine it is going to get much worse but it is certainly going to get much worse. Hunkering down hanging in here for now and watching with it as it piles up. Again, the wind gusts are the big concern out here. It creates a situation where you cant really see anything in front of you. I think you were driving you would have a few car lengths to see in front of you. Thats why it is a good idea to stay off the roads. At this point it is against the law to be out there. National Weather Service consistently predicting blizzard conditions there. Ron allen reporting for us today. Thank you so much. Betty, back to you. As we see a little pickup now. As we were talking a moment ago, this is the bewitching hour that we have been told about by the mayor. The 11 00 to 12 00 a. M. Time period. We are not seeing people on the streets. They are heefding to the warning where you are and where with ron is. It is coming down and has been for hours. We will have more ahead on this blizzard. You are looking at a live picture right now of times square. You dont see this often, pretty empty down there. And it is for a good reason as people are being told stay inside. Well have more coverage. Stay right here with the latest welcome back, everybody. We have live coverage of the blizzard of 2015. Its in effect at this hour. The worst we are hearing is that it is yet to come. At this hour travel ban is in effect for five states. Seven state of emergencies have been issued. Lets get the latest on the ground. Lets take it to framingham massachusetts where rehema ellis had been driving. Do you see anybody on the streets right now . Reporter well we just see a car in front of us. If you can take a shot of the camera that we have mounted on our windshield youll see some taillights up ahead. I must tell you, we have seen a distinct drop in the volume of traffic in the last hour. There are very few vehicles out here. The majority of them are emergency vehicles or they are snowplows or sanding vehicles spreading out the salt and sand on these roads. The state of massachusetts has 250,000, i should say 250,000 tons of salt available to try to treat these roads to keep people out here safe. It is getting worse by the minute. The ice is building up on the windshield wipers and on the windshield. It is cold. The snow is blowing. Its a very fine icy snow. The temperature, according to the National Weather service, is 17 degrees. They say its going to get even colder. It will go down to zero or below zero. Thats going to make these driving conditions out here really treacherous. You understand why the travel ban is in effect. Most people at this hour would be heeding it any way now that we are past the midnight hour. But its unusual to not see any other cars out on the road even at this time of the night but not unusual considering the circumstances and conditions on the road right now. They are tough conditions and we expect that they will get worse before they get better. Definitely tough conditions. Just look ing at your windshield right now, it has to be hard for you to see because it is hard for us to see out of it. It seems like the ice is piling up as a you are driving. It really is. I have to tell you also it has gotten darker. The fact that you dont have other vehicles on the road it reduces the light that you have out here unless you come across right now we are passing an auto dealership so there are a lot of lights focused on that but once we pass this section the road is very dark. There is a sense that something is happening out here that is an indication of all of the warnings that we are getting from officials, and that is to get off the roads, get inside. The worst with of the storm, as we understand is to be happening from now until tomorrow afternoon. Thats why the travel ban is in effect. The Public Transportation also has been shut down here in massachusetts until sometime on wednesday, at least they hope they will be able to get Public Transportation up and running again in the state, but for now it is not happening. People certainly will be expected to be at home tomorrow and they should be because the word is they should not be out here on these streets. Absolutely. You be safe out there, too. Looking at this windshield icing over, it doesnt look like a good situation. Thank you so much for that live report from framingham massachusetts. Parts of massachusetts are bracing for as much as two feet of snow. In the town scituate massachusetts, south of boston, they are bracing for potential flooding along the coast. At this hour officials there have cut off the power along some streets in an effort to prevent fires if the water comes in. We have this report. Reporter it is almost unbelievable out here. This is the early part of the storm. While it is snowing you barely notice the snow. The wind is overwhelming here this close to the water. A lot of folks have been preparing all day and you see it up and down the coast here in scituate. Boarded up houses making sure their houses are safe for the brunt that will happen overnight. See how strong the winds are. We have the lights on the car for two reasons. One to show how strong the winds are. The snow here falling sideways. Not a lot of accumulation where i am standing because a that snow is swept off the coast inside as well. We also turned the lights on because it is dark out here. They cut the power to five coastal streets here in scituate at 10 00 tonight. Just about 30 40 minutes ago because they wanted to make sure if there were any emergencies like a fire, they are trying to prevent a widespread fire out here. They cut the power to these roads so it would be easier for fire truck and emergency crews to get out here. The concern is high tide spoefzed to hit at 4 30 in the morning. The winds will be likely as strong as well. Wind is blowing tremendously. That is whdh reporter from scituate massachusetts. Back outside to 30 rock. Richard lui has been standing out in it. Looks like the snow continues to come down. Earlier, as we were coming in to work i dont know couple of hours ago, there was nothing going on really but boy ha how things have changed. We will have fingers of the storm that will pick up and go down a this moment as we talked about at the top of the show here, this is a time they were so concerned right after midnight. Talk about the wind in massachusetts n scituate. I want to get to the latest from boston. We are joined on the phone by renee fielding the director of Emergency Management for the city of boston. Renee, tell us where you are at and whats the latest information you are getting there in the office of Emergency Management . Sure. Thank you for having me. Were at the Boston Emergency Operation Center in boston with all of our city departments here monitoring whats going on outside. About right now we probably have three to four inches on the ground. We are getting ready for the brunt of the storm in the next couple of hours where we will see one to three inches of snow an hour and were going to see the wind gusts dramatically pick up. Do you expect the peak around 3 00 a. M. Is that what you are saying . About then is when we expect the shift where snow will come down a lot harder. Rene, talk about last year where the storm walloped boston. It wasnt the biggest in recent years but significant. How does this compare to last years big storm . So it is shaping up to be the same as blizzard nemo. It hit us a good 24 hours and saw a lot of snow coming down, two to three inches an hour with high winds. A lot of drifting and blizzardlike conditions. I forget that we are already in the new year, rene. We are in 2015 now. I remembe