difference in the way union county is searching for their superintendent than they are in charlotte-mecklenburg schools? >> reporter: yeah, john, there is a big difference, actually. the board decided to skip a search firm, that is the direction cms is going in. they will let the national north carolina school board association pick their candidates for them in union county. now, this morning we may find out if the association has any kind of short list. special meeting to discuss the superintendent search is taking place at 11:00 this morning in union county. school board members say the one thing they learned from cms is getting the process started instead of putting it off any longer. some board members wanted to have a new leader in place in union county by next year but in the end, the board voted to decide no time line, they want to make sure they get it right in union county. new hire will replace dr. mary ellis, who will retire on june 1st. we'll let you know what comes from this meeting this morning, a special meeting planned in reporting just outside uptown charlotte, mark davenport, wbtv on your side. >> christine: a group of donors who pledged almost $50 million for project lift have agreed to extend the effort another year. that is according to our news partners at the charlotte observer. a partnership between a private board and charlotte-mecklenburg schools to boost performance at nine struggling schools in the district. the program is now in the fourth year. >> john: north korea once again in the headlines for latest missile launch. get over to brody o'connell with new details. >> brody: john, they are not calling these missiles, they are calling them projectiles. there is a difference there. south korea n join chiefs of staff trying to make it clear to make it crystal clear for what type of threat there may be from north carolina. this is new from north korea, apparently showing the nation's leader viewing some of the military exercises that have been carried out over the past what is being reported right now from south korea is the north part of the peninsula fired four short range projectiles in range projectiles. they are monitoring the situation and maintaining full readiness in response to this postures, not clear how serious the threat may be. john and christine that is the latest, back to you. >> christine: interesting, thank you, brody. 5:33, marine killed over in northern iraq was based here in north carolina. 27-year-old staff sergeant lewis cardin died saturday from wounds suffer when his unit was hit by rocket fire. it is under investigation, he wases from california but was lejeune. >> john: the liberal advocacy group move on will push thom tillis and richard burr to vote the people supreme court. the rally is scheduled to start at 12:30 outside thom tillis' office in north charlotte. last week merrick garland was tapped to fill the seat left empty basal by the death of antonin scalia. >> christine: the city is hosting a transportation and planning workshop at grady cole center tomorrow night from 4:00 to 8:00. you can weigh in on transportation needs on the independence boulevard and lynx silver line. they teach bike safety tanned host a bike rodeo for children. on wednesday weigh in on increased fares for buses and trains. according to our news partners at the charlotte observer, rates cost go up in july as cats looks looking at adding 10 cents to transit fares or getting rid of discounts for ten ride passes. a public hearing will be held wednesday night at the 5:30 at the government center. if you want to comment, sign up by calling 7047-432-0872. >> john: charlotte hornets fans, get tickets to see the teams in the playoff. single game tickets for the first round go on sale this morning at 10:00. the first three potential home games will be available at hornets.com or ticketmaster.com. playoff opponents, dates and times not determined. that won't be until the end of the regular season, next month. a young basketball fan learns the hard way not to the talk their back on the players. one kid saw a camera, champ camera, the video kevin serafin sent him flying. boom. >> christine: lesson learned. he's okay. a live look at the commute, 5:36 and this is the nation's ford road exit at i-77, traffic again moving great this morning, the roads continue to dry out from the rain we got overnight. meteorologist al conklin standing in the first alert weather center with moore more details. >> al: it will be colder in the metro area than this morning. we have a freeze watch in effect from all the counties from from mecklenburg, cabarrus and york, north and west, frost advisory south and east for tonight. average last frost here in the charlotte area is actually the first week in april. so we could get chilly around here and we had four straight nights in our forecast in the 30s. now we will be back in the 30s again tonight coming on up. today, we rebound. nicely, getting up to 58, that of the mid and upper 40s with cloud cover, today we should improve greatly. sharon camp sent in the big catch picture with "84 years old and still catching them" johnny from grover, north carolina, fishing whenever and whenever he can. he's active and attends island creek baptist church. way to go you're our big catch of the day. folks, i need your big catch stockpile gets thin. email them to me at aconklin@wbtv.com. you're not a fan of the cool weather, stick around, 70s going forward. by the middle part of the week, i'll let you know about it in the seven day planner. back to you, christine. >> christine: coming up in what's trending, remember this guy right here? >> john: how sad grandpa and his internet fame, i just picked us up 2 breakfast croissants for $4, when this bear attacked. with one swipe, it devoured one of the croissants. then jack showed up, and took care of the beast, so i could escape. and that's what happened to your breakfast croissant. and yours? it survived. enjoy freshly cracked egg with ham and bacon. or sausage. two tasty croissants at an eventastier $4 price. >> christine: 5:41, let's look at what is trending. >> john: sad grandpa is trending. twitter went crazy saying he invited six kids over for dinner but one showed up. her cousin brock tweeted he's having a cook out this saturday in purcell, oklahoma they will be selling burgers and tee shirts say "i had a burger with pawpaw" proceeds go toward the college funds and charities. >> christine: we need a happy picture. >> john: the boss came through angeles. >> christine: bruce springsteen brought the nine-year-old back stage, he wrote him a tardy letter dear ms. jackson, he has been out very late rocking and rolling, please excuse him if he is tardy, how cool is that. he gets a tardy letter. >> john: who gets to keep it, the teacher or kid? >> john: a kitty gives new meaning to the term cat burglar. she has stolen 11 pair also of boxers and 50 pairs of socks since january. been reaching out to the neighbors with flyers promising to return any missing underwear. also reassuring neighbors the r missingare you missing underwear? >> al: crazy cat. >> christine: a little tool curious. >> john: of all things to be stealing! >> al: not the greatest, yesterday was bad, 70 on saturday, sort of in and out, yesterday, had a couple ball game also yesterday afternoon, nobody was happy. not in charge. look at it this is a. t. allen elementary school. that is almost the full moon going down, the worm moon, full coming up early wednesday morning but boy, bright out there, skies have cleared very nicely, that is the hd tower cam in center city, we're now at 38 with clear skies, excellent visibility. barometer on the rise as high pressure is building, a feels like temperature, wind chill of 34 degrees. 28 up in boone, rather 29 right now in boone, 28 in jefferson, very cold conditions. alleghany county schools on two-hour delay. 37 salisbury, concord, 36 in lincolnton, 39 in shelby, 39 rock hill and 39 lancaster and monroe. hopefully the heat is working well, by this afternoon we rebound to 58, keep in mind that is still a good five degrees or so below average. tonight will be the colder night, no advisories for the mountains, the wind up there will be an issue and cold tonight but you don't have the growing season yet, the rest of us have frost and freeze watches in effect here because we're expecting lows to get down in the lower 30s tonight, most areas i think will be at are on below freezing a couple hours tonight early tomorrow morning, then we rebound very nicely, tomorrow afternoon, pushing 70 if mid to upper 60s, better than that toward wednesday and thursday. high pressure with us right now, that will park itself over north and south carolina tomorrow morning. our temperatures will be in the 30s and leaves tomorrow afternoon, in the 60s, wednesday in advance of of this this could bring us a little bit of rain thursday night into early friday morning. doesn't look to be a huge system, a couple of showers maybe a rumble of thunder friday morning. dry out for good friday afternoon. all of saturday and most of sunday there are some long range models suggests there could be rain late in the weekend. we'll fine tune it through time. sun-up at 7:25, sets at 7:37, normally 65, today, 58. an improvement over yesterday, clear, cold tonight, 32, not so cold tomorrow night. we'll be out of the 30s for a while. the chance for showers late thursday night into friday morning, then sunshine back for the afternoon hours. that is the forecast, check in on first alert traffic. first alert traffic brought to you by toyota of north charlotte. >> john: a live look at current conditions perhap andconditions map, coming up 485 and providence road, it is looking pretty clear. reports -- no reports, no can a active reports right now. i-85 at mile marker 37, you can see traffic appears to be light there. it is moving smoothly, we know things will pick up but right now, now is the time to head out because things are looking clear. you're never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. here is a question, have you noticed any changes at your local grocery store? are we'll tell you about the new push to move toward healthier options for you and your family. >> christine: brody o'connell live in the alert center following breaking news, getting first live look at the fire in mooresville, that picture right behind him there is live on the scene. many coulding up in a >> christine: we're continuing to follow breaking news on a fire happening now in mooresville. >> john: go to brody o'connell, we have the first live pictures, live in the alert center. >> brody: this is as live look, mcneeley avenue in mooresville, are a very active scene although it looks like the house they are working on, the fire might be out at this point but it is hard to tell from this live picture. we've been in communication with the iredell county communications, they tell us apparently the fire started a little more than an hour ago just around 4:30 this morning. the cause of the fire obviously still under investigation, they are out there working the scene. no word on the exact extent of the damages or any injuries but again as you can see looks like they are putting up caution tape around the scene to make sure they secure the scene, they want to make sure obviously nobody goes on the property because the structure could be heavily damaged from the fire. several trucks on scene we'll work on getting new details obviously count on us to bring you details first here in the the alert center, john and christine, back to you. >> christine: president obama meets with cuban leader raul castro today as he continues his historic visit to the island nation. the president touched down in havana yesterday, along with the first lady and their two daughters. he is the first u.s. president to visit cuba in 88 years. >> john: pope francis using palm sunday message to speak out out of indifference of refugees. he led a procession through st. peter's square to usher in holy week. instagram. he has become the first pope to hop aboard the service. the first picture from pope francis was an image of himself, me" written in a variety of languages. he has more than 1.5 million followers in one day. how about that. >> christine: wow. earth will have a close call with two comets. >> john: the comets could be twins, the smaller one may be a fragment that broke off the bigger one. both are going to be a mere two million miles away. the event is the third closest comment fly-by in recorded history. >> christine: you're never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. here is meteorologist al conklin again. >> al: all relative. two million miles away, that is close. impressive. the thing is how cool it is but at least this afternoon we'll see something we didn't see yesterday, and that is sunshine, we have clear skies, this is scott clark's toyota in breeze, chilly breeze, temperatures in the 30s. 39 shelby, 38 hickory, morgan-on-to, below freezing, 29 in boone, 37 in salisbury, a very chilly cold start to the day but lots of sunshine, a breeze out there then this afternoon many coulding home from work and school, better day than yesterday but still good ways below average. should be up in the mid 60s, still a breeze. if you're not a fan of the chilly weather, stick around, we take off getting up in the 70s as we head toward the easter weekend, talk about that in the seven day planner at the top of the hour. right now first alert traffic. first alert traffic brought to you by toyota of north charlotte. >> christine: the 5:00 hour has been great traffic-wise, we have not seen accidents being worked. saw a slow down on independence as you got to albermarle, that normal there, otherwise, wherever you're traveling from, cornelius, pineville, gastonia, matthews, your commute should be great. let's look live at i-77 at arrowood, this area gets backed up pretty good at this exit but right now, things moving smoothly both north and southbound. coming up in the next hour of wbtv news this morning -- >> john: we follow this breaking news of that house fire in iredell county, plus the search ises on for a man who robbed a gas station in south charlotte overnight. find out how police say he got away with cash. voters in one county will vote on major school bond referendum tomorrow, all new in the 6:30 half hour, what it means if it passes. you're watching wbtv news before 6:00. this broadcast sponsored by subaru south boulevard and subaru concord. wbtv on your side. wbtv news starts right now. >> christine: a spring cool-down this morning. this is as live look at current manytemperatures, near or below freezing across the charlotte area. meteorologist al conklin on your side tracking when with the warmth will return. >> john: a wrong-way crash leaves two people dead, people who live in the area say the crash didn't surprise them. brody o'connell is live in the alert center this morning. >> brody: john, getting details about a fire that is currently it looks like under control in mooresville, we'll have new details and live pictures from the scene. >> john: good morning, welcome to wbtv news this morning, the start of yet another work week, it is monday, march 21st, i'm john carter. >> christine: i'm christine sperow. one delay. alleghany schools operating on two-hour delay right now. let's get to meteorologist al conklin in the first alert weather center. the first day of spring started off pretty cold. >> al: got back to 47 in charlotte yesterday. that with the cloud cover, now the clouds have cleared out last night's rain is long gone, dry streets will greet you. you can see it it on the metro school camera. full moon, full moon on the 23rd. as it goes down the sun will be up in an hour, 36 in charlotte, pretty chilly, 34 around mountain island lake, 37 arboretum, weddington, 38 around ballantyne. boone, below freezing, 29 up there, 36 statesville, hickory, wilkesboro, concord, 38 in monroe and 37 for cheraw and lancaster. today, plenty of sunshine, wind up at 58, big improvement over yesterday, still almost ten degrees below average this time the colder night. freeze watch in effect for much of the viewing area, i'll talk how cold for your neighborhood in a few minutes. you're never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. first alert traffic brought to you by toyota of north charlotte. >> christine: checking with cmpd here and right now, no major accidents being worked to start the 6:00 a.m. hour, the commute has been fantastic so far, you can see 485, 77, 85 all highlighted in green. if you have to get on the roads, this is the time to do it. traffic is moving smoothly. looking live at the state line where it does get backed up a good bit during the morning hours, but again at this hour, north and southbound traffic moving well, volume picking up only slightly. le we'll let you know of problems first on wbtv. >> john: we want to get over to brody o'connell. >> christine: continuing to watch breaking news happening now out of mooresville.