Trees. Check your flashlight batteries in critical times now 9 a. M. Sunday until 3 a. M. Monday. I think all those times will be below freezing or 32 or below. Right now were 43 in gaithersburg, leesburg, 46 downtown and 40 in hagerstown. So again no problems with freezing tonight. Well come back, talk about the difference between snow, sleet and freezing rain and why that occurs and when its going to start on sunday. Tonight the world is mourning the loss of a freedom icon, Nelson Mandela being remembered as a leader who fought against apartheid and then went on to lead his country and inspire the world. President obama, first Lady Michelle obama, the clintons, oprah will all join World Leaders for mandelas state funeral next sunday. This sunday will be a national day of prayer and reflection in south africa. Tuesday will be the official public memorial. Here in the u. S. The president did order flags to fly at half staff until sunday in honor of the former South African president. The most visual outpouring of grief and celebration of his life is taking place outside mandelas home in a suburb of johannesburg. Alphonso van marsh is there. Reporter people streamed down the streets toward Nelson Mandelas johannesburg home singing songs of praise, prayer and freedom. They gathered to pay tribute to the former South African president who died at 95 surrounded by family not far from here. This man says hes not mourning. I get to celebrate his life. We cry among our joy and laugh and remember the good. Reporter some gave speeches. While others led group prayers remembering the man who ushered in democracy for all of south africas people. Deep in our heart and minds and ears. Reporter Nelson Mandela may have been a Nobel Laureate and is receiving accolades from World Leaders, but many people gathered here choose to remember mandela as a man of the people. Mandela was not just an ordinary person, yet he lived ordinary. Reporter locals richard and clair stride brought their kids to lay flowers in honor of mandela. They want their sons to share in his legacy. All i know is that he stopped apartheid. Reporter and the prayers, remembrances and celebrations continue tonight. Alphonso van marsh, cbs news, joe lanceburg johannesburg, south johannesburg, south africa. Every night between 7 00 and 8 00 there will be a prayer vigil outside the new statue of mandela. Wednesday at 11 a. M. There will be a service to celebrate mandela at the national cathedral. Surae chinn reports from the south African Embassy. Reporter construction workers have removed fencing that was preventing people from getting close to Nelson Mandelas statue. Now they can get up close, lay flowers and pay their respects. Its a sad day, but what a great man, what a great life. Hes at peace right now. Reporter they came to reflect, give respect and for terry gerais to drop a single red rose at his statue. My son said it was the wrong color because i had white roses, too and he said it meant love and i said well, thats Nelson Mandela. Reporter Nelson Mandela became the first black president of the country that imprisoned him for 27 years because he wanted to end apartheid. Im just so happy im able to be part of the first generation that can be free from apartheid. Im so happy i could visit a free south africa and not one that was oppressed by racism. Reporter during his incarceration mandela inspired people to hold daily protests at the south African Embassy in washington. Mr. Mandela left a global legacy just from the reaction globally to his death, but you cant not be shocked. You cant the be sad. Reporter South African ambassador to the u. S. Receiving the news from mandelas daughter. She knows how important the United States is to the Mandela Family and to south africa because it was here that so much happened where people marched for our freedom, were arrested for our freedom and that is why that statue is there. His ideas will live on. They will never die. Reporter people are meeting inside the Embassy Planning on events in the district to pay a proper tribute to Nelson Mandela. At the south African Embassy on massachusetts avenue in northwest, surae chinn, wusa9. You can submit your videos, your photos, your remembrances of Nelson Mandela on our website, www. Wusa9. Com. Thats where you will also find world reaction to his death along with some of the former south African Leaders most memorable quotes. D. C. Police chief cathy lanier says there is no connection between a pair of alleged Sexual Exploitation cases involving officers accused of preying on teenage girls. Scott broom reports now that yet another officer has been put on suspension and is under investigation in one of those cases. Reporter two d. C. Police officers and two stunning cases of alleged Sexual Exploitation of teenage girls, both officers working out of the 7th district, but today chief lanier said the cases are not related. There is no connection that we are aware of between the two. Reporter but the investigations are expanding, at least one additional officer on suspension as internal Affairs Detectives take an intense closer look. Lanier wont say what the suspension is about, but it is related to the case of 32year old officer marc washington who was arrested and charged with using his Police Powers to coerce a 15yearold runaway to submit to sexually explicit nude photos found on washingtons personal camera taken while he was in uniform and on duty. It only takes one cop to do one thing like this to shake everybody in our community. Reporter in the second exploitation case there are no charges yet, but a search warrant outlines how police raided the southeast d. C. Apartment of veteran officer linwood barnhill, jr. Wednesday where they found him with two girls, one a 16yearold run away who claims she and other girls were being pimped out for prostitution by the officer. The girld barnhill advertised photos of her on the website back painpage. Com. Barnhill has been on limited duty, but chief lanier wouldnt say why. All i can tell you is for an injury. I cant discuss the rest. Personnel prevents me from talking about certain details of. Reporter the raid on barnhills apartment turned up evidence of prostitution including large containers of condoms, Womens Clothing and mirrors that may have been seen in one of those back page. Com advertisements. A federal judge ruled this afternoon that a of accused d. C. Police officer marc washington can be that accused d. C. Police officer marc washington can be released for electronic monitoring once he puts up the deed to his home for security. Police say two men approached a woman at front door of her house on varnum drive november 25th and forced their way inside. At that point the men held the woman and her husband at gunpoint and stole some property, a cadillac that was stolen later recovered. Right now we want to give you a live look to the ellipse where president obama and the first family are about to flip the switch on the National Christmas tree, kind of looks like a snow globe there. Of course, theyre having a few challenges because of the weather, but on stage right now we believe could be train. I think weve got train that should be coming up any moment now. They are part of the headliners of this fantastic show that we have put on every year around this time of year about a message of peace and hope. Theyre getting it going there. The ceremony dates back to 1923. So this is the 91st ceremony. Were expected to see Aretha Franklin and mariah carey. Jay lynch is hosting this. Those poor folks in the audience are not under any cover. No. You can see the rain coming down through, yeah, and it looks like the lead singer of train has on a rain jacket. So they are sitting out in the elements, but everybody is excited about this, one of our holiday traditions here in the United States. Well be back in just a little bit on the other side of the break. Oh, by the way, before i let you go today is a day being called by many ice friday, big deep freeze moving all across the country and a lot of that is coming our way, too right, top . Afraid. So were lucky right now. We just have a cold rain. Its miserable amount the Christmas Tree lighting, but could be at the Christmas Tree lighting, but could be worse. Weve got snow, sleet and rain heading our way. Well talk about the rest of the day being a yellow alert and well break down sunday which is a red alert. But up next the latest jobs report is better than expected, but for those yn nzczczc its a rainy night for this years National ChristmasTree Lighting as evidenced by what you see coming down around the band train and you see them wearing raincoats. Imagine what everybody else is out there doing in the audience as the rain comes down. Its interesting because i was reading that you could bring an umbrella, but while you are seated your umbrella cannot be up. So its like what is it, just decoration . Lets listen a little bit to train. Merry christmas, you all. [ cheering and applause ] of course, with that performance coming after train we anticipate the Main Attraction, the lighting of the National Christmas tree. Theres jane lynch, host of the event. Good evening and welcome to the 2013 National ChristmasTree Lighting. Welcome. Were here on a wet but wonderful winter night at president s park in washington just across the road a piece from the most famous house in america, the white house. Now every president since Calvin Coolidge has taken part in this terrific event, spoiler alert. Calvin coolidge is not here tonight, but the first family is here and they will be joining million of americans celebrating this Holiday Season including this great tradition filled with music, memories and one very cool Christmas Tree. I would like to add a special welcome to our men and women in uniform serving our country in places around the world tonight. Lets hear it for them. [ cheering and applause ] we have so much more on the way, but first lets hear it for our outstanding United States army blues [ cheering and applause ] and now it is my great honor to welcome the first family of the United States of america. [ cheering and applause ] [ music ] welcome, first family. Mrs. Robinson, mr. Obama, sasha, malia, welcome and merry happy holidays. Were still having fun, a little wet but still having fun. Our main job today is to light the National Christmas tree and so were going to need a little help from you to count it down. Were going to start at five. Yeah. Lets do five. Since its a little wet we shouldnt start at 10, all right . So everybody ready . Five, four, three, two, one. [ cheering and applause ] Merry Christmas [ music ] [ music ] shes a 20 time grammy award winner and a president ial medal of freedom recipient with an honorary doctorate of harvard so Aretha Franklin is getting ready to come on, the queen of soul, but the Main Attraction there, the fir adorned in all those beautiful l. E. D. Lights is all aglow. We want to see the queen. Is she coming on a sleigh . there she is right there it looks like. Oh, there she is. Joy to the world the lord is come let earth receive her king let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing and heaven and heaven and nature sing joy to the world and men their songs employ while rocks hills and plains repeat the sounding joy repeat the sounding joy repeat repeat the sounding joy oh yeah joy joy to the world joy joy to the world he rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love, and wonders of his love and wonders wonders of his love joy and peace joy to the world joy to you and me joy to you and me and wonder of peace when the queen of soul opens her mouth, the heavens open up. It looks like the rain is coming down even heavier now. Glad we got to hear her, though. Yeah. Can you imagine the challenges they must be facing the musicians especially out there because a lot of those instruments are susceptible to i think theyre covered where she is. The band is behind her, but everybody else is out in the elements there. Were going to explain some stuff to you and start doing different things, sleet, snow and freezing rain. Please take notes. Well start with cold air damming and kind of wedges its way down the eastern side of the appalachians and nuzzles up against the appalachians. Cold hair is denser. So cold air is denser. Thats why its so hard to prime your chimney when its cold out. Even though we have southwesterly wind as lot of, it kind of blows over the mountains and keeps a very shallow layer of cold air, maybe only 1,000 feet in depth, but cold enough to keep it 32 degrees at the surface. So may be the case on sunday where its 32 downtown, it could be 48 in charleston, West Virginia because of their elevation. In in case elevation works against you. The colder air will be lower. Thats cold air damming. Right now its a classic case of cold air damming. Sleet versus freezing rain, okay. Sleet falls frozen and bounces off your windshield and the ground and wed rather have that than freezing rain which falls liquid and freezes on contact. Thats what collects on the power lines and also the trees and can cause big problems. Okay. A winter storm watch has been issued for the entire metro area except for Southern Maryland and st. Marys and calvert county. Were kind of splitting hairs there. It does include charles county, not so much for snow. Well see some snow at the onset, but primarily for sleet and freezing rain during the day sunday and into sunday night. Well break it down. Start time sunday, maybe a little bit later 7 00 to 10 00. We could see an inch of snow before it changes over to a mix the rest of the day and temperatures below freezing until 1 a. M. Monday and that is downtown which means if youre up in gaithersburg or out in fairfax, it will be longer below freezing. Live look outside, michael and son weather cam, 46, raining to beat the band, winds north, northeast at 9, colder air moving in. Heres a big picture of the radar. Were still just worried about rain tonight. It wont freeze tonight. Youre okay tonight. You want to do errands tomorrow, no problem. Saturday is a good day for that. Right now light rain across most of the metro area, heavier rain up 270 toward hagerstown and out 68 westbound, 42 white oak, 43 bethesda, fairfax and 45 in springfield and also in waldorf. Were headed for the 30s tonight, but well stay above freezing. More rain, above freezing, saturday get out and do your errands. Saturday night colder but dry and sunday a red alert, a mix all day and im really concerned about the freezing rain. Temps 40 to start and stays pretty much in the 40s on saturday, chilly and breezy. Well have sunshine tomorrow and then 32. Theres your snow to a mix sunday, lower temps monday, maybe 41 if were lucky, chilly with more showers. On the Football Game fooled myself cloudy and cold with sleet and freezing rain. I tweeted about this, there is no upside to playing rg3 on sunday. Ill get off my soapbox now. Next seven days. Tuesday we get into showers and rain. It could end in snow. That will not be a driving problem and just cold wednesday and thursday. Were back in the 40s on friday. Thanks. Take notes . Bundle up, folks. Thank you to everyone who has given to our virtual toy drive this season. Youve helped us purchase all the toys on our wish lists and many of your are wondering if there are any other needs for these families . The kids could use shoes and coats this winter, especially this weekend. You can go to www. Wusa9. Com, click on give a gift and there you will also find some of those items on the amazon page and thank you to those who sent cards and wrote on our facebook page. Cat wrote i supported families of homeless veterans. The entire process was so easy. I liked that my amazon prime membership allowed me to utilize the free two day shipping option. Thank you wusa9 for making it easy to get toys to these well deserving children. Yea, cat thank you, cat, for supporting the kids. Together we can make a difference here. Wel the job market continues to improve. The Labor Department says employers added 203,000 jobs in november. Thats 20,000 more than expected dropping the Unemployment Rate to 7 . A little whacky. I mean what can you do, though . It is a law, supposed to obey the laws of the land. Many people are still looking for work, could lose their unemployment checks if congress doesnt extend a program that expanded benefits during the financial crisis. That would make the unemployed eligible for just six months of payments meaning about 1 Million People would lose benefits come january. Coming up next as the world mourns one of the most revered and respected men of our time, Nelson Mandela, one man wh