Large in size and very explosive in intensity, so its only going to get stronger as it approaches. The entire area is under the first alert. We do have that blizzard warning for the jersey shore. A rare blizzard warning and also south delaware. Thats where youre going to see the highest winds. Youre also going to see the highest snowfall totals. At this point it looks like thats where the biggest impact will be on all of this. 9 00 tonight through 7 00 tomorrow evening. That is how long well be looking at this first alert and that is how long well be looking at these blizzard conditions around the rest of the area, we are looking at winter storm warnings. So its just still as severe. The winds wont be quite as high in philadelphia. What were looking at is heavy snow. Potentially you could see up to a foot in some places along the jersey shore. In philadelphia, some places could exceed half a foot. Were looking at high winds. Were looking at what could be a very dangerous morning commute. Those roads are completely frozen out there. Well see a lot of blowing and drifting. What youre going to see is snow piling up and youre probably going to have a difficult morning commute. This is going to be falling throughout the morning tomorrow, so plan accordingly. Transportation may be affected as well. Youll want to get up early. Well be with you all night and all morning start at 4 00. Bill henley will be here tomorrow morning. Of course you can find out the latest on our app. Well keep you up to date with this big storm. After this is all done well have a really frigid arctic blast from this whole system. So you can see right now were starting to just get little snow bands moving into maryland. Thats just a very, very light snow associated with with this system at the very northern end. The system itself bringing heavy snow from florida, georgia and South Carolina. Thats going to continue up the coastline. Now, you see there is some mixing in places like North Carolina and we could see a little mixing ionset along the jersey shore, but this is hugging a little closer to the shoreline than we expected. Well show you most scenarios with all of this. Tomorrow morning at 4 00, the whole area will now be looking at snow moving in, and its going to linger through probably at least the noon hour tomorrow. Now, for somebody thats going to take a look at whats going on, well have that coming up in just a little while. Well go neighborhood by neighborhood. This is why we do neighborhood forecasts. It will be different for all of us. Now back to you. Shoppers say it was a mad house inside this acme. The parking lot was packed as people loaded up supplies ahead of the storm. And its not just the amount of snow thats a problem. Well also be dealing with strong winds and that is why there was a blizzard warning right now for the jersey shore. Ted greenberg is live for us in Atlantic City. Ted, people really preparing for a worstcase scenario there. Reporter they really are, and it has been so cold here at the shore, back bays are freezing and turning to ice. Now people here are getting set for streets filled with snow and potentially a lot of it. The presnow rush. It is crazy in here. Reporter at the acme in ventnor this afternoon. So many stocking up that kesha almost had an anxiety attack. You dont want to get in there. It took me an hour to get a piece of fried chicken. I got it in my hand. Its unbelievable. Reporter Atlantic County public works crews filling up their trucks with brine solution to pretreat roads during the day. When the snow begins, theyll spread salt sprayed with magnesium chloride to help combat the cold. It only remains active from 15 to 17 degrees and then the magnesium chloride will keep the salt active up to minus 17 degrees. Reporter in ocean city, water gushing from a pipe that froze, then burst. A long sheet of ice left on the street expected to soon be covered with several inches of snow. Thats even more problems. More pipes breaking and more stuff freezing. People should shut their water off more often. Reporter ice surrounding fishing boats docked. Now a monster storm keeping these crews out of the ocean. Freezing temperatures, boats icing up, steel breaking, people getting hurt. Its bad out there. Reporter now, along with the snow, the high winds and very cold temperatures here at the shore, we can also see some minor tidal flooding. During high tide tomorrow morning, that could then put water on the roadways, and then that water freezing on those streets creating yet another hazard. Thats the latest live here in Atlantic City. Now lets go to my colleague, nbc 10 Delaware Bureau reporter, tim furlong, in lewis. Tim. Reporter yeah, im really not that far across the bay from you if you think about it that way. Let me show you whats going on here. We just saw the ferry boat come through and fight through all this ice just to get into the terminal. Its going to make a couple more runs tonight but the weather has gotten so bad and theres so much ice in the bay, they have now decided that come tomorrow, theyre not running it. Its quiet on the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk, but up at the ace hardware, they are moving rock salt, hand warmers, hands, scrapers and lots of shovels. Everyone knows its going to be rough. It sounds like its going to be a bad one this time. Reporter noreasters are bad news and take a toll on the dunes. Its actually gotten above freezing here so the sun gave road crews a preemptive helping hand but the ice is still clogging the waterways. This is why i wanted to live at the beach, so i could come and see these things whenever i wanted. Ice on the bay. Reporter today is a good time to check this out for yourself. Tomorrow will not be. It is going to be snowy, cold and windy. I welcome it. Im old too. I can stay in the house where you guys have to go out and do thi this. Reporter yeah, listen, were out here doing it but were happy to do it and happy to help our viewers get a look at whats going on to help keep you safe. You can see the ice here. Thats why theyll have to shut down service. If you come back here too, i want to direct you over the fence here. Look at all the ice thats formed on the rocks down there as the tide has come up and the water sits there. It just builds up and builds up. It has been so cold the last few days that its just created a thick layer of ice. I feel like this is an absolute tundra. Ive had better days at the delaware beaches. Tim furlong, nbc 10 news. And were just Getting Started with our coverage of this major winter storm n less than ten minutes Andrea Kline Thomas is live from the citys salt yard to show us just how philadelphia is preparing. Then at 4 30 we will explain why pretreating those roads ahead of time can really be a challenge for penndot crews in this frigid cold. Then coming up at 4 55, how the Camden Community is coming together to help people who need it the most ahead of this snow. Lets head back over to glenn hurricane schwartz. Its coming straight up the coast. Theres no way for it to miss. Well go hour by hour and show you what to expect here. As we go through the afternoon, the snow to our south, well be watching it coming up from the south. As we go through the evening, look at the temperatures. Well below freezing. As a matter of fact in some areas so low that the salt does not work as well on the roads. Now, the temperatures marginal right at the shore to start off with, but those temperatures will drop as soon as the snow starts. And by tomorrow morning we have snow all over the area. The darker blues indicating the heavier snow and that could be coming down at an inch an hour at the shore. And look at the temperatures now. They have dropped into the mid20s. Atlantic city 25, cape may 27, rehoboth 26. So were getting wind, were getting heavy snow, low visibilities, and the low temperatures. As we go into the evening hours, though, it moves out and were set up for a bitter cold night. So by friday morning it is incredibly cold and everything, of course, freezes over. The basic snow totals averaging close to 4 to 7 inches in the philadelphia area, close to 10 inches as we go toward cape may, around 8 or so in Atlantic City. Back to the north and west, weve upped these totals a little bit as well. Now, as we get a little bit closer into these counties at the shore, the areas that are likely to get hit the hardest, cape may nearly 10, Atlantic City 8, hamilton 8, vineland pretty close to 9 inches of snow. The other issue we have is the wind. The wind is going to be gusty, especially tomorrow after the morning hours. Were talking about gusts over 50 miles an hour and thats one of the conditions that makes it define a blizzard warning. Well have more on whos going to get what coming up. All right, glenn. To track the storm using the very same technology our meteorologists use, all you have to do is download the nbc 10 app. Weve been telling you that but its really important now. You will have live interactive radar right at your fingertips and you can also get the updated snow totals for your specific neighborhood. Lets get you caught up to the other news of the day. A war of words between President Trump and steve bannon. Bannon credit sizes a now infamous meeting between Trump Campaign officials and a russian lawyer. Lauren is live in our newsroom. Bannon had harsh words about that meeting, didnt he . Yeah. One of those words is treasonous. The president is now responding with a takedown of his former chief strategist. This meeting took place in trump tower during the president ial campaign. It included donald trump jr. , jared kushner, and then Campaign Chairman paul manafort. They met with a russian attorney after a promise of damaging information about democratic rival, hillary clinton. Now, in the book bannon is quoted as saying even if you thought that this was not treasonous or unpatriotic or bad expletive, and i happen to think its all of that, you should have called the fbi immediately, unquote. Bannon also said he believed the russians were taken to meet with donald trump after the meeting. That is something that the president has denied. President trump today responded with a strong statement. He said, quote, steve bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. The president also criticized steve bannon saying he had very little to do with his election victory, but everything to do with the republicans loss of the Alabama Senate seat. It was bannon who got behind roy moores Unsuccessful Senate campaign. Live in the breaking news center, now back to you. Today two new democrats took the oath of office in the u. S. Senate, narrowing the republican majority. Doug jones bucked tradition by choosing former Vice President joe biden as his escort for the swearingin. Usually a new senator chooses a home state colleague for the job. Jones is the first democratic senator from alabama in a quarter century. He beat roy moore in a special election last month. The other senator sworn in was minnesota Lieutenant Governor tina smith. Smith was appointed to replace al franken following his resignation over Sexual Misconduct allegations. Smith plans to compete in a special election in november to finish out the final two years of frankens term. A pipeline project in pennsylvania has hit another roadblock today. The department of Environmental Protection shut down construction on sunocos mariner east 2 pipeline because of violations that it called egregious and willful. Once its completed, the controversial pipeline will carry natural gas across 17 counties in pennsylvania. Sunoco will now have to meet a new set of requirements to reset construction. The jackpots keep climbing. Tonight you have a chance to win the 460 million Powerball Lottery jackpot. It sounds good, doesnt it . It is the seventh largest prize in the games history. Yeah, the odds of winning are 1 in 292 million. No one hit last nights Mega Millions jackpot so that one rolls over to 418 million. The next Mega Millions drawing is friday. This is the first time two jack pots have gone above 400 million at the same time in the u. S. Back now to our continuing coverage of the brutal cold out there and the snow thats on the way. This weather is making it tough for drivers, and we found a man who broke down with a dead battery in winfield heights right here. If you havent already, now is a good time to make sure you have an emergency kit in your car just in case. We know that the snow can create an even bigger mess on those side streets. As we take a live look from our apartment camera. Andrea kline thomas is live in the salt yards with how the city is getting ready for all of this. Reporter we just talked to the supervisor and crews are going out around midnight to start the salting operation to make sure everything is okay during tomorrow mornings commute. Thats just step one. The second step is to make sure that all of the residents have somewhere warm to go. At the bus stop, passengers dress in layers, hands kept in their pockets, hoods are up. For some, fur helps add extra warmth. Im doing as little as possible outside, you know what i mean . Just running from here and there, staying bundled up, many layers on. Reporter its a good plan as the cold snap lingers and shows no sign of letting up soon. It gets to the point that you stay out long enough, your hands and feet get numb. Reporter the frigid temperatures quickly become dangerous. They are extending hours to double as a warm center. Some have been refusing assistance mainly because of a dependence on drugs. Even if its just for a few hours to warm up decreases your risk of frostbite and hypothermia. These are temperatures that will kill you. You will die if youre not properly prepared. Reporter and thankfully the city has not reported any cold weatherrelated deaths. The city has increased the number of beds available at shelters so people can stay warm. Coming up in about an hour, well tell you how the city is preparing for tomorrow mornings commute. First alert meteorologist glenn hurricane schwartz is joining us now. Its one thing to have this cold but another when you compounding the snow with it. And now new information with this blizzard warning. Right. We rarely see blizzard warnings or blizzard conditions in our area. Technically in the blizzard of 96 when we had 30 inches of snow, we never actually had official blizzard conditions. That deals with winds and visibility . You have to have three straight hours of sustained winds or frequent gusts over 35 miles an hour and low visibility. It has to happen at the same time. I mean theres a definition for these things. And the purpose of a blizzard warning is to let you know that this is not just another snowstorm. Because its much harder to travel around when the wind is blowing like it is and the visibility is that low. So youve got to forget about airline travel. Even train travel can be a problem. And of course on the roads, you have more issues. So a blizzard warning is a really serious type of warning and that, again, is for southern delaware, sussex county, and right along the jersey shore. Other areas are not exactly going to be spared. Strong winds, 30 to 50mileanhour wind gusts and occasionally heavy snow. So it might be near blizzard conditions in some of the counties just west of where the blizzard conditions are. So the clouds are already coming up here. The snow is as far north as raleigh, North Carolina. Thats pretty far west. Actually farther west than a lot of the computer models have been suggesting. And that is a sign as well as to the future of this system. The other thing thats happening is that its moving extremely rapidly. Theres no blocking system up in the north atlantic to have this snow last an extra long time like weve seen in some of our biggest snowstorms. So this is just going to race by. Theres a tremendous amount of moisture with it, though. The center of the storm is well offshore. It is so big that even with the track well offshore, its still pouring moisture way, way back inland. The darker blues indicate the heavier snow. So here we are in the morning rush. The center of the storm hundreds of miles offshore and yet were getting blizzard conditions in the jersey shore and delaware beaches. Thats pretty amazing. But look how fast. By 1 00 its already moving out. The snow is tapering off. And then it goes up off of new england and its just getting windy and extremely cold around here. Lets go back to the hourbyhour. You can see as we first come in as the snow starts, its near freezing at the beaches. But the snow knocks the temperature down. It will accumulate even on the beaches. And with the lower temperatures north and west, that makes the roads harder to treat. And so even a couple of inches could lead to some serious problems. By later on in the day, conditions are improving quite a bit as far as the snow ending, but still windy and very cold. And the snow amounts ranging from about 4 inches to perhaps 10 or more in parts of the area. And the other thing thats going to happen is the wind, which is not much of an issue now, that is going to be increasing dramatically. Tonight, 11 00, not much wind. But as that storm gets closer tomorrow morning, were talking about gusts up to or perhaps over 50 miles an hour, and that plus the heavy snow, plus the low visibility is what makes it a blizzard for the coast. Those kind of winds get your attention. Also this frigid cold isnt helping penndot crews trying to get ahead of the storm today. Still ahead, the chilly challenge for crews trying to pretreat roads ahead of this winter storm. And the bitter cold is bringing out the best in some people. And beyond frustrated. The Desperate Measures an Airline Passenger went to in dealing with his flight delay. [ bell ringing ] first heres a look at the closing bell on wall street where the markets ended in green territory today. 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