Bomb Cyclone Brings Snow, Wind and Coastal Flood Risk (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The latest developments on the bomb cyclone that's bringing heavy snow, a lot of winds, coastal flooding to the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic this weekend. I mean, you look at live EarthCam footage from Asheville. Look at this. It shows a lot of snow, as multiple years' worth of snow is expected in the Carolinas. More than 27 million people across the region under winter weather alerts, and many cities are still thawing out from last weekend's storm that killed more than 100 people, according to the Associated Press. Plus, more than 160,000 homes and businesses are still without power across Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Louisiana. Many outages lasting for a full week at this point. And then even more dangerous than the snow is the bitter cold. As far south as Miami, they are expecting temperatures close to freezing. CNN is covering the developments from multiple fronts. I want to start with meteorologist Derek Van Dam in Virginia Beach. Derek, what are the conditions there right now?

[00:00:56] Speaker 2: Just taking a casual stroll down the beach here in Virginia Beach. Should be 51 degrees temperature right now. What it feels like on your exposed skin is roughly 10 degrees. This is just the precursor to what's to come. The Arctic air mixed in with the potential of blizzard conditions. The wind has been battering this coastline from extreme southeastern Virginia through Cape Hatteras, which is just to my north, or excuse me, the Chesapeake Bay, and then all the way down into the outer banks of North Carolina. What we have potentially occurring here this evening and into the overnight as blizzard conditions with whiteout conditions, visibility is dropping to near zero in some instances, especially across some of these exposed coastal areas. And this storm is going to pack quite a punch, not in terms of just the snow, but also the potential of coastal flooding as well. So we'll explain all of that. Look at the radar here, and I want to show you two distinct areas of precipitation that we are monitoring, one moving through Atlanta and into the Charlotte region. Just look at how tumultuous the ocean is here. You can see some of the sea foam getting pushed up by the northerly winds. The other band of snow we're desperately waiting for here in Virginia Beach is moving in, and this is what we're concerned about, the potential of this storm coinciding with a high tide and exaggerated tide cycles because of the full moon that is occurring tonight and into tomorrow. So with wind gusts of over 60 miles per hour, that's tropical storm force winds, that will help push up the Atlantic Ocean, the angry Atlantic Ocean, which is responsible for this bomb cyclone because of the Arctic air interacting with the warm ocean waters. And I want to show you this too. Check this out. Right now, a lot of the sand is frozen, okay? So the high tide that came in earlier this morning kind of pushed against the coastal areas here. I can break off pieces of frozen sand here. What the concern is that with the high tide and the strong winds that will push in from the ocean is coastal erosion being an impactful thing here right across the Outer Banks and into Virginia Beach. So we're going to monitor that for the possibilities. High tide, by the way, at 7.04 in the morning on Sunday. That's what we're most concerned about. The Arctic air behind it, it means business. We have cold alerts all the way down to the Florida Keys. Omar?

[00:03:20] Speaker 1: Frozen beach, frozen sand, that's just what you want day at the beach. Dara Van Dam, thanks for being there so I don't have to. CNN National correspondent Diane Gallagher, I could barely see you in Charlotte, North Carolina. I can tell you, I grew up in the South. That is more snow than I think I have ever seen in North Carolina. Does it look as wild in person as it does on TV here?

[00:03:47] Speaker 3: Omar, there's no way that the camera is capturing just how wild this actually is. I worked in local news in Charlotte for several years and we had a really big snowstorm back in 2014. We are already surpassing that. I was measuring out with my trusty ruler about an hour ago and we had about five plus inches out here in Cordelia Park in Charlotte. So we're surpassing that and heading close to what they, not close yet, but heading toward what we saw in 2004. I wouldn't hear to see that, but they talk about that still as one of the biggest snowstorms they have had in recent history. And it is just still coming down right now. The flakes are getting bigger. The wind continues to whiff. There are still those concerns I talked about last hour about roads and safety and that ice that still is there. From last weekend's ice storm and the impact on the Carolinas, we are seeing those accidents pile up. They're asking people to please stay off the road on top of probably not knowing how to drive in it. It's just difficult right now. And again, you're having a hard time seeing in some points. But what we're also seeing are people who are having fun seeing snow like this for the first time in their life. We are out here. It's not really snow for making snowballs or snowmen right now. It's very powdery and fluffy. It's great for sledding and we have creativity on display. I'm actually going to talk to Juliet for just a quick second here because you said this is your first time ever sledding.

[00:05:13] Speaker 4: That's right. You've been done once. We've been done once. We've got storage bins that actually kept our summer clothes and them obviously took them all out. And now we're going to sled down on the on the lids of the bins.

[00:05:24] Speaker 3: And I'm going to do something that is ill-advised on live television, but I'm going to do it anyway. Omar, we're going to race actually on these storage bins to see if the bottom or the top is faster. And Tam here is going to push both of us as we get in. Again, this could be a disaster. And see what we can get here at Cordelia Park going down this. Now, again, the concerns, Omar, remain those roads and the frigid temperatures telling people not to stay outside for long periods of time. Make sure you go in and get warm. And also we are ready whenever you are. Also, Omar, they are treating those roads. They put 5,500 tons of salt already on the roads. They've got millions of gallons of brine, but still they are unsafe. Kim, are you ready? Let's go. Come on. All right.

[00:06:14] Speaker 5: Let's see the bottom.

[00:06:18] Speaker 1: Oh, oh, all right. Maybe this isn't the best kind. No, there you go. Hey, you're beating them out. It's going to be a photo finish. There we go. Diane Gallagher. You made me nervous. You made me nervous when you turned around right in the beginning. I was like, oh, man. But hey, the snow clearly slushy enough and fluffy enough just to get you down that hill. I've never seen more snow just looking at it on TV than I am seeing right now. Diane, have fun. And we're going to keep checking back in with you. Let's see what other sled you can get to continue the races. Diane Gallagher, everyone. I want to also bring in CNN correspondent Rafael Romo in Monroe, Georgia. A lot of snow there, too. Rafael, what's happening where you are?

[00:07:07] Speaker 6: Hey, Omar, it's a beautiful winter wonderland here in Monroe. It's been snowing most of the day behind me. You can see the historic Walton County Courthouse and how beautiful it is. It's a little bit difficult to be here, not so much because of the snow, but because of the wind. It makes it when you look into the wind, you almost feel like little blades are cutting your skin. And let me show you this snow because it is so cold. It's not the slushy kind. It's more powdery. It's almost not heavy at all. And that's what you're seeing all around this part of Georgia. We're about, I want to say, 50 miles east of Atlanta. And this is what's going on right now in Atlanta. Very little snow, barely any flurries here. A lot of snow that we've seen. Now, we've talked to people here and I spoke with a lady who was walking down the street and she said she wanted to enjoy this because in her word, this feels a little bit like a late Christmas present. This is what she had to say.

[00:08:15] Speaker 7: I was anticipating it being a little bit of an inflated forecast and not expecting too much ground coverage. So it's nice to see a little bit of Christmas, delayed Christmas. I love it. I think it's magical.

[00:08:29] Speaker 6: Believe it or not, Omar, she's not the only person walking outdoors today. We also ran into a couple and they told us that it is our tradition to go on walks on Saturday mornings and nothing was going to stop them from doing that today. And that's what they did. They were, of course, very well prepared with their thick jackets. And they told us that they're really enjoying this because it's something that they rarely ever get to enjoy. This is what they had to say.

[00:09:00] Speaker 5: As it is during on Saturday mornings is our, we walk in the city, go get local coffee. But today we decided to not stop us from doing that. So we decided it was romantic for us to go and walk in the snow.

[00:09:18] Speaker 6: And Omar, I also wanted to show you the condition of the streets here locally. As you can see the parts that had been salted and brine and very good condition. But as you can see far down the road, it's beginning to get extremely white. Now it's all fun, of course, for these people, but there's also a very serious part of this storm and it has to do with the fact that it's very cold. The temperature officially here, 25 degrees, but with the windshield, it feels like five degrees and it's only going to get colder. So authorities are saying, if you're going to be out there, if you need to be out there, be very careful. Otherwise, please stay home. Omar, now back to you.

[00:09:59] Speaker 1: Yeah, some of this snow and conditions, they look beautiful, even though they might feel pretty cold as you were telling us, but can very quickly turn into dangerous conditions, especially if folks aren't taking the care that they need. Rafael Romo, appreciate you being there.