Winter Storm Spreads From Texas to New England (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Parts of Texas and Oklahoma are starting to get sleet and snow, with people there taking the first hit of what's expected to build into a monster of a storm that is going to sweep all the way to New England. So far, more than 7000 flights in the United States have been canceled throughout the weekend so far. Of course, we expect that number to only grow and forecasters are warning that beyond the heavy snow and the crippling cold, the accumulation of ice could snap power lines, bring down trees, slick and roads with state leaders issuing warnings like this.

[00:00:31] Speaker 2: This is going to be a catastrophic winter storm that's going to cause us to lose power.

[00:00:36] Speaker 3: Make sure you got the things that you need at your house to stay warm and and hunker down.

[00:00:40] Speaker 4: Our plea to the people of the state is if you can stay off the roads once the snow begins to fall, I want to encourage New Yorkers to do something that we don't often have the luxury of doing, which is to take a breath and stay home within about 48 hours.

[00:00:54] Speaker 3: Everybody's talking about Greenland within about 48 hours. And I think it's going to look like Greenland.

[00:01:00] Speaker 1: Already, many people are taking those warnings including about Greenland there to heart. They're taking grocery store shelves. They are completely clean based off half the videos we're seeing. I'm joined tonight by CNN's Ed Lavendera who is in Dallas and Ed. Obviously we heard from Governor Greg Abbott there. He's warning saying you're going to lose power. I know a lot of Texans have that 2021 storm on their mind where they didn't have power or heat for days. What's it looking like tonight so far? And do they feel like they're ready for what's going to happen?

[00:01:29] Speaker 5: Well, the governor and the officials that run the power grid here in Texas insist that this power grid is ready and capable of withstanding the high demand that we're going to see over the next 72 hours, but that does not take into account the fact that you know with the ice that is expected across much of North Texas and into East Texas as well that that could cause power lines to come down. Trees to collapse that sort of thing, which could leave hundreds of thousands of people without power. So that is one of those big areas of concern that we're seeing right now. And Caitlin just here in the last couple of hours really seeing those temperatures starting to plunge toward that freezing mark.

[00:02:08] Speaker 2: We are expected to hit that mark here in the next couple of hours, and once that happens, temperatures here will not go above freezing until early next week. So the rainfall that has come down that already has much of the many of the roadways in this part of the country. Slick will ice over and in Oklahoma, where they're expecting to see record snowfall you know between where I am and the Texas Oklahoma border. You're going to see this line where that snow becomes ice and sleep where I'm at, and that is going to cause treacherous conditions on the roadways and really threatening a lot of the infrastructure. Up and down the roadways and across this region, so that is what emergency officials say that they're the most concerned about tonight.

[00:02:52] Speaker 1: Yeah, I could see why. I could see why at Lavendera you stay safe. We're going to keep checking in with you as that storm is making its way through Texas. I'm also joined tonight by our top forecasters. We've got Chris Warren, our meteorologist over at the CNN Weather Center, Harry Anton, who is our chief data analyst and Chris. I think that's the big question. As you people been keeping an eye on this forecast is what is the latest that we're seeing so far?

[00:03:14] Speaker 3: But this is a massive storm Caitlin. Just to put this into perspective here, the winter storm warnings are in pink. That means hazardous weather is expected. It's either happening or it's expected, and those winter storm warnings cover half of our United States. When you look at all of the alerts here, the ice storm warnings, the advisories of the watches, that's half of the population of the United States threatened by some form of winter weather. This is what's happening right now, where it is, it is rain, but that colder air is dropping down. Purple is snow and then pink is the ice, and when the ice starts to accreter, accumulate on objects, it's going to be dangerous to walk to drive. And eventually power is going to go out. Here's the snow, a foot or more of snow here from Oklahoma all the way up to New England. Here's how it plays out for the rest of this evening. Ice increases in Texas, in Oklahoma, spreading across the rest of the South into the Mid Atlantic by tomorrow evening, and then the next push goes here. The really the meat of the system starts to move through Texas overnight Saturday into Sunday. It all kind of comes together with big time snow from the Midwest to the Northeast, and even some thunderstorms possible on Sunday in the South. The snowfall we're expecting in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, a foot to a foot and a half. Also big time snowfall totals here. Caitlin in the Northeast. Some areas could also see a foot to a foot and a half, but it's this ice again. With power going out, possibly lasting for days with extreme cold moving in.

[00:04:53] Speaker 1: Yeah, alright Chris will keep checking back in with you and Harry. You know when you look at this, what I keep reading when I'm like looking at everything about the storm and what it's going to look like. I keep hearing records, snowfalls that have not been seen. All of these numbers. What do you make of what they're predicting so far?

[00:05:08] Speaker 6: You know, I'll just tell you, as a New York City guy who really loves the snow, I am snow starved. I am snow starved. Caitlin Colin.

[00:05:14] Speaker 1: It just snowed like two weeks ago.

[00:05:17] Speaker 6: Have not gotten 6 inches or more since early in 2022. I mean, just take a look at the snows since February of 2022. And what are we talking about? I mean, just look at here. 4.3 is the highest we have had since February of 2022. And so now finally, you know we get this winter storm warning for 10 to 14 inches. In effect, hopefully we reach that mark, but it's, you know, I just don't want to stay in New York City. I want to sort of broaden out, you know, go all go all the way down to Arkansas. Go to Fayetteville, Arkansas. My dear friend Neil Payne lives there. Look at this point. There's a winter storm warning there. I think that they could get the biggest snowstorm in Fayetteville, Arkansas in the last decade. It has to be 9.4 inches. I think they may very well do it.

[00:05:56] Speaker 1: OK, 9.4 inches. That's a lot. And when it comes to, you know what we're looking at today, I saw the president was flying back. He flew back last night. Today he was looking. Obviously the forecast himself and he was saying that he's been briefed on this. Rarely seen anything like it. What happened to climate change and global warming? I mean, how do people feel about what's about what's about to happen and the concerns?

[00:06:18] Speaker 6: Yeah, the president has, you know, his social media post up there. And it's not the first time, you know, he has mocked the idea of global warming when, you know, there's cold weather about. But I've actually went through the record books. I looked through the polling and I said, OK, when was the last time that we had a below average winter in terms of temperature, right? Where it was colder than average. Was there any shift in viewpoints about global warming? It turns out there isn't. People do not necessarily associate what happens in the cold winter months. Yeah, it's cold. That doesn't make them dismiss the idea of global warming, even if President Trump wants them to dismiss.

[00:06:52] Speaker 1: So they've accepted it. I mean, that's pretty clear. Look at what's happening at the grocery stores. Like people are they're empty. Basically, the Trader Joe's in Washington. I saw I was posting pictures of the shelves today. Completely empty.

[00:07:03] Speaker 6: Those are some the run on milk and cookies, right?

[00:07:06] Speaker 1: Yeah. Milk, cookies and bread. What did you buy? Any groceries?

[00:07:08] Speaker 6: No, I haven't bought any groceries. No, stick it out. I'll stick it out in New York City. I'm going to be perfectly fine. Let me tell you, it's not going to be two feet here in New York City. If we get a foot, I'd be very happy.

[00:07:17] Speaker 1: Do you live near a grocery store?

[00:07:18] Speaker 6: I live. I have two grocery stores. I have a Morton Williams near me. I have a Brooklyn Fair near me. So I think I'm going to be.

[00:07:23] Speaker 1: What's your meal of choice when it snows?

[00:07:26] Speaker 6: What's my meal of choice when it snows? You know what? It's going to snow on Sunday. I'm going to have to get a pizza while I'm watching the AFC championship game in the NFC championship game. You know, I'm going to be like Homer Simpson when he's watching a thunderstorm outside. I'm going to sit on my beanbag in my rumpus room and I'm going to be perfectly excited and at ease. Everything will be fine.

[00:07:44] Speaker 1: You're just going to live off one pizza. That's your cooking advice for people.

[00:07:48] Speaker 6: For me, I could live off of one pizza. But then again, I've only had about 300 calories today.

[00:07:52] Speaker 4: One of the things, obviously, people are asking about in the midst of all this cold, like record breaking cold, is how can it be so cold in the midst of all the climate change and the warming that's happening around the globe? Let's bring in scene and chief climate correspondent Bill Weir. Bill, what about that?

[00:08:11] Speaker 7: Well, it does come up and it's used by climate deniers, science deniers again and again. Here's your global warming as you show pictures of blizzards and ice storms and this sort of thing. But actually, they kind of go together. And I'll explain why. It all comes down to the polar vortex. This is this belt that goes around the top, around the Arctic Circle. And when it's tight and strong, typically it holds the cold air in place up in the up in the North Pole there. But as that ice in the North Pole melts, it's affecting that polar vortex. We're seeing it break down and start to wobble and bring these big fingers of cold air. Remember a few years ago in Texas, they had that deep freeze as a result of that polar vortex coming way down south. We're getting a sense of that here today. Of course, a warmer atmosphere also holds more moisture. And in hurricane season, that means faster, bigger strong storms that that intensify rapidly in the winter months. That can be these huge blizzards. We just saw one in Russia, 10 feet of snow in eastern Russia. They're, of course, no stranger to snow in that part of the world. But 10 feet of it burying the first floor of some homes there as well, as you can see this. And so it's the extremes, not just the drier drives or the longer droughts, but the bigger blizzards are all part of a climate that is really wildly out of balance right now. And what we're going to see is a real test of infrastructure with all that ice in the middle of the country. Of course, as I referenced that one back in Texas a few years ago, that really knocked out power. It created a huge debate after over energy streams. They tried to some tried to blame the wind turbines. But in fact, it was gas fired power plants that had broken down due to maintenance now. So we're going to see examples of this, a test of our national grid and infrastructure under all this ice right now and adaptation, figuring out how to adapt to all of these wildly unpredictable weather events on a warmer planet is all part of the cocktail these days, John.