ABC11 Eyewitness News - Eyewitness News at 9am - January 24, 2026

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

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Right now, live coverage from your local news leader, breaking stories from overnight and this morning, and your first alert forecast. Here's what's happening where you live. This is ABC 11 eyewitness news. 9 a.m. on your weekend morning. Good morning, Carolina. I'm Joel Brown. And I'm Anna Rivera. It is Saturday, January 24th, this morning on eyewitness news, a massive winter storm taking aim at the U.S. People under alert from New Mexico to Maine. Snow and ice canceling thousands of flights, forecasters, warning. ice damage could rival a hurricane with power outages and dangerous roads likely. And state leaders urging North Carolinians to take this winter storm seriously. The major impacts expected here in our area, Duke Energy crews getting ready to respond to any power

outages, NCDOT treating the roads, telling people stay home if you can. Counties across the triangle opening emergency shelters, cutting transit services, and reminding residents to heat their homes safely. Hospital systems say they will remain open and operate. The winter storm still hours away, but the impacts already being felt in other parts of the country. A live look at downtown Kansas City on that sat on this Saturday morning. Snow covering the roads there. The city expecting up to six inches of snow from this winter storm. They're going to get more snow than us.

For us, this is mainly an ice event. First alert meteorologist, Kualin Murphy has been first alerting us first alerting us about it all week long. Yeah, we want to treat it as such an ice event. event on the way, but I have some good news. We still have a lot of dry time. Models continue to trend later with the arrival of the precept. So you still have time to get out, maybe go get that workout in, run some last minute errands. Maybe you can clock in for a few hours this morning and afternoon before you settled down this evening. We're trending likely after 7 o'clock with the precip. Also, more sleet looks like the onset of the event as opposed to reducing the freezing

rain concerns. So that's good news for us. If we see sleet earlier, we could see less freezing. rain in the mix, which would help to reduce our ice potential just a smidge. We're still going to have significant impact. So just keep all of that in mind. Models trending a little bit warmer on the backside of the system too. So we may finish up with all liquid rainfall at the end. But by that time, most locations will be coated in ice. Here's that large system.

We showed you Kansas City. Here's Arkansas. Here's Louisiana all the way down to the Gulf Coast in areas north and west. Seeing impacts with the snow and ice. But the expanse will be all the way to the northeast. plain states digging in with the cold air this morning. Wind chills around 50 below and all that cold air stretching to the south as well. So I'm going to see some snow showers around the mountains.

We won't see a lot of activity here until later. Our air is really dry. So although some flakes may show up on our radar just know it won't make it to the ground because we are just simply too dry at this point. This is 4 o'clock today. Cold air is still rushing and we're still dry. Here we are at 7 o'clock seeing some snow showers at the onset initially and there may be some sleep for areas to the south. Ultimately, this transitions over to Sleet, and then after midnight tonight, we'll start to see that freezing rain. And this is where it really starts to get dangerous on the roads.

4 a.m. of the triangle, and this will ultimately continue lifting north, the whole area looking at some freezing rain concerns. You could see some breaks at times early afternoon with some of the freezing rain on Sunday, but just no right behind that break is more freezing rain on the way. This is Sunday evening, and this is where the rainfall could take over for the area. but at that time we're finished and looking at the coating of ice on the ground. So looking at generally one half up to three quarters of an inch from the triangle north. Those of you south and east just slightly lower on those totals of ice accumulation, a 10th to a quarter of an inch. And that's why we find those areas in the advisory criteria for this event in general.

The snow limited with the higher accumulation north around the state line. So first alert, winter storm warning starts at 7 p.m. and that's for generally the entire area. The exception, Cumberland, Samson, Wayne County, winter weather advisory for you, but the impacts continue. We have cold air, we have travel impact concerns, power outages too. Temperatures right now, teens and 20s, but the fields down into the single digits for some of you.

So again, dry through it late afternoon with the snow showers at the onset towards evening. Full forecast with meteorologist Steve Stewart coming up in a few minutes. Joel, back to you. Quaylan Murphy, laying it all out for us. Quay, thank you. State leaders meantime, warning this winter storm. could cause some serious impacts, especially from the ice, then the power outages.

We are standing by for Governor Stein to face the cameras again at 1130 this morning to address the weather emergency. The message from the governor, prepare now with water, food, medication, enough supplies to last at least several days. Stein declared a state of emergency on Wednesday, then mobilized the National Guard to assist across the state. Now, as Governor Stein declares that state of emergency, Duke Energy is already mobilizing to respond to the winter storm. The crisis is the biggest concern and restoration could take time if infrastructure is damaged.

Our Tamara Scott is live in Raleigh where crews from across the country are staging. Tamara, good morning. Hey, good morning, guys. Yeah, listen, while you're out today probably getting some of those last minute items, you'll probably see some crews out on the roads working, but you may also see some crews in staged areas ready to deploy once this storm starts here. And you can see here behind me, this is quite the staging area that, New Energy has they brought in so much help for our area because the threat of ice accumulation is particularly concerning for crews.

It has the potential to bring down power lines which create power outages and other challenges. So here at the Walnut Creek Amphitheater, there are about 1,000 people based out of this parking lot, including 800 line workers and around 200 support personnel. Duke Energy tells us that they're using new technology and techniques to best respond to the store. storm. Helene taught us a lot of good lessons, things we do well, things we can improve upon. And you know, a lot of that comes down to command and control during a storm response. We've really improved our ability to gather information ahead of the storm, model damages, deploy resources ahead of the storm, make sure we have critical equipment where it's needed

before the time it's needed. And listen, we will be watching these power outages with you. If you do lose power, Duke Energy wants you to report the outage by texting out to find 7801. That is the line you can text to, but you can also report an outage on the app or online. Tamara Scott, UC11, I was news. We've got an upgraded power grid and hundreds of linemen ready to go to work. Tamara, thank you. New this hour, people are scrambling to finish up those last minute preparations for the store. From food at the grocery stores to salt melt and flashlights at the hardware stores.

Our Sean Coffee is live at Burke Brothers Hardware in Raleigh. Talking to some of those shoppers, Sean, how's it looking out there? right now. Well, good morning, Anna, Joel. Nothing crazy too, so far here at Berks, but I will say when we arrived here at 8 a.m., which is exactly when they were opening, there were already several customers waiting parked in the parking lot, trying to go inside and get some last minute items. But unfortunately, if you are going out to the hardware store here or anywhere across the area, really, at this point, they are out of snow melt and that rock salt that obviously a lot of people would be looking for right now to melt some of the ice

that we're expecting. They've actually been sold out here for days. they said in anticipation of the storm. Berks is also out, they said, of D batteries and those mini propane tanks for camper type stoves, but they are otherwise well stocked. They said they have normal propane and plenty of other supplies. And we actually just spoke with a Raleighman

who came in to buy a shovel about monitoring the changes that we've seen in this week's forecast. I've been watching the weather all week. My wife says I've been watching it too much. It says it is makes you man. And the ice does, I am, I don't like ice. Snow's fine.

No ice. unfortunately many businesses here in the triangle burks included will be open as usual today with the arrival of that precipitation not until later on this evening so you do have some time if you need to get out and get those last minute supplies but i will warn you they may not have everything you're looking for this morning back to you rock salt's been hard to find yeah you had two zip-block bags of rock salt you take it how you can get it around here i know i know i was lucky to find that Sean thanks all right thanks Cumberland county also bracing for the storm kate rogerson will continue our live team coverage from Fayetteville. And flights canceled across the country this weekend. RDU among the most affected airports. We'll get a check in from there. First, say good morning, Nicole and Murphy. Good morning. If you're heading to RDU, no issues out there right now. Exception of is the cold air, single digit feels right now. Dry time through late afternoon by evening. We get going with the accumulation.

Statewide big impacts from ice to snow and sleep. Full forecast with meteorologist Steve Stewart after the break. Welcome back, everybody. A first alert day today. for the next few days. You have a lot of time before the storm really gets going. With the exception of a few flurries, it's really after sunset tonight. We'll start getting a wintry mix and eventually overnight turning to freezing rain. And most of the day tomorrow is going to be freezing rain with this ice storm, maybe some sleep, but really freezing is the thermal profile. And a biting breeze on Monday. We'll get above freezing. We'll have sun. We will get some melting going on. But whatever doesn't dry up is going to refreeze as it gets even colder Monday night into Tuesday morning. of us in a winter storm warning. Wayne County and Samson County and Cumberland County, winter weather advisory. You won't see as much ice down there. The heavier ice from the triangle north and west, a half inch to maybe some areas at three quarters of an inch. We're leaning more towards a half inch. That's what we're hoping for for sure. Lesser amounts of farther

south that you go. Meantime, the impact scale, this is major for us. This is four out of five accumulating ice tonight last most of Sunday. Travel is not advised during this time period and power outages are likely, especially where we get more ice. There's a storm. It's going to be coming our way, already getting some snow, starting to move into the mountains. We'll get up around 30, staying cloudy. It's the evening hours. Our snow chances start or snow in a mix early on, but primarily turning to freezing rain later tonight, and freezing rain in the 20s is going to accumulate quite quickly and easily.

The colder you are, the better chance of that happening. Teens and 20s in our northern counties, it is a cold Arctic air mass, It's moved in here. The Duke game, it'll be cold, but it'll be dry. 27 before, about 30 after tip off there at Cameron Indoor at midday today. What a huge swath of travel headaches today. These are just a few of the cities that are not only getting major cancellations, but are going to have issues from Dallas, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, St.

Louis, Memphis, Nashville, and Louisville, just to name a few. Got your 7-day forecast with Quaylin coming up in a few minutes, Joel. Steve, thank you. Happening today, Durham County, opening an emergency shelter to keep people safe during the storm. Residents can seek shelter at Northern High School on North Roxborough Street. Doors open up at 10 and there will be cots, meals, showers, charging stations, and transportation. People are asked to bring medications and hygiene items if they can. It's 912 on your Saturday morning and a travel nightmare this weekend. Thousands of flights already

canceled nationwide. We'll check the status at RDU. And as we head to break, here's a live look from a snowy Oklahoma City. The same storm that's coming on. away already coming in the Midwest. Stay with us. We are local news. ABC 11 eyewitness news continues now. This weekend, the airport is definitely not the place to be if you can help it. Unless you really like headaches. Yeah. That's your thing. Flight cancellations for this weekend have already topped 8,000

nationwide, including several dozen flights here at RDU. Bad numbers to start. That's where we find Bianca Holman. She's over at RDU inside terminal two. Bianca, some travelers scrambling to make new plans right now. Oh yeah, because the number of cancellations, they're due to rise because of the snow storm and the ice storm headed our way. And according to Flight Aware, we're looking at around 9,000 flights canceled nationwide.

But here's what things are looking like right now at our, at RDU. It was quiet for a moment, but this is the next round of flights and people who are just trying to get out of the area before the storm starts. Now the biggest impacts across the country are Dallas, Charlotte, and now.

There are about 3,000 cancellations just today and another almost 6,000 canceled on Sunday with the biggest impacts on Sunday being in Charlotte right around the corner from us, Dallas, New York, and Raleigh. We were able to speak with two friends headed to Boston about their flight out today and their travel plans. I went there in college and I lived there for a bit. We actually, we were really teeter-tottering between leaving Monday, which was our original plans or trying to leave before the snow because getting there. there was the bigger issue than being in Boston. So we did obviously change up our flights just to kind of avoid the snow storm, whether it comes, whether it doesn't. All right, so smart on behalf of Bella and Stephanie changing their flight from Monday to

today so that they could get out in time and not be stuck here. And so back out here live, we're looking at TSA right now. Things are moving here smoothly. Again, it was quiet, but now there's another rush of folks who are trying to catch their nine o'clock flights and 10 o'clock flights. here out of RDU. Now of course airport staff just like us they're watching what happens with this storm. They are ready and prepared they have gallons upon gallons of de-iscer to be able to de-ice the runways if need be. Of course we'll

continue to monitor things here as always check with your flight carrier before you come to the airport just in case of any changes back to you. Cheers to all those travelers whose flight is taking off all time and I hope you're going someplace more. Bianca thank you. Yeah lucky them because We are not going to be warm for quite some time here on top of everything we're going to be dealing with. Yeah, yesterday was our warmest day for quite some time as we finish out the month of January and moving to February. Temperatures about 15 to 20, even 25 degrees below average. New model data are coming in right now.

So we're making some small tweaks to the forecast. Nothing major, just a couple hours swing on some potential for precipitation. We still have generally some light showers, snow showers possible towards 4 or 5 o'clock. We're still going to get into the bulk of the activity by the evening hours, but we could get started just a little bit sooner. We have the winter storm warning for most of the area with the winter weather advisory to the south. So impacts slightly lower for those of you in Cumberland, Samson, Wayne County. You're still going to have some ice potential developing there along with the very cold air. So the arrival time now we were trending still later, but it was 7 o'clock earlier.

Now it looks closer to after 5 o'clock this afternoon. So you still have a lot of dry time through the afternoon hours. It still looks like more sleet at the onset of this event, which could help reduce our freezing rain trends as well. But still ice accumulation, the name of the game and still significant enough to have major impacts on travel later today. The model is also still trending a little bit warmer towards the end of this event. So we could end up a little bit more rainfall by Sunday night for that time frame. Here's the big storm system across the country and it's producing not only cold air, but of course. of course snow and sleet too and big impacts all the way to the Gulf South.

You're starting to see some snow showers west around the mountains. A lot of this will take some time to reach our grounds, although you could see a bit of flurry activity later this afternoon, but the reason why we're still looking at a late day start is because the air is just so dry. These are surface due points right now, seven below in Oxford, two in Raleigh is how the dew points are at this time. Temperature changed from yesterday. Those numbers continue to increase a 15 to 20 degree difference right now.

Temperatures right now in the 20s and teens. We have feels like temperatures in the single digits too for areas to the north. Wind speeds are right now coming in from the north and east 15 to 25 miles per hour sustained. UNC game is earlier today. Good call. Noon is the start time for the game.

So here we are into early evening, some snow showers and then of course return to the freezing rain impacts later tonight and tomorrow. Dangerous cold air on the backside of this event with more on the small changes we're seeing. Meteorologist Steve Stewart. Over to you. Okay, Quillian, thank you very much. Outside doesn't look that bad, but it is cold. This is Arctic air in place and the wind is biting, and it really kind of feels like something's going to be happening, and it will. That's snow and sleet likely as we get somewhere around sunset, give or take an hour or so. Freezing rain is going to be with us overnight and last through most of the day on Sunday. Again, Quaylin was saying some of the transit could end is a little bit of rain. Single digit temperatures Tuesday morning, but feels like closer to zero with just a light breeze. So how can we get something like rain at the surface when the temperature is in the 20s? You have to go up in the atmosphere loft about 5,000 feet.

Freezing here, above freezing. It doesn't take much to be above freezing. And we'll see that advancing northward as that happens as a precept comes in, it'll change it over. Basically that warm nose nudges in. If the entire column is cold, it's easy. It's snow. But when that warm nose comes in, it's shallow at first, so it melts it into rain, but it goes back into a deep layer of cold air and it refereens. freezes to a sleep pellet. But as we expand that warmer air loft, that is going to not have

enough time to go to a sleep pellet. It hits the ground, hits the power lines, hits trees as liquid, and then it freezes. And that's what we don't want to see. And that's likely what's going to be happening. Our in-house model shows potential significant to crippling along and north of 85. And that's kind of the trends here. That's what we're going to see most of the accumulated ice. It doesn't take a lot to see widespread power outages. That's why we think this is the area. that has that highest possibility of getting just that. When you get close to a half inch of ice, it is significant. Tree limbs, sag and break, roads are going to be covered in ice, and we have widespread power outages.

So that's going to be the issue. So as we go throughout the afternoon, again, we're looking at temperatures near 30, but once we get to the evening hours, the precipitation will begin, mainly a sleet snow mixed and then turning over to freezing rain, and we stay in the 20s. Here's another view of that. Our in-house model, a little bit. quicker with snow north and sleet south and that sleet line pushes up as we get closer to 11 o'clock tonight and temperatures very cold in those lower 20s we continue with the freezing rain now lifting northward is that layer aloft gets a little bit deeper and just shallow layer at the surface that's cold enough that's why it's not sleet anymore and that's why it's freezing rain widespread freezing rain accumulating freezing rain through the morning hours midday it could become a little bit lighter a little bit more sporadic but that doesn't necessarily mean that a good thing because lighter precipitation rates can actually adhere easier to the branches and also the power lines. But later on, when we see some temperatures getting up the 32.1, that's all you need to get to to see ice accrual come to an end. We could finish as some rain as the system will exit the area. Behind it, though, we're going to have Monday bright day, some melting, a biting breeze will be with us. We'll reinforce some of that colder air. Matter of fact, we're going to start out Tuesday morning, likely in the single digits.

First alert seven day then. So the winter mix later today, probably close to sunset. It'll be with us tonight. It's going to be an absolute mess with freezing rain and sleet. And then most of the day on Sunday, it's likely going to be freezing rain. And then maybe ending as a little bit of rain, a biting breeze on Monday. And then Tuesday in the morning, we can be in the single digits with feels like temperatures close to zero. Wednesday still in the 30s.

Another front settles in Wednesday night into Thursday, maybe a flurry not even. big deal, but look at the high still around freezing and low temperatures in the teens, and we continue cold into next weekend. It's going to take a long time to warm up. We'll be back right after this. Go Durham is making some changes to the bus schedule ahead of the ice storm. The transit system says the last bus will depart from the Durham station at 3 p.m. Go Durham Access Service is also getting suspended. All service will be canceled on both Sunday and Monday. Service is supposed to resume on Tuesday, but officials say you should expect delays. And Go Raleigh also making some changes because of the winter weather. They will run the buses until 6 p.m. today with the routes leaving

Go Raleigh station at that time. Go Raleigh also canceling service tomorrow and planning a delayed start to service on Monday. 927, a state of emergency declared in Fayetteville. Yeah, we're going to check in things down there. We get a live report from the sand hills. Checking on the preparations for the storm, plus millions of Americans on alert this morning as this powerful winter storm takes aim at half the country. We'll get a look at the national impacts. Coming up next. Right now, live coverage from your local news leader, breaking stories from overnight and this morning, and your first alert forecast. Here's what's happening where you live. This is ABC 11 eyewitness news. All right. Welcome back. We've got a live look right now from our ABC affiliate in Oklahoma. The winter

storm coming our way already impacting the Midwest. Those roads, they look like major highways just covered right now. Yeah, it is coming headed this way. Good morning, Carolina. Welcome on this Saturday. It's January 24th. I'm Joel Brown. And I'm Anna Rivera. And today, of course, a first alert day, a winter storm morning taking effect this afternoon as the state braces for snow and lots of ice leading to some dangerous conditions. I witness news has team coverage this Saturday morning and we will be right here with you through the storm. Let's check in now with me, Just Kualin Murphy, she is timing things out. Yeah, some changes from earlier this morning.

We had a 7 p.m. or so arrival. We're now looking at sunset, which is around 5 o'clock. So just a couple of hours earlier on that accumulating precept potential to begin for Central North Carolina, which made you have a lot of dry time through the morning and afternoon, but definitely dressed for the cold and cloudy conditions out there. We also have more changes, including looking like more sleet at the onset of this event. That would be a good scenario for us. So that will help to reduce the freezing rainfall totals because both of those come into play in terms of ice accumulation potential.

The models are also trending a little bit warmer on the tail end of the system. So we could end up with a little bit more rainfall by the time this is wrapping up late Sunday evening Sunday night. In the meantime, we're tracking snow showers and sleet for areas well to our west. But including in the mountains too, we're tracking winter weather alerts spanning from the New England states all the way down to the Gulf South. So this is definitely bringing winter for most of the country with extreme cold for the plain states. Now, if you're looking at your radar closely, your free ABC 11 radar, you're tracking some snow showers, what looks to be around the Clemens area, back to the mountains. But we have confirmation from emergency management in Clemens.

What you're seeing here on returns is just Virga. So it's not reaching the ground. And we're so dry, the air is really dry. That's why we don't expect to see anything, even if you see snow showers popping up on the radar locally. So this is noon today, still dry, that brisk cold air moving in. This is 5 o'clock. You see the new take here. Seeing some snow showers could develop around the triangle in north, sleep to the south initially.

And then we'll start to watch the transition. So by late evening, we're looking at all sleep for the triangle generally. Still snow to the north. That's where the higher snow accumulation potential will be later this evening. And then overnight, we start transitioning to the freezing rain. This is where you do not want to be on the roads. Hopefully, if you have church service tomorrow, you're transitioning to more of a virtual. service tomorrow or maybe just making the decisions to make sure that our

parishioners are not out on the roads for Sunday morning and through the day Sunday's just going to be a mess around here very dangerous conditions on the roads and travel in general we'll see maybe some minor breaks but overall the freezing rain continues through the evening before that potential transition over to rainfall we have ice accumulation total still generally one half up to a quarter of an inch three quarters of an inch maybe up to a quarter of an inch for location south greatest snowfall totals well to the north of the triangle around the state line. So winter storm warning for most of

the area for this event through late Sunday night early Monday morning travel not advised power outages likely. Our impact scale sits at a level four or five cold air temperatures teens and 20s single digits for some of you on the fields here we are towards late day and we get that underway for sunset. We'll have more on the forecast with meteorologist Steve Stewart in a few minutes back to you. All right, Kuelan thank you. Let's take our coverage now to Cumberland County. has declared a state of emergency. Yeah, the sand hills are not expected to get much snow, but just like everyone else,

ice continues to be top of mind there. Kate Rogerson joining the team on this Saturday morning. She's part of the coverage. We enlisted Kate to help out. She's live in Fayetteville. Kate, what's the latest? Good morning from Hay Street in Fayetteville where it's pretty quiet this Saturday morning.

However, city officials are encouraging everyone to be prepared for this storm by having an emergency kit with at least food and water that will last at least seven days. Now, Cumberland County has been working nonstop to prepare for this storm. Salt on major highways like I-95-295 and Highway 301 have been spread with salt. Plus, fast, the primary public transit in Fayetteville has been suspended today and tomorrow. Comberland County Emergency Service Director Gary Crumpler is encouraging people to get prepared right now if you haven't already so you can stay off the roads later.

For everyone else, we ask that you please stay off the roadways. It's imperative. Here locally, we only have so many resources. And once those resources are exhausted just like a hurricane, there may be prolonged time that first responders have to get to you. An emergency response center has been opened at Westover Rec this morning, if anyone's in need of it. We are here in the sandhills throughout the weekend to monitor conditions as they come along. It's cold, it's blustery right now. We're waiting to see what happens. We'll be here to report to you all weekend long. Back to you. All right, countdown to the storm. I'm Kate Rogerson in Fayetteville Forest. Kate, thank you. NCDOT has been working all week long, getting roads ready for the upcoming winter weather.

Yeah, we've seen those crews out on the roads all week long, spreading more than 300,000 gallons of brine to prevent snow and ice from sticking. We talked to our division maintenance engineer, and he explained how they choose which roads get attention first. We start on the interstate system and the primary routes, and then some of what we call our, our, our, our, our, our, our, our, some major secondaries. Wake Avenue, six forks, trying to maintain those roads and keep those open. Once we get through those main roads, we'll go into our higher volume secondary roads, and then eventually into the residential subdivisions, but that'll be some days down the road. With the significant ice, we are expecting the DOT is urging people not to drive unless they absolutely have to. And we are not the only ones bracing for this winter storm.

more than half the country could receive heavy snow, ice, and freezing rain. North Carolina is one of at least 17 states declaring a state of emergency ahead of time. People from New Mexico to Maine are under alerts for a massive winter storm. Boston and New York could experience a foot of snow. Airlines cancelling flights, airports could be closed for hours tomorrow. President Trump says his administration is coordinating with local and state officials and urging Americans to stay safe. Now, staying safe while heating your home, we're going to talk about the tips.

to keep in mind if you're using a space heater. And Buddhist monks braving the cold today on their walk of peace through Wake County. But first, good morning, Quang. Ooh, good morning in Wake County. 12 degrees in Raleigh, but even colder to the north. Single digit feels like temperatures right now. We're looking at a lot of dry time, but 4 or 5 p.m. expect to start to see that accumulating precept, which will take us through this evening.

And tonight, this is statewide ice, snow, and freezing rain concerns. Full forecast with meteorologist Steve Stewart on the other side of this break. Welcome back, everybody. A first alert day today. We have time to prepare. Still hours before the storm is going to be getting here. But we could have some flurries today, but it's really closer to sunset. We'll get a mixed bag, probably some snow in our northern counties, sleet elsewhere, and then eventually transition to freezing rain after midnight, and it's an ice storm tomorrow. And then Monday, a biting breeze will be with us. We'll get some sunshine. We'll start to warm things up and get some melting. But whatever doesn't dry is going to re-free as we get even colder Monday night into Tuesday. Most of us, a winter storm warning is in effect. But Cumberland, San Francisco. in Wayne County, it's a winter weather advisory. You're not going to get nearly as much accumulated ice there. The heaviest amounts are going to be from the triangle, north and west, and it could be crippling up around the 85 corridor. When you get enough closer to a half inch of ice, boy, that's when we have big time problems. Accumulating ice tonight, last most of tomorrow. Travel is not advised during this time period and power outages in many areas, especially where we get heavier ice is likely. There's the storm bringing some snow now out into Tennessee Valley. This is just a is coming our way. We'll be near 30 this afternoon. Notice maybe a flurry late afternoon into the early evening and then those chances start to go up as we get later on. The temperatures are going to get to the low 20s. Accumulating ice is going to be pretty easy with freezing rain with temperatures like that. It is cold now teens and 20s. This is a really cold air that's in place and it's going to be with us for a very long time. We'll just keep reinforcing the cold air over the course of the week. Duke's game today at midday. No headaches. Temperatures will be in the 20s. Tip off there. noon the walk to and from Cameron. Pretty cold though in that breeze and what a mess for travel today. Got your seven day forecast coming up in a few minutes Anna. Okay Steve. Thank you and as temperatures

drop there's a good chance you might resort to a space heater for warmth. But it is important to remember some safety tips so they don't become dangerous. First only plug a space heater into a wall, not an extension cord. Keep them three feet away from flammable materials like bed, clothing and furniture and never fall asleep with them on. Fire officials say you should also never use your to heat your home. It has a major carbon monoxide poisoning risk. 942 is the time now in winter weather shaking up college basketball. The changes today for Duke and UNC games and the postponement of some games down in the sandhills. And as we had to break, here's a live look right now at downtown Raleigh.

Still really clear out there, but getting colder. Now is the time to get out and do anything you need to get taken care of. We'll be right back. Happening today, those Buddhist monks we've been watching all week are now braving the cold. continuing their walk of peace through Wake County. The group is expected to travel from Apex to Raleigh today. And we were right there last night as hundreds, perhaps thousands, packed inside Apex High School to hear from the monks.

The monks are walking 2,000 miles from Texas to the nation's capital, capturing the hearts of many along the way. The winter weather impacting college sports schedules this weekend, an earlier start for Duke men's basketball at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Today's tip off against Wake Forest has been pushed up from 545 to noon. The UNC game has also been moved to noon. They're on the road playing the Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville. Meantime, Fayetteville State has postponed today's men's and women's basketball games against Winston-Salem State.

They will now be played on Tuesday. 946 is a time. It's a first alert day. First alert weekend, really, as we get through the winter weather on our on its way. We're talking cold air already in place now. But the impact start later today. closer to sunset and increasing through this evening and overnight. Freezing rain concerns really developing before sunrise tomorrow morning.

Winter storm morning for most of the area starts this evening 7 p.m. We have a winter weather advisory, Cumberland County, Samson, Wayne. It just means your impacts won't be as extensive as locations to your north. Tracking those impacts with the arrival time, some minor tweaks to the timing of arrival earlier this morning. Our models are trending towards 7 p.m. But with our latest runs, we're showing 5 o'clock after 5 o'clock towards sunset this evening. So do expect more impacts on the way. We could see more sleet at the onset of this event, which would reduce our freezing rainfall total.

So that would be a little good news, but we still expect major impacts on the roads and still significant impacts for power outage concerns. Models are trending a little bit warmer on the backside of this too. So it could end up with a little bit of rainfall. It only takes some minor temperature differences to swing us in the rainfall direction. And Steve will have more on that coming up. Right now here's that large system. We have snow now beginning to advance into the mountains west of our mountains and Tennessee, but also extending down south towards the Gulf South.

So this is a far expanding system in terms of cold air and also winter precept. So seeing some snow showers potentially around the mountains, but the little snow shower activity you've seen your Clemens. That's generally not reaching the ground. You can see how it's falling apart even. That's just because the air is just too dry. but we're just hours away from the impacts. And we're not going to see any snow accumulation, any time towards lunchtime,

because our dew points are down below zero for some areas, just an indication of how dry the atmosphere rains right now. But plenty cold, a 15 to 20 degree difference for most of us at this time. Teens and 20s on your current temperatures, but check out these feels. We first alerted you to single digits in teens, and that's where we are right now for most locations, 20, the feel and Clinton. That's because we have these winds, brisk,

bitter coming in from the northeast. So some changes to times today for some basketball games, including UNC. Tip off is at noon at Dean Smith, very cold conditions on the way into the center and on the way home as well. So some flurries and snow showers developing towards 4 p.m. Heading towards 7, I do expect more accumulation concerns with freezing rain tomorrow morning. Big impacts with dangerous cold air on the way too as the system wraps up into Sunday night and Monday. Steve meteorologist Steve Stewart has more on that. Steve back to you. Quaeland, that was sub zero dew points. Sub zero, Steve, so dry. You guys have, that's significant. That's incredibly dry. All right. So let's talk about it. Well, you think this is going to happen sometime

around sunset. Between now and then, there could be some flurries at times, but it is going to be quiet as far as something falling from the sky. Very cold out there with those wind chills. But if you have things you need to get done, put some ice melt down, go to the grocery store, things like you have tons of time to do that. Freezing rain overnight tonight and through most of the day tomorrow. We're going to see it coating the power lines, the branches. A lot of those are going to break as well. That's going to cause power outages.

And single digits Tuesday morning feels like temperatures could be sub-zero in a few areas. Incredibly cold. We don't talk about that too often. So how do we get rain when the temperature is in the 20s? You have to go up at around 5,000 feet. And where you see the blue, that's below freezing. Where you see the kind of oranges color, that's going to be above freezing. You see how that in warm.

It's warm nose starts advancing northward. When that happens, it is impossible to get snow. You need to have the entire column of air below freezing. When that warm nose pushes in, it melts that snow into rain, and then it goes into a deep layer of cold air and it'll re-freeze to a sleep pellet. That's what we want. We want sleep. That's going to bounce off the trees.

It'll bounce off the power lines. Still going to cause a mess on the roads, but it's better for power outages. When you get that deeper layer and the thermal profile is leaning in this direction, this direction. That rain drop when it gets cold, it doesn't have time to freeze to appellant, hits the ground, hits the power lines, hits the trees, and that's when it freezes and it will accumulate as well. Now our in-house model, the numbers aren't as high as some other guidance that we're looking at, but we kind of feel this is going to be the case up and around that 85 corridor. That's where we're going to see most of the ice. And once you get up around a half

inch of ice or more, that's going to be an issue. So this is where we think the highest likelihood is to get power outages. Doesn't mean you're going to miss out on power outages in the sandhills, but your chances are much, much lower there. Because when you get that half inch of ice, most roads are going to be covered and widespread power outages. As those limbs, a half inch of ice, a normal tree limb is going to increase its weight by 30 times.

It just can't hold it and it's going to snap. So that's the concern. We'll get up around 30 for hours, not much in the way of precept until we get closer to sunset and things get dark. That's when we'll get a mix and eventually all freezing rain. And when that transition happens to freezing rain, it's likely not going to go back to sleet. Around dinnertime, we could get some snow and some sleet. And notice all sleet as we go through most of the evening.

And then we're going to start seeing that freezing rain line come up. This is around 3 o'clock in the morning. Overnight through the morning hours tomorrow. That's all freezing rain. We'll watch that temperature closely. You need to get all the way up to 32.1. When that happens, we'll see a transition to rain. But the damage has been done at that point in time.

System will be long gone on Monday back to sunshine and about 37 degrees for high. We'll get some melting, but it gets colder after that. So wintering mix later today, most of the day cloudy. It's really tonight that's our concern. That's when we get the accumulating sleet and ice. Mainly going to be ice as we get past midnight and generally freezing rain most of the day on Sunday. It could end as a little bit of rain as Quaylin was showing you. And then a biting breeze on Monday.

The roads will still be icy. We'll get some melting later in the day. Look at what happens. Single digits overnight Monday into early Tuesday. So extreme cold will likely have a cold weather advisory issued by the National Weather Service with wind chills, potentially down around zero or worse. As we get into Wednesday and Thursday, we really don't warm up. There's a little clipper that comes by could squeeze out a snow flurry or a light snow shower.

Nothing of concern. But we stay cold to finish the work week and even headed into next weekend. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back. Here's a live look right now at the Memphis skyline in Tennessee. I can imagine it's very cold there as well. We've seen a lot of pictures coming out of the Midwest, seeing some snow covering those highways. It's hard to tell, but it looks like it may be frozen. I don't think that's Memphis.

That looks like Chicago. That looks like Chicago? Just guessing here. Okay. Well, this is somewhere that isn't here. And that is where we are seeing the winter storm already affected. and making impacts across the country. Just going out on a limb, we will check that.

New this morning, UNC Health, adjusting clinic operations because of the winter storm. Urgent care clinics will close early today and remain closed through Monday with appointments rescheduled or moved to virtual visits. Hospital and emergency departments will remain open 24-7. Meantime, state leaders are warning this winter storm could cause some serious impacts, especially from ice and power outages. Governor Stein is expected to address the weather emergency. morning that's coming up at 1130 so about 90 minutes until then the governor urging people to prepare right now with enough supplies to last several days all right quay let's get a final check of

the weather yeah first alert day through the weekend around sunset is when we'll start to get some sleet and snow developing and then we follow that up with cold air and Steve is here yeah we're gonna have freezing rain most of the day tomorrow that's when we get the accumulating ice that's when the problems are going to happen and we will see power outages in many areas especially north and west of the triangle want to reiterate that time timeline that you guys had pushed up again. Sunset. Five, five p.m.

Okay. From the eyewitness news center, I'm Anna Rivera. And I'm Joel Brown for Quailin Murphy, Steve Stewart as well, and the rest of the eye with this news team. Thank you for watching. Yes, our team in a vet. There's the brain. The brains behind the operation.

There you go. ABC 11 eyewitness news is sponsored by Ruggin Home of Raleigh. Experience the Extraordinary.