a late start to the storm but in the last hour when we were out here with belen at the top of the 11:00 news, now it is really coming down. >> it has really picked up. >> you see us? we are over here. >> we have only been out for a couple of minutes, all over. so is this going to keep on for the rest of the afternoon? >> it is. so there was a lull in radar this morning so it slowed down and folks are like, is that it? no. it's moving and pushing in from the south and expected to get even more heavy by the time the afternoon commute rolls around. >> we warned you. >> take a look at where the snow is falling now, anywhere you are across the metro you're going to see white stuff falling from the sky. i-25, i-76, i-70 into the foothills, up and over the divide it seems like we have the snow that has slowed down but it's still falling especially in our central and western part of the state. and the center of this system

four corners, now, the storms will be pushing into the southeastern corner of colorado by this afternoon. that means it will be in a primo position to get the easterly winds this afternoon and get that up-slope producing even more snow for the front range and for northern colorado. so we are going to see bigger snow amounts reported into this afternoon and evening, heavier overnight and into tomorrow morning. by tomorrow afternoon is when we will see from 7:00 to 14 inches -- seven to 14 inches here? eastern plains. the winter storm warning already in effect and lasting through tomorrow afternoon. the temperatures right now, it's getting even colder, we've got 20s around town right now, a few 30s sprinkled there and teens closer to the foothills. our highs for today will be in the 30s along i-25, that's about as warm as it's going to get. so we are headed towards the very snowy and wintry day, even the cheesman park camera, i

at least we could see the cityscape but now can't see visibility dropped. here is a look at the forecast for the afternoon commute. mamas, you're watching this right now, plan ahead when you pick up those kids after school, you're taking them to some sort of practice or if you're watching us from work right now when you're clocking out of work, maybe the boss will let you get out early. icy and snowpacked roads. toss it over to amelia. this morning okay to drive into different story. >> reporter: big changes. everything you said is exactly what we were noticing here at i- 25 and downing. the temperature is dropping, the snow is intensifying and as we look over here to i-25, i know it's a little bit difficult to make out, the roads are mostly wet but if you look between the lanes of traffic, you can see some of that slush is now starting to build up and as the temperatures fall, the afternoon commute is going to get more and more difficult. as for the freeways, that's one situation where there are so many cars that they are hitting the road and it melts right

you can see in the center median the snow is starting to accumulate and that's been over just the last half hour or so. now, as we take a live look out to our cdot cameras, first at 225 and parker, want to let you know we spoke to cdot today and of course they are working hard, plow crews out across the board putting mag chlorides down across the road in anticipation of the snow falling which helps to keep it from accumulating to begin with. if you want to know where all the snow plows are, you can head to co trip.org and check out the location of the plows. if you wonder when your neighborhood is going to get improvement, you can tell when the plows are and when they are getting close. 25 in jewell shows lighter volume there but this afternoon gridlock delays and eisenhower, plenty of accumulation and earlier today a full closure of i-70 westbound due to a serious crash that happened just outside of the tunnel but that has since reopened. come back here to our live view where the snow continues to get heavier and heavier moment by

9news at 11:00 a.m., we had written the #9newsmornings and newsx. things are changing and i can speak firsthand. bring the gloves because it's just dropping in temperature out here. >> yeah, it is. >> starts to hurt after a while. if you were planning to fly today, tomorrow or even the next day, you have been taking this storm seriously and checking with airlines. dia says it's cancelled about 494 flights today because of the weather. they are also watching flights cancelled yesterday in anticipation of the storm. 33% of today's flights at dia not moving. dia does have more than 250 pieces of snow removal equipment, 110 pieces of equipment just for parking lots and roadways. they also have more than 500 trained snow removal personnel. airlines say they are in full de-icing operations right now. of course they are.

minutes to de-ice but that, of course, can vary based on the aircraft and what's going on out there. now, the faa is not reporting any significant delays but keep in mind that's because so many flights are cancelled too. if you are planning to travel today, tomorrow morning, definitely if you haven't already, checked -- check with the airlines. >> good idea. residents in elizabeth have a snow cat coming to their rescue to clear the streets. it was decommissioned from the military and elizabeth fire and rescue spent a couple thousand dollars doing maintenance and repairing it. it's being used to clear snow in that town. the crew uses it whenever they have a significant snow day like today. >> look at that. that's cool looking, isn't it? >> it is awesome. so we are hours away now from the iowa caucuses, it's going to be snowing there tonight as well. candidates are making their last pitches to voters this afternoon, tracie potts is following all of this in des moines, iowa where most of the candidates will watch the results come in tonight. >> reporter: marco rubio this morning visiting a diner outside des moines and

>> we recognize we are not the front runner. we know we are an underdog but feel good about it. >> reporter: he calls ted cruz iowa's front runner but donald trump is leading the polls, trump tells the "today" show he's not claiming a win just yet. >> well, everybody is a threat, matt. i think everybody in the race is a threat. you never know what's going to happen. it's politics. >> reporter: at this point it's all about the ground game, keeping volunteers energized. >> i am feeling so energized because of all of you. >> reporter: hillary clinton brought doughnuts and coffee this morning. >> we've got thousands of volunteers, we knocked on 125,000 doors this past weekend. excitement. >> reporter: dr. bernie sanders tells me -- ben carson tells me anything over 10% is a win for him. he's got people working in all 99 counties tonight. >> and they are going to be saying, look, do you guys want to listen to your heart or do you want to listen to the pundits? i think it's going to have an effect. >> reporter: turnout is key if lots of new voters show up,

be a good night for bernie sanders. >> young people are really upset, especially as they are just getting into the political scene, and they are seeing a lot of the ways things are managed and they are not happy about it. >> reporter: looking for change, tonight is their chance. tracie potts, nbc news, des moines, iowa. >> we are in iowa to bring us the latest on the coverage there. let's talk about the zika virus now. the world health organization is holding a crisis meeting today in geneva to talk about this. the leaders there are considering whether the explosive spread of a mosquito born virus should be declared a global health emergency. some have criticized world health organization leaders for not reacting more quickly as the virus spreads across central america. two dozen countries and territories have confirmed cases of the virus but many people who have it don't even know they are sick. zika could be connected to birth defects if a pregnant woman gets the virus. there is a student at the college of william and mary in

zika virus, and caught it while visiting central america during the winter break from school. the university says the centers for disease control has confirmed there's no health threat on campus. the student is expected to recover and is currently not experiencing any symptoms. we are learning more about the investigation into the deadly fight between two motorcycle groups this weekend. investigators have released the name of the man who died. he is identified as 46-year-old victor mendoza, pronounced dead saturday afternoon after two motorcycle groups got into a fight at the colorado motorcycle expo. denver police are still interviewing witnesses. they say they have a person of interest but they haven't made any arrests. investigators also say there may be more than one shooter. this fight involved two motorcycle groups, the mongols which federal authorities say is a gang and the iron shield, which has members in law enforcement. the department of corrections employee was a member of one of those groups. the d.o.c. has not released his name. belen is going to join us shortly to talk more about the storm.

going as they said it would at lunchtime. >> those flakes are really falling now. >> yeah. also, some art just scratches the surface, right? this one goes way below it. we will have a closer look. >> whoa.

happy monday, everyone. out here in the back yard, the temperatures are very chilly so we are headed towards a wintry day. you want to be home and cuddle but we are working but it's okay because we are giving you the forecast and i'm happy about that. hey, we are starting a bran spanking new -- brand spanking new month and did you know that

snowiest month and the snowiest february we have had on record. we got 22.4 inches. well, today we are starting off the month just very snowy and what we have setting up is this up-slope storm. now, if you lived in colorado for a while, you know that when we have a storm system that kind of positions itself in southeast colorado, that's a big time snow maker for us here on the front range. by 6:00 this afternoon i'm expecting for the center of position. those easterly winds are going to be forced up towards the higher elevation, it expands, cools, a process called condensation occurs but it's going to cause big snow for us on the front range. we already have that snow falling out in boulder and out at dia as well where the temperatures are at 29 degrees. out here in the back yard, our temperatures are coming in at 27, so, yeah, it's a chilly afternoon, let's check radar right now and where that snow is. actually, temperatures 20s around the metro area, 30s out

and teens in the high country. your highs for today in the 20s, mainly for the high country, and a chilly day here in lower elevations as well. you want know about that snow. it's lifting it from the south, again that center of the storm system is still over the four corners, but as it makes its way into southeast colorado this afternoon and evening, that's when we are going to have even heavier snow. another look of that snow along i-25, i-70, i-76 and a look at your futurecast and you will notice how in the high country especially through later this afternoon and evening, that snow is going to taper off, but it's going to continue to fall in the metro area overnight and even into tomorrow morning, so the drive this afternoon and evening is going to be a difficult one and the one tomorrow morning is going to be a very icy one as well so plan ahead for both of those. tonight temperatures drop to 13 degrees and it looks like we will have accumulations from seven to 14 inches by the time you wake up tomorrow, not only that, we are going to have pretty strong winds at 15 to 25 miles per hour.

by tomorrow at noon, accumulations in the metro area from seven to 14 inches, same goes for northern colorado, six to 12 on the plains and bigger amounts in the foothills to the south and also in our northern mountains where we could see from one to 2 feet. tomorrow an additional inch of snowfall, then gradual clearing the high. wednesday 30, thursday 39, and a small chance for snow on friday. the payoff comes this weekend. everybody is working for the weekend.

the mother who came to colorado from nines give birth to her conjoined twins now has full visiting rights with her surviving daughter again. in december officials at children's hospital colorado restricted amber mccullough's visitation with her surviving daughter hannah to a couple of hours a day. they say it was because mccullough was disruptive in the icu. mccullough says she saw misconduct in her daughter's care. she delivered twin girls in august, olivia died within hours, as was expected. hannah, has been in the icu ever since. mccullough is considering moving her daughter to a hospital out of state. doctors in switzerland say they have separated eight day old conjoined sisters. they are believed to be the youngest babies ever successfully parted. >> eight days. now, the surgery was back in december. the girls developed a life threatening condition. the twins at the time weighed

they were connected at the liver but each had all other vital organs. the operation had 1% chance of success and so far lydia and mia are survivors. the hospital says the sisters are still very, very small, but that they are developing well. >> 1%, that's amazing. >> right? >> uh-huh. bill gates wasn't always the mild mannered philanthropist that we see today. in fact, he used to be a really tough boss. >> yeah, this story is trending today. gates has confessed to some strange behavior when he first started as the boss at microsoft so he did an interview with bbc and admitted to being, quote, frantic about work. he says he had a tendency to always analyze how hard people were working and one way he did that is he memorized his employees' license plates. yes. gates says he did that so he could look at the parking lot and tell when people were coming and going. maybe if you came late, left early, he would know. gates says he's loosened up, though as the company grew. imagine, wow.

>> me neither. >> now he's giving in and helping others. so that's good. the newest art museum in spain is not exactly very easy to get to. a british artist purposefully sunk hundreds of his sculptures off the canary islands in spain. the art lives 45 to 50 feet below the surface allowing divers of all levels to enjoy them. eventually people will be able to view it all by snorkeling or by taking glass bottom canoes. project organizers said the weather and the clarity of the water in the canary islands makes it ideal for this. >> amazing. >> isn't it? the figures are built from a high quality cement that are guaranteed to survive underwater for up to 300 years and they don't move, they are in there for good. the museum should see the first visitors by the end of this year. >> it freaks me out just a little bit. >> wow. >> makes me feel a little bit eerie. >> yeah. >> but still really cool. >> it would be neat to see and then, okay, i've seen enough. all of us know that planning for an emergency is never really fun, not the first

emergency responders say you need to do it and you can make it easier on everyone by

did you know that on the smartphones there's a feature or an app that could help save your life? >> i found it earlier. it's a feature emergency personnel want all of us to use. nbc's chris clackum is here to show us. >> reporter: most of us use the lock screens on phones to keep out the bad guys. but what if it's the good guys who need vital information to save your life? >> with a medical emergency we are the first ones there from a medical standpoint and so it is vital. >> reporter: turns out that information can be easily accessed on your smartphone. on iphones it's right there in the bottom left-hand corner of the lock screen, the word emergency. tap on it and a keypad pops up

fur other unconscious -- or if you're unconscious someone else like a paramedic could tap on medical i.d. below the keypad and up pops info on yourself that could prove crucial. it's a standard app on iphones where you input whatever info you deem important, like your name, the person to call in case of emergency, your height, weight and most importantly, medical conditions. >> if you have epilepsy, we want know that. if you have preexisting heart conditions, if you have strokes, if you are a diabetic, all of those major medical situations that could actually determine the outcome of why you're having an medical emergency in the first place. >> reporter: certain android phones comes with similar apps or there are plenty online to choose from. but the advice is, do it now. chris clackum, nbc news. the snow falling here in the metro area and it's been going on for a while in the high country too. this camera is just getting

the past 48 hours vail resort has gotten 16 inches of fresh powder and as you can see it is still falling, breckenridge got 15, copper got 14 and more is on the way.

a lot of you are asking us if we are giving out more broncos magnets this week and we are. the next giveaway is tomorrow morning starting at 6:00 at the king soopers at west almeda and south wadsworth in lakewood and then tomorrow afternoon at the king soopers at east 104th in chambers and commerce city. all the giveaway locations through sunday morning are on 9news.com. >> got to go get it. put on your snow pants and get out there tomorrow morning. >> absolutely. >> don't miss out on the opportunity to have your magnet. >> your hat is still wet from all the snow out there. >> it's really coming down. >> it's not going to stop. so take a look at the forecast for the rest of the afternoon. so moms and dads, when you pick up your kids this afternoon from school, just plan ahead

temperatures are going to hover in the 20s. if we are lucky we could see some 30s but, you know, it's going to be a cold one and as we take a look at the forecast, it takes us through tuesday evening and i think that's when we are going to come between that seven to 14 range here in the metro area. so tomorrow another cold day and then start to see clearing on wednesday. stay tuned to your weather team as we continue to bring you updates. >> look, it's groundhog day tomorrow. that's funny. >> hoping for spring soon. [ laughter ] have a good one, everybody.