>> this is cbs-3 "eyewitness news". oh, get the brian on the road and prepare the plows. a blizzard watch is issued for our area, and we are expecting big wind and big snow too. good afternoon, i'm erika von tiehl. you heard right, a blizzard watch. this is as we prepare tore this major storm. want to get right over to meteorologist katie fehlinger, no talking about a blizzard ward. >> and i have to tell you i'm not surprised by that development. you know, really, you don't want to put it out there until you are certain, but had been looking to us, now the weather service agrees it would ends

up being close to blizard cry tear y appears as persist pent winds with the storm system when it arrives, for now here it is, we go outside, show you first and for most what's happening on storm scan three take a look down across the planes, that, folks, where we start to see the storm gather it strength, blot blossom with lots of moisture grabbing up from the gulf. obviously not here yet. did have our own disturbance, long gone, in for sunshine, but of course big story. let's take a look at the time line in gent. friday night; when the snow is set to begin. so, friday for the most part actually looks like quiet day, not bad timing here, if you are lucky enough to have scored a weekend off. saturday though will be the big day with heavy snow, strong winds, and when the height of any blizzard conditions will take place, clearing, though, and blowing drifting snow still an issue for you sunday. by that point you are definitely going to have a lot to clean up. meanwhile, storm watches that take effect, not out there yet, still got some time that we can bid here before the storm arrives, but now, in the

purple shaded areas where we will find those blizzard watches take effect on friday evening, and winter storm watches, for all of the counties shaded in blue. so you're basically all looking at something out of this storm. but, it is not just snow. we do think there will be enough warmth in place, that you will likely see mixing take place, through southeast most new jersey, coastal communities specially, and mix over with a bit of rain. much more detail, though, on how much snow we're talking about, also those winds, because that really is a very important factor to keep in mind with this one. meanwhile, if you haven't made preparations, now is a great time for it. it is cold outside granted but not as harsh as recent mornings have been, and we do expect to keep that sun around for the rest of the day, but obviously, going to be much different site outside, as the days progress here, with this storm system on the way. >> i know you are watching of course, katie, thank you. "eyewitness news" reporter anita oh joins us at the home depo in cherry hill with more on storm prep. good afternoon.

>> reporter: good afternoon, erika, definitely been a busy morning here, at the home depo. the busiest items, the grabbing items off of of the shelves, salt, firewood, you can imagine, shovels as well, manager jim marks tells us since yesterday more and more custom verse been grabbing those items from the store. >> i mean, you have been talking about might go off and stuff, but preparing for big storm. because they're coming in like increase in traffic, probably up probably 30-50%. so definitely a big increase. >> i'm going to be home anyway, you know, i'm stocking up now, getting ready to go to the grocery store, get what i got to get, get back in and i'm done. >> you're planning to bunker down? >> oh, ya, i'm not going out, no, no. >> also, selling snow blowers,

firewood, prepared bunch, everyone i have spoken to so far is taking this major storm in stride. and actually, they have just run out of bags of salt here. but this is calcium chloride. employees tell me that although it is more expensive than salt, about double the cost, that's $20 a pop, it is better, and at melting ice, so that's the good news here, there is still plenty of time to grab a shovel, they haven't run out of any stock yet, so if you haven't been able to get your items come on down. for now live in cherry hill, anita oh, cbs news. >> anita, thank you. our area is getting ready for snow, the nation's capitol they got some last night. correspondent craig boswell shows us it paralyzed washington dc now getting ready for rounds two. >> hundreds of crashes across the dc metro area made last night's commute nearly impossible. backups lasted late into the night, the cause, just inch of snow that froze over. >> it is crazy out here. i know it seems like just

little snow, but it is really, really slick out here. >> it was a little bet they are morning, but not much. truck drivers, who had reached their shift limit, had to pull over, blocking lanes of some highways. >> i left fort bragg north carolina two hours ago, at 7:00. got into traffic here. >> president obama, also gets stuck in the mess. his motorcade skidded along roads as he returned to the white house wednesday. and last night's dusting is nothing compared to what is ahead, a major winter storm that could drop 2 feet of snow on the city over the next couple of days. the mayor of dc apologized for wednesday night's debockle and says the city is ready for the next storm with 40,000 tons of salt, 800 workers, and about 500 plows. >> i've lived in d.c. most of my life. i don't know that i have lived through a forecast like this, it is an extremely large storm, it will last for 36 hours. >> much of the northeast is in the blizzard's cross hairs.

storm surge is a big concern along the coastline, washington, d.c., and virginia have already declared a state of emergency, before the storm even arrives. craig boswell, cbs-3, "eyewitness news". and, you can track the storm and snow totals any time at your fingertips, download the free cbs-3 weather app. it is available right now on itunes and google play. >> well, bad news in these cold conditions. a water main break in lawrence township mercer county. hate to see this. the break happened about 7:00 this morning, on princeton pike, between franklin corner, crews repaired the break, the roads around there have been reopened. >> meanwhile, police in pemberton, burlington country investigating a deadly accident on route 70. hubert provided us with a look at the scene, route 70 and lakehurst road. chopper three over the scene, as well, the accident involved dump truck and mini-van. one person killed, another person injured. route 70 is still closed.

>> new legislation being introduced in philadelphia's city council, though it mandates helmets and other protective gear for children under the age of 12, when they ride hoverboards. parent and adult caretakers will be fined up to $300, if that bill passes. >> meantime, amazon is offering a full refunds on any hoverboard sold on amazon.com. hoverboards have been plagued with problems from falls, to fires, consumer product safety commission has been investigating hoverboard safety since december. a british report on the poisoning death of russian spy claims that schrat mere putin was involved. the victim was a vocal critic of rush's president and authorities say that's why he was killed. cbs news core upon dent charlie dagada report from london. >> on his death bed, alexander told his wife putin did it. now, almost a decade after his murder: a british judge confirmed russia's secret service the fsb and russia's

president, were likely to blame. the former agent was a fierce critic of the kremlin, bled to britain in it thousand, at this hotel in 2006 where he met two russian comrads for tee, who allegedly slipped poison into his tea pot. andre, on the right, and dimitri, have always denied involvement, and they're both back in russia. lit man became violently ill and was dead within three weeks. an urine test revealed plum john 210, highly radioactive and extremely toxic poison. his widow says he won't stop fighting for her husband. >> if you can live with this crime, in the end you will get -- >> the british government summoned the ambassador, frozen assets of the two suspect they're trying to extradite. investigation also found it was the second time they tried to poison him. charlie dagada, cbs news,

london. >> still ahead this noon, woman makes history in the nfl. she becomes the first full-time coach in the all male world of pro-football. her story is coming up. >> also, the pope makes a bold statement changing church law. his new rules let anyone take part in a long standing easter tradition. more on this

>> pope francis is changing catholic law to make the holy

ritual a clearer sign of universal service. the holy thursday ritual calls for the pope to wash the feet of 12 men, symbolizing the 12 happen possible else. france's raised eyebrows when he washed the feet of men and women, christians, and muslims. the new papal decree makes no mention of any gender or religious affiliation. the buffalo bills are making history this off-season, correspondent elaine key hand owe has the story of catherine smith, the very first woman to become a full-time assistant coach in the ffl. >> historically the nfl coaching ranks have been one of the biggest boy club on the block, but buffalo littles are changing that, late wednesday the bills announced they've promoted catherine smith to quality control special teams coach, making her the first full-time female assistant coach in the nfl. the league's newest coach has been around front offices for years. the 30 year old began her nfl career as an intern with the

new york jets in 2003. four years later, smith was promoted to player personnel assistant, and in 2014 was named assistant to then head coach, rex ryan. smith followed rex ryan to buffalo after he took the head coaching job with the bills last year. ryan said he consulted with arizona cardinals bruce, whose team made history themselves this past july. >> very, very excited to have coach jan weather join our staff. >> the cardinals hired jen as a linebacker's coaching intern important the team's training camp in pre-season. the first woman to hold a coaching position in the ffl. >> i could not have dreams big enough to get whatever comes. >> now it could be a dream for other girls growing up. >> smith wasn't made available to the media. a team spokesperson says she may talk to reporters about her new role sometime after

the superbowl. elaine key hand owe, cbs news, new york. >> still ahead on "eyewitness news", oh, a frightening disease, but now researchers say they can tell earlier if a person will develop dementia. also, the big cast at the philadelphia zoo get big boost, the donation that will help zoo workers take care of these big animals and more coming up. >> of course all eyes on what's going to happen this weekend. yep, it is true, if you heard the rumors by now, i am sure you have. big and we call it that, a major winter storm, headed our way, and we'll breakdown every detail you need to know, timing things out, and how much we'll see, all coming up.

>> if you live in the city of philadelphia today, you cannot save parking spots, we know it is tempting because you shoved the spot, sorry, if you see somebody saving spots, they have the cone out there, maybe a lawn chair, they want you to call the police and report that location, they're also using the hashtag no savesiis. you know, storms like this, you just can't. >> yes, it is pushing back later and later, so tomorrow should be okay getting home from work. >> i think we will be okay, looks as though we continue to see things trends little later for any snow to actually start falling. and it is still expected to start from south to north. so the further north you go, you might not see any snowflakes flying, until, say, early saturday morning, which would be amazing, because you can get through the entire day then pretty much all of saturday too, hopefully sit back, enjoy the beautiful snow coming down, but not beautiful you have to travel in it. take you outside, show you

nice view of storm scan once more, highlighting the fact that we're starting to finally see some actual what i would say more organization now, you know, earlier this morning, just still looked like blossoming area of moisture, across the deep south, even despite more of the counter clockwise circulation we start today see. see now more of comma shape starting to take effect here, that's sort of your classic mid latitude cyclone evolving >> baltimore, dc will get hit the hardest, but here comes, all the way out to friday, 2:00 p.m. and it is still not here. sorry, kids, not even early dismissal looks like this time. but we will be beading our time waiting on this thing, even by saturday, 1:00 a.m., that there there may not be flake flying in the lisa dicioccio high valley or poconos, things can change as we well know. watching this looking as

though at this point it is just going to keep coming later, later, so we take you out to 6:00 p.m. at the local level here, again, at this point, this is just one model, but at this point, it appears as though it will come in little later, kate should have something to track by the time she is on the air in "eyewitness news" at 11:00. we can expect this to over spread the area. initially all snow down the shore, but you see how things start to shift. now, even into noontime, there may ends up being few little spots where you catch a lull. don't bank on it, being a total lull, though, because we are expecting that rotation to sort of just keep us in to the throng every things here, and then really in the bulk of the moisture at least for the better part of the day. it is even until 7:00 a.m. sunday, still likely to find at least something to track here locally. breaking down bit more in terms of the impact. friday p.m., again, at night, we start to see the snowfall. it will linger pretty much all saturday. so it, may not even have to stop. just have so much time, of snow coming down over foot in some spots, gusts could peak as high as 50, maybe even six

off miles per hour, specially near the shore towns, and that's why we've got coastal flood watches that are in effect, as of tomorrow night. possibly even power outages, with this guy, so be careful, looking at the winds speeds, the expectations, you'll be dealing with blowing and drifting snow if you have 30, 40-mile per hour gusts out there saturday t does look as though that the brunt will really be affecting portions of southeastern new jersey, central-southern delaware, that's where the bulk of those really strong winds will be. okay, here we go, our exclusive eyewitness weather snowfall map right now, specking 1 foot to 16 inches, and including all of the big towns along i-95, and the vicinity, further north you go, further east or south you go, the totals start to drop off little bit. but if you really want the biggest snow, you might have to head on down toward baltimore, dc. still going to do well though. 34 degrees, our current temperature, so, cold enough to support that snow, meanwhile, we go out to the live neighborhood network, it will be completely different picture come saturday, sunday, right now blue skies. so get those plans in right

now. you know, you have got quiet weather to do so by friday night, the snow is here, try to hunker down as we have been saying if you can saturday. if you must go out, please, be very, very careful. poor visibility, obviously slick roads, the snow is going to slow you down, saturday will be rough day, and, again, you know, timing could have been so much worse on this. >> absolutely. >> sorry, kids, doesn't look like again even early dismissal let alone. >> good news for parents, though. >> hey, exactly. >> well, as the snow moves in, we want to see your snow pictures, shoveling, playing in the snow, those beautiful winter white scenes, post them on social media with the #cbs3 snow. you might see them right here on cbs-3. >> all right, turning to our health watch this noon, new way to screen for dementia risk. london researchers used records from hundreds of thousands of patients, to develop a formula that predict the risk of being diagnosed with dementia within five years. researchers say that the tests worked well in people 06 to 79, but, not in patients over

80. >> women diagnosed with melanoma, during pregnancy, or the year after, they have a greater risk of the cancer recurring or spreading, or even dying from the disease. the cleveland clinic studied look at hundreds every medical records, researchers say that hormones or changes in the immune system during pregnancy may drive the cancer. and there is now a blood test that can distinguish infection caused by virus or bacteria. researchers developed what they call gene signature, patterns that show which genes are turned on and off when a person is fighting a particular infection. by distinguishing whether an infection is bacterial or viral, doctors hope to cut down on the over use of antibiotics. >> the more antibiotics someone takes, especially when they don't need them, that they'll expose them to other effect on overall health, also puts them at high risk for developing resistant infections later on. >> so far the test of 87% accurate, but the results will take about ten hours.

coming up this noon: the philadelphia zoo and its big exhibit gets

>> coming up at a , little boy and girl in australia the baby's 11 weeks premature, reach out, and hold hands, for the first time, and the city is going viral. i know you can relate to this. more on their story, i know you will be watching, today at 5:00. then at 6:00 he lost his

leg, nearly more in a hit-and-run accident, the philadelphia actor speak to go "eyewitness news", about his returning to the stage. that's tonight, at 6:00. >> the philadelphia zoo is getting a big check to help take care of their big cats. first niagara present add check for $150,000 to support education, and other programs, at the zoo. first niagara lends its name to the zoo's big cat falls, it showcases tigers, lions and many other cats, many of which are in dangered species. we always love seeing them walking over those overpasses at the zoo. >> o beautiful. >> that's "eyewitness news" at noon, i'm erika von tiehl. for katie all of us here thanks for watching. >> "eyewitness news" continues at 5:00. always on line at cbsphilly.com. >> the young and the restless is coming up next. have a great day.

>> mariah: for the password, you should try "hot geek sex" or maybe "code dirty to me." try. you're not trying. >> kevin: because you're deranged. >> mariah: try "kevin hashtag nice butt." >> kevin: you're insane. >> mariah: try it! >> kevin: oh, my god. you're such a freak right -- >> mariah: did that actually work?! i hate her. i hate her. i hate her. >> natalie: if you're listening to this, then victor has me. >> kevin: he has her. victor has natalie. how could he do that? >> mariah: because he can. >> kevin: he just took her like she's nothing, like she's not even a person! >> mariah: we don't even know that this kidnapping happened! >> kevin: it happened! you heard what she said on the computer! "if you're listening to this, victor has me"! >> mariah: she recorded that before she took off. there could be a bunch of explanations for why she's missing. >> kevin: like what? a sudden craving for fondue?