so are you ready for some snow? no? >> who is? >> calm outside in center city, but by this time tomorrow the city will be burried under snow as a blizzard hits the area. >> my goodness. at least it is a saturday not a weekday, bus you don't have to worry about kids trying to get off of school, people going to work. >> hopefully, you know, stay home, make french toast. >> ever a good day to have a snowstorm, it is over a weekends, i can tell that you much right now. >> absolutely, i feel like the time being could be so much more than it is, but this will be brutal storm system. so, i really want, we joke about that stuff, but i want to make sure you know, guys, don't go out in this if you don't have tonight we'll be out here full storm coverage mode for you, to get you through everything, but it is a doozy, put it that way. you know? this will be a big one. so, not just snow, it is wind conditions, it is also coastal flooding, it is also potential for some icing, i mean, we've

got a lot of the moving piece was this, and we will try to walk you through everything through the course of the morning. start it off by looking at the storm in its entirety, big one, look how much real estate we are talking about, your entire southeast region basically being income bass dollars by the storm. severe weather, you have got heavy snow, you have got icing, pounding rain, everything is there. and it is all going to be just drifting north. you can already see the tell tail signs of the clouds starting to lift into dc. that will be a spot that gets hit very hard, on the edge of where some of the worse will happen. what do you need to know here as early as tonight, but specially tomorrow. there will be snow covered roadways, slick sidewalks, expect delays, i mean, it is a guarantee, if not concellations or closures, meanwhile hazardous travel, that's a given, and when you look out the window, that will be very obvious to you. probably want to stay inside if you can. what kind of snow are we talking? talking fluffy snow that's very light?

not so much. this looks like it will be a nice moisture rich snow very good to make snowmen, but can be a little bit difficult to shovel. so take caution when it comes to that, especially sunday. a loft folks will be out trying to get rid of everything and clear everything out. we mention the coastal flood issues. it was a watch yesterday. now it is a coastal flood warning for all of those exact same areas, back bay region, you will get slammed out of this, certainly up and down the ocean shore line looking pretty brutal, because not only a few high tide cycles that come in, you are going to have persistent northeast winds flow, also, dealing with a full moon. that makes matters worse. let's talk future wind speeds, wind gusts specifically out of this. by noon, you barely have a wind that's even noticeable. but it is not long before it starts to pick up. tonight by that point you will start to see the snow lifting in from south to north, then it pummels us into early tomorrow. dealing with gusts as high as 50's, maybe even 60s, in a couple of spots, this is persistent, and consistent from what we saw yesterday. really tomorrow morning, the

brunt of the winds, and then it is still with us right through sunday, but does start to gradually taper off. for now, not too bad. you really just start off with quiet weather here guys, clouds building, tell you what, that window of prep time opportunity, it is fading fast, meisha, a so really just matter of time before things really go downhill. >> and i think talking about this much snow, especially snowstorm, preparation is key. i know all about it. i was raised in these conditions. so i know i can tell you get everything ready right now and pack your car, make sure your car, if you have to travel, that it has gas. put water in your car, candy bar, extra blanket. the schuylkill westbound, past south street, pushed all the way off to the right lane with the flashing lights, but as you can see travel lettering driving past the accident tapping on brakes. what that tells me if this doesn't get out of our way can cause significant slow downs quickly on the schuylkill. just know it is out there right now. the blue route in the southbound direction at mid-county looking good,

looking nice, quiet, everyone still traveling at posted speeds there, and also 422, tail light moving in the eastbound direction, oaks, another area nice and quiet. we had downed pole, all cleared, connestoga road back open at err main repair, past name and road, left lane blocked because of the repair. also accident glennside geneva avenue at easton road. make note, as well. katie has been telling us, jersey shore, bracing for snow but also the coastal flooding. >> sandbags, sand dunes in place to keep homes and people safe. "eyewitness news" reporter jan carabeo is live in ocean city to check the preparations in america's greatest family resort. how are things looking so far, jan? >> reporter: jim, erika, good morning, coastal flooding concerns growing ever greater along the jersey shore, here ocean city on the boardwalk you can see everything is calm and quiet right now. that no doubt, though, will

change later on today, people who live and work here will be making sure those last minute precautions are in place before this storm rolls in tonight. now, shore towns have been very busy over the past couple of days, building up the beach, the hope is that beach replentishment project will stick and ward off an icy tide. >> this winter storm is expected to bring seven to 8-foot tides to the jersey shore. now, in brigantine, emergency management officials are prepared to work around the clock through this storm. they've already been busy closing floodgates, and beaches. meantime, businesses up and down the shore are busy moving furniture and product to higher ground, also bracing for those anticipated high winds. and even though zombies cents tell "eyewitness news" they'll stay open, local officials are asking folks to stay home. >> sour best advice, prepare for the worse, not to a sandy level of catastrophe, but plan for flooding, high winds, there is a possibility we will lose electric.

>> here in ocean city officials expecting moderate to major tidal flooding through three high tide cycles, also heard katie mention. that will those high tides are at 7:28 a.m., and 7:54 p.m. tomorrow. and then again at 8:11 a.m. on sunday. the storm as katie also mentioned, coincides with the full moon, making this storm potentially even more problematic here at the jersey shore, and because of that, officials are asking everyone to move their cars to higher grounds well before high tide. live in ocean sit, jan carabeo, cbs-3, "eyewitness news". >> good advice, thank you, jan from the short to the city where more than foot of snow is expected to fall. >> justin finch joins us in center sit which more on how the city now gearing up for that storm. justin, good morning. >> mayor says there is a plan in place to pull the city through the storm, also hoping neighbors come together and pull each other through too. let's take you now to video of

the remarks from city hall on thursday, where this plan was previwed here, at city hall. we also know the neighbor rather mayor kensy asking for neighbors to go door-to-door, to check on neighbors, if they are able to do so. now, the city plan did get rolling quite early by wednesday evening, the trucks were out on the road, beginning to brine in advance of this storm. a storm now forecast to bring us as much as 10 inches or more of snow as well as gusting winds. tonight the street department set to roll out some 400 trucks and call in 600 or so staffers. now, so far, we do know that trash and recycling pick up will be impacted, thursday, pickups move too today for the king holiday are going to be okay. but, those who have fry pickups, that were shifted to saturday, you are being asked to hold on to your trash, and recycling, until next week. and drivers, a warning for youment be aware, if you are found park nag snow emergency route this weekend, your car will likely be towed and

ticketed. and across the city, there are many who are looking forward to this winter white. however, some are not looking quite so forward. >> get food, get beer, have tv, have cable, enjoy yourself while you have snow day. it is horrible, if you can't find anywhere to park, i mean, the kids love it, but, no, i hate it. >> it is understandable tough to get around the city this weekend. mayor says to expect. that will if you don't have to leave your home you are advise today just stay inside, stay warm, again, check on your neighbors, and also, don't forget to clear off the sidewalks in front of your home. there are more updates to do from city hall, throughout the day, we will bring those to you as we get them on air and on line. we are live here in center city, justin finch, cbs-3, "eyewitness news", erika, jim? >> we love what the one woman said, you know, i got my food, got my beer. >> priorities. >> got to stock up the way you need to, right?

justin, thank you. well, delaware the first state in our tear see that snow and del dot officials say they're ready. >> we have ample supplies of salt for this event. good for fuel, good for equipment, now just waiting for the event to really start to happen. >> gregory stores, packed with shoppers picking up essentials. now, we have our eye on the storm, when you are not near a tv or if you lose pear, you can always go to our website cbsphilly.com. you can check the latest on our forecast, travel conditions and much much more. once again cbs philly. com. and if you don't have that cbs philly weather app on your phone, now is a great time to get it. get all of the latest forecasts all weekends long, you can download it for free right now on itunes and google play. >> we have much more coverage of the major winter storm coming up. we'll check in with septa to see how they're getting ready to move people around town with more than a foot of snow on the ground. >> also, we will let you know how the storm will impact some

games scheduled for this weekend if you are thinking every curling up watching those games we'll let you know when they'll air. we'll be rig

>> major winter storm barreling up the east coast. snowflakes still 12 hours away from hitting us. but the know already falling in arkansas this morning, this is new video of the early snowfall, we will get the updated forecast with

katie in just a minute. right now, though, the storm will make getting around tomorrow oh, this could be real nightmare. >> heather redfun from septa on the phone with us live this morning. good morning, what's septa got planned for us tomorrow? >> right now plan to have the service up and running, but it depends on the path of the storm, what detours we have in effect, what delays that we have. but right now everything is planned to be running on our weaken schedule. we just ask people to stay tuned to our website. we have twitter accounts that they can sign up for. that's where we'll have the latest information out there for our riders. >> we understanded washington dc will outright shutdown their subway system, concerned about losing power, any discussion every doing that here if philadelphia? >> we've not had those discussions yet. of course we're monitoring the storm, and we've been monitoring it all week. right now, as i said, we're

planning to go forward with our weaken schedule, number one priority, the safety of our employees, asking people to stay tuned with our website and our twitter feeds. >> we appreciate the update. we will be following along with you, heather, all weekend long. >> absolutely. >> keep us updated and the preparations for septa. thanks for joining us. >> your welcome. local sports teams scrambling, villanova, st. joe's, temple have all moved tomorrow's games to sunday. the sixers are supposed to host the celtics tomorrow night. so far there is no word yet if that will be postponed. >> now the latest on the snowy forecast, you know, justin is checking in with our weather watchers. i'm sure they're red which their yardsticks waiting for the snowfall, justin? >> they better be, sending in snowfall total amount. all quiet this morning, actually, not bad start to the day. just cold, though, and we do have little bit every cold air lingering around, that's just going to set the stage for the storm system. so let's check in with weather watchers. lower 20's, teens, in some of

the coldest spots, new orleans, joseph at 22 degrees, willow grove, barbara lane, usually coming in one of the colder temperatures, at 15 degrees, this hour. kerry, mt. laurel at 21 degrees, lawrenceville, peter also 22, so you get the picture, bath northampton county charles at 16 degrees. it does get little warmer there is isn't the coldest storm we've seen coming at us, temperatures should be hovering around freezing during the height of the storm. so it is not a dry snow, it is going to be somewhat wet, good for making snowballs, making snowmen. here you go, blizzard warning in red. that goes in effect 7:00 tonight. the areas in pink, go to the northwest serbs, up to the lehigh valley winter storm warning as well as central delaware, and then to southern new jersey, as well, right along the coastline. and winter weather advisory for the poconos, here's our storm system right now getting its act together right now. at least we can see the storm developing. already developing. we know it is coming at us. so we're going to get good snowstorm out of this low pressure developing eventually track up the mid-atlantic

coastline. then bridges bull ' ice of heavy snow specially southwest of philadelphia, still blizzard like conditions, because the wind are really going to crank up when the storm develops. here is the timing, delaware sound jessie look out between six to 9:00 tonight around the city between 7-eleven that snow should alive. lehigh valley between 10:00 and 1:00 a.m. for the overnight, poconos little later coming in between 1:00 and 4:00 a.m. here we go. show this model forecast, through the day today, not a bad day. sunshine to start. through your afternoon. as we head into late afternoon hours, we start to see the clouds increase little bit. and for some reason looks like our graphics are hung up. but there you go. clouds building in throughout the afternoon into tonight. here comes that snow, pockets of heavy snow, coming in at times through the overnight hours, and specially saturday morning. it will be heavy. may get few breaks in the afternoon, we will watch that sleet line also push inland, and winds, that's going to be a problem, specially on the coast. look at that, up to 60-mile per hour winds, high wind warning there. also, there is a coastal flood advisory that start tonight,

and certainly through the day saturday, so watch out around times of high tide. for more on snowfall totals, let's send it back to katie for a look at that. >> we also continue to talk about that coastal flood concern. you know, that is sort of it own just world when go down near the shore towns. what looks to be quiet scene in ocean city on "skycam 3", however, things look a lot different even just in 24 hours from now and probably little sooner. >> power outage concerns, because, again, that wind is not confined to the coastline. so talking 40-mile per hour gusts inland, up to 60 near the shore towns, combined if with heavy wet snow that will stick to those power lines and tree limbs, tan could way them down easily, and eventually bring them down. there are likely to be power outages, from this, have a plan for that. let's talk future snow amount.

>> still specking bull's eye near the dc baltimore area, for us, right on the edge of where some of the heaviest may fall. as far as what the eyewitness weather team is predicting general 16, sorry, 12 to 16 inches for the greater philadelphia area. perhaps leather totals outside of the zone, but this is going to be a big storm, guys, again with blizzard conditions, we want you to take heed of the warnings, stay inside if you consideration and because it is so dangerous when trying to travel, through blowing and drifting snow, with absolutely just completely reduced visibility, clouds will build in the meantime, now is the time to get the prep plans ready, gassing the car, get the food, all of that stuff you need, 35 degrees, the expected hi, we drop it down to 25 tonight. with that snow, generally arriving, certainly from south to north, but i would say after sunset for pretty much everyone. winds will start to pick up with time as well. tomorrow the big day, big action day, see this gradually taper off. and exit out to stage east, basically, here, on early

sunday morning, and then we're going to start to clear things out for you. you will have a loft clean up to do. keep in mind guys if you plan to shovel on sunday you are still dealing with blowing and drifting so it might be, you know, unfortunately all for not if you have that blowing and drifting going on, you might want to wait on. that will meisha, a over to you. >> thanks, i think the thing is too, if you can stay off the rodeway inn general do so. don't even risk it, if you have to go out like katie pointed output some some thing in your car that could keep you safe, no doubt about it, gas, water, you name t accidents, schuylkill westbound, past south street, pulled off to the right, looks like that's now since cleared. looking okay. so what you are still seeing, is you are seeing some brake lights go off. not quite sure what i am seeing right there, either way, seeing brake lights go off on the schuylkill, other than that the schuylkill looking pretty good. fifty-nine south at girard looking pretty good. we are heating up. see steady stream now of headlights, still traveling at posted speeds. but i would suspect as we move into this the 6:00 hour, you will start to drop just little bit. it is look being like a busy

friday for not even being 6:00 a.m. pretty busy. delaware county northbound 452, looking good. take this all the way northbound toward the airport, what you are looking at. by the way, no delays at the airport right now, but i would be continuously checking those schedules if i were you, especially with the storm coming into the east. accident all cleared here, 422 eastbound near record forward, south trap road. accident glennside, geneva avenue at easton road. make note of. that will also water main repair in delaware, route 202 northbound past naman's road, left lane is still blocked. erika, jim, back to you. >> meisha, thank you. for the second year in a row mom of the none nominees in the oscar nominees ... >> philadelphia's own will smith is the latest celebrity to say he's skipping the oscars. his wife, jada pinkett smith, announced her plans to boycott earlier this week in a facebook video. will smith starred in the drama concussion, but didn't get a best actor nomination this year. he's been nominated twice before.

>> well, you all probably better off not knowing this, but appears the wed something back on, miley cyrus, thank goodness, right, engage today actor liam hemsworth again. cyrus spotted wearing her engagement ring over the past week after visiting hemsworth recently in his native australia the pair appeared together in the 2010 film the last song, and gotten guage in the 2012. however, the wedding was called off in late 2013. we will wait and see, jim. >> i have been keeping my fingers crossed. colorado rockies outfielder have a back up career if that baseball thing doesn't work out. check out rocky centerfielder charlie black man hitting backward shot from half court at last night's grissly's nuggets game in denver. charlie celebrates the basket very entheusiastically, the nuggets lost the game inch, maybe they need charlie on the team. >> do you think he's happy? >> i don't know, not quite sure about that. >> well done. amazing, we'll be right back. stay with us.

kind of like this look. i'm calling it the "name your price tool" phase. whatever. >> we have our eye on the storm, pretty soon philadelphia will like just like the poconos, except our snow will be mother nature made not man-made.

dating updating the forecast right now, and up a date coming up in a few minutes. >> and, wait until you see this, a close call for officers in texas. they were waiting for a tow truck when the brakes on a big rig locked up, as it was passing by. that caused the trailer to swing their way. this video from the texas police department, shows how the officers and driver got out of the way jumping in the woods, just in the nick of time. >> how about that? >> also just in the nick of time here, rescuers pull a woman from icy ponds in tennessee. caitlin butler swerved to avoid another car, in ashland city, now, when she hit a patch of ice, her car went sliding offer the road down an embankment and then onto partially frozen pond. the real trouble started when the ice broke. sun roof was the only way out. >> my toast went numb. it started to soak through my socks. you know, immediately i thank god, i knew that a miracle had happened, he saved me, he was the only reason i got out that

far car. >> thank goodness she has the sun roof. fire rescue team pulled butler to safety, amazingly not hurt. but, oh, my goodness. i can't imagine. >> i'm always afraid that something like that will happen and like the electrical will circle out and you can't open the windows? >> let's stay positive disbelief paranoid about all of these crazy things. >> just in case? >> more on the blizzard, snow coming in just in case. >> you'll be safe. >> exactly. >> coming up in the next half hour of cbs-3 "eyewitness news", live at the shore where toast al communities are getting ready for the storm. >> also, want to give you live look right here at center city where this time tomorrow it will be very different picture in the midst of potential blizzard, kale's updated forecast with the latest snow totals is just ahead. >> also, late night laugh. more of james corden, re-enacting the scene from big. we will be right back. >> love this.

good morning, oh, we are bracing for a blizzard. the salt trucks are loaded, the brine is down on the roads, now, we have an eye on the storm, really, just waiting for the snow to arrive. >> and this may be the best view of the storm from outer space. this nasa picture shows how massive the low pressure system really is. >> and we want to gave you a live look right here at storm scan3, showing part of the storm. it is already hitting the

mid-atlantic region, it stretches far back to the midwest headed our way. >> today is friday, january 22nd, good morning, i'm jim donovan. >> i'm erika von tiehl. the eye on the storm, all week long now, the eyewitness weather forecast updating snow totals and tracking the storm, justin on the skydeck. >> meisha keeping an eye on the road, but let's start with katie. good morning, kate. >> i good morning, guys, yep there is storm system pretty much a shore thing at this point, in fact, now we do have as we just heard the anchors mention blizzard warnings to deal with. as well as winter storm warnings, so everything that had been a watch, has been upgraded for us, but look at this, we are clearly not alone here, this is an expansive slot of winter storm watches, warnings, and of course the blizzard warning. notice we are the ones, in baltimore, in the blizzard warning right now. so it is pretty much going to end up being for us, where we end up seeing the bull's ey