at robert moses state park. we'll begin with meteorologist lee goldberg. he's tracking it all. he's in the weather center with the latest. >> unfortunately the storm is going to take a bite out of those beaches for sure. like you said, about 60 hours away from the first flakes and by saturday midday we should see plows. 34 right now, above freezing for a while. it's been a nice afternoon and the winds are calm. we're tracking snow that's working through pennsylvania and virginia and delaware. a couple slick spots over parts of new jersey during the overnight. it will be gone by morning. could be a couple coatings making roads slippery during the overnight. this is the beginning of our weekend storm. snow breaking out across the midsection. starts to climb to the appalachians to the east coast. here's the way it looks with rain blossoming during the afternoon tomorrow. first snowflakes and even ice storm over the carolinas late morning tomorrow. during the evening commute getting in to the dc area.

amount for this storm, blockbuster storm. then snows getting in to southern university. that's by 11:00 tomorrow night. so the day is spared tomorrow for us. your friday evening plans are okay. watch out for snow showers near i-90, 195 during the overnight hours. the theme of the storm will be heaviest snow will be south and west of new york city and less snow off to the north but still accumulating snow. the entire area will be included in time. blizzard watches are up for parts of washington, d.c. and baltimore. this is very important. coastal flood watches are up. this could be major coastal flooding on the jersey shore during the height of the storm. the first flakes are late friday night in to saturday morning in some cases. brunt of the storm will be saturday afternoon and night and will get out of the away sunday. coastal flooding and also power outages possible. we've now adjusted our higher percentages to the higher snow totals. percentage will be higher north of new york city. you'll see that in the snowfall band p coming up in the main

as lee mentioned, the concern this week is not only the snow but also the dangerously high winds that could contribute to the flooding and erosion in coastal areas. long island reporter kristin thorne is in islip and continues our coverage. >> typically with a storm like this, there is a lot of concern about erosion, but at least here at robert moses, those at the state park say the beach is in great shape. they say in fact, it's in the best shape they've seen since superstorm sandy. >> reporter: believe it or not it was a beautiful day at the beach at robert moses. you know what else is beautiful, says regional director george gorman, is the sand here. it's just the right amount, he says, to weather a storm like the one headed our way. >> the drop-off going south toward the water, this sand here has been replaced over the last couple years or has been replenished over the last couple years so we actually are in some of the best shapes we have for many, many years.

have huge piles of sand standing by. >> whenever there's a nor'easter, we're concerned. but we have built up the beaches here at robert moses. we are ready for any kind of erosion event so that if we have to react, we will react quickly with the stockpiled sand that we have. >> reporter: also in suffolk county, suffolk police spent the day positioning these new humvees at each precinct. they acquired the humvees from the military so they could be used in storms just like this one. >> part of our storm preparation is we send the humvees out to the precincts. by having them available to them, basically the police officers in our precinct can respond no matter how bad the conditions get. >> suffolk police say they certainly are pleased that this storm is expected to hit on a weekend so they don't have to be concerned with a lot of motorists out on the roadways. kristin thorne, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> good point. new york city officials are taking no chances and preparing for real snow accumulation in

residents in the five boroughs are also getting ready. workers at stores like lowe's say people are rushing in to melt. >> i guess to some people the storm would be on the weekend so it doesn't affect schools too much, doesn't affect commuting too much. >> i'm not worried. let the kids do the shoveling and i'll [ laughter ] >> mayor de blasio has also teamed up with the new york islanders to create a public service announcement that gives advice on how to cope with the cold temperatures. >> you can track this approaching storm and get the latest any time by downloading our accutrack weather alert app and tonight at 8:45 lee is going to have a live update on his facebook page and you can ask him your questions about the approaching storm. new york cops right now interrogating a man who turned himself in today, wanted for questioning in a telephone threat made to the nypd. that threat also made the cops in

is this man connected to ice sis or a local gang? >> late this afternoon i talked to a couple police officers here on the street. they say they started getting alerts on their smart phones last night and this morning about this anonymous tip. police don't know whether this is a legitimate threat or not but they want to be awfully careful. >> reporter: the anonymous tip came in yesterday afternoon to both police in philadelphia and here at the 32nd precinct in harlem. the tip, that a 36-year-old man with a criminal record had supposedly threatened to shoot a police officer. >> one of the phone calls indicated isis. not the phone call to philadelphia but rather the phone call to new york and we are taking it serious based on what happened in philadelphia a couple weeks ago. >> reporter: what happened in philadelphia early this month almost became an assassination. >> shots fired. i'm bleeding heavily. >> reporter: a man pledging allegiance to isis opened fire

despite 13 shots, that officer was hit only three times in the upper left arm and is now recovering. yesterday police were serious enough about this new chip that they sent a bulletin to every officer on the street. the police union president said police officers recognize that they're always a potential target for terrorists and political extremists. the pba is reminding all our members to be alert at all times. >> that's why we put in an officer safety alert to make sure all our officers know who he is. >> where did he make the threat? over the phone? >> it was over the phone. >> reporter: that 36-year-old man turned himself in to police. they say they only want to talk to him to try to verify that anonymous tip that may have been called in by a rival gang member. police today clearly did not want to talk a lot about this case. >> i think the chief has gone about as far as we can go on this. that is why this was an alert put out to police officers as opposed to the public at large. >> again, detectives up in the bronx, they're now interviewing

say they really want to get to the bottom of this, whether this is a legitimate threat or whether it might be a wild allegation called in by a rival gang member. reporting live in harlem, dave evans, channel 7 eyewitness news. we're learning more about the man from brooklyn who was killed in a hit-and-run accident. he's been identified as can reng ma. he had been riding his bike home from work in sheepshead bay when he was hit by a truck. ma was a father of three. his family said he came from china in hopes of living the american dream. they hope the driver who hit him will be found soon. >> i just want to find the truck driver. i really want to ask him why he do that to my father and leave my father there. he should just call the police or 911, maybe my father could be saved. >> the vehicle on the surveillance video is a ryder truck with indiana plates. the

you want volatile? if you're invested in to the stock market, and half of americans are, you've got volatile. a sell-off of energy stocks. it started down and just kept going down. at one point the dow was down 565 points but did rebound in the late afternoon and dramatic rally. at the end of the day the dow lost 249 points. nasdaq down 5. s&p 500 dropped 22. apparently top secret isn't always hush hush enough. some of the classified e-mails found on hillary clinton's home server were more sensitive than top secret. that's according to an inspector general for the intelligence community investigating the former secretary of state's e-mail. he said they contain information from special access programs. they have a classification higher than top secret. meanwhile, clinton's opponent for the democratic nomination, bernie sanders, is on a roll in new hampshire. a

senator with a 27-point lead. that's his largest lead in new hampshire yet. and just hours after endorsing republican frontrunner donald trump, sarah palin joined trump on the campaign trail today. tulsa, oklahoma, she spoke about the arrest of her son track earlier this week in a domestic violence case. he's now accused of punching and kicking his girlfriend and threatening to commit suicide. she suggested it's an example of the problems military veterans endure when they return to civilian life. as we continue to eyewitness news at 6:00 on this wednesday night, dramatic and big news for movie fans. one of the iconic theaters is closing its doors. >> a promotion makes history. a new chief of detectives in

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it is the largest single screen movie theater in new york city and was the site of countless star studded premiers over the past half century. now the iconic sigfield theater is scheduled for its last showing in the next few weeks. it will go to gotham hall which plans to transform the space in midtown in to a ballroom that will open sometime next year. new at 6:00, history made tonight at the largest prosecutor's office in new jersey. >> the first woman, the first

of detectives in essex county. her name is quovella spruill, the first african american woman to be deputy chief. >> darla miles tweeting this picture. she covered the promotion ceremony in newark. >> so happens she's the first woman, the first black. [ applause ] that's great. but the thing is she's the most qualified for the job. >> reporter: she started from the bottom, now she's there. quovella spruill making history in essex county wednesday. >> prosecutor and i are the first female duo to serve as prosecutor and chief. >> reporter: introduced in to her new role well respected by her colleagues. and has the street cred to match growing up in newark. >> sometimes i know it's happening before we get it on our alerts because i have family and friends who are here to tell me what's happening. >> so it's personal? >> it is, very personal. because i want to see our city be better.

spruill has spent 18 years in law enforcement, she didn't start off there. she actually has an engineering degree from njit. >> did you always want to be in law enforcement? >> i did. while i was in the law department i used to work in municipal court. working there i was like this is kind of cool. cops come by, they get subpoenas, have to go to court, have to testify. >> reporter: spruill said she used a scientific approach as she worked her way up the ranks in spu and homicide. now she's in charge of that for the prosecutor's office. the first woman to hold the position and the first black female to hold that position in the state. >> i think the most important part of all of this is where i began and it's what i want to come back to every day. my heart is here. >> reporter: in newark, darla miles, channel 7 eyewitness news. >> we wish her good luck. just ahead on eyewitness news, lee returns and says some areas could get a little snow tonight. and he's also tracking

when fdny commissioner first joined the department in 1970, there were 310 civilian deaths in new york city. last year there were kboip. many reasons for -- were 59. many reasons for this. the campaign launched this morning to host the operation 7 save a life. smoke detectors distributed over the years and no question lives have been saved. >> we ended 2015 with our second lowest number of fire deaths ever. thank you again to bill and everyone at wabc for your steadfast commitment to fire safety education. >> a reminder, our special saturday night at 7:00. you can snow off the sidewalk. >> we know this is a passion project of yours. we know the great work you guys are doing. >> all our sponsors and everyone here at the station. >> seeing detectors you can hook up with apps. >> it's amazing. so

shoveling before and after? >> obviously depends on where you are. we're not in the sweet spot of the storm like washington, d.c. is but we're awful close. that's why accumulation amounts will vary. we go outside, love to see great visibility and beautiful look at midtown manhattan and one of the comfortable nights of the week here with temperatures just a shade above freezing. feels so much better than it did yesterday. middle 30s. the high themp -- temperature which is pretty close to average. just want to highlight central and southern new jersey. not only could we see coatings here tonight but these will likely be the areas that see the biggest snow totals. the coast is a major concern, very strong language from the weather service and their coastal flood watch. major coastal flooding at the height of the storm. any time from friday night all the way in to sunday morning. numbers generally in the low and mid 30s. we'll have snow showers overnight especially south and west. tomorrow. the difference

to around 20 miles per hour. bundle up a little bit more than you did today. there are the snow showers off to the west. they keep falling apart the closer they get. a few will survive the trip and already that's tonight's little event. and here. the snow breaking out across the nation's midsection, storm ready to start diving in to the gulf. what's amazing, what should stand out to you here, if you look at the area of accumulating snow, look how it cuts off north of the tri-state area. we could literally go from less than an inch in our far northern suburbs to over a foot central and southern new jersey here. we'll be looking at blizzard conditions especially to our south and west but maybe close to us. coastal flooding a big concern. power outages along the coast. this is our current snowfall forecast. we're still 60 hours from first flakes. i think the average snowfall total will be 6 to 10 inches across the area. i have the 6-inch line over i-84. i can see how it's a little

definitely wiggle room here. much lighter snowfall amounts here. then you look at this area in pink which is awful close to new york city. double-digit amounts. definitely a possibility in the five boroughs. there's a possibility i'll have to shift this a little farther to the north or south. right now i think south and west is the jackpot. long island, heavy snowfall totals. potential for a little bit of mixing and a wet heavy snow that can cause these power outages. 25 tonight. plenty of sun but a chilly breeze tomorrow. tomorrow night clear to partly cloudy skies. another calm day on friday. just want to reiterate in terms of the timing, this isn't coming in until late friday night or early saturday morning. central and southern new jersey we can see it coming in friday evening. on saturday it's the worst afternoon and night then tapering off pretty quickly in the morning hours sunday. things will improve in the afternoon. early the next week looks nice and quiet thankfully. we'll have a big cleanup sunday in to early next week and temperatures will help as there will be melting with

40-degree mark. so we'll be looking at this through the evening hours. we'll do facebook live at 8:45. i'll have an updated snowfall amount at 7:00. schedule is packed and we're two and a half days away from the storm. >> we'll bring you coffee. [ laughter ] rob is up next with sports. >> we've got basketball tonight. a big game in brooklyn. big game at the garden. basketball taking center stage. straight ahead, we look ahead at tonight's knick game against the jazz who's playing and why the home team wants a home win real bad. plus

brady, man the common core rollout was a disaster. parents knew it. teachers knew it.

state tests don't unfairly count against students. and test scores won't be used in teacher evaluations. less testing. greater focus on learning. that's a start, but there's more to do. let's work together to support sensible and fair learning standards

couple big games i hear this weekend. >> little kids dream of being

it's one of the best nfl sundays, this sunday. the nfc championship game, afc championship game. down to the final four. winners this week meet in the super bowl february 7th. another meeting of the two quarterbacks. met four times in the playoffs, they've each won two. all time meeting number 17. who knows if we'll ever see it again. manning, brady, could be special. >> i think playing someone 17 times is pretty cool. so especially someone as great as him to play against peyton manning and that team. you know you've got to play 60 minutes. >> it's been a great honor and privilege to have competed against him that many times over the course of the past 16, 17 years. >> now to the nfc. panthers versus the cardinals. carson palmer won the heisman trophy in 2002.

heisman trophy in 2010. the winning quarterbacks facing each >> i used to dream of being in this type of position. i don't than anxious. >> i get butterflies in the preseason. and i love that. i love that's what football gives you. that's why i still know i love it. we've got a big basketball night in front of us. nets host the cavs. the knicks get the jazz at the garden. the knick are a lish banged up -- a little banged up. but as bill ritter predicted, porzingis will start. porzingis the nba's fourth best selling jersey. they lost three straight to the jazz. lost by 21 in utah last month.

played them, they give us a whooping. it's something we haven't forgotten and we won't forget that. this is a game we want to go get and we believe we can get it especially on our home court. play continues at the australian open. so too the incredible career of roger federer. he's been amazing for such a long time. he's now extended his streak of reaching the third round at the australian to 17 consecutive years. won here now four times. playing in his 65th grand slam event. three-set win in the second round. federer now won 299 career championships. one of the ball girls apparently didn't feel well. she was standing there crying. joe willfreed sanga who was playing escorts her off the court. what a gentleman. now the ball girl is fine. isn't that great ? he did win his match. he's one of the more popular guys on social media today. isn't that great? and finally from us, we're

new york city marathon. application for the race opens tomorrow. for all runners at tcsmarathon.org. those spots are going to fill up real quick. channel 7 your home for the, the cs new york -- the tcs new york city half marathon. >> did you count all the days? >> i sat there with a calendar and went one, two. >> you can do the whole weeks, seven, seven. easier. >> where were you this morning? >> i was thinking about the knicks and whether he'd play or not. let's check in with what we're working on for eyewitness news at 11:00 tonight. >> coming up tonight at 11:00, searching for a missing teenager. friends and family gathering right now to look for him and we're there. also keeping your skin healthy during the winter months. see the secret ingredient in lotions that could help. could there soon be a test for doctors to know if an antibiotic will actually help you feel better?