it is cold and getting colder out there with new records being set by the day. and meteorologists say this weekend will be even worse. >> nuclear showdown, north korea flexing more than just a few missile launches and now threatening the entire u.s. with a single button. >> gets to the edge. the championship game! >> this is the grand est grand daddy of them all. it goes into double overtime. >> the nation's biggest lottery soared to a whopping $783 million. >> meet one of the youngest and cool est ph.d.s. "early today" starts right now. good morning, i'm phillip mena.

>> i'm frances rivera. we are out with the old and in with the cold. the new year bringing brutal arctic air blasting much of the country. parts of 35 states remain under wind chill advisories or warnings with the record cold stretching from nebraska to new york. the deep freeze won't be heeting up any time soon with below average temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills expected over the next week. and it's being blamed for several deaths. nbc's blake mccoy has the latest from chicago. blake? >> reporter: frances, good morning. this will be the fourth morning in a row that chicago wakes up to temperatures below 0, even colder when you factor in the wind chill. and it's not just here in chicago. much of the country is being impacted by this arctic blast. a bitter freeze gripping the country. >> it's unbearable. >> i feel it every second in my bones. >> reporter: now turning deadly with at least five suspected cold weather deaths. the latest in detroit where a man was found frozen in front of a church.

this is dangerous whiteout conditions caused a massive pile up in michigan, an indiana woman had to be rescued after her car plunged into an icy pond trapping her as it sank. it was the coldest ball drop in 100 years, just 9 degrees at midnight in new york's times square. >> we're freezing and we had no idea it was going to be this cold. >> it's as cold as i've ever been. >> reporter: much of the country begins 2018 in this prolonged deep freeze. 90% of america waking up below freezing. 35% below 0. new record lows set in plagss like omaha, des moines, and buffalo. for emergency crews, the bitter cold is presenting a challenge. >> we have two trucks froze up right now. we're in the process of trying to get them back to the station so they can thaw out. >> reporter: runners in chicago braved sub-zero temperatures for the new year's day 5k. >> we're late because we questioned our sanity. >> reporter: columbus moved its indoors.

perhaps the hearty est souls of all, those taking the polar plunge despite polar temperatures. with the holiday now over, it is going to be a very frigid return to work this morning. frances? >> all right, blake, thank you very much. feel bad for all these kids and parents out there. >> it is brutal. let's go to meteorologist michelle grossman for more on the frigid weather. what's in store? >> we were talking about the kids at the bus stop. we're going to see it today, we'll see it tomorrow, and even colder as we head towards the weekend. we have those wind chill warnings, in the dark pink. advisory, the massive amount of states and number of people under these warnings. and we're seeing values near 0 to 40 below 0 in some spots. be careful as you head out. the polar express continues, all the way down to the states of texas, southern states to florida, it will continue tomorrow. 6 below now no chicago, 7 in boston.

we have the cold air in place, guys, and we also have some snow coming up that could impacts parts of the northeast. we'll talk more about that. >> all right, michelle, thank you. an ominous new year's message from north korea's dictator, he is making new claims about his country's nuclear weapons. in his annual new year's address, kim jong-un warned the u.s. of his country's nuclear capabilities saying the entire united states is within striking range. at the same time, kim jong-un made a new overture to south korea saying, quote, we should ease the military tensions between the north and the south to create a peaceful environment on the korean peninsula. nbc's kelly cobiella has the latest from seoul. >> reporter: kim jong-un in a rare appearance unleashing an ominous warning. the whole of the u.s. main land is within our firing range, and the nuclear button is on my desk. it's not a threat, he said, but a reality. the president reacting at a new year's eve party. >> [ inaudible ]. >> we'll see, we'll see.

>> reporter: after a ballistic missile launch in november, kim jong-un now claims his nuclear weapons program is complete. experts are analyzing the video said it was the most powerful missile yet, possibly capable of striking the u.s. east coast. but north korea still has technical hurdles to cross. what is the main message? >> well, the signal that kim jong-un is sending to americans is, check mate, game over. you have to deal with reality. >> reporter: kim jong-un never mentioned president trump in his speech. instead, extending a hand to south korea and offering talks, yet no sign the north is ready to disarm, despite u.n. sanctions. kim jong-un announcing a new goal, mass producing nuclear war heads and ballistic missiles. the country's new year's resolution for 2018. kelly cobiella, nbc news, seoul. >> this morning president trump is waking up in the white house, returning from holiday break at his florida resort with first

lady melania trump and son barron. and while we may just be two days into the new year, the president kicked off 2018 by taking an international jab at pakistan and iran. deriding pakistan in his first tweet of the year. blasting the country for serving as a safe haven for terrorists giving the u.s. nothing but, quote, lies and deceit. that of course coming after mr. trump referred to iran as the number one state sponsor of terror accusing it of human rights violations while demonstrators protested in the country's streets for days now. still domestic matters look to give the president the greatest challenge this year with midterms looming, a budget standoff in the wings and democratic opposition looking up end his entire agenda. for more on this we go to nbc's white house correspondent hallie jackson. hallie, good morning. >> reporter: hey there, phillip. president trump is back in washington this morning. he is waking up at the white house after spending his holidays at his resort in south florida. and i'll tell you what, he's got a lot on his plate.

this very packed domestic agenda, congress will start getting back to town tomorrow. later on this week you will see president trump huddling with top republican leaders at camp david, for example, to try to hash out which priorities should come first. if you're going to look at the top ones, expect the president to talk about infrastructure. this is something that the white house, that the president wants to be pushing in the early part of 2018. basically this month. but then think about it, mid month there is that deadline for congress to come up with a budget deal and avoid a government shut down. so, there will be a lot of talks about that. and then talks later in the spring, maybe over the next few weeks, too, about immigration, and that program daca that protects about 800,000 undocumented immigrants who came to this country when they were younger. it's not just the domestic policy, too you know 2018 has already seen the president really hammer on foreign policy, tweeting, for example, about the situation developing in iran, tweeting about pakistan, too. so, a lot to discuss as we turn into this first real workday of 2018. phillip, back to you. >> a full plate ahead.

hallie, thank you. >> chances are if you're waking up this morning we're the first to tell you which college football teams will battle atlanta for the national championship. in pasadena georgia had a high scoring shootout. it turned out to be the greatest grabbed daddies of them all. the first time ever the famed rose bowl went into overtime and double overtime. the score was tied 48 apiece when this happened. >> earlier in a direct snap. >> it's michelle's turn running all the way. they're going to the championship game. >> and just like that georgia takes the rose bowl with a thrilling 54-48 victory. now action in the sugar bowl where top ranked clemson faced off with number 4 alabama. the crimson tide got off to a fast start and never looked back. 24 -6 win launches them into a championship game, their third consecutive title game. the all sec national title game will be played next monday night

in atlanta. alabama, georgia. so, a lot of action still to come. >> should be fun. police in brock port, new york, had a very close encounter with a thief. he was trying to capture a squirrel. look at this thief. stealing cookies. that was the charge. the furry critter running frantically before lunging itself at an officer. this body cam video was shared on facebook. police joked about it saying they weren't expecting such a warm welcome. wow. the chaos in there. they ultimately captured the thief and released it unharmed. good to know. >> that is intense with the squealing even in the background, too. let's take a turn now to michelle grossman who teased us with snow, bitter air, cold air as if it isn't enough. >> this will at the tiset the p for snow later this week. we're going to get another surge of bitterly cold air. we are waking up to freeze warnings in the south. parts of texas, louisiana, mississippi, alabama, even

northern florida seeing very cold temperatures this morning. and look, we're not going to rise very far from here as we go throughout the afternoon. bundling up even in texas. 39 in san antonio, 30 in texas, 20 degrees later this afternoon in st. louis and 28 in phe polar

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grinch -- gretchen carlson will serve as the chair. she is expected to help lead the pageant through its own sexual misconduct scandal. while furthering the fight against harassment, over 300 actresses, writers and directors are kicking off the start of 2018 with a project to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace. the times up program launched with an open letter posted in "the new york times," an online titled, dear sisters. it says, quote, times up for unified call for change from women in entertainment for women everywhere. among the initiative supporters include emma stone, natalie portman, kate blanchett and many more. >> in south carolina, one little girl had a birthday for the record books. and the very first few hours of 2018, the baby came about three weeks early so her parents were racing against time as they sped down the interstate to the hospital that was about an hour away. but that race quickly tusrned

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describes the horrifying scene after a single engine plane crashed in the woods. 12 people killed including 10 americans and two local crew members. >> it went up and it all of a sudden beared to the left and nose dived right in front of us. >> reporter: in suburban new york, friends and family are mourning the loss of bruce and irene steinberg and their three sons, matthew, william and zachary. >> inconceivable that a whole family should meet with such a disaster. they were a lovely family. >> reporter: also among the dead, mitchell and leslie weiss from near tampa, florida along with their two children. the charter plane belonged to nature air, which did not respond to a request for comment. in september, two passengers including an american were killed when another one of its flights reportedly crashed into a river. [ speaking foreign language ] >> reporter: thrts say this aircraft had been inspected a month ago, but strong winds had delayed its landing earlier on

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and welcome back to "early today." well, it is cold once again. we are going to be cold as we head throughout the week. that is setting the stage for the potential for a nor'easter. i'll talk about that. as we see this area of low pressure, it is now situated just north of the bahamas. we have a couple days to fine tune this forecast. but it's going to travel to the north and first on wednesday it will bring some wintry weather actually to the carolinas. so you can see along the coast of the carolinas where you see the blue, that's the snow. the pink is the icy mix. then it will continue to move north. and this is where we're going to watch the track by thursday to see where this will reeling i bring the heavy snow. as it it stands right now, the heaviest snow will be in parts of maine and also parts of southeastern massachusetts. but certainly going to watch this over the next several days. everyone will get the cold air and everyone will get the wind with this. >> all right. thanks a lot, michelle. >> you're welcome. >> keep it right here. "early today" continues. people often ask me if there's something more effective for joint support than glucosamine chondroitin.

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the cold continues. dangerous temperatures as you head out the door. we're tracking how long it will last. string of shootings overnight. four people shot in separate incidents across philadelphia. police are searching for answers. promising change. today philadelphia's new district attorney officially takes over and is preparing to shake up how things are done. good morning, this is "nbc10 news today" first look at 4. >> dangerous cold sticking around for another day. it feels below 0 in parts of the area. meteorologist bill henley has the first alert neighborhood forecast. the most accurate neighborhood weather forecast. good morning. >> good morning.

dray. it is a cold one. frigid weather continuing. it feels below 0 as you mentioned. a first alert in effect until 8:00 this morning. wednesday into thursday we could see light snow in new jersey, some of it may reach philadelphia. another arctic blast returns with the frigid end of the week. cold enough now. the feels-like temperatures below 0. trenton at 0. t 2 below in wilmington. a very cold start. the actual temperature without the wind, 12 mile-per-hour wind, 13 in philadelphia. 9 in the suburbs. 13 in new jersey. plenty cold, too, in delaware and for the lehigh valley. we will see sunshine today, so temperatures will come up. i'm expecting each part of the area to stay below freezing. enough wind to make it feel even colder. i'll break it down hour by hour, show how it will feel during the day, when i'm back in ten

minutes. first, jessica boyington has your first alert traffic. >> thanks. starting out on the vine street expressway this morning. cameras around 24th street. wanted to highlight the fact that there's no construction here to worry about. both directions, westbound here, eastbound here. no problems. moving through center city, no construction. open eastbound from the blue route to the vine street expressway. that's a 12-minute trip. speeds into the 60s. i'll end with mass transit. all okay so far for amtrak, septa, new jersey transit, and patc patco. new overnight, a string of shootings leave four people dead and four people injured near philadelphia. a shooting at temple university's campus sent a man to the hospital. the victim was shot in the high, and the gunman took off. it happened near 18th and norris. the victim is in critical condition. another shooting in north