of it and how long it's going to last. >> we're starting to see much more flu like illness among the patients that we see. another person dies of the flu in north carolina. why some say it's a milder season, but there's still no reason to worry. >> talks are taking place for the outdoor center to open an outdoor activity center here's in hillsboro. what that means for a town looking for more economic revitalization. >> now from western north carolina's news leader. this is news 13 at 530m. >> more snow is expected to be on the way here in the mountains. >> we're looking for some freezing temperatures to come along with it. >> chief meteorologist jason boyer joins us. what kind of conditions are we expecting. >> pretty rough in the highest elevations. >> you can see from the sky cam we're in the black mountains,

snow is covering the ground in these places. down. 26 degrees in yancey county. you come down into cold springs ranch in haywood county, it's 40,000 feet elevation toward the tennessee border. it's not terribly deep snow cover, but there's on the snow ground, the road conditions are continue to drop. take a look at the darkest blue. it indicates some of the heavier snow bands. highway 19 impacted. scams gap, highway 25 and of course i-26 north. in mcdowell county and towards spruce pine we have some decent snow showers taking shape. until 7:00 tomorrow morning winter weather advisories are out for all of the counties. it doesn't mean the snow will -- it's going to reduce visibility so watch out as you go closer to the tennessee border. look for the snow showers to wane

much coming up in just a bit. >> there's also severe weather hitting other places around the country. heart break today in the town of waverly, virginia. four people were killed there, including a toddler when a tornado tossed a mobile home. dozens more twisters were spotted across the south and east and a frightening snowstorm in the midwest. whiteout conditions and slick roads left dozens of illinois drivers in the ditch. >> you can use our news 13 mobile app to get the latest on the weather conditions. to download it you can just go to your mobile app, just sever walt disney world in your app store. >> a fourth person has died of the flu in north carolina. at this point last year there had been 184 influenza death recorded. ashlea st. charles joins us live at the health department. ashlea, it appears to be a much milder flu season this year. >> that's true when you look at the number of people that have died.

flu this season there was nothing mild about it. the influenza virus going around this year is the h1-n1 strain. that is a more severe strain than what we had last year. however, fewer people are contracting the virus. that's likely because it is vaccination that people had been getting is a very good match to the strain that did end up going around this flu season. but she also said it looks like we're getting a late season spike right now so we're definitely not out of the woods yet. >> most times influenza season will spike between february and march. i think what we're seeing is the beginning of the worst part of the flu season. >> now officials say when mr. cases do pick up, if you come down with symptoms, then you are of course more likely to actually have the virus. don't hesitate to go to a doctor for treatment. and here at the henderson county health department.

late to get a flu shot but they take about two weeks to kick in so don't wait much longer. ashlea surles news 13. >> an update on the deadly rampage in michigan. we're learning more about the shooting suspect, jason dalton. he's married and is the father of two children. he began driving for uber two weeks before the shooting. the attorney says the motive is still a mystery to dalton's family. however, in the days leading up to the rampage, his wife did sense a change in his behavior. >> he's been acting different in the last couple of days. his wife asked him and he said he was tired. just his demeanor that he seemed to be depressed and down which was not his normal character. >> catholic dalton is in jail facing six counts of murder. >> nevada governor brian sandavol says he's not interested in replacing late supreme court justice antonin scalia. in a statement sandavol said he notified the white house that he

this time. he said he also expressed the same thing to three senators. he said the notion to be considered is humbling. >> if it happens, a new outdoor activity center could bring some needed revenues to one jackson county town. news 13 rex hodge is live in hillsboro tonight, what's being talking about. >> jackson county leaders are discussing an idea with the outdoor center in swain county to establish an outdoor center on land here not far from downtown and town leaders say it would provide a needed economic boost. >> it's possible new activity along the river that has them hoping new revenue will start flowing in. >> it shall definitely bring some more business to the town. >> there's talk of the outdoor center, building a facility for kayaking, zip lining and sales of outdoor gear. >> sarah and her partners are

mercantile in the center of town. >> we're going to be a retail, mercantile shop with an ice cream bar. >> excited about seeing the street back live. dillsboro is a welcoming down. >> although nothing is down, dillsboro's mayor says an additional 24,000 people a area from the new outdoor center spending money at shops and restaurants would boost the local economy, a needed shot in the arm after the great smoke mountain railroad used trains coming to dillsboro. >> we've had a lot of turnover since 2008 when t t economy failed. >> mayor fitzgerald says combined with the potential outdoor center, the town's future looks brighter. >> if this comes to fruition, i believe from now on, dillsboro should be a spot you would want to come to year-round. >> the outdoor center will be located on 17 acres that straddle the river, land that belongs to jackson county. fitzgerald knows details still need to be worked out.

things are a go, then the landlords and the empty buildings there take care of themselves, i believe. >> a process he sees happening already. >> we're excited to be a part of dillsboro coming back to life. >> the outdoor center could mean 10 full-time jobs and up to 50 seasonal ones. reporting live from dillsboro, rex hodge, news 13. >> and new your on time traffic report sponsored by used cars. >> we're checking out the commute for you. here's a live look what's going on on i-26 at brevard road. no major issues there today in either direction. >> that is nice to hear. and in brevard, wilson road remains closed after heavy rain led to flooding. dispatchers say watered is still covering the entire road. they do expect it to reopen tomorrow. >> apple has asked a federal magistrate to vacate her order to help the fbi hack into a locked iphone.

filing today that the fbi is seeking dangerous power through the courts. the filing represents apple's first official response since they were ordered to provide specialized software as part of the investigation into the san bernardino shootings. news 13 wants to know which do you think is more important, security or privacy? you can log on to facebook question of the day. >> a local credit union champions education right here in the mountains. champion credit union is donating $100,000 to nine school districts. during 2015 it lost a school on savings campaign, encouraging members to refinance their loans and safe money for public education. the goal was to save $100,000 in interest. it was met and that money was presented to school leaders today in in canton. >> probably to the foundation, maybe some things that teacher classrooms or a couple computers we can buy or ipads.

>> benefiting school systems through buncombe, haywood and henderson among others. >> in this week's cover story on full measure, the federal government is being questioned about the risks of a stud using premature babies. the focus of the study was to determine the right amount of oxygen to give premature babies, but it's causing some controversy because parents say the researchers did not tell them about the dangers of the experiment, including the risk of death to their child. the researchers say they did nothing wrong, even though the government's own ethics guidelines say the risks should have been disclosed. >> informed consent is required. the problem researchers differ on how much and what they really have to tell patients. and in this case they said they either didn't know in advance or would not have had to tell them about risk of death and other risks such as blindness of the study. the government's ethics body disagreed.

russian roulette was played with her babies. >> for the entire story watch full measure this sunday morning at 10:30 right here on news 13. >> beijing is the city with the

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>> stocks on wall street made gains today. the dow up 212. ending trading at 16,697. the nasdaq up 39, closing at 4,582. >> u.s. lawmakers are accusing takata of facing test results to cover up its air bag issue. >> a report cites internal documents from takata in the past 12 years. they show that company officials argued that testing data was manipulated to hide the problem. the national traffic safety administration says the air bags could explode sending metal flying. >> the apple watch failed hoping to be the stocking stuffer they had hoped for this year. according to a new report, apple shipped about 4.1 million of its smart watches during the last

back in july ceo tim cook told analysts that they were convinced the watch would be one of the top gifts of the holiday. >> beijing has replaced new york city as the city with the most world's billionaires. according to a global rich report, the chinese capital city gained for a total of 100. new york which topped the list last year is in second place with just 95 billionaires. moscow is third with 66 followed by hong kong which has 64. >> billionaires. >> with a b. >> mcdonald's is testing out some new low calorie breakfast items and a couple of california cities. starting this week. take a look. people in los angeles and san diego will be able to purchase this. two different breakfast bowls. one contains some egg whites,

and clocks in at 250 calories. the other has scrambled eggs, with hash browns, salsa and that has 460 calories and the only request is how many zumba classes will that take to wipe those off the happen. >> 460 calories -- it would take half a class. that's like half a class. >> i have a question. i think those bolts were made to look bigger. >> i think you're right. >> i think when you get that bowl it's -- not to say -- >> they're trying. that's good. >> 45 degrees for the high temperature today. that put us shy of the 53. 36 on the low, but that's going to go down. we're going to go sub freezing easily this evening. no rain or snow officially at the airport, but it's coming down even as far south as the up state. more amounts of snow than it's.

frigid wind >> now your news 13 skywatch weather.

scene across many mountain locations this evening. the snow is coming down as far south as the up state. here's a lesser view, lester carpet sales sky view cam from hendersonville. 39 degrees and you can see the moisture coming out of the clouds as they roll over the blue ridge drop that moisture of snow and then it moves on. don't expect much accumulation from this. really the idea is it's blowing around so much it's really going to be hard to measure what does accumulate. 37 degrees at unca here in north asheville you can see the bands of snow working through right now with a few areas of sunshine mixed it. lots of blue showing up here, so we have a good band of snow coming through madison county, all these communities south of hot springs and south of highway 25 dealing with some decent snowfall, same in marshall, mars hill, down highway 19 into burnsville getting some lighter is now and this is 221 running up into the gorge, snowing pretty good in northwest mcdowell county and east of marion some

you get down to henderson county, certainly some snow here toward brevard and down through areas of highway 276 well. okay, it's snowing. is it really going to add up quickly? not necessarily in the valleys, but certainly in the mountains higher up you'll get a couple more inches out of this. 39 degrees in asheville. 40 for the windshield. that wind -- wind chill. it will continue to be through the next 24 hours. we have the big area of low pressure that was way down south yesterday. now all the way up into can dark but it's still strong enough to crank out that wind energy and push it all the way down through the carolinas and down the spine of the appalachians and we're still finding some good snow up into kentucky and the have -- virginias. >> around day break tomorrow still snowing over the smokes and northern madison county, not everywhere, though. we can see the coverage of that snow shrink asking going away. by the lunch hour tomorrow many

wind will still be breezy but not as strong as it was today. high clouds coming over saturday into early friday -- i should say late friday into saturday and other than that we're back into sunshine for the weekend. how much snow are we going to see additionally to what's on the ground now? maybe another half inch in marshall. maybe a little more some places north of that. about two tenths of an inch in burnsville. maybe a couple inches in the balsams. in the smoke ease you could get another -- temperatures in the 20s across the mountains, very cooled with the wind chills in the teens. we'll see sub freezing temperatures down to the up state. highways tomorrow, 30s for most mountain valleys north and 40s for most mountain valleys south. our temperatures will warm up, though. 47 saturday. 62 on sunday. that makes it easily the pick day of the weekend. we'll stay in the 60s through tuesday and get colder by midweek next week. >> sounds good. thanks, jason. living in the mountains it's known the weather can change in drastic ways, even in a short amount of time.

no exception. >> yeah, some people were wearing shorts and t-shirts as temperatures approached 70 degrees on christmas. then not even a month later, snow records were broken on january 22nd with over 10 inches measured in asheville.. well el nino has been the strongest on record this year, it will come to an end, while climate change is every involving. >> we are warming the world. we are warming here in the u.s. there's no doubt in the data, historical data that climate change is happening. >> i think that's the kind of cycle we're in here in western north carolina. i don't see anything slowing down. tonight at 6:00, news 13 zack green takes a closer look at climate change versus el nino and which weather phenomenon is responsible for the rollercoaster weather we're seeing in the mountains. >> time to see today's see it, shoot it, send it pick. >> this is a look from joy johnson.

of course it looks like -- is it just the brown trees? it's not the fall foliage. that's for sure. >> it's pretty, though. >> very colorful. >> you can send us your pictures and video too. go to wlos.com or e-mail them to pics at wlos.com. >> getting the most out of your tax refund.

>> it's tax season and many americans bank on a refund check to make ends meet. >> and tonight's consumer report, news 13's jennifer emert joins us with ways to maximize your tax refund. >> there's a tax credit that often goes unclaimed that could help those who need it the most. consumer reports has some advice on how to get it. >> a financial counselor helped her file her taxes. she was able to get a refund of those of dollars last year by taking advantage of the earned income tax credit. she said the refund made a big difference. >> it helps a lot. i work hard, but i don't make that much money, so it was a big deal for me. >> consumer reports to by stanger says millions of americans qualify for the earned income tax credit on their tax return. >> if you're a low or moderate worker, this can give you back some or all of the money you've paid in taxes.

this can really impact your tax refund. >> the amount of earned income tax credit you can collect depends on your income, marital status and how many children you have. a single person without any children making almost $15,000 a year can get more than $500. and a married couple with three children making almost $50,000 a year could get $6,000 back. but too few people know about this tax credit. >> one in five households in the united states that is eligible for the earned income tax credit does not claim it. >> and for those unsure tax filers, yvone's financial counselor has this advice. >> that's something available for them and then they should actually claim it. >> you can find out whether you qualify for the federal earned income tax credit along with other available credits and deductions on the irs website. >> now, to file for the earned income tax credit, you'll need a social security number for you

you can get help filing for the credit from any tax prep website or service. for more information on this story and other consumer news, go to wlos.com and click on consumer reports. >> a call to asheville city council after north carolina's largest city approves the transgender bathroom ordinance

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don't wait. call this number today. >> tonight at 6:00 a verdict. guilty of murder. >> you heard his motive. on the wlos video clip right out of his mouth. >> why the da says the verdict makes a statement about taking the law into your own hands. >> and higher taxes on the things you buy. >> more taxes? i'm always against more taxes. >> why customers and store owners are not happy about a state tax that will take effect soon.

carolina's news leader, this is news 13 at 6:00. >> from rain to snow, some mountain counties woke up to a light dust this morning. >> this is video from madison county where schools closed today and roads became covered with snow. and more is on the way tonight. >> chief meteorologist jason boyer is tracking what's to come and jason, this is more of a high elevation event? >> yeah. mostly in terms of the accumulations, we're getting snow to cover the ground even in some of the valleys. lester carpet sales news 13 sky cam network will start you out at 1400 feet. notice the road right here. a little more white. boom, bursts of snow working through now. 27 degrees, come countdown in elevation to black mountain at 2400 feet is 33, but the flakes are flying. notice the road is a little wet from some rain, snow mix earlier. you can see a little more noticeably now. that's the story for many of us.