as nbc's chris pollone shows us, a winter storm is sweeping through the country and pounding areas with snow and ice. >> reporter: it is early in the season, but even santa isn't thrilled. >> it is a little foggy and messy. >> reporter: a winter wallop for millions two days before christmas. making a mess of last minute holiday shopping in travel. 'm the heavy traffic and people out. >> reporter: from southern new england, freezing rain. driving nearly impossible at times in massachusetts, difficult for even the most seasoned winter drivers. >> trying to get from new york city to northern massachusetts for christmas and just got too icy into mass pa-- massachusetto stop for the night 40 miles short of where i'm going, i'm going to try now but still raining and below 32 degrees and as you could see, everything is coated in a sheet of ice. >> reporter: it was slow going on the mass turnpike but not too bad by saturday. the nation's airports busy as expected. but analysts say of the 107 million people traveling in the next week, 97 million of them will be driving. >> less traffic up there.

chris pollone, nbc news. >>> back to the weather situation. the d.c. area has not been the only place to see snow. this is what people have been dealing with outside of atlanta. the heavy, wet snow brought down power lines and left nearly 280,000 customers without power. and in fact, a lot of drivers wound up abandoned cars until the temperatures were able to warm up. and then in south bend, indiana, lake-effect snow is pounding the state. nine inches of snow is forecasted today. wind gusts could reach 40 miles per hour. and with that note, storm team 4 meteorologist so maniara the dore joining us. it t was pretty outside to get out in it and make snow angels ab to watch a cozy movie inside. >> >> and it is a saturday. so that is the best day to get this type of snowfall. now it is not done just yet, now we're wrapping it up through the next couple of hours. but with the conditions at freezing and the road teams now in the low 30s, this last bit of snow might have a good opportunity to stick. let's take a look at the current temperatures. like i said,

chris pollone is live in montgomery with the candidates' last push for voters. s, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, aaron and eun. such an interesting race on the local and national majority in the senate. obviously, if doug jones wins the race, it will be tougher for him and republicans to push through their agenda in the upcoming year. in any other year with any other candidate, republican candidate, this would be almost a gimme for the republicans. but because of those allegations against roy moore, you know, now this appears to be a pretty tight race. alabama hasn't sent a democrat to the senate in 25 years. so it all comes down to turnout. yesterday, both candidates held appearances. roy moore has been under the radar. only holding one appearance in the last seven days. doug jones has been crisscrossing the state over the last three days. polls are all over the map, some say roy moore has a ten-point lead. others say doug jones does. it comes down to today. we'll see who shows up and what ua >> chris pollone live in montgomery, alabama. chris, thank y

live from montgomery, alabama, i'm chris pollone. back to you. >> chris, thank you. >>> this is a really huge upset in one of the typically reddest states in the country. chris lawrence is at the live desk to explain what this now means for congress. what's next, chris? >> un, aaron. it's just one vote. the way the senate works, it can change anything. alabama probably won't certify the election until just after the new year. republicans are pushing to pass it by the time of christmas. repealing obamacare. both of those are probably off the table now. the sliver margin gives more power to senators who don't follow the party line. if democrats hold their own in next year's mid term election plus split arizona and nevada, they could retake control of the senate. >> chris, thank you. >>> president trump congratulated doug jones on a hard-foot win in alabama adding republicans will have another shot at the senate seat. >>> jeff flake who donated to doug jones's campaign simply wrote, decency wins. >> joe biden said, thank you, alabama. h

chris pollone is live. good morning. >> reporter: yeah, good morning, aaron and eun. as you mentioned, republican roy moore has not conceded this race. he did not call doug jones last night to concede either and he is looking towards what his campaign mentioned as military ballots perhaps to trigger an automatic recount. the problem for roy moore is he's down by about 20 or 21,000 votes, a margin of 1.5%. well, in order to kick in an automatic recount in alabama he has to be at 1/2 of 1% even if every military member voted, if they all voted for him it wouldn't put moore in the automatic recount range. it is a long shot and it does appear doug jones is the winner. roy moore and doug jonesth obviously jones claiming victory. moore blaming the media for his loss. >> the problem with this campaign is we've been painted in an unfavorable and unfaithful light. >> at the end of the day this entire race has been about dignity and respect. >> reporter: vote totals will not be officially certified here in alabama until the end of the month. that means that doug jones when he g

live montgomery, alabama, i'm chris pollone. >> president trump aggressively supported roy moore. arizona senator flake simply tweeted decency wins. former vice president joe biden tweeted, thank you, alabama. you've elected a man of incredible integrity, grit and character. he will make you proud in the senate. you can read more on the senate tax bill in the nbc washington app. >>> developing this morning, bullet holes right next to where people were diej in germantown. this was the scene at a mcdonald's. chaos broke out when two men were shot in the parking lot. mgo they ran into the mcdonald's looking for help. now police are trying to find whoever is responsible. no one else was hurt and the men are expected to be okay. police think the victims knew the person who shot at them. >>> we're learnings some new details about the hours leading up to a bethesda teenager's tragic death. sources say navide perry was at a party thursday night when police showed up. there's body camera video showing them talking to perry before he went missing. the teenager's father went to the police st

. >> the winner of the race will go to the senate, chris pollone is live with more. good morning, chris. >> reporter: if this were any other year, you could guarantee a republican would win. but, but, alabama has not sent a democrat to the senate in 25 years. with those allegations against roy moore, with the calls for him to step aside with the other senator here, richard shelby saying he didn't vote for roy moore, it has some voters here thinking that doug jones has a shot. anything could happen today. >> captain roy moore. >> reporter: roy moore hits the finish line monday night. >> we have explored the temples built by the democrats and republican party in this country and found that they have idols that do not hear us, do not see us. >> reporter: moore has been on the defensive for more than a month after several women came forward saying he pursued relationships with them when he was in his 30s and they were in their teens. moore denies the allegations and denied knowing the women. moore held few public events. doug jones spent the weekend crisscrossing the stat

much higher than the official data is telling you >> we'll get back to that conversation for now, chris pollone is in montgomery, alabama with more on the alabama story. good morning to you. it's a very big day in alabama this is the first democratic win over two decades or so the interesting thing it appears that mr. jones managed to capture some votes from a disenchanted republican voter base does this spell issues for the republican party going forward >> yeah. he certainly did he needed a very broad coalition to win here in alabama this is a heavily republican state. half the state identifies as evangelical christian. so in order to eke out a 20,000 vote win, which is what it's looking like right now, he need needed every vote he could get in terms of minorities, african-americans, young voters, and he needed moderate ors d disaffected republicans who didn't want to vote for roy moore. he certainly had to do that. there were a lot of them even richard shelby said he did not vote for roy moore a lot of analysts say that gave cover to republicans who just couldn't vote for roy moore in the ra