meteorologist derek van dam back with us again with more on that. pretty incredible snow cliffs. >> incredible photos. so we are clear on this. just a whole acumulated there. you can see that. probably fit around seven cars stacked on top of each other. roughly, 7, 10 meters high. snow bank. makes boston look, look, you know, tame. guys, this storm system will bring more snow to nor way. it is also going to bring an extreme amount of wind to the united kingdom. more on that in a second i will let you ponder at this picture one last time. it is quite an amazing sight. latest satellite imagery out of northwestern europe. i want to bring attention to what's taking place near greater ireland, scotland region at the moment. the storm system we are monitoring for extremely strong wind. storm force wind. upward of 80 to 100 kilometer per hour wind gusts expect add long the west facing shores of scotland and ireland. that's at least for the next 12 hours. eventually that storm will slide eastward across the united kingdom. and it will also bring strong wind

derek van dam is standing by in the weather center. korea and its people are suffering. >> this drought is very extreme across north korea. 30% of their rice crop and their rice paddies are starting to just completely dry up and become parched. no longer going to produce any agricultural yields. this is concerning considering that the united nations world food program states that about a third of the children in that country are malnutritions. this is going to exacerbate that problem and significant drought conditions south and west of pyongyang. this is the worst drought in 100 years. 2014 was the driest in 30 years. and this year is on par to be another significantly dry year as well. in fact just in march was the second driest on record 7 1/2 millimeters. in total this region typically receives 1,000 to 1,500 millimeters but in 2014 receiving 450 millimeters in total. the bulk of rainfall comes in july and august as rainfall moves north from china into the korean peninsula. so we do look forward to perhaps some relief from the droug

. >> for more on the severe weather, let's go to meteorologist derek van dam. derek?> reporter: good morning, john. another day, another chance of severe weather. this time from the plains through the mid-atlantic states. in fact roughly 50 million americans under the threat of severe weather today including denver cincinnati indianapolis and the nation's capital. damaging winds and large hail as a series of low pressures continues to move throughout the region. the secondary low setting up for friday. looks to bring another chance of severe weather, this time from oklahoma city through louisville kentucky including st. louis and memphis. here's the first impulse or short wave of bringing chances of thunderstorms late in day for philadelphia and washington, d.c. the west continues to heat up while we finally get a break from the heat over the eastern half of the u.s. temperatures cooling down and in fact quite nicely into new york city. look at this saturday 0770 degrees. we have to go through one day of the 80s. we have a chance of rain through the course of the week

here to talk about some of the signs of our changing planet is our meteorologist derek van dam.got admit, the pope makes some good points about our waist fullness. there are some simple things we can all do to help protect. >> poignant facts from the pope and big statements with a lot of weight behind them as well. evidence continues to pile up. since the year 2000, our oceans absorbing more and more of the c co2 from fossil fuels we burn ever day affects the water and marine life. people who study climate for a living to give us this indicator that our claimate is changing and our earth is warping p. we look at extreme weather events. not that we have extreme coastal drought and heat waves before, they are just becoming more severe and more frequent. look at this year's heat wave killing thousands of india and think about the ongoing drought in california and brazil. all thanks to the heat trapping greenhouse gasses. co2. this time, reaching measurement values, 400 parts per million. something that the world has not seen for 800,000 years. what is it doing? well, it's warming o

for more on the flooding threat, let's bring in meteorologist derek van dam. >> the remnants of what was tropical storm bill continues across missouri in to southern illinois and parts of kentucky and tennessee. we have seen a considerable amount of rainfall leading to localized flooding, especially across texas and oklahoma where we received the heaviest of rain. as the system continues to move in a northeasterly direction, we see the watches for flooding extended. that includes the general st. louis area southward in to springfield and even further south than that. here's our forecast radar. you can see it. it is counterclockwise circulation pattern. heavy at times just south of indianapolis. we could experience anywhere between three, upwards of six inches of rainfall near the border of ohio, illinois and indiana and kentucky. that's where we anticipate the most amount of rain for the next 24 hours. hot across the southeast. look at these temperatures running well above average from atlanta in to raleigh, as well as nashville. >> thank you for that. >>> we are following breaking n

derek van dam is with us. derek, nepal has had a suf situation with that earthquake and now this. >> the original earthquake that happened in april, they have aftershocks for weeks if not months to come after. and this recent one that triggered the landslide is proof of that. when you factor in the monsoonal rains settling in, we have a recipe for disaster. that's the mud slides you see on the tv screen behind me. can you see what are called striations or just the gouges into the sides of the mountain as the rock and the muddy vently gives way and gravity eventually wins and unfortunately leaving 20 fatalities. by the way, there have been rescue attempts in this area but because of dense thick fog the helicopters have not been able to fly in and out of that remote village. look at my satellite imagery across the area. where the landslide took place is northeastern nepal. they actually received nearly an entire month's worth of rain fall. half this at least. in 24-hour period. with earthquakes the size of the on

we have derek van dam to explain to us what is going on here. >> residents on the east coast can see spectacular sunrise this morning if they are watching. but there is an update on the flooding in shreveport, louisiana. this is all along the red river. it crested earlier this week and residents are still having to deal with scenes just like this. catastrophic stuff here as the flood reached its flood stage and inundated homes and livelihoods. that is the red river in blue. it crested at 37 feet. it should be 30 feet for flood stage. even though it is expected to recede over the days ahead we have several days and weeks to go before all that water completely evacuates and they can dry out completely. they have flood warnings all along the red river before it leads into the mississippi. this is on top of the wettest month ever reported in the con dig use united states. on average the u.s. received 4 inches of rainfall for the entire month and the rivers and streams leading into the red river are responsible for the flood stage moving down stream. this is an image taken from a satellit

. >>> let's go over to derek van dam who is watching this storm that is moving across europe and youil yesterday in spain and it's continuing today. >> that same storm system that created the hail near madrid yesterday continues to move eastward and created impressive rainfall totals in the south of france. 80 millimeters of rain in june. they typically see 40 millimeters. we have doubled that in a 24-hour period. and in poland, 3-centimeter in diameter hail. rain for france and czech republic, italy and western poland. we have the possibility of severe weather today through sunday morning. we highlighted an area near the city of minsk. but this area where we have seen we highlighted in orange, that's where we have the possibility of large hail, strong winds and excessive rainfall as well. the computer models indicating between 50 and 100 millimeters of rainfall in the higher elevations where we get that lift induce some of the precipitation. with the storm system ahead of it we have drawn in a considerable amount of heat. look at budapest, 30s for the first part of next week. if you

we have derek van dam in the studio. it is horrendous when you look at this. and the government hasn't done a lot to help people. there is little you can do to really offer some sort of relief. >> on top of that rosie, the heat wave is coinciding with ramadan. so you are fasting from sunrise to sunset no food or drink and that does not give you relief from the heat. five consecutive days of 40 degrees plus. three consecutive overnight periods that didn't drop below 91 degrees fahrenheit and the temperature just not cooling down at nighttime. it's not allowing the body to get that break it deserves and requires in order to cool your internal body temperature down. however, in karachi, the most populated city in the country, has seen some relief even though it is minimal, we'll take it. a couple of degrees thanks to an onshore wind. you can see the temperatures are just above average. we should be 33 degrees this time of year. but this is a far cry from the 40-degree plus weather we have been experiencing. and the overnight lows dropping below 30 degrees. the mo

let's get to meteorologist derek van dam for the look at the weather. >> we have a steamy weekend for the eastern half of the united states. this is the set up. we have a ridge of high pressure that is just off the east coast. this is drawing in very hot and humid weather. take a look at the four-day forecast for the big apple. we should reach 85 today. middle 80s through the weekend. more for philadelphia. you will break the 90-degree mark today and perhaps into saturday. factor in the humidity levels and this is what it feels like on your skin. 96 for the nation's capital. lexington, kentucky 92. other concerns with all of this heat is the quality of our air. pittsburgh baltimore and philadelphia all have air quality alerts on top of that with extreme heat advisories for baltimore and philadelphia. so the city of brotherly love is looking to be steamy and hazy. the cold front will move east triggering the storms which could be severe east of detroit buffalo and pittsburgh and cincinnati has a possible of rain today. back to you. >> i'll take the possibility of rain. >>> all tied up

let's get to meteorologist derek van dam. >> it's going to fire up thunderstorms this it afternoon specificallyre river value e lee westward through tennessee and eastern oklahoma. damaging winds and hail today. otherwise general thunderstorms expected to bring a good amount of rainfall. in fact between 1 and 3 inches locally across the mid-atlantic states through the ohio river valley. we'll watch out for that for places like indianapolis and louisville. here comes our cold front providing that collision of air masses allowing for thunderstorms to develop, but it will also bring us relief from the heat. 76 today, but 68 by saturday. a chance of rain showers settling in across that region. here's our four-day forecast for a a few select cities over the eastern half. you can see that cooldown but i wish i could say the same for the pacific northwest. e teetering on record breaking seattle. back to you. >> thank you so much. >>> so violence in the streets, this getting very serious. uber cars attacked celebrities held hostage. what ignited this mayhem, that's next. >>> really extraordinary sights

derek van dam is here. we will talk a little french open. but first, you lived in south africa.ave been on safari. there is no, not even o an inch, of coming -- >> it is amazing. the thing is, it is just -- it can be a tempting thing to want to roll down a window for instance. but sometimes that temptation overshadows, you know, what's common sense there. so obviously animals are wild. i've been inside of a safari vehicle when an elephant charged our vehicle. it was terrifying. i'm glad we had those safety nets and safety precautions we had in place and everybody followed it as well. >> important do. >> it is. >> all right. we will talk about french open and heat coming down there. >> it is so warm there, guys. they are breaking temperature records all over france. and it is interesting to note how the temperatures actually impact the clay surface that they play on. so the dryer the weather it is, the clay actually thins out and makes it more difficult for the players to get traction on the clay. but when we have rain and humid weather like in the forecast, that actually slows t

let's bring in meteorologist derek van dam for an early look at your weather. >> good morning, john and christine. here is the fine how do you do. 20 degree temperature change from this time yesterday. look at the daytime highs for new york. 66 compared to yesterday's 87. we are talking 20 to 25 degrees in some locations. providence up to boston. we have some system moving through. this low pressure will bring rain to the new england coast including the big apple and boston. up to 1 inch of rainfall. cooler weather settling in. we remove rainfall from the plain states. that's good news. texas gets the opportunity to dry out. we have the active weather pattern that will bring the rainfall to the east coast. we have flash flood watches for the greater new york city region stretching through parts of connecticut. we also have a chilly morning in store already felt across northern michigan and the u.p. of michigan. parts of wisconsin and minnesota. look at these overnight lows. marquette, michigan dropping to 40 degrees overnight. >> are you kidding me? >> that seems nice now we have the ho

and derek van dam is here to talk about that with us. >> it's in los angeles county it's outside of ther. but this area, they have had a thousand people evacuated and 500 homes threatened as well. look at the footage of the fires taking place. look at the swirling vortexes in the fires themselves. and this is on the heels of what is an increasing amount of wildfires if you can get to my graphics. you can see that we have had a staggering amount of change in the frequency and amount of wildfires in the past three decades with 2000-2012 with 250 wildfires with 1,000 acres of burned area to define a large wildfire. this is on the heels of a severe drought in california. but look at the homes in the los angeles county that are really threatened. that's where we had the 500 structures actually threatened by this particular fire. we are getting what are called spot fires. even though the fire is on the top of a hill we get the gusty winds that pushes embers ahead of the fire and starts spot fires ahead of that. it allows the fire to continue to burn. but i have read that some of the evacuatio

meteorologist derek van dam at world weather center for us.s that tornados are just picking spots all over from mexico -- to colorado. >> you are right. to happen on the front range of the colorado rockies. quite a thing. the mountain ranges spin up different kind of in the meteorological world, an eddie, basically a spinning air or movement, helps create those violent vorticities known as a tornado. this was the scene left behind the tornados, twisters, or vorticies. and toppling over trucks and taking roofs off houses as well. serious stuff. we have a total of 13 tornados reported on friday across colorado and nebraska and kansas. you can see the line of thunderstorms moving across this region. and those tornado indicators showing you where the tornados took place with another chance of severe weather today. we'll get to that. i want to show you some of the aerial footage and some of the footage of the actual tornado as it happened in northeastern colorado. multiple funnel cloud spotted. emergency sirens roared moments before this tornado ac

let's bring in meteorologist derek van dam. >> john and christine, we have a steamy weekend for the eastern half of the united states. this is the set up. we have a ridge of high pressure that is just off the east coast. this is drawing in hot and humid weather. take a look at the four-day forecast for the big apple. we should reach 85 today. middle 80s through the weekend as well. more of the same for philadelphia. you will break the 90-degree mark today and perhaps into saturday. factor in the humidity levels. this is what it feels like on your skin. 94 for the capital. lexington, kentucky, 93 degrees. other concerns with the heat is the quality of our air. pittsburgh, baltimore and philadelphia all have air quality alerts. on top of that extreme heat advisories for baltimore and philadelphia. the city of brotherly love is looking steamy and hazy as well. the cold front will sweep east triggering a few thunderstorms over the eastern part of the u.s. some could be strong to severe east of detroit, buffalo and pittsburgh and cincinnati with a possibility of rain. back to you. >> derek, than

let's bring in derek van dam for the look at the weather. >> good morning, john and christine. we have severe weather in the plains and rockies and stretching to the midwest. we have a warm weather trend in store across texas. cool along the east coast. including the mid-atlantic states. there is a warming trend in store. more on that in a second. here is the chance of severe weather. large hail and damaging winds. that includes the northeastern sections of colorado just outside of the denver region. we could pick up pockets of 1 to 3 inches of rain in the slow moving thunderstorms across portions of nebraska and into south dakota. that stretches east again toward missouri and iowa. here is the set up. low pressure system just east of the rockies funneling in the thunderstorms as it makes its way to the mountainous region. across the east coast, warming up nicely by saturday and sunday into new york city. >>> thanks derek. and for wearing that combination. the mystery causing tension in northern colorado. tension and fear. three people gunned down in the last two months. at lea

let's turn to our meteorologist derek van dam at the world weather center for more on that. >> yeah thosege are adding to the total of 25,000 fires recorded so far in 2015. also burning over a staggering 500,000 acres across the united states. and we're talking about alaska california parts of arizona and new mexico. let's focus in on alaska first where we have critical fire conditions over the greater fairbanks region. we're going to focus in on the peninsula south of anchorage. this is a region that has a fire that's only about 0% contained at the moment. not a good handle on this fire just yet. over 300 firefighters currently battling this blaze. 7,500 acres burned so far with 11 structures destroyed. but it's not only alaska that we're experiencing forest fires at the moment as george already mentioned, 17 ongoing fires. but it's this lake fire in southern california. and san bernardino county that has about 500 structures threatened at the moment, 13,000 acres have been burned so far across this area. fortunately, no one injured from this particular fire. but there are currently over

. >> and we know derek van dam is here with us, our meteorologist. is the worst, is that correct, natural disaster to hit ghana in a decade? >> and we are starting to find out new clues on the petrol station explosion. oil was accidentally spilled or petrol was accidentally spilled. there was flooding going on at the time of the event. a separate fire down stream allowing the petrol to float down the river eventually causing the fire that led right back to the petrol station. people were taking cover underneath the canopy at the petrol station. and you can imagine what happened. you can see the aftermath. a large explosion and unfortunate oly the fatalities. now this area is very prone to flooding p time of year. we are with starting to work into the west african monsoon season. it has do with an area called the intertropical convergence zone. this is responsibility because it sends short waves or impulses across central africa including ghana, nigeria, togo, the ivory coast. as it eventually moves north ward through the summer months. that is the no

. >>> derek van dam stepped in, because it seems so hard to believe, but six weeks after the initialuake in nepal another aftershock that killed more people. >> yeah, this time, this aftershock triggered a landslide. so this is tough news for an already difficult situation occurring across that area. and the original earthquake, natalie, destabilized the very rugged terrain outside the himalayas. you factor in heavy rain fall and secenes like this, look at the video behind me. these are still images, rather. you can see the scarring on the sides of the mountains. striations from the rock and mud that slid down and unfortunately caused 20 fatalities, upward of 20 plus fatalities and many more still missing thanks to these landslides and more landslides are likely to come because of the earthquake that's already destabilized this terrain and heavy rain fall in the forecast. take a lock at my graphics. you can see the rain moving in across northeastern sections of nepal. in fact this particular region, the northeastern nepal, has received half of its monthly average rain fall just in 24

. >> meteorologist derek van dam.he big problem here,en me of a solar plane, the weather. >> the wind. it need specific wind condition for takeoff. landing and 8,000 kilometer journey attempting to do at the moment. in the holding pattern over the sea of japan. already been in the air for over a day. so these guys are going through serious conditions. but there is something blocking them from heading to hawaii. i will show you in a second. this plane is rough leave the weight a vehicle, 2300 kill grams or roughly 5,000 pound. any cross wind over 4 knots, 7 kilometers an hour. that thing is not taking off. by the way no insulation on this plane. so -- the pie lot could endure if there was a breakdown in his, his protective clothing, talking about temperatures between negative 40 degrees celsius and positive 40 degrees celsius. a wide variety of weather conditions. here is the trip he is a tempting to make. west of japan. trying to thaus the pacific. reach honolulu in hawaii. a massive storm system blocking him. from th

our meteorologist, derek van dam, is at the world weather center to make sense of it all. derek? >> george, here we go again. the same areas that received the flooding have the possibility of more flooding rains today and through the weekend. this is oklahoma, kansas and northern texas, right along the red river. in fact, the national weather service just canceled a flash flood warning for the greater oklahoma city region as this band of rainfall moved through in the overnight period. it's now starting to clear, but there is clearly more precipitation in this forecast. our computer models indicating anywhere between 4 and 6 inches near the wichita falls area, 1 to 2 inches near oklahoma city. additional rainfall expected for wichita, kansas city and houston as well. this on top of the wettest may ever recorded across the contiguous united states. if you average it out, all locations around the u.s. received around 4 1/2 inches. of course, there's some anomalies and exceptions to that, but certainly a very wet month recorded. so, any rain on top of that could lead to the possibili

let's turn to our meteorologist, derek van dam at the world weather center to try to square the circlederek, people are in very different situations in the u.s. >> yeah, but here we go again, george, because in fact, the same areas that received such heavy flooding in the month of may could potentially see that once again today and into the rest of the weekend. in fact, just in from the national weather service, oklahoma city and the greater oklahoma county region now under a flash flood warning. a very slow-moving thunderstorm has pressed through the area. remember, this is a very saturated region. we've had significant amounts of rain, over 20 inches in the month of may, setting significant records as well. look at how much precipitation we're anticipating going forward over the next two days. right along the red river, we received a significant amount of flooding recently. you can see that darker shading of orange and yellow stretching all the way to kansas as well. we have locally 4 to 6 inches, perhaps even higher amounts for some of those residents. now, again, this is coming on