your binoculars, a rare and cool sight about to happen in the sky, minutes away, meteorologist jacqui jerase with the details after a quick break. with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best technology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006. will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. ♪ [ male announcer ] offering four distinct driving modes and lexus' dynamic handling, the next generation of lexus will not be contained. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. ♪ >>> each week on "the next list" our dr. sanjay gupta profiles innovators from all walks of life and you'll meet dan agola, and in kenya he's created a support system and a place to exchange ideas. take a

cnn's jacqui jeras joins me now. where is this, and what's the weather like where they are now. >> this is in washington state. we put together a google earth to give you an idea of where it is. they've been receiving in the last 24 hours some pretty heavy snowfall, over a foot. and what happened here is some skiers at the ski resort went into what we call the backcountry or out of bounds skiing area and they believe that's what triggered the avalanche in this area and killed three people, two people were injured and it's our understanding now that the rest of the people that were involved have been accounted for. so that's the good news. to put this in perspective for you, this is around highway 2. this is some web cams from the washington department of transportation. you can see the slope of the terrain here. this time of the year we get frequent snowstorms that move through the area and the layers of snow will pile up on top of each other. if there's any melting or anything in between, that creates unstable condi

jacqui jeras, our little geek. >> i was -- i take offense to that. >> a stylish geek, has the details>> yes. don't have to be a geek to enjoy it, i will say that, richelle. there are two displays of the night sky tonight that are going to just dazzle you, depending on where you live. the first one everybody is going to be able to see this, not just in the united states, but talking worldwide. it is a beautiful display of jupiter, venus and the moon. and our ireporters caught this last night, this one, time lapse, that's from matt hartman. he took this video in los angeles last night. there you see the moon here, this one right next to it is venus, and jupiter was the one on up to the north. and also took another very cool ireport. look at this one. i love this one. hold on. sometimes the wall gets a little touchy on me. we'll bring it up there. there it is. isn't that beautiful? you see the palm trees in the foreground there. and there you can see the moon and you can see the two planets. and, by the way, you need to look in the western sky to see this tonight. that's going to be your

we're going to get back to jacqui jeras to talk about new information, new pictures, aerials that we'reis is elizabethtown. the first storm that pushed through had public reports and law enforcement reports that a tornado went through. so there you can see pieces of twisted metal. i know that farm homes were damaged in the area. this was a very strong storm that continued to cause damage. there's a line of storages that have been kind of going one after the other moving through the same area. some people have been getting hit more than once here today. so this is likely a tornado in elizabethtown that produced this damage as well. there are two storms still active. we don't have ground troops at the immediate time but this is one that concerns me the most. this is in kentucky. i want to be very clear about this because the name of this town is very similar to the one that we've been talking about in illinois. this is what we call a tornado vortex signature on it and so it is extremely likely that this is a tornado that's on the ground moving very quickly to the north and east. so harris

way to go. >> let's head to jacqui jeras and get a check on the weather.d morning to you. >> good morning, ladies. adorable. the weather today, stormy. we're looking at this in the country from the great lakes down to the gulf coast, we're going to see very windy conditions. rain in the ohio valley. some snow mixed in here. not heavy accumulations but they'll be impacting your travel. the other storm moving into the pacific northwest, this is a doozy. this is going to be tracking all the way across the country. might produce severe weather late in the week. today, it's heavy rain and snow in the higher elevations. major delays expected in chicago. most of those delays across the great lakes. back to you, lady. >> thank you. >>> 40 minutes past the hour. when teachers in buffalo, new york go under the knife, taxpayers foot the bill. an insurance perk you may not believe. >>> also, an exclusive here at cnn. take a look at the pictures. happy couple, not so much. on the right the arizona sheriff, paul babeu. on the left, his ex-boyfriend and allegations that

jacqui jeras, it's not an exaggeration to say extreme, is it? >> not at all.w, flooding, we have all of it. we have incredible pictures out of this one storm causing everything. this out of colorado. this is in blackhawk county. they had as much as 40 inches of snow in about three days. it came fast, it came furious. it brought a whole lot of snow. you've been waiting autumn winter for that. the system has been on the move. nebraska getting hit hard today. you can see video of treacherous conditions along the interstate there lincoln, nebraska, had more than a foot of snow. a mail carrier tweeted me to tell me today was the first day he can remember they did not deliver the mail. let's move on to texas now. the rain has been coming down so heavy. this is between five ant seven inches fell in a short period of time. flooding out roadways. the system on the move and still causing problems. it's moving across parts of iowa at this hour. there you can see it behind me. expecting to see a good four to eight inches for you in the des moines area on the southern tier

jacqui jeras here with outlook for monday. jacqui. >> don, we have three storms that we're tracking, the first one here into the mid-atlantic is pulling off the coast. we'll only have residual effects for that, mainly the temperatures will stay below freezing so roadways will be icy in the morning especially if they haven't been treated. second storm here pulling out of the rockies will have a big impact on the plains. this will be a huge windmaker then in the west there you can see another storm pushing in there and this is going to keep that avalanche threat by the way elevated and the upcoming days. here's the week ahead. we're really going to take you through midweek and this is the storm we'll watch closely looking for some snow and this system is moving so fast that i don't think the snowfall totals will be terribly incredible but it's really the wind impact and whiteout conditions from time to time as it heads into the plains where we're mostly looking at rain but you will see the snow and even sleet mixing in in the da

meteorologist jacqui jeras is here with more on that. >> a lot of snow across -- hello.and look at me. it's okay. >> i don't like having my back to you. >> i know. >> sometimes that's how shots are. >> speaking of the travel trouble and the snow, it's actually so beautiful though. this is out of the roanoke area where the snow has been coming down hard and heavy at times today and we've seen as much as an inch per hour at times. and i guess that video is not going to pop up. there it is. just roll that beautiful footage. look at that. it's just a beautiful thing, but it's been tough for travelers in the central appalachians. places that have been hit hardest, eastern kentucky into west virginia, western parts of virginia state, western north carolina, and northeastern parts of tennessee. now, the good thing is it's primarily been a weekend event for you and we're going see improving conditions as we head into tomorrow. washington, d.c., for the most part has been spared with this storm, so that's been the good news. just rain across much of the deep south. this thing is

let's bring in our resident gardener, jacqui jeras.vegetables. >> our victory gardens so to speak. now we're talking about the timing of planting, fredricka, and also what you plant. you might be able to plant things in your area that you've never been able to plant before. so this is the first time that this has been done since 1990, and basically the usda has these zone maps we're all familiar with them. if you garden you know what i'm talking about, but they changed the average now. they've lengthened the amount of time they've been looking at these averages and we've been warming in the last number of years. so they have all slitted up by about a half of a zone. so, folk, let's take a look here in parts of iowa. big gardening state here. we've turned into zone five now into northern parts of iowa when you used to be zone four. that means you might be able to plant a little earlier. you might be able to plant that magnolia tree you have always wanted and you might even be able to plant a dogwood. part of the reason they're not sayin

jacqui jeras is here in the weather center. >> we're dealing with wintry weather right now. appalachians is the focus of this in terms of the snowy weather. this is a really wet snow too by the way. in fact, we're looking at snowfall rates around an inch an hour. really focused in across parts of eastern kentucky into northwestern north carolina and western parts of virginia and so that's where we're going to be seeing those heavy snowfall rates and really travel not advised here. overall washington, d.c., you're getting off pretty lucky with this storm. all the moisture has been staying to your south. some of this could sneak in here but we're not looking for significant accumulations. a little difficulty for your travel. even the places near that rain and snow have low overcast conditions so that makes it it tough to navigate into the area airports. there are winter storm warnings in effect here along i-77, along 81 and that's where we're expecting three to six inches of accumulation. you have to get up in elevation to start to see some of the greater numbers. for the most

let's check in with meteorologist jacqui jeras and new warnings. was this the storm that has actually hit some of these states? >> it's the same storm system, that's for sure, but not the same individual storm cell that we're talking about. but we have seen storms repeat themselves and redevelop over some of the same areas. you're looking at kentucky here. here's louisville, evansville, indiana, and now we're talking about central parts of kentucky. we have two active warnings as we speak. both of which we call doppler-indicated radar tornadoes. this is heading towards a very populated area of bowling green, kentucky. we don't have a real signature on it or we'd get an icon on it but it could drop down at any given time and this storm that we're talking about right now, this is clay city, kentucky, and stanton, kentucky, we have major rotation on this storm heading your way. a warning about this storm. to put it into perspective, you can see lexington as well. the danger remains very heightened as we have a new watch to talk about. all of the old b

>> jacqui jeras is doing the job today for rob marciano. she's live with us this morning. hi, jacqui? >> good morning, ladies. i'm glad to hear you're enjoying that picture of snow there, because it's heading your way. >> thanks a lot, jacqui. that's jacqui jeras this morning. >> you don't have to do that. >> i can wrap you too, my friend. >> all right. i'm just trying to warn you about it. n nothing i can do to change it. big changes on the way. the winter that never happened finally trying to make a comeback here over the next couple days. we've got cold air that's coming in from canada. blaming the canadians there, ashleigh, and moisture from the gulf of mexico and these two things will meet up and so we'll watch for snow across parts of the great lakes, ohio valley today and moves into the northeast as we head into tomorrow. keep that in mind as you make your weekend plans. the snowfall today generally will stay light, only a couple inches, but it's enough for advisory criteria for louisville, kentucky, into cincinnati. most of that snow is going to be falling say after

jacqui jeras is here. >> don, i miss you. >> i miss you, too. i'm so tired i'm punch drunk.day night mysteries. what do you have this week? >> it's presidents day weekend, don't you know? we had to pick a mystery that has to do with one of the presidents, at least maybe the first lady. this has to do with our 16th president's wife, mary todd ling kun, and it has to do with a portrait that's been hanging in the presidential library museum in springfield, illinois for years and years. turns out this portrait you're looking at is a fraud. that's what it should be looking like. that's the original, believe it or not. this portrait was purchased in 1929 by the lincoln family and donated to the museum. the curator wanted to have it restored. in the process they learned tats portrait has been modified. she was wearing a cross necklace, but in the next picture she's wearing a broach of abraham lincoln. it was penned by mr. francis carpenter. they don't know if it was actually done by him, either. her facial features and hair has been modified. they don't know who the artist was, but

jacqui jeras is here. >> oh, don. i miss you. >> i miss you too. i'm so tired, i'm punch drunk.night mysteries, what do you have? >> it's president's day weekend, so we had to pick a mystery that has to do with one of the presidents. well, at least maybe the first lady. this has to do with our 16th president's wife, mary todd lincoln. it has to do with a portrait that's been hanging in the presidential library museum in springfield, illinois for years and years. well, guess what? turns out this portrait that you're looking at is a fraud. that's what it should be looking like. that's the original. this was purchased in 1929 by the lincoln family, donated to the museum and the curator wanted it restored. in the process, they learned that this portrait had been modified. so you can see she's wearing a cross necklace. in the next picture right there, she's wearing a broach of abraham lincoln. this walls allegedly a portrait penned by mr. carpenter there, but they don't even know it was done by him either. her facial features have been mod feed. her hair has been modified. they don't

let's check in with jacqui jeras. is where the storm heading next? >> eastward.re getting heavy snow across the great lakes at this hour. there is a live picture of our nation's capital. if you look close, you can see some of the big fat flakes flying through as the squall moves through at this hour. not going to get much for accumulation in washington, d.c., but pretty to look at. you can't see a whole lot in some of these snow bands. they have been extremely heavy. that's as cold air pulls in on the back side of this low. it's getting a lot of enhancement off the lakes we had a lot of accident and trouble in the cleveland area as well as akron, ohio, where visibility is down to nothing. one of the reasons is the great lakes are wide open. i have a couple of satellite images that are cool. i want to show you from noaa. this is lake michigan right here. you can see the thumb from the state of wisconsin. there you can see some of the ice in the bay in that area now a picture of lake erie. it is the shallowest of all the great lakes. this time of year normally it's

jacqui jeras with a look at the weather. >> it's been a mild winter in chicago.kes! weather not so great across the northeast. the winds really driving in snow showers here. wind advisories are in effect. they are gusting 50 to 60 miles per hour. we've got more than 1,000 people without power in connecticut from these high winds. if you're trying to travel today, take a look at

it is time to get mysterious, jacqui jeras is here with our saturday night mysteries.ou have this week? favorite segment. >> this is so much fun. the first one is off the beaten path. it has to do with some chimps. this is a 29-year-old chimp living at a sanctuary in louisiana. and on valentine's day, caregivers found her with a new baby, which sounds normal, right? but the thing is, this is a sanctuary for research chimps to basically retire. all the male chimps have had vasectomies. >> i think one was hiding. >> there are five possible candidates. we have merv on the left, conan in the middle, jimoh on the right and the other candidates, magnum and mason. >> this is like the bachelorette. they've all got roses. >> it turns out, let's go back to the first one, take a look at conan. he's got a little history to him, believe it or not. five years ago, he fathered a different baby at the sanctuary. it turns out his vasectomy didn't work, so they gave him another one. they're going to be doing dna tests. >> i think there's some conan o'brien jokes in there somewhere. >>>

jacqui jeras in the weather center. what's going on? >> we've got a lot of storms.ave the threat of flooding rains as well as tornados and watches still in effect at this hour from new orleans stretching all the way over to the panhandle of florida. this watch over here which includes new orleans in effect until 5:00 local time this. watch here until 9:00 central time. we had a number of tornado warnings. mobile county under a warning. this is a doppler radar indicated tornado. these lines of storms also bring the threat of damaging winds. winds on the range of 50, 60 miles per hour. the rainfall rates have just been amazing. take a look at a couple of these numbers from earlier today. more than three inches. when you get that much rain in a short period of time, we've got a lot of roads which are closed now because they are covered with water. we could see an additional one to two inches on top of what you have. this weather system will move up to the north and east and will catch up with cold air from the midwest. we'll start to see this rain transition to snow. e

when it snows, it really snows, jacqui jeras, with us now oh, my goodness.hould. it's a lot at one time for anybody. this is record-breaking snow. denver, this is the greatest three-day total they had. they had a 4-hour record yesterday. more than a foot. it does take a little bit to clean up from this. they had to shut i-70 down for a while between denver and lyman because winds were so strong. >> colorado is ready. skiers delight here in pinecliffe, colorado, more than 50 inches. that was the biggest number i could find. the storm system is on the move at this hour. we'll continue to see heavy snow. nebraska has been one of the worst-hit places. lincoln, nebraska, just reporting more than a foot of snow. i just got a tweet from a mail carrier in lincoln, nebraska, that says, we didn't do it today. >> so much for the neither sleep nor snow. >> he said it's the first time in memory. >> we understand. >> everybody gets a snow day once in a while. we've got snow into western parts of pennsylvania. you can see the winter storm warning. it's constant greated tod

am i right, jacqui jeras? there is something going on. >> it's crazy. difference is in pressure drives the wind. we've got that all over the country, particularly in the northeast and the northwest today. a lot of people are dealing with this. it's actually dangerous to be out there from time to time when we've been seeing wind gusts around 40, 50 miles per hour. look at those strong winds. you can really see it with the radar on top of this how those winds are driving the snow showers, how the cold air is moving over the great lakes and bringing that snowfall all across parts of the northeast. the advisories are out from new england all the way down through the appalachians. this is going to start to quiet down after sundown. that's the good news out of all this for today. bad news is that it makes for an ugly day and for a lot of travel problems. this is new york city, central park looking at gusts around 30 miles per hour. that is helping to keep temperatures down today, as well. here are the delays as of t

ja jacqu jacqui jeras has the big weather picture. >>> spotty showers in the northeast. but the temperatures are going to be crazy warm again today east of the rockies. watch out for thunder and lightning across parts of louisiana into mississippi. it's really across the deep south where the heaviest of rain will be throughout the day today. stuff you're getting across the northeast just kind of spitting. look for occasional showers. we also have poor visibility along the gulf coast with dense fog advisories for you. san antonio into austin and houston as well. still watching that fire area into parts of florida. so as we look at that big picture, this is really the big storm system across the east. another one in the pacific northwest bringing rain and valley snow. this is going to be the storm to watch as we head through the rest of the week because it's going to dip on down and make its way up as we head towards the weekend. let's talk about the good temperatures. this is insane. how is a groundhog going to predict the end of winter if winter never actually happened?

jacqui jeras in the cnn severe weather center. what is going on with the weather? >> i know!is crazy. it is early february and we are actually talking tropics. it is not tropical storm or even a tropical depression just yet but there's this cluster of thunderstorms we've been watching all weekend long. just keeping our eye on but now you have to talk about it because the national hurricane center has just issued a special tropical weather statement saying they're upgrading the possibility of this becoming more organized. it's been kind of trying to get its act together today and if it does so i don't think it would be a true tropical storm. it would become likely what we'd call a subtropical system. it is kind after hybrid with characteristics of both but the impact will be the same either way it slices. this is bringing in much needed rain across parts of south florida and will continue to do so throughout the next 24 hours. central or southern florida, that's pretty much what to expect. maybe one to three inches of rainfall here, broward county, miami-dade here, homestead,

jacqui jeras, i shouldn't say unreasonable, unseasonably.onable to me about warm temperatures. >> i know. in fact, we were looking at this on the break. this beautiful shot of atlanta. >> it's so gorgeous. >> if you could pick a perfect day -- >> wow. >> 70 degrees. isn't it just beautiful. it's still 65 at this hour. should be 55 for a high this time of the year. so you're talking 15 degrees above where you should be and that's really been the rule across much of the rest of the country. it's been a gorgeous weekend for most people. we've been tracking some travel concerns and that's been focusing in on parts of texas into louisiana. we've had a lot of flooding rains in the last couple days. today the rain much lighter but still a lot of swollen rivers. we have been reporting on and off some airport delays in houston but right now those have cleared up. so that's the good news out of all this. there you can see the big picture across the country. really that's the only storm system we're dealing with. we will see a few storms in the week ah