that's cold, brian. >> kevin tibbles in the chicago suburbs tonight. kevin, thanks. >>> the broad impact of the storm on transportation has to do with all the folks trying to get home after the new year's and long christmas break. nbc's tom costello is keeping track of things on the roads and in the air tonight. hey, tom. good evening. >> reporter: aaa estimates 86 million people have been traveling by car over the holidays. many of the families are now making their way back home. we are watching i-95 and connecting highways along the east coast. a live shot from i-93 in braintree, mass. traffic is always bad there. we have snow-packed roads expected to worsen and a realtime traffic view of the major interstates in the eastern half of the country. if it is red or yellow it's problematic. you can see trouble in new york city. we already got i-84 closed to traffic from midnight to 5:00 a.m. the long island expressway, trouble. traffic into and out of manhattan. look at the northeast and in new england. massachusetts and new hampshire, vermont, trouble the

kevin tibbles starting us off from the twin cities. kevin, thanks. >>> and this cold air has really messed up the air travel, not the grounding of planes post-9/11, or the grounding of planes following the european volcano, but it's bad nonetheless. 200,000 passengers had their plans changed by force today. 3500 flights were cancelled. now jetblue says they will not fly in this cold at some of their bigger airports. anne thompson has more on all of it tonight from jfk here in new york. anne, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. you know, this really is a miserable time to travel. almost every major domestic airline experienced cancellations or delays because of the polar vortex. and this evening, at new york's three major airports and boston logan, jetblue says it won't fly at all. the news that jetblue would not fly again in new york and boston until tomorrow morning is trying the patience of already weary travellers. >> everything was cancelled from here to jfk, nothing leaving jfk nothing leaving here. >> reporter: jetblue

kevin tibbles from our report from chicago, thank you. >>> in north korea today we watched the latest bizarre chapter play out in the life of dennis rodman, the former nba star turned one man would be of good will ambassador to of all places, north korea. he made news there both for his actions today and his comments about an american who continues to be held by north korea. our report tonight from our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell. >> reporter: how do you celebrate the 31st birthday of a north korean dictator who just executed his own uncle? >> happy birthday to you ♪ some would say very carefully, dennis rodman's bizarre throaty performance was capped by a slight bow to kim jong-un, who was there even though photographers weren't permitted to take pictures of him. the main event was a basketball tournament between the korean players and the americans, but the americans lost, probably a good thing. but rodman's diplomatic adventure is not funny for an american prisoner, 45-year-old kenneth bae, from los angeles. -- from the seattle suburbs. he was already held

we begin our coverage with nbc's kevin tibbles in minneapolis/st. paul. kevin, good evening. >> reporter: here in minneapolis/st. paul and across much of the heartland the national weather service is calling it a particularly dangerous situation. as the temperatures plummet they're urging people to stay indoors and take precautions. it hasn't been this cold in decades. >> we've never experienced weather this cold. ever. >> reporter: an arctic front sent temperatures plunging 30 to 50 degrees below average across the midwest leaving 25 states in temperatures zero or lower. unrelenting snow battered parts of the plains and great lakes. in indiana, up to two inches of snow every hour throughout the day. chicago saw seven inches overnight while michigan got up to ten. the mayor of indianapolis warning residents to stay indoors. >> temperatures that are potentially deadly or certainly life-altering. >> reporter: the st. louis fire chief asking residents to watch out for one another. >> pay attention to your neighbors. see what they need and take care of them. >

we have it covered again with kevin tibbles in chicago. kevin, good evening. >> reporter: brian, it is day two here in chiberia. and across the frozen chicago river behind me, and across most of this nation, this arctic grip is not letting go. sub-zero, bone chilling wind whipping cold. stomping down on much of the lower 48 for another frigid day. from the air, chicago blanketed in arctic splendor. on the ground, javier pushed through his first day as a courier in the windy city. >> you can't play with this weather, you'll literally die. >> reporter: just one of tens of thousands braving the elements to make a living. even keeping others warm. >> i have to provide a city with electric. >> reporter: black ice in minnesota got the best of this car, toppling off a bridge. the driver escaped without serious injury. still, there have been dozens of wrecks across the country, and officials are urging folks to take it easy out there. hundreds of truckers are stranded in indiana, forces off highways, too dangerous to navigate. aaa facing a tsunami

. >> that was kevin tibbles, minus 8 degrees in chicago. headlines in the next 24 hours. let's see how americans are holding up in one final location. john yang is live for us in honolulu. john, are you excited to get back to chicago weather on monday? >> reporter: oh, hi, andrea, how are you? >> just fine. >> it's warm in the studio. john yang -- you will pay for this when you go back to chicago. >> reporter: my heart goes out to kevin tibbles, i've been thinking about him and all the work he's been doing. >> it's hard duty covering the president's golf game, isn't it? >> reporter: well, the president is always the president no matter where he goes. he's working. and the white house unit is always the white house unit wherever he goes. still working hard and still covering what he's doing and it is now 68 degrees here in honolulu. it is 12 back in home where i work in chicago where i'm based in chicago. i got an e-mail earlier from a colleague said he had 14 inches of snow. we were going to measure the sand depth to see how it compared but

nbc's kevin tibbles is still in chicago.you now. i want you to give me the latest but i want a forecast on that hockey game next door. >> reporter: we've done this before. it is indeed still snowing in chicago. we got about 6 inches overnight. just added a little festive, frosty new year's eve celebrations. lots of folks came downtown anyway because, what the heck, it is january in chicago. so why wouldn't you go downtown in the middle of a snowstorm. the streets have been cleaned off. everything is salted. they're working along behind me to get rid of this huge bank of snow that i'm tucked in front of and we are expecting more snow throughout the day. there is a winter warning until about 6:00 tonight and several hundred flights in and out of o'hare airport and midway were cancelled last night and into today, so folks heading home from here and other points midwest should check with their airlines before they head to the airport. now, of course, you let me segue right into what's going on one state over in michigan. the big

and kevin tibbles joins us, live from chicago, good evening. >> reporter: hey, larry, my lips are still moving, but only barely, i have to spit this out for you. there are parts of the midwest where it has been snowing nonstop. here alone, there are 1300 plows and trucks trying to keep the roads open. so far they're pretty successful. i have to tell you it is pretty hard to travel, it is chaos, hundreds of flights cancelled at o'hare. and as you know, that sort of thing happens on a sunny day at o'hare, so when something like that happens it really backs up things coast to coast, because almost everything goes out of o'hare when you fly across other parts of the country. everything i'm talking about is already heading in your direction, already flights are being cancelled in anticipation of this storm that is arriving overnight. schools in boston have announced that they will remain closed for a little longer over this holiday season. and then just to top it all off, forecasters are saying another big chill will come. temperatures here in the chicago area on monday are not expected to g

kevin tibbles in st. paul, minnesota. my crystal ball is more of a snow globe today. all right. our coverage continues in indianapolis where the mayor actually ordered cars off the road because of a combination of the cold temperatures and the big snows. the weather channel's mike seidel is checking things out there. >> reporter: here in indianapolis we have dropped to 14 below zero. the record is 20 below. our windchill right now is running at 40 below zero. in the twin cities, the actual temperature has dropped below 20 below zero and some of the windchills in these colder locations are running 50 to 60 below zero. also here in indianapolis, there's plenty of snow to go around. yesterday when it was relatively balmy, 31 degrees most of the day, we picked up 11.4 inches of snow. that's a record for the date and the second snowiest calendar day on record going back to the 1800s. it's piled everywhere this morning. we do have the sun coming up on this icy morning. notice there's no traffic. there's no activity. that's because the mayor has basically shut down the city except to e

our report tonight from nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: overnight, old man winter slid into minneapolis. roads covered in ice and cars careening. more than 200 spinouts this morning alone. >> all morning long, the police and state patrol looking at everything from fender benders to rollovers. >> reporter: too cold for the mountain ski resort in duluth, minnesota. it was minus 20 without the windchill. they closed early. in the windy city? >> no driving, a little partying, but no driving. >> reporter: wind chills well below zero. and the chicago river quickly freezing as much as half a foot of snow expected overnight. still, the brave and daring went out. >> it's a great day. you don't get caught up with tourists or anything. >> not bad on this day. >> reporter: in ann arbor, michigan, no danger of the ice melting at the nhl winter classic. 100,000-plus diehards will brave the cold here. >> can you feel your toes? >> no. >> reporter: fans attending today's alumni game in detroit doing whatever it takes to stay warm. >> layers, layers, layers, that is what you got to do. >> reporter: of c

nbc news's kevin tibbles as more. >> reporter: we 11,000 flights canceled this week, the airline industry could take a $1.4 billion hit as travel plans were left in ruins and passengers frustrated. and for all the truckers stuck for days in indiana, lost time is lost money. small businesses like this hot dog stand left out in the cold, too. >> we're only doing 20% of what we normally do in sales. >> reporter: demand for hitting fuel hit a new high. >> you have to spend more to heat your home, that's -- those are less dollars to take and spend on places like restaurants and movie theaters. >> reporter: and taxis in some big cities are doing a booming business. >> i did 40% better than i do on a normal day. >> bill karins will join us to look at today's forecast of where it may be warming up. >>> gabby give sordz showed serious courage on her third anniversary of the tucson shooting rampage. the former congresswoman went skydiving as she continues to take steps forward in her recovery. pretty amazing. giffords learned to walk and talk again after being shot in the head. said she feels stron

but first, here's kevin tibbles. >> score!hail from russia and is destined to be the star of their olympic hockey team in sochi, but here in this this nation's capital, alexander ovechkin rules the rick. >> surely everyone knows you in russia. >> yeah, in russia, people know me more than they know me here. >> ovechkin was the first russian to carry the olympic torch with washington capitals, he's team captain and the top scorer in the nhl. >> do you think he's the face of the franchise? >> no question. >> and at 28, he's still very much a mama's boy. >> i'm a big boy, but, you know, mama's always mom. >> she's the boss? >> she's not the -- of course she's a boss. >> his mother, a two-time olympic gold medalist herself, insists on sitting by herself on game nights. and when the olympics are over, wedding bells are on the horizon for ovi and his fiance. >> he's a big kid. >> a big kid whose home country are counting on him to be the golden boy. for "today," kevin tibbles, nbc news, washington. >> no pressure there for you, alex.

. >> now let's go to kevin tibbles. he's feeling the cold in st. paul, minnesota.s in the 50s in new york and it's a balmy minus 11 in green bay. minneapolis-st. paul, minus 20 degrees. there's about a 35-mile-per-hour wind blowing. that puts it down to about minus 40, minus 45 with the windchill. schools are closed all over the place here in minneapolis. they're closed in indianapolis, they're closed in chicago, and all this cold air, of course, is headed your way. you should not be outside for any great length of time without any protection, which is why your correspondent here today is going to wear this and i just suggest that you don't go into a bank looking like this. >> i would give the same advice, kevin. >> good idea. by the way, thanks to our correspondents and our crews out there shooting those shots, as well. let's go inside right now. natalie's got the top stories of the morning. good morning again. >> good morning, again. >>> well, the family of a 13-year-old girl declared brain dead removed her from a oakland, california, hospital overnight. jahi mcm