let's join lonny quinn now with a check of the weather. hopefully things will be nice for the liftoff and for our saturday. >> oh, really, for our saturday? >> something like that. >> here in this area are going to change dramatically. let's get right to it. the weather picture as i see it, here are your headlines. midwest flood warnings, they stay in effect although i don't see rain in your forecast. just the fact that your rivers have not crested. they're not going to crest until sunday going into monday. still a tough situation there. it's very stormy, however, for the ebb tire state of california. wait till you see the satellite picture. and this is what betty and i were talking about, big changes for new york city and all the northeast. yesterday, central park hit 67 degrees. missing a record by one degree. light winds, just a beautiful day. that was yesterday. today, temperatures will drop into the 30s. we go back to wintertime. 40 to 50-mile-per-hour winds with a purchawindchill making i like temperatures are in the 20s. the satelli

lonnie quinn is going to be along in just a bit with the weather for the rest of the country. now it is 18 minutes past the hour. let's take a look at the other top stories and for that let's turn to cbs news anchor betty nguyen who is at the news desk. >> good morning, russ and rebecca. good morning to you at home. the u.n. security council is scheduled to meet today to decide on how to stop the bloodshed in libya. united nations secretary-general ban ki-moon said on friday it was time to take firm action to protect civilians in libya. the security council is expected to consider a proposal that includes an arms embargo, and financial sanctions. the action is not expected until next week. >>> iraq's largest oil refinery is shut down this morning after an attack by militants. the plant in the city of beiji, gunmen detonated bombs that triggered a fire. at least one person was killed. the refinery handles 150,000 barrels of oil a day. >>> well, with all the turmoil in libya, and other oil producing nations, rebecca jarvis sat down with boone pickens, the renowned oil man. she a

now here's lonnie quinn with our first check of the weather. good morning, lonnie. reporting for duty after lottery winnings. what do you think? >> first of all, 13 postal workers. you know darn well they had to ask some of their coworkers who said, nah, we're never going to win. >> right, of course. >> can you imagine? let's get right to your weather, guys. here are your weather headlines. it is storm up? beurre nine for the northeast. what a winter you've had. the gulf coast states you're going to clear out today and it's snow for the northern plains. let's take a peek at it from high up above. we look down. that's the northern plains situation. i'm talking a little bit of snow. two to five inches. this is a system now pushing into the ohio valley, that can be a pretty good player for the northeast. but look at the swath of real estate, indianapolis, to pittsburgh, to bangor, maine, winter weather alerts are in effect. we're talking ice and freezing rain to start off your day today, it's going to switch over to snow, and in places like bangor, maine, you'll end up

it's lonnie quinn to take a look at the weather.at sand. >> green bay you'd think it was a sculpture made out of snow or cheese. let's talk about green bay. because i see a little bit of snow around green bay. but really i'm talking just flurries. so it will be flurries not confetti flying through the skies of green bay. vermont, a little bit more snow. maybe one to three inches. but the skiers are going to enjoy that. and it's just generally quiet for the rest of the country. take a look at that shot. okay, this is pretty abnormal for this time of the year. keep in mind, we're in the dead of winter. typically the jet stream would give us these big, deep troughs and big, high ridges. that brings about extreme weather. we're starting to notice a pattern change and our jet stream is flattening out. becoming more zonal. meaning it's going from the west to the east. so some pretty mild air that will push relatively north but especially the midsection of the country with the warm air down to the south. just some pockets of real cold ard

or arctic oscillation -- >> i've got a real bad feeling -- >> reporter: weather correspondent lonnie quinnk to point out we've only got six more weeks to go. hopefully. >> it's groundhog day. it's essentially the hump day of the winter. we're halfway through. we're at least sliding towards springtime. >> reporter: though today's arctic freeze makes it feel less like a slide towards springtime and more on a winter you could only see in a movie. >> i'll give you a winter predicti prediction. it's going to be cold. it's going to be gray. and it's going to last you the rest of your life. >> classic. one of the best-ever. in other groundhog news, punxsutawney phil's cousin in new york, melbourne mel has decided to take the day off. his hometown has officially canceled groundhog day due to today's weather. chris? >> jeff, that is not good news. sor sorry. here to explain why we're having such extreme weather is physics professor michio kaku of the university of new york and also of the upcoming book, "physics of the future." good to have you with us. i think everyone wants to know, very simply,