dashing through the snow, mike seidel was able to mike it as far as garden city, kansas. mike, good evening. >> reporter: hey, brian, it was a storm that impacted and virtually shut down parts of five states, and stranded thousands at the beginning of a busy holiday travel week. it was the first blizzard of the season, bearing down on the southwest and high plains states just days before the official start of winter. in northern new mexico overnight, snow and icy road conditions made for treacherous travel. four people were killed when their vehicle collided with a pickup truck in blizzard like conditions. and in colorado, where 50 mile an hour wind gusts created ten foot drifts, still more traffic accidents, including this prison van which lost control, killing a guard and an inmate. in the texas panhandle, amarillo had rain and snow. a welcome weather event for the drought stricken state. and kansas saw as much as 14 inches of snow, and four foot drifts. >> we had several of our own vehicles that ended up in the ditch. >> the storm dumped as much as 20 inches of snow in

our friend the weather channel meteorologist mike seidel is with us from kansas tonight. nothing ever stops you, but i understand you stopped far from your planned destination tonight. >> reporter: yeah. we had to make some changes just for you, mr. williams. we're here in cimarron, kansas. there are blizzard warnings in parts of six states. heavy snow. wind gusts 40 to 50 miles per hour. you can feel it. you can hear it. that's going to cause blowing and drifting. in a december where many are asking where is the snow? we have had only 25% of the snowfall we shoveled last december. take a look. tonight and tomorrow, plenty of it in the high plains. six to ten inches with a howling winds. we'll have drifts up to three to four feet. already some highways have been shut. interstates may be impacted. tomorrow the storm heads up through the lakes. the track we have seen many time this is fall and this coming winter will bring warm air up and that means rain up to chicago. by wednesday the rain will hit the east coast. so if you have a flight wednesday between new york and atlan

dark through the snow, mike seidel was able to make it as far as garden city, kansas. mike, good evening. >> reporter: hey, brian, was a storm that impacted and virtually shut down parts of five states, and stranded thousands at the beginning of a busy holiday travel week. it was the first blizzard of the season, bearing down on the southwest and high plains states just days before the official start of winter. in northern new mexico overnight, snow and icy road conditions made for treacherous travel. four people were killed when their vehicle collided with a pickup truck in blizzard like conditions. and in colorado, where 50 mile an hour wind gusts created ten foot drifts, still more traffic accidents, including this prison van which lost control, killing a guard and an inmate. in the texas panhandle, amarillo had rain and snow. a welcome weather event for the drought stricken state. and kansas saw as much as 14 inches of snow, and four foot drifts. >> we had several of our own vehicles that ended up in the ditch. >> the storm dumped as much as 20 inches of snow in a d

mike seidel, thank you very much. >> okay, chris. >>> news for you.ere insisting the new payroll tax cut bill will pass and it's democrats playing politics. >> today the house will consider the middle-class tax relief and job creation act. i believe it will pass with bipartisan support today. the president says that the american people can't wait for jobs. well, clearly if we pass this bill today, we will be taking the first big step toward creating jobs in america and it will be time for the united states senate to act. >> kelly o'donnell joins me now. what, 5:00 a vote? >> reporter: should be in that ballpark. there will be some debate about this. when the speaker is talking about create jobs he's refer to the keystone project, and it would be a job creator in the plinds of many republicans. it's become a real political hot button here. what we have even happening now, chris, is that republicans are saying that the white house and majority leader harry reid are sort of plotting to block a big end of year spending package that's been worked on for qu

i'm meteorologist mike seidel with the weather channel for nbc news, garden city, kansas. >> thanks, mike. that same storm is going to eventually head our way in a much different capacity but not just that storm. we have into the one but two other storms that are going to follow. we will talk about what those storms will bring and how they will and they will affect your christmas. how they will affect the weekend coming up in a couple of minutes. >>> the body of the late north korean leader kim jong-il lying in state. one of the first to pay his respects today was kim's successor, kim jong-nam. is little known about the new leader except he's 28 years old. a state funeral for his father is set for next wednesday. >>> closing arguments are expected tomorrow in the hearing of an army intelligence analyst charged with giving classified secrets to the website wikileaks. bradley manning was back in court today at ft. meade. investigators say he provided the biggest leak of u.s. secrets in american history by giving tens of thousands of classified details to the site. man sing facing 22 ch

our friend the weather channel meteorologist mike seidel is with us from kansas tonight. , nothing ever stops you, but i understand you stopped far from your planned destination tonight. >> reporter: yeah. we had to make some changes just for you, mr. williams. we're here in cimarron, kansas. there are blizzard warnings. wind ghosts 40 to 50 miles per hour. you can feel it. you can hear it. that's going to cause blowing and drifting. in a december where many are asking where is the snow? we have had only 25% of the snowfall we shoveled last december. tonight and tomorrow, plenty of it in the high plains. six to ten inches with a howling winds. we'll have dris three to five feet. interstates may be acted. tomorrow the storm heads up through the lakes. the track we have seen many times brings warm air up meaning rain up to chicago. by wednesday the rain will hit the east coast. so if you have a flight wednesday between new york and atlanta you may have delays. good day thursday. maybe more rain friday. christmas eve looks dry. brian, unlike last year only about 50% of americ

but first the weather channel's mike seidel is in garnden city, kansas, with more. mike, i'm sorry to see you out there in it. what can you tell us? >> reporter: i can tell you it's still snowing and blowing. you get a sense of what happens when you have 50-mile-an-hour winds. we've had drifts as high as ten feet in parts of southeastern colorado. take a look at some of the pictures overnight. actually we had winds clocked in new mexico of 72 miles an hour, up to two feet of snow in parts of new mexico and this has shut down a lot of highways. there are blizzard warnings in parts of six states. here the windchills are in the single numbers, some of the coldest windchills we've seen in a rather lackluster december. only 50% of the average snowfall has fallen and only 25% of all the snow we dug out last december. now, these blizzard warnings will last in some areas until noon. once the winds back off, we'll lose that ability of drifting, but still a lot of roads are closed this morning and just about everything is shut down here across the high plains. ann. >> mike, li

. >>> this is mike seidel, more jansing & company coming up. first an east coast storm, most of it is rain, it will be in new york later this afternoon and there could be severe weather in the southeast, the general snow amounts have been 1 to 2 inches on the fringe. some may see 2 to 4 like cleveland and detroit. here comes that rain into the mason dixon line, and there could be delays later today and this evening. right now the only airport showing a delay, about a half hour in atlanta on the east coast. on the west coast we have a delay because of low clouds and ceilings in san francisco of about an hour. again there could be storms this afternoon and this evening, a bit of severe weather. the tornado threat is very low, maybe some straight-line damage. which brings us to the forecast for the final few days of 2011. the sun will be back out in boston. the plains in good shape today, and the storm track will continue to bring rain and mountain snow into seattle, portland and the northern rockies for probably the rest of the year. but the 80 d

mike seidel, thanks very much. >> we've been very lucky. not only do we not have snow or that type of weather, it doesn't even feel like winter. >> when does winter officially arrive? >> on the 22nd. today on the 20th we're starting off with temperatures around the region in the 40s. from the mountains all the way to the atlantic beaches, mid and upper 40s, 49 at reagan national. view from space showing a lost clouds around. these areas in green showing a few sprinkles and a few sprinkles near fredericksburg and across southern maryland and into the lower eastern shore. here's your day planner. sunrise 7:22. plenty of clouds around throughout the day. in the 40s throughout the morning. maybe briefly low to mid-50s in the afternoon. small chance of a sprinkle. sunrise at 7:22. sunset at 4:49. a bit milder tomorrow. thursday partly sunny in the morning, maybe some rain thursday night into friday morning. here's a look at the holiday weekend. could get more rain saturday evening into christmas morning. danella, how's traffic? >> good morning.

there you see me getting a hug from mike seidel from the weather channel.eeing each other. it's nice. >> the other extraordinary thing about those in america is when it gets really bad, the weather, the first thing that people like you and your colleagues do is run out into the middle of it so that you can be filmed getting attacked by tornadoes and hurricanes or wading out to sea in the middle of one of these huge storms. i'm like why are you doing this? why do you have to be out there when you're clearly putting your lives at risk? what's the matter with you? >> here's the deal. believe me, if i thought i was putting my life at risk, seriously, i would not do it. i have never doing this weather, doing stuff outside have i ever felt that my life was on the line. because, as much as i like -- love my job at nbc, i'm not risking my life for that. but you know, look, anything could happen. look, in that studio where you are there in los angeles, anything could happen right now. any -- a light could fall and crush you like a bug. and what would happen? >> i re

. >>> this is meteorologist mike seidel. welcome back to jansing and company.wflakes in dallas, north and west of town. we had an inch in weiss county. it's a cold, cloudy, damp day in dallas right now. upper 30s are the temperatures. we have a slow moving cold front. this front is going to take its time getting to the east coast. back in here along the front, a lot of watches and warnings because of the possibility of flooding. even snow in northwest arkansas. we show you the temperatures right now. it's down to 4 in denver. a cold morning after weekend snow. there's your 50 in corpus christi. very warm along the eastern seaboard. we're looking for highs in 62 in new york city. 60 in boston. a complete turn around from what we saw in time last year. the rain, again, it's going to take another six to 12 hours to get it to the eastern seaboard. wet weather tomorrow. delays at newark, laguardia. not because of rain but because of fog and low ceilings. chris, back to you. >> it's unbelievable. it's december. one of the writers got back from los angeles and said it

. >>> this is meteorologist mike seidel. chris januasing and company returns in a moex.nd jacksonville down so far this year. we've had a severe drought in this area. over the weekend anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of rain. now we shift all the way over to the west coast, and another storm coming in. very heavy rains into orange county, l.a. county, some of the mountains of southern california will pick up 1 to 2 feet of snow. we have localized flash flood problems here as the rain coming in today and obviously issues for the morning rush hour. here it is. snow through the southwest, southern california to the four corners. flagstaff, 1 to 2 feet of snow between now and wednesday. one of those ski resorts will get pretty hard, tell lieu ride. we'll have icing and freezing rain tomorrow night and wednesday morning and watch the bridges and overpasses around des moines and minneapolis. more sunshine for most of the east coast except the southeast. it will be another seasonably chilly day in new york, philadelphia and boston. cooler than we've seen recently. as this storm come

. >> welcome back to "jansing & company," i'm meteorologist mike seidel from the weather channel in atlantatoday, the only spot on the planet this the lower 48 in the midwest, heavy rain moving through chicago and very gusty winds 25 to 30 miles per hour, and delays an hour on arrival to o'hare, and they may increase throughout the afternoon. it is so warm that a little snow around rhine lander, and that is it for the storm. the water coming out of the gulf and the rain heading to the midwest to the northeast later today and tonight. look at the temperatures. again, that is the story. so far this fall and december, we have had very little cold air. it is 46 in new york, and 70 in atlanta this afternoon, and near 70 in dallas, but as the front moves east, it will take the rain into the big cities, and there could be delays in the airports in new york tomorrow, and again tomorrow, chris, it is going to be warm are from the gulf coast into the northeast and turning colder in time for the shopping weekend and dry weather for most of the areas coast to coast. back to you. >> thank you, mike. >>>

mike seidel is tracking the storm from the weather channel.t states being hit by one storm, that's a big one. >> it is. but most everybody will deal with rain and not snowfall. we have snow down south. around huntsville, we had more snow this morning. and jonesboro, arkansas, they've had more snow this season in fargo and buffalo and syracuse. we have the big spin here. that will help fire up this low. we have a lot of heavy rain heading up the eastern seaboard. that's the issue around washington and boston. back here, this bright color, that's bright banding. we're getting sleet and big white snow flake to the north and west. it has changed in binghamton. snowing in snow shoe, west virginia, through the mountains of north carolina. what happens is the cold air is going to be chasing the moisture out. so it is a timing. the higher elevations will get a significant snowfall. this white strip again, avoiding boston, new york, philadelphia. the big cities will not have a shovelable or plowable snowfall. you may get some wet flakes. in these areas

but first the weather channel's mike seidel is in garnden city, kansas, with more. mike, i'm sorry to see you out there in it. what can you tell us? >> reporter: i can tell you it's still snowing and blowing. you get a sense of what happens when you have 50-mile-an-hour winds. we've had drifts as high as ten feet in parts of southeastern colorado. take a look at some of the pictures overnight. actually we had winds clocked in new mexico of 72 miles an hour, up to two feet of snow in parts of new mexico and this has shut down a lot of highways. there are blizzard warnings in parts of six states. here the windchills are in the single numbers, some of the coldest windchills we've seen in a rather lackluster december. only 50% of the average snowfall has fallen and only 25% of all the snow we dug out last december. now, these blizzard warnings will last in some areas until noon. once the winds back off, we'll lose that ability of drifting, but still a lot of roads are closed this morning and just about everything is shut down here across the high plains. ann. >> mike, li