denver was among the cities feeling the punch today, and that's where weather channel meteorologist mike seidel is tracking things tonight for us. mike, good evening. >> hey, lester. blizzard warnings tonight in parts of three states, here in colorado, also parts of kansas and nebraska. here in denver, snow is typical in march. typically, much of the year, so far four inches downtown, but no major issues on the roads. snow pounded denver today. falling at an inch an hour at times. nearly 500 flights out of denver international airport had to be canceled. >> it's to be expected in colorado. you know, we just love it here. so it will be good for us. >> reporter: the same system brought quarter-sized hail to mesa, arizona. 60-mile-per-hour gusts in the phoenix area triggered a rare winter dust storm. >> this thing's moving fast. i'm pretty surprised. >> reporter: and in southern california, heavy snow pummeled the mountains. this latest system follows a massive storm that left much of the northeast covered in snow. and produced damaging coastal flooding along the shore. in massachusetts, three oce

weather channel meteorologist mike seidel is in bolingbrook, illinois, tonight. and, mike, all the snow they can handle in some spots. >> reporter: you got that right. let's show you where the storm heads tonight and tomorrow, brian, into the mid-atlantic and d.c. it will likely start as rain and then change to snow. now as the storm hits the coast, as john mentioned, big issues on the jersey shore. winds could gust to 60 miles an hour. we are going to have beach erosion and coastal flooding from maryland and delaware up to cape cod. the snow gets into boston late tomorrow night and wednesday. snow totals? west of d.c. and the mountains, a foot or more. in d.c., five to eight inches. they have already cancelled 1,000 flights in washington ahead of the storm. they have only had an inch and a half of snow in washington so far. in new york city, an inch, maybe two inches of slushy snow in midtown manhattan. boston gets six inches or more. and back here in chicago, brian, they are remembering last march where it hit 88 days. not the case this time around. back to you.

mike seidel starting us off tonight. mike, thanks. >>> now to washington where this is the eve of a big day. the u.s. supreme court is turning its attention to same-sex marriage. the justices are taking up two cases on this subject, deciding whether the federal government can refuse to recognize it and whether the states themselves can ban same-sex marriage. in the meantime, public attitudes have been shifting fast. our justice correspondent pete williams is at the court for us tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. this is high drama because the supreme court has never before taken a serious look at the issue of same-sex marriage. so the stakes are high and these cases come here at a time -- right at the time public opinions are rapidly shifting. if this is any barometer, interest is keen. a line began forming outside the court last thursday for people willing to brave the cold and wet for a seat inside. tomorrow the justices take up proposition 8, the voter initiative that stopped same-sex marria

we start off with weather channel meteorologist mike seidel live on the jersey shore -- the southern end -- for us. mike, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. we are on the tail end of this big spring storm that dumped heavy snowfall from denver across the plains and right here to the jersey coast. it also spawned two tornadoes and has many wondering tonight when does spring really begin. >> i'm just shocked that we wake up to this. >> r

the weather channel's mike seidel is in chicago. , what do we expect, and am i going to be able to land tomorrow night with secretary kerry? >> well, here in chicago, andrea, we've already seen over 1,100 flights canceled at midway and o'hare. we'll see five to eight inches of snow. we have three on the ground. look at the stevenson expressway. still running in pretty good shape because march sun does a number on the roadways. we have the insulation through the clouds. plus, the temperature is about 32. it's not extremely cold, but this is about a one inch per hour snowfall rate. after it leaves chicago and heads into d.c. later tonight and tomorrow, right now in d.c. we're looking at five to eight inches of snow. it may start out as rain in the district. then go over to wet snowfall. west of d.c. out around dulles and then out towards the shenandoah winchester and those areas and front royal. we could see a foot or more of snow. philadelphia west of town, five to eight inches. then as the storm goes out to sea, it will clip the coas

weather channel meteorologist mike seidel has more from maryland. >> reporter: good morning.ing down, not as hard as earlier. we are on i-270. this is the major route from frederick, 50 mile drive to washington, it is in great shape this morning. it was in good shape before sunrise when it was snowing harder. the thing about a late march snowfall in this area and across most of the lower 48, we have a high sun angle now, as potent as it is in mid september. radiation is coming down, getting soaked up by the pavement and concrete. the parking lot which was covered earlier, that's now melted off. temperatures helping, too, running between 32 and 34 degrees this morning. washington national in the past hour jumped up to 36. safely above freezing there at reagan. meanwhile, totals, generally 3 to 5 inches in western maryland, around baltimore and d.c. and suburbs, upwards of 3 to 4 inches, heavy snow. some schools closed in higher elevations, most schools in d.c. and baltimore are out for spring break or stayed open, some on two hour delay. talking about heavy, wet, gloppy snow,

. >> allow me to introduce you to mike seidel of the weather channel. what's your reading?we're kind of protected here -- >> it's not just hurricanes that have sent mike seidel flying. he's also found snow and ice on the ground can turn a weather report into a major slipup. >> this is what -- owww, oh, geez, gosh. >> and there's another hazard when reporting on extreme weather. the kids are out of school. >> the children seem to be having the most fun of all of us here. they're all loaded up, as you can see, with snow. that probably wasn't the best idea i've had this weekend. >> no, it isn't. and the attack isn't over. >> they're having a great time, as you can see. >> and even when a reporter is expecting snow day fun -- >> it looks like rubin is in the lead and here comes ali -- >> he can still get taken for a spin. >> that was a bad idea. at riverside park, rob leff. >> clearly reporting on weather outside is no walk in the park, but surely a reporter is safe inside the studio. not always, as idaho falls anchors justine bouvier and tommy nobel can tell you. they host the

let's get to mike seidel in

nbc's mike seidel with the very latest for us. icture there at all. >> reporter: yeah, and i want to emphasize that denver can snow even into june. they have snowed every month for the year except july. march is the second slowest month, in april, they average about 6 inches. don't discount the fact this may not be the last storm. so far we've had a couple of inches downtown on the college campuses. we can see the skyline right now. it's kind of fuzzy. come up above a mile right now. of i-25, out on i-70, and up into northeast colorado, that's where we have the blizzard warnings up until later on tonight. and we also have blizzard warnings for parts of kansas, nebraska, and wyoming. so parts of four states, that's because out there more wide open space, more of a pressure gradient with the storm as it ramps up. and we are going to have winds gusting over there over 40 miles an hour thus the risk of lower visibilities. i-70 may be shut down at some point later on this evening later on tonight. that would not be out of the question.

. >> mike seidel in maryland this morning. thank you very much. >>> al roker is back from vacation today. quince sde coincidence? i think not. >> good morning, guys. we hope to have winter's last gasp. we have winter storm warning and winter weather advisories to talk about. let's go to the video and show you what we are talking about. not only do we have snow but severe weather, as well. this was the bay hill, arnold palmer invitational at bay hill and it cancelled play. unbelievable weather. lawn chairs thrown all over. the golf course underwater. they will have better weather today for the final round. this is at a lowe's in orlando. you had shoppers scrambling to get n. workers trying to close the door against torrential rain and damaging wind. a lot of hail and you can see all of the problems and then the snow side of this to talk about. st. louis picking up a record snowfall yesterday, over 12 inches of snow. indianapolis seeing a record, as well. here's the latest on the system. this is the latest radar bringing you the