robert speta joins us with details. >> we still have the snowstorm in place. japanese government has asked people to try to avoid travel, period, across central areas of the country especially in these mountainous regions where the snow is at its heaviest unless emergency purposes. their staff can reach a clients' home within 30 minutes. for their part, gas suppliers a fairly potent storm continuing to dominate japan. high pressure back towards the west. it's keeping things dry. sunny skies but chilly conditions. a high of three. shanghai getting up to 11 there for you. if we take a look here across europe, do i want to mention our series of storm systems there in scandanavian peninsula. that's pulling in the cool air behind it. i'm showing video we have coming out of scotland where the cold air and snow the causing travel concerns here. this is the highway turned into a parking lot there. it created all sorts of travel hazards. our low still traveling across the east. the temperatures are on the chilly side. warsaw of 2. vienna getting up to 4 on friday. here

robert speta joins us now. give us the latest. >> let's go ahead and talk about this where we have been seeing this heavy snow really dominating much of central and western japan. if you remember back over the course of the past several weeks, you've had this winter weather pattern really in place and definitely bringing all the snow. that's for starters but also the amount of snow we have seen come down in a short period of time. a meter and a third there came down in 72 hour period. that is why even though japan's road clearing services out here with the snowfall is pretty good. still having a hard time with some of these areas. that combined with the high winds. some of these areas out here upwards of 91 kilometers per hour. you have snow drifts on top of that with white out conditions. definitely a hard time clearing up the roads out toward the west. the same section of highway seeing the same amount of snow and 1,000 cars were stranded at that time. it took about two days to clear up the road. this will be

let's find out more from our meteorologist robert speta. he joins us with the details. >> this river of moisture has been bringing intense rain and snow here across parts of california through oregon and also into nevada and onto idaho and wyoming. you've been seeing all this precipitation. it's been lined up. some areas across the mountains of california off to a meter of snowfall. you have the snowfall amounts combining with the rain creating intense flooding. the storm brought about 100 kilometer winds down in numerous trees. some very large ones as well. up to 40 centimeters seen here into oregon. as i mentioned in the mountains of california, you've seen up to 100 centimeters in a few locations. you're expecting more on top of it. 40 additional centimeters. the big issue if you are a skier or snow boarder especially in the mountains, you might think this is great news. the problem is and we've been seeing this on a lot of hillsides is the threat of averanue -- it's causing travel problems as well. now, we look back tards the east acros

robert speta joins us now to look at the forecast. >> the good news is that if you do not like the coldeather, things are going to start to warm up as we go into the latter part of this week into the weekend. there are several factors for this. one of the main reasons is that we are starting to see the northwesterly winds. high pressure is coming in, but look here towards the west. there's t cloud cover making its way into the picture. that's another low. with that, we had strong southerly winds coming out of that. that's going to invekt our warm air in. unfortunately, that leads to the threat of river flooding, something we want to watch out for. but if we look at the four-day outlook, tokyo, about 15. even again on sunday. osaka, similar and if you want to go somewhere where it feels summer like, how about naha. up to about 25 to wrap up your weekend once this low pushes by. a look at the bigger picture, it's staying chilly back towards the west. seoul, a high of 4. well below the freezing point. same in beijing. the cold spot on the map with minus 15 and some snow there in your forec

robert speta explains in weather. >> winter definitely returned in force across central and northern japan. we have the cool northerly winds sweeping in out of here. that's continuing to bring snowfall across okkido. you'll see this pile up along with gusty winds. still expected as we head through the rest of your tuesday. things stay dry along the pacific seaboard. dry air advisories in place. if you're in tokyo don't expect any precipitation. it will stay sunny and much chill. how much of a temperature drop did we see? at the tokyo international airport on monday, 21 degrees was reported for the high. even towards seoul, minus 1. it continues to drop the temperatures. if we look at the three-day forecast, in tokyo about 11-degree drop from your high temperatures here for monday into tuesday. thursday expected to be about 9. osaka as well toward the north you're seeing a pretty significant difference as we go ahead through midweek. things are cooling off. did have a day where you could probably put away your winter jackets but a little bit back to reality now and match closer to wha

our meteorologist robert speta has more. >> the temperatures have really been dropping down but it's the persistent snowfall. we have been seeing out here just causing all sorts of problems across much of the hokkaido and also here in the central. this photo just showing you these road workers hard at work. one of my friends car there. there is not reserved to one specific location. you're definitely going to be running into that type of scenario. krou can s this is also running the risk of roof collapse in a few of these areas and people having to go out and shovel off the roof and two deaths were reported here on monday because people sliding off the roof while clearing them. still the threat in the mountains here. good news i mentioned earlier, there were four people missing heading into the country there. they've been rescued. we're getting clearing conditions, some more good news especially for the people who do not want anymore of this snowfall that's been persisting since last wednesday. we have high pressure moving over japan today. that's going to be keeping things on the cl

robert speta joins us with more. >> across central and northern japan we're still seeing the sea effect snow out there. there's a little bit of immovement in the forecast. you have the sea effect snow bands. watch how it gets smaller and smaller away from the russian coast. it's starting to taper off and weaken. over a meter of snow is on ground. so over 100 cars stranded out there. this is all time record snow depth. what we means is the locations never seen snow this deep sitting on the ground. plenty of it out there. it is going to start to melt off. that's some good news. as we look ahead, this pressure gradient that is still bringing some areas maybe an additional 20 to 30 centimeters will start to weaken. high pressure works in from the west. maybe some southerly winds and temperatures will start to rise. sapporo getting above the freezing part. niigata up to 11. if you're in those areas of western japan, the snow pack will start to mount. it does bring secondary problems including low lying river flooding. something we want to watch out for even though it's warming up. high press

. >>> now time for the world weather update with our meteorologist robert speta. people in tokyo were blessed with good weather. >> at least in tokyo it is going to be staying this way. we have these northwesterly winds coming in. it's actually exceptionally dry across much of the pacific coastline of japan. but as this pulls away we still have this high pressure dominating back toward the west so you're not getting any precipitation in parts of northeastern china. that is the form of the very dangerous and hazardous haze. we do have this orange and red alerts issued at this time. about 20 highways were closed or somewhat slowed down as visibility dropped to less than 15 meters out there. that's going to be a big concern over the next couple days. some of the airports still seeing some haze there. we might get some improvements in the forecast. but overall, it's high pressure is just going to sit in place at least into tuesday and wednesday. look at the forecast for beijing and harbin. especially cool. just keeping those particles in the air, very close to the gro

robert speta joins us with the latest. >> we have been seeing this plume of moisture come on kicki along with the heavy snow. i'll show you video from california in some of the mountain passes where the interstate was completely shutdown almost turning into a parking lot because of traffic accidents on the roadways there. due a lot of people not being used or ill prepared to drive in that winter weather. in denver a lot of homeless communities taking the brunt of this storm. volunteers provided with blankets and warm clothing to wear with the snowstorm continuing to hit the area and some pretty severe. still some very frigid temperatures as this drifts off towards the east. it will be moving into the deep south and extending over towards parts of louisiana, alabama and also into georgia. want to talk about that more later. already state of emergency has been issued in the areas. why is snow getting that far south. it's not just the moisture. it's these fridge ids temperatures. where this air mass is coming from areas of canada. diving down toward the south with the jet stream. winnipeg j

our meteorologist robert speta has the details in the world weather report. >> actually, low pressure is pushing overhead and it's bringing cloudy skies out across the tokyo area. we're seeing this move back towards the north and it's bringing snowfall in western areas of hokkaido and once the areas push by, they are going to kick off the cold surge out of siberia. absolutely frigid temperatures right now in northeastern china, far eastern russia. with that, we're going to have this low develop behind it. you get this combination here. cold air coming in from the north, low pressure coming in from the west that will add in moisture and that means widespread precipitation across japan. even rain down towards the south where you can see in the forecast snow in western hanchu and even tokyo as we head into friday afternoon and through the afternoon hours, expecting snow out there. it won't be too intense in the downtown tokyo area. we could see heavier towards the mountain looking at snow and gusty winds with this next system heading into the week. the temperatures will drop down on frid

robert speta has details for there and elsewhere in a world weather report. >> what we have been seeing over the course of the past week and into midweek is these heavy rainfalls out here. it is part of a tropical system somewhat. it was a low pressure area but also we had the northeast monsoon coming through. that really caused a lot of instability just that interaction and it's drifted south. now we saw flooding rains. now i'll show you some video from monday actually. where we have the rising waters. three deaths were seen out here. thousands of people were forced to evacuate. for good reason. you can see some of the cars floating away. still have clean up heading into wednesday. schools were closed on tuesday. there are still some closed on wednesday. pretty significant flooding. this area is rather prone to flooding. back in 2011, we had a tropical storm move through and caused over 1,000 deaths out there. the good news, at least, as we go ahead, next 24, 48 hours we still have improving conditions. there is going to be some light scattered rain showers but overall definitely a lot

robert speta has the forecast for here and elsewhere in the world weather report. >> start off here across japan. we're looking at this area of low pressure pushing overhead. it's not just the moisture. plenty of temperatures down around the freezing point into tokyo area and once you get that combination we're talking about the white stuff out here and already some areas around the region, that's a greater tokyo area. we have been seeing a few flakes come down. it's not heavy. more of a rain/snow mix but those are out there who want to see it. that's what we'll be looking at now. as we look into the afternoon, things should start to clear up a bit and maybe another chance of rain/snow mix as we go into the overnight hours. once this low pulls by, it's this one right here. it's a little more potent. it's going to bring in some fairly gust y winds with it across the mountains. you can be looking at some snowfall out there. winds combined with that could be able to tie 126 kilometers per hour. that's when we're talking about white out conditions. very dangerous wind chills and slick road con

robert speta joins us with the latest. >> temperatures plunging down here to parts of italy and greece as well. that's combined with several areas of low pressure. when you get this big dip, you get the lows wrapping up. you're talking about places that don't get much snow. this is in sicily where some of the towns there completely cut off because of the heavy snow. look at the cars right there. they're not going anywhere any time soon. road crews are out there trying to clear the narrow streets. definitely going to be taking time. across much of southern italy we have been seeing eight reports of casualties due to the cold weather mostly homeless residents out there. this is a very dangerous one. it's not just this one but even another one coming in behind it combined with the cold air. it will be bringing in another round of snowfall. this is bringing strong storms, even some thunder snow in parts of the scandanavian peninsula. definitely a lot of this will be having the white stuff mixed in as well. staying warm west of that jet stream. lisbon at 17 out there for those in portugal.

robert speta is joining us for more. >> there has been haze really reducing that air quality, especiallyround the beijing area. unhealthy to hazardous. aqi indices have been ranging in here. the high pressure makes for clear and sunny skies but sets up the atmosphere to not get much stirring in the air and we set up the inversion. so over the next several days even, we have red alerts being issued out there. whenever you get the areas in the red, typically schools are closed down and businesses are shut down and people are asked to stay indoors and visibility is reduced. this is going to be something we're watching over the next several days. you can see rain down here and there is a low pressure area developing and that's what we're talking about. we see the stirring of the atmosphere. down towards the south, we have rain on and off and it's going to improve the air quality. in beijing we have snowballs with that that will stir up the atmosphere. it's not as bad as beijing but there's still haze in the forecast. it's exceptionally cold, too. the cold air is not always bad. sometimes it

robert speta joins us. >> temperatures are on the rise across the pacific coastline of japan. warmer the temperatures are pushing up into the mid teens. the main reason for this we have the front coming in from the west. plenty of cloud cover. out front of cold fronts we typically, especially the stronger cold fronts have the strong southerly winds that move in and the warm air has opinion coming up out of tropics. temperatures heading through the next several days will be april like out here. very spring like. once the low does push by, it's bringing gusty winds and heavy snow in parts of back towards the west it will remain on the rain side. a lot of that will melt off. it brings the threat of avalanche and river flooding. take a look at your temperatures above average for much of japan over the next several days. 15 today in tokyo. it is going to cool down once the low pulls by. another low is coming in. that will warm things up again. even up to 16 by monday and back towards the west. some scattered showers to start off the next workweek. if we look back further towards th

robert speta has the latest. >> yes. we have been seeing sunny skies. it's not just for the big cities. around mt. fuji we had some clear conditions. this time of year sets for a beautiful event. what we call diamond fuji. it's called that because it looks like a die plonamond on ta ring there. it lasts for about two minutes. you can see it's beautiful image right there. really big opportunity for photographers to get out there too. you can see them all lined up trying to get that rather rare capture there. definitely the next several days could be a good day to get out there and still get that image just because of the dry conditions along the pacific coastline of japan. the sea of japan coastline not so much. in fact, we have the winter weather set up continuing to come through. see about 15, maybe 30 centimeters of snow heading into thursday morning. you'll be seeing snow here on wednesday, thursday and over towards friday. tokyo 14. dropping down to 9 with the northwesterly winds coming in. some snowfall by thursday. very similar to tokyo, along the