- Well, surprise, surprise,

you thought spring was coming didn't you?

Ha, ha, the jokes on all of us,

the latest winter stormis the biggest yet.

It's hitting 39 states, it'sbringing rain, snow and ice

from the Great Plains to the East Coast.

- Well, it's the latest eventin a week of turbulent weather

and it's brought snow to some places

where it's seldom been seen.

Charlene Aaron has more.

- The powerful storm is poised to strike

some 200 million people beginning today.

39 states including everystate east of the Mississippi

will be affected by the massive storm

over the next few days,with snow, sleet, ice, rain

and possibly flooding.

Up to six inches of snow or more

could fall in some areas ofthe Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

- So here it comes our burst of snow

arrives late Tuesday nightand into Wednesday morning

here across NorthernVirginia up towards Maryland

and Southern Pennsylvania.

Look at this, we are callingfor three to six perhaps,

greater than six inches ofsnow here in six to 12 area,

parts of Pennsylvania,Maryland and West Virginia.

So it's gonna be a quickburst of heavy snow.

And then that will change over to the ice

and that's going to be a big problem here.

- [Charlene] This weekof crazy weather started

with snow in SouthernCalifornia, just north

of Los Angeles closing downI-5 and stranding drivers.

- We were gonna get a hotelbut there's no more rooms.

- First time you guys saw snow?

- [Charlene] For these kids,the oldest of whom is 12,

it's the first time they've seen snow.

- So, as soon as we got off the exit,

we started sliding so we'rejust just stuck in the car.

- [Charlene] Snow also hit Las Vegas,

up to two inches, turning the strip

into a winter wonderland.

Icy and snow covered roads making

for hazardous driving conditions

in the Midwest and Northeast.

The second snow storm tohit Wisconsin in a week

also wreaking havoc on the roads.

And east of Kansas City.

- [Driver] There's nothing we can do man!

- White out conditions caused

this nearly 50 car pileup, killing one person.

The approaching storm will bringice and cause power outages

in some areas and cancellations of flights

out of major airports suchas D.C., New York and Boston.

Charlene Aaron, CBN News.

- Well, in a addition to all that snow,

researchers warn parts of California

could see a rare megastorm.

This event could dumprain on the area for weeks

and scientists say itcould cause three times

as much damage as a major earthquake.

Los Angeles is alreadyseeing warning signs.

Engineers say the Whittier Narrows Dam

may not be able to handle this much water.

If the dam fails, theflooding could threaten dozens

of towns and the livesof one million people

in Southern California.

Well, Joe Bastardi is the Chief Forecaster

for Weather Analytics and Joe,

it's always good to hear from you.

You seem to know what'shappening more than anybody else.

Hey it's snowing in SouthernCalifornia, what's going on?

- Yeah, it's opposite that song,

it never rains in Southern California,

remember that back in the 70's?

Well, it snows in Southern California

from time to time asfar as Las Vegas goes,

their heaviest snow storm wasJanuary 31, 1979, 18.8 inches.

So this is child's play on the strip

compared to what has happened before.

Of course back in that time in the 70's

we heard the ice age was coming.

In this particular case I hear people

blaming global warming forsnow in Las Vegas right now.

But look, this is partof a large scale pattern

that was on, what was it, 10 days ago

with that storm there andsay, hey this is gonna run

into mid-March, I don't seeany change in this overall idea

of storm and rumors of storms we call it.

And plenty of cold air, thecold air in the West right now

over the next week will bemoving eastward next week

and the week after so, March 1st

through probably about the15th gonna be very cold

in the eastern part of theUnited States relative to normal.

It's gonna be a pretty cold, stormy March

for much of the country

and though I do thinkthe second part March,

instead of waiting untilafter April last year,

we had to wait until late April,

I think the second part ofMarch is gonna snap in the East

right into spring,

maybe by before EasterI would say this year.

- Well, Joe, this storm that'scoming tonight and tomorrow

how bad is it gonna be?

- Well, it's wide spread,it's a very, very messy storm.

It's like for instance, if you live

in the northwest suburbsof D.C. all the way

to New York City back into Pennsylvania,

it's gonna be like shovelingcement when this is done

because it's gonna snow four to six inches

and sleet on that andthen freezing rain on that

and then finally when theall the participation is done

the temperature will get to 33, 34 degrees

but it's widespread, it'sback into the Midwest,

it's hitting a lot of peoplewith light to moderate amounts

of snow rather thanfocus on a 100 mile area.

So, it's very similar tothe storm we had about,

what was it seven to 10 years days ago,

they're all blending together to me.

Where that particularsystem dumped a lot of snow

but a lot of sleet and freezing rain also.

- By the way.- We're looking at some spots,

we're looking at some spots,we're looking at the El Nino,

La Nina, one of thosethings in the Pacific,

what's causing it?

- This is one of the, therewas an El Nino in '51, '52,

alright, where theSoutheastern U.S. stayed warm

and I never have been able

to track down the reason for that.

It's haunted me all mylife, I talked with my dad

he's a meteorologist, I saidwhy do you think this happened?

Looking at all the maps, Icouldn't really figure out why

and at that particular lack of knowledge

came back to haunt me this winter

because this winter withthe El Nino that's come on

has remained warm in the Southeast.

We get it off in a fast start in December

but it never came back again so it defied

that sort of El Ninomean where the southern

and eastern part of theUnited States get colder.

But that being said, wegotta go forward with this

and the El Nino push ifyou wanna call it that,

which tries to push colder air southeast

is gonna take over for thenext three to four weeks

so we'll get the cold inthe West to come southeast.

But the look, this is nature.

If you go back and look atmaps, it's like scripture.

If you go back and look at the Bible

and you find out alldifferent things in there.

Well, if you go back andlook at weather maps,

you'd see countless examples of things

that could give you hints to go forward.

The question is can you figure it out

and sometimes you canand sometimes you can't.

- Well, look and thedemocrats, they talking about

this Green New Deal, theythink they oughta do away

with the cows and you oughtado away with airplanes,

do away with fossil fuel,is this being caused

by so-called global warming.

Is mankind contributing to it?

- Well, my belief is that mankind,

you can't even estimate what mankind does

because it's so tiny, alright.

Again, it comes back to upbringing

and looking at the maps over the years

and understanding that next tothe creation, we are nothing.

However, if you believethat you're something

and you're something biggerand that you can control

these things you startgetting that kind of attitude.

Now, here is what I do knowthat if this indeed is man,

doing this, it will be the first time

in the recorded history of the planet

and I don't care if you thinkthe planet is 6,000 years old

or God's time, maybe 6,000years is 10 billion years,

who knows but it'll bethe first time that man

has ever done this.

So I can understand the appeal to people

who said ooh, I'm making this discovery

that's never happenedbefore but in the end,

usually what happened before,

telegraphs what's happening now

and is usually the right answerand that's what I believe.

I believe it's mostly nature.

- Joe, last thing, what's coming up,

anymore big storms coming?

- Yes, a lot of cold, alot of, I feel like Mr. T.

and Rocky, pain (laughs) buta lot of cold, nasty weather

into mid-March then itwill start retreating back

into the West again and I think by Easter,

the East is gonna be in good shape, okay.

So, I think mid-Marchon this is gonna break

but there's a lot of cold and storminess

that will be pushingeast especially next week

and the week after before itpulls back again into the West.

- Thanks for being with us,

Joe Bastardi, ladies- My pleasure.

and gentlemen, we love him,he's just great, alright.

- Yes, already in our areaI've seen trees blooming,

it's so crazy,- Yeah.

it's warm one day- And they're gonna be

and then warm the next.terribly disappointed

when this thing hits.- Yes, they are. (laughs)