charlotte's most experienced morning meteorologist, al conklin. >> al: after the showers and thunderstorms, clearing skies, they all moved out, rain you can see what is left of it now moving up through virginia and offshore of the carolina coast. quite a bit of lightning, in south carolina, and right along the border but that is all gone now, a little concerned about patches of fog. we have good visibility in charlotte, three miles lancaster, gastonia, zero visibility in wadesboro. no advisories but will monitor that situation through the morning hours, metro school camera, dry conditions, excellent situation in charlotte, no problems with fog or wet streets. 54 in the queen city, wadesboro, gastonia, warmer, 62 hickory, 60 more gapton,morgan done. morganton. the 80s won't last much longer, changes coming for the weekend. you're never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this

traffic. chris: al, thank you, rst alert traffic sponsored by toyota of north charlotte. we'll get you out the door with a live look i-77, west boulevard, no problems here. sides of the road are damp from last night's rain. drive times coming up from rock hill, 21 minutes, 64-miles-per-hour. concord to center city, running 19 minutes and lake norman southbound 77, 15 minutes, 65-miles-per-hour there. looking at our charlotte area commute, 485, 77, 85 all running in the green this morning, no significant delays early on. john belk over to the brookshire looks good and 77 past center city also running in the green. that is a check of the morning traffic, john, back over to you. >> john: north carolina is in the national spotlight as voting begins this morning in the state's primaries. several races are on the ballot, including the presidential race for the democrats and republicans. wbtv's mark davenport is live at one of the polling places, covenant presbyterian church in charlotte.

before they head out to the polls today? >> reporter: john, first things first, when the polls open and when they close, for all those early birds this morning, listen up, the polls open at 6:30 this morning if you're trying to get out of the house early get to the polls early, cast your vote you don't have to deal with it after you get out of work. for the people that wait until the last second like me, they are open until 7:30 tonight, 6:30 in the morning until 7:30 at night. that is the first thing you need to know. the second thing, we've been talking about it the past couple needs is your i.d. when you leave the house, bring your driver's license with you, if you don't have a driver's license, we have a list of other options. you can bring your i.d. issued by the dmv, u.s. passport, a military i.d. if you have one, that will pass for you, and also out of state driver's license as long as the voter registered within the state within the last 90 days. all of that will work to get

if you're planning to come after work and get the late start on things, you may hit lines but also go to the board of elections website and find a sample ballot, then get an idea who you want to vote firefighter before you get here to get in and get out quickly, have your presidential preference, u.s. senate, a lot of big races will be decided. on our website, later on today you can check it out, find your polling place on our website, wbtv.com. you can get over there, click on the link and find out where you need to vote if you forget that later this afternoon. all that stuff for you and more, all the coverage on a big voting day in north carolina. reporting live, mark davenport, wbtv on your side. >> christine: mark, thank you, good reminders there. three presidential candidates making stops in our area ahead of today's voting. a busy monday. hillary clinton spoke for 30 minutes at the grady cole center in uptown. former secretary of state and

for more cooperation in politics. >> i pledge to you i will work as hard as i can to find common ground. i will meet with anyone to find common ground, to try to move us forward and together. >> public policy polling has clinton leading bernie sanders 57% to 37%. speaking of bernie sanders, 6,000 people came out to see the senator at pnc music pavilion. talked about how he would improve people's quality of life. >> when i talk about family value, i talk about ending the international embarrassment of the united states being the only major country on earth that does not guarantee paid family and medical leave. >> north carolina is not a winner take all state.

up some delegates. >> john: lines for donald trump went on for blocks. he was two hours late due to fog delaying his plane. protesters interrupted his speech while he talked about mexico paying for a wall to control the border. >> we cannot allow the people in our country where we don't know who they are, where they come from. they have no paperwork, no nothing. >> six protesters received written citations for charges such as disorderly conduct and obstruction. in a decision to north carolina, primaries are taking place in illinois, missouri, ohio and florida. a caucus for republicans is being held in the northern mariana islands. we have continuing coverage of campaign 2016 on air and online at wbtv.com. you can get live primary results once the polls close at 7:30. 5:06, right now police are investigating a shooting in

happened just before midnight on bennett near north tryon. the victim was walking along the street when two men pulled up in a vehicle and tried to rob him. the man was shot in the leg and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. no arrests made and police have not released any information about the shooters or the car involved. >> christine: also breaking we know the name of a man shot and killed in concord. authorities say shots were fired around 8:00 last night on griffin circle, then a large crowd took off running. 21 columbus simmons was killed, two others hurt. taken to the hospital, with non-life threatening injuries. identified. police do not have anyone in custody right now. we are working to learn the names of the two people whose bodies were found in this home in catawba county. the bodies were discovered at 7:00 last night a rest home road north of the claremont. the bodies found by a relative. it appears there was forced

no word on how the two died. we are just getting started this morning here at 5:00 a.m. the debate continues over whether shoal charlotte-mecklenburg schools has grown in too large of a district. one town's vote to break away and how lawmaker cost get involved. >> john: kristen miranda is in the alert center. >> kristen: getting details on officers shot in chicago, i'll have their conditions coming up. >> john: here is a quick check of the first alert temperatures, we've got 54 degrees in charlotte, look at this, 52 in boone. 60 in morganton, that is the high temperature right now. 57 rock hill, 52 shelby and here's a live look at i-77 you can see things are moving smoothly along the interstate we'll keep you posted throughout the morning because you're never more than seven minutes away

it is eight minutes after 5:00.closed captioning on wbtvnews is sponsored by subarusouth boulevard and subaruconcord. >> john: 12 after 5:00, welcome back to wbtv news this morning. go over to kristen miranda with new details on a deadly shooting involving police in chicago. she is live in the alert center. >> kristen: i want to show you the scene in chicago, after these three officers were shot. here is what happened. late last night, police in chicago say they are are now

that shoot-out between several officers who were investigating drug activity and a suspect that they were pursuing. the suspect was killed, the three police officers again were wounded. they are expected to be okay. one officer was shot in the back, the other shot in the foot and a third officer was hit in his bulletproof vest. injuries nonwill be life threatening, they should be okay. i listened to an interview with police captain in chicago. he said the officers were watching a man and woman go through a courtyard, they had been watching the man and woman so they stopped to talk to the people as part of what they are calling a field interview. the officers announce they had were police and at that point, the man produced his hand gun and started firing at the officers. a tense scene in chicago with the three officers injured. i'll keep an eye on their conditions and this questioning

place and see if charges are filed. >> christine: officials in matthews demanding charlotte-mecklenburg schools keep kids in neighborhood schools or face consequences of a split. ashton pellom is live on this story right now, so what is the reasoning officials are giving for the vote, ashton? >> reporter: hey, good morning, christine. we spoke with the mayor of matthews, he tells us he believes the school district is getting too large and also parents have their concerns over that student assignment plan. town officials signed that resolution last night, and it is demanding the board of education guarantee every child will attend a school close to home, parents job or parents choice of magnet school. it also says the town will work with legislators to split up cms or have matthews break away and form a local district. town leaders hope the school board will recognize the importance of neighborhood schools. >> i'm absolutely in favor of a separation from charlotte-mecklenburg schools if

parents and family members and community leaders have said. >> reporter: cms leaders say busing has not been discussed as an option. the mayor of matthews need to weigh the cost and consequences if they were to break away and form their own school district. reporting live, ashton pellom, wbtv on your side. >> john: 14 minute, check that now, 15 minutes after 5:00, you're never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. here is al conklin. >> al: a 12 hour loop of the rain that moved through yesterday, in south carolina it was more robust in terms of thunderstorms than in north carolina. several warnings down here, one or two in the mountains, the rest of us not much. charlotte had less than a tenth of an inch of rain. it wasn't very much. as far as futurecast goes, cloud cover and wind this morning, that is going to give way, everybody will enjoy sunshine going through the afternoon hours and clear skies this evening should be very comfortable. clear at least on the roads

this is king street in boone from resortcams.com, little bit of dampness after last night's rain, you have excellent visibility, something you didn't have yesterday. little bit of a breeze for the first half of the day, that should knock off this afternoon. 68 degrees, not bad at all. here in charlotte, we'll wind up being a dozen degrees warmer than that, 57 this morning, 75 at lunch time, 81 this afternoon under sunny skies. now, allergy situation didn't improve, we had rain yesterday and on sunday, it knocked back the pollen a little bit, forecast to come in with a vengeance wednesday into thursday, extremely high, so keep the kleenex close by. march madness, our veer shown in theversion inthe weather center. here is chris. >> chris: traffic sponsored by toyota of north charlotte. if you're getting ready to hit

matthews, 74, 13 minutes. providence from the arboretum, 16 minutes, concord to center city, 19 minutes, 66-miles-per-hour. most of our majors continuing to run in the green so if you're inbound on 74, 85, 77, no problems early on this morning. and there is the live look at independence expressway, from around briar creek, before that running smoothly as you head up the hill toward center city. that is a check of the morning travels. john and christine, over to you. >> john: thanks, chris. next at 5:00, another major company can join mastercard by letting you use selfies to pay. the company that could let you

it is 17 after 5:00.

with wbtv news this morning. >> christine: it is 20 minutes after 5:00. >> john: get over to kristen miranda with details on russia's military movement in the middle east, she is live in the alert center with the latest. >> kristen: important international developments i'm getting details on, john and christine. wanted to show you images coming from russian television this morning. russia's defense ministry says the first group of war means has left the russian air base in syria. russia pulling out of syria, you can see the personnel loading equipment on some of the heavy lift transport aircraft. the departure follows vladimir putin's announcement that russia would be withdrawing most of the forces from syria including some of the aircraft, so this development, these images happening this morning that you're seeing here from syria as russia decides to get much of its equipment and military out of that country. we'll follow any details that

bring them to you right away. >> christine: a big story that will be talked about today. in consumer headlines make sure you look good when you're doing shopping online. amazon may let you pay with a selfie. amazon filing a patent for a camera that could identify a user and verify the person is real by asking them to perform an action like blinking. the company believes facial recognition could prevent hack and i.d. theft. >> john: phillips will roll out light bulbs it claims will help you sleep better. it can shift through shades of white throughout the day. they can remove blue light which causes strain on your sighs and reduce levels of melatonin, that helps you sleep. a light helps you sleep. that is interesting, isn't it. >> christine: even though we go

>> al: sounds counter-intuitive. >> john: it does. >> al: rate last night some of you intense thunderstorms, but a lot of us kind of missed out on the heavy downpours. kristen and christine were saying it was quite a light show in south carolina. here in our part of north carolina, couple showers moved through, you had heavier downpours in the mountains but that was it, charlotte, very very dry here of late. we had just about .2 of an inch of rain in the last 48 hours which isn't that much. the entire month of march in charlotte, a quarter inch of rain. the month is almost half over. running deficits, 1.77, 1.72 respectively, month and year, we can make it up quickly but probably not over the next couple days, frankly. good visibility for most of us, watching salisbury, a mile, wadesboro a mile, two miles gastonia, may be fog in a few neighborhoods. boone, you have excellent visibility, king street in boone, thick fog up there yesterday morning, that is all gone.

right now, excellent visibility, 54 degrees, little moisture out there, 97% humidity is coming down through the day today. 54 in concord, over toward lincolnton, 60 morganton, very mild in hickory, 51 albermarle, 55 wadesboro and 55 in monroe. for today, start off in the 50s up across the mountains but wind up in the upper 60s near 70 under mostly sunny skies. heading toward the foothills, 80 degrees, 79 taylorville, plenty of sunshine, sunshine in charlotte, 79 hickory, 81 lincolnton, charlotte, 80 albermarle, 82 rockingham, hamlet, wadesboro and low 80s across rock hill, lancaster and pageland, sunny skies. high pressure commanding the weather, this is this afternoon, good deal of sunshine, turn our attention to the west. weak system moves in, will brings clouds to the mountains tomorrow morning at 8:00, maybe a shower, notice as the front

moisture, so i'm not forecasting any rain outside of the mountains the next couple days, high pressure will build until for thursday and friday, notice, this is going to be a big trough of low pressure, it will cool us off, you will see the temperatures come down appreciably, but rain chances the weekend. very very small chance that we get rain late in the weekend but notice the temperatures, below average going in saturday, sunday and monday and notice next week the night time lows get down in the 30s. that is something we have to monitor. no worry about frost. 81 degrees, 82 wednesday, 70s, 60s, cloud cover on saturday, low pressure now looks like it will stay out to sea, that is good news, i don't see a lot of rain, maybe a small chance saturday night into sunday. you're never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. here is chris. >> chris: first alert traffic sponsored by toyota of north charlotte. getting you out the door for your tuesday morning commute

just above 485, heading out of concord or kannapolis or up to, the drive times coming inbound from lake norman, running 16 minutes, average speed is 64-miles-per-hour. still primarily in the green from davidson, cornelius, huntersville, charlotte commute looking just fine this morning, most of our majors running in the green. coming northbound out of rock hill current drive time is 22 minutes with an average speed of 63-miles-per-hour. that's a check of the morning commute, john and christine, back to you. >> john: thanks, chris. we saw the brackets for the men, now the ladies turn. >> christine: the teams from the carolinas who will be competing

championship. >> christine: charlotte city council members put off a decision on what should happen to the former eastland mall site, why a vote won't happen for at least another month now. >> john: good morning, thanks for watching wbtv news this morning, now 5:30 i'm john carter. >> christine: i'm christine sperow, hope you're having a great tuesday morning. get you caught up on the forecast, active night of weather, depending where you live. meteorologist al conklin has more details on that right now. >> al: things are quieting down the storms last evening have moved away and now we're looking at drier conditions, a nice day, lots of sunshine, we managed to be the upper 70s, near 80, last week or so, well above the average in the low 60s, back in the same neighborhood today. clear skies out there right now, may be a little bit of fog in a few neighborhoods, mostly just in good shape this morning. roads have dried, 51 in albermarle, 54 charlotte, 55 wadesboro, lancaster, chester and monroe, 54 in shelby, 52 in boone.

will rebound very quickly and nicely, 78 in hickory, 81 charlotte, gastonia, salisbury, enochville, 80. we do have a cool-down in the forecast going forward. i'll talk about that plus rain chances that come up in the weekend. seven day planner around the corner. chris has first alert traffic right now. >> chris: al, thank you. first alert traffic sponsored by toyota of north charlotte. we're looking live at i-77 out toward the rest area, south carolina state line, no problems here this morning, everything run along smoothly as is the case with most of our majors, 485, 85, 77, no problems. now, as we come in closer to center city, on providence road, this is providence at dartmouth, a new accident scene, not seeing significant delays on providence road as you make your way to 277 and beyond in center city looks good. that is a check of the morning