national zoo and its panda program. it's freezing cold throughout the region, 31 degrees. light south/southeasterly

breeze. we're in the 20s through the region. away from the waters, it's right down into the upper 20s. montgomery, arlington, fairfax, prince george's counties just in the low 20s to mid-20s. and the view from space showing just a few clouds drifting up from northern virginia, drifting towards the metro area. just a few clouds coming through, no precipitation from that. sunrise at 7:22. we should have quite a bit of sun after sunrise. by noontime, a few high clouds drifting back in, mid-40s. ought to be near 50 by early to midafternoon with increasing clouds from the west. a look at those big changes on the way for this evening. we'll take a look at the evening planner. that will be in ten minutes. danella has a look at our traffic. good morning. >> good morning. if you're traveling on i-270, you're starting to slow down and hit the brakes as you make your way southbound coming out of urbanna and heading towards clarksburg. i'll give you a travel speed right here at 109. if this is your route, you're at

47 miles per hour as you head south towards the spur. a live look at shady grove. volume is increasing. no issues there. on the rails, a minor delay, brunswick east train number 870 on the mark, your delay is five minutes. no delays on metro or vre. now back to you all. this morning the world is reacting to the death of longtime north korean leader kim jong-il. north korean television says the 69-year-old leader died of heart failure while on a train on saturday. kim's funeral is set for a week from wednesday on december 28th. north korea will hold a national mourning period from now until december 29th. nbc's bruce hall takes a look back at his life. >> reporter: even in death, many of the details of kim jong-il's life are elusive, cloaked in secrecy that surrounded much of his rule in north korea. in 1964 kim graduated from kim

il song university and was groomed to take over the country. it was not until 1991 when he achieved real power when, despite his lack of military experience, kim jong-il took control of the armed forces. with his father's death in '94, kim took over the leadership. north korea fell deeper into poverty, struggling to feed and provide for his own people. in the wake of the september 11th terrorist attacks, kim jong-il and north korea were thrust into the forefront. president bush labeled north korea one of the world's most dangerous regimes. >> states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. >> reporter: kim jong-il played a cat and mouse game with its nuclear program. kim called off talks with

neighboring nations. some called him vain with a delusional persona, but others said kim jong-il was a clever manipulator, willing to take risks to preserve his family's regime. bruce hall, nbc news. >> there's not a lot of information out there about kim yong i will's thijong-il's thir. kim jong eun was made a four-star general. he may have gone to switzerland and is capable of speaking english, german, and french. at one point his eldest son was considered the top candidate to succeed his father. he was reportedly dismissed after he got cut trying to sneak into tokyo's disneyland using a fake passport. the obama administration is

keeping a close eye on north korea trying to keep signs of instability, lee myung-bak agreed to closely monitor events in the north. meanti meantime, the united states is concerned about any changes kim's death might spark in the military postures of north and south korea. >> the news of kim jong-il's death sent asian stocks down today. right now european stocks are up and u.s. futures are up as well. we'll take a live look at capitol hill where a vote is expected to take place later on tonight. gop leaders are already hinting the bill will not pass. the senate proposal passed on saturday extends the tax holiday and long-term unemployment insurance for two months while delays a decision on the keystone oil pipeline. house republicans say it's only a short term fix, and they're

dend maingd demanding a longer term solution. if a deal is not struck, payroll taxes could go up the 1st of january. today a hearing is scheduled for the army private accused of spilling secrets to wikileaks. today defense attorneys of bradley manning say his supervisors should have seen enough red flags to revoke his security clearance. he flew into violent fits of rage and suffered from gender identity crisis. manning could face life in prison if convicted at a court mart martial. also today, the man accused of trying to assassinate president barack obama will be back in federal court for a detention hearing. on friday a judge ruled oscar ortega hernandez is competent to stand trial without any more mental health evaluations. prosecutors asked for more extensive tests, but a judge denied that request. a preliminary psychiatric screening already found ortega hernandez competent. he is accused of firing an

assault rifle at the white house last month. president obama was out of town at the time. speaking of time, it's only six minutes after the start of the 6:00 hour and a very cold 34 degrees outside. coming

her ink?b:or.ú" good morning. i'm meteorologist tom kierein in stormcenter 4. it's a live view from the city camera under a mostly clear sky. it is a cold but calm morning on this monday morning, this 19th day of december. temperatures are generally below freezing most of the region. right now at reagan national it's down to 31. it's low to mid-20s for arlington, prince george's, and montgomery counties. right now at the chesapeake bay,

it's in the low 30s. in much of the region away from the waters, it's down in the mid and upper 20s along the bay and the tidal potomac. out in the mountains, down in the low to mid to upper 20s in a few locations. in parts of northern virginia, manassas, culpeper, down to 26 degrees. frederick, maryland, 23. we'll have this mostly clear sky for the morning rush hour. we'll have a few high clouds drifting over from the south and west. sunrise at 7:22. here's your day planner. should be above freezing all around the region by 9:00. by noontime, mid-40s with quite a bit of sunshine. clouds on the increase during the afternoon. temperatures climbing into the low 50s by midafternoon. sunset at 4:49. cloudy through the evening. low 40s by midnight. big changes through the rest of the week. changes uming up in just a couple of minutes at 6:21. danella, how's traffic? right now traveling southbound at cherry hill road. your southbound lanes are blocked by the accident that's

here. police are on the scene right now. chopper 4 is flying over the scene. we'll keep watching this for you. you can see the police at the intersection of cherry hill roadblocking traffic from continuing southbound. if you're traveling in virginia on i-95, the accident there blocks the right side of the roadway at route 123. this is a multi-vehicle crash in this area. police are also on the scene of this accident, and you are seeing some congestion as you make your way across. i'm back in ten minutes with another look at traffic. back to you both. back to you both. >> thanks, il, any luck finding?

not yet. i want to buy used but how do you know what you're really getting. check out carmax. all their used cars are guaranteed. that's where henderson found the one for him. way to go, henderson. finding the perfect car is easy at carmax because each car is carefully selected, inspected, thoroughly reconditioned and backed with a five-day money back guarantee so come find the one for you today, at carmax. way to go, neil.

just now start a man accused of burning a

woman to death in a new york elevator was angry because she owed him money. jerome isaac dialed 70-year-old dolores gillespie in a gasoline and set her on fire. police say isaac did it because she was his former boss and owed him $2,000. they say he still smelled like gasoline when he turned himself in. you expect to get hit on a football field but not by a runaway cart. that's exactly what happened at cowboys stadium this weekend. take a look at this. you can see that electric cart just going without a driver motoring down the field after a high school football game. it plowed into a midfield line. seven people were hurt, including a winning coach. it's still unclear what caused the cart to malfunction. today more troops are returning home from iraq as the war is officially over right now. the final convoy left the early

on sunday morning crossing the border into kuwait. for some their journey is not quite over yet. some will have to wait as long as five days in kuwait while they're being processed out. for soldiers coming home a short five-day wait is nothing. >> it's great. i can't wait to come home. >> can't wait to get back, spend some time with the family. >> look forward to getting home, six months, a year from now. everybody is going to look back and think, wow, we were the last people there. >> about 4,000 troops will remain in kuwait for several months to help finalize the move out of iraq. not everyone is coming back to the united states. around $200 billion of equipment has been transferred to the iraqi government. today the coast guard will resume its search for a missing boat oer on the chesapeake bay. he was last seen when the boat capsized from sandy point state park.

a 40-year-old man was taken to the hospital. he died a short time later. a 25-year-old woman is being treated for hypothermia. she is expected to survive. the redskins are starting to play some decent football. the offense and defense both did their part in a win over the giants yesterday. redskins intercepted eli manning three times including an amazing one handed grab by deangelo hall. pretty picture there. quarterback rex grossman overcame three interceptions to throw for 185 yards and a touchdown. the skins are in control all game long shutting down the giants 23-10. >> i think everybody really concentrate on their job. i thought collectively to play the way we did, you have to have everybody do their job and really being focused. we had nice interceptions and good pressure. big time third down play by our entire team. i was really pleased with how we kept fighting back and was able to get it done.

>> the win puts washington at 5-9. next week they're back home again against the minnesota vikings. quite a different story, though, for the ravens against the san diego chargers. the game was close in the second half. san diego pulled away early in the fourth quarter scoring to put the chargers up by 17. ravens quarterback joe flacco did not play well. he did throw for 226 yards. he did, however, have two interceptions. chargers put up 34 on the usually tough baltimore defense. the ravens fall to 10-4 on the season. they play at home against cleveland next week. now here's the story. people are going to be talking about this all morning. >> this 13-year-old girl called 911 as they were inside her house breaking in. >> i'm in my room upstairs i saw someone looking through my drawers downstairs. >> sounds awful. chloe simington stayed on the

phone with a 911 operator. she stayed under her bed in her suburban detroit home. she stayed under the covers even when the robbers pulled into her bedroom. >> pushed myself off like the wall under my bed. i was under there for at least ten minutes while they were walking around. >> with her help police were able to arrest two 19-year-old men as they were leaving the home. they face criminal charges including home invasion and larceny. chloe simington will be on the "today" show this morning. you can watch that right here on nbc 4 beginning at 7:00 this morning. >> those ten minutes probably felt like hours. >> she didn't know she could hold her breath that long. >> interested in seeing her story. >> she stayed cool. >> another big story. just how cold it is this morning. we wake up to another frigid morning. tom kierein standing by with the forecast. hey, tom. >> layer up this morning as you head off to work and school. thankfully, you don't have a lot of wind, but it is cool. it is cold down in the low and mid-20s throughout the region

and the beaches. right along the bay and the waters right near freezing. away from the waters, only in the 20s. montgomery, prince george's, arlington, and fairfax counties low to mid-20s. reagan national at 31. just a few high clouds drifting off to the north and east. sunrise at 7:22. we ought to be above freezing by 9:00. by noontime mid-40s. during the afternoon reaching upper 40s and maybe even briefly low 50s for a brief time. by late afternoon we cloud back up again and a cloudy evening. afternoon highs upper 40s. small chance of a sprinkle on tuesday, and then on wednesday a likelihood of rain from the morning into the evening off and on. temperatures in the upper 50s. 50s again on thursday and partly sunny. late thursday night into early friday morning, possibility of a shower and sun back. highs mid-50s. for christmas eve, on saturday does look like it's going to be wet with rain. highs reaching mid-40s.

that ought to end late christmas eve and predawn on sunday for christmas day. some sun should get back in on the day on sunday. afternoon highs mid-40s. danella, how's traffic? if you're traveling southbound calverton, this is at cherry hill road. this is at calverton boulevard southbound cherry hill road, police have it blocked off because of a two-vehicle crash in that area. this is right near the target shopping center. look here, you can see the police are there, and this is the two vehicle. we're going to watch this for you and let you know when the southbound lanes of calverton boulevard are open again. still seeing the multi-vehicle crash this time in the right shoulder lane. you are seeing some congestion on i-95 as you make your way towards the beltway. not seeing any accidents in the roadway for you. watch out for that one in the shoulder lane. you are starting to see crowding outer loop of the beltway at colesville road. you're slow

the early christmas present for the national zoo and its panda program. good morning. welcome back. surveillance video could help police catch two thieves on log logan's circle. police grabbed two items and ran out without paying anything.

it happened yesterday afternoon at the universal gear store at 14th street in northwest washington. about $1,500 worth of merchandise was taken. prince harry is gaining praise for helping report and catch a mugger. according to the daily mail, the prince was on the phone with his friend when a robber took his friend's blackberry. prince harry immediately drove to the scene with his security detail but could not find his friend. that's when he drove to the police station. the prince found his friend there and gave a statement of what he heard over the phone. the robber was caught a short time later, and the phone was returned. >> on the video, i thought you were going to say they called in the helicopters. they called in the british navy. >> he probably has the capability to do that. [ female announcer ] more people are using wireless devices...

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for everyone.

be coming for cabs in the w#"ri9 the death of a dictator. north korean dictator kim jong-il. good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. welcome back to "news 4 today." >> i'm angie goff in for eun today. taking a look outside, a

beautiful skyline. don't be deceived. it is bitter cold to start off the work week. tom kierein is here to say there might be a tiny tbit of a warm-up. coming in midweek, it's going to feel almost balmy like it did last week. then cold over the weekend. right now it's a cold morning. just 31 at reagan national under a clear sky. it's very dry. keep the skin lotion handy. i've got a huge bottle of skin lotion in my back pocket right now, and i'm willing to share. we do have a light wind. quite a bit of sunshine this morning. just a few high clouds drifting in from the west/southwest drifting over west virginia now. quite a bit of sun this morning, 7:22. then later we'll have that

increasing cloud cover during the afternoon. by then we ought to be in the upper 40s to around 50 degrees by midafternoon. by 9:00, we should be above freezing. when it does, it should stay above freezing for much of the rest of the week. i don't think we're going to have subfreezing temperatures until we get into toward the weekend. we'll look at that, your evening planner, coming up at 6:41. danella has a look at our monday commute. good morning, danella. >> good morning. if you're traveling calverton boulevard southbound at cherry hill road, right now you're not able to proceed southbound. further up, we have an accident. looks like two vehicles are involved, and i'm also told that a pedestrian is involved in the accident up here. you can see more police are on the scene. we'll let you know when you will get your southbound lanes back. again, you cannot continue southbound calverton road at cherry hill, that's where your closure is. traveling i-95 northbound multivehicle crash still on the

right shoulder lane at route 123. if you're traveling i-95 heading northbound, we're seeing delays. i'll give you a travel speed at 39 miles per hour as you make your way from the prince william parkway to the beltway. joe, that takes 20 minutes. >> thanks very much, danella. this morning the world is reacting to the death of leader kim jong-il. as you can see on this video, the announcer was crying as she reported that kim jong-il died. >> reportedly, this is the last video taken of kim jong-il. it shows him visiting factories, a mine, and a fertilizer plant. the 69-year-old leader reportedly died of heart failure while on a train on saturday. kim's funeral is set for a week from wednesday, december 28th. north korea will hold a national mourning period from now until december 29th. >> even in death, many of the

details of kim jong-il's life are cloaked in secrecy. back in 1964, kim graduated from kim il song university and was groomed to take over the country. he was officially designated successor in 1980. it wasn't until after his father died in 1994 that he took over leadership and control of the armed forces. information under the communist dictator was very scarce, only massive rallies of support for the state were shown to the world. his longtime support of nuclear weapons and his military's repeated threats to the south and the united states sparked worries that fighting might break out on the korean peninsula or that north korea might provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorist movements. kim reportedly had a taste for cigars, cognac, and gourmet cuisine. he's believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008. north korean tv is referring to kim's son, kim ojong eun as the

great successor. he's believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s. in december of 2010 he was made a four-star general. he may have gone to school in switzerland and is thought to be capable of speaking english, german, and french. at one point kim jong-il's eldest son, kim jong nam was reported to be the candidate to succeed his father, but he was dismissed after getting caught trying to sneak a trip to tokyo disneyland using a fake passport. north korea test fired a short range missile this morning. there's no word if anyone was hurt. this comes after south korean president lee myung-bak spoke with president obama shortly after midnight. both agreed to closely monitor the events. they are committed to, quote,

stability on the korean peninsula. and we'll continue to follow it throughout the day on our website nbcwashington.com. several republican presidential candidates are doubling their efforts between christmas and new year's. other presidential candidates, including rick perry and michele bachmann are entering the homestretch in iowa with bus tours. bachmann is on a ten-day bus tour through iowa's 99 counties. she took time off the campaign trail to talk to david gregory about the nation's debt on "meet the press." >> we're acting like greece and italy. that's what people are frustrated with. they want us to act like a first world nation, not like what president barack obama is doing. he's acting like we're a banana republic. we've got to get our act together and stop spending money that we don't have. >> the iowa caucuses are january the 3rd. the two major changes

drivers are going to see on the

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its hi, we're the zacherys from kak ma pa takoma park, maryland. >> we'd like to say hi to our family. we miss you and we love you. the "today" show is coming up next at 7:00. let's now check in with ann curry to see what they are working on this morning. hi, ann. >> hi, angie. good morning to you. coming up on a monday morning on "today," we're

following the breaking news out of north korea, the death of kim jong-il, the country's supreme leader. who is now in charge, and what does it mean for the snuts weun states? we'll have complete coverage. and a winter storm pounding new mexico, set to make travel a nightmare in parts of the south. up to a foot and a half of snow expected in some areas. al will have the latest on that forecast. also, a runaway cart barrels down the field after a high school football game in dallas. we'll have details on what will happen there. also, a last-minute gift idea for $20 or less for everyone on your holiday list. those stories and the girl with the dragon tattoo rooney mara stops by on a monday morning here on "today." now back to you. >> ann, we'll be watching. thank you. >> thank you. sounds good. our time is now 6:41. taking a lovely look outside as

we see dawn in the nation's capital. 34 degrees. it is cold. here's tom. and some welcome sunshine. that will lift our moods. good morning. weather and traffic on the ones right now at 6:41 on this monday morning. it is cold under that clear sky down into the low and mid-20s across much of west virginia, virginia, maryland, eastern shore. right near the bay, it's near 30 degrees. near 30 in washington. montgomery, arlington, fairfax, prince george's counties, low to mid-20s. we have just a very light wind this morning. just a few high clouds drifting across eastern west virginia. northern virginia moving over the metro area another couple of hours. ought to give us a delightful sunrise by 7:22. above freezing by 9:00. by noontime mid-40s. ought to make it low 50s by early afternoon. by late afternoon down into the 40s and clouding up. a cloudy night tonight. here's your evening planner. sunset 4:49. down into the low 40s by midnight. we'll be warming up. maybe some rain as we get into the middle of the week. we'll look at that and the

holiday weekend coming up in a couple of minutes. danella, how's traffic? traveling the outer loop in virginia, have a crash. this time as you approach the dulles toll road, and you're slow as you make your way towards the accident here. taking the outer loop of the beltway, you're hitting the brakes at new hampshire avenue. here's a live look. your delays continue as you head towards georgia avenue. travel speeds in that area, you're at 36 miles per hour. on the metro, trains are single tracking right here at braddock road causing delays on the yellow and the blue line and single tracking between braddock road and van dorn street. just be aware of that as you're making your commute this morning. i'm back in ten with another look at your traffic. now back to you both. >> thank you, danella. drivers in northern virginia are getting much needed relief this morning. a new fly-over ramp will take drivers from 66 eastbound onto the inner loop of the beltway. drivers can merge from the right lanes instead of coming from the left. this new ramp is part of the hot lanes project, which is expected to be finished next fall.

those driving into d.c. can now cross a new bridge. the first span of the new 11th street bridge is now open to traffic. drivers from interstate 295 can now use the new span to get into the downtown area. this week a second new span will open for outbound drivers. when that happens, drivers will no longer be able to use martin luther king avenue or good hope road from 295 for a few months. a third span will open by this time next year. when the bridge project is complete, drivers on the southeast/southwest freeway will be able to get on the northbound lanes of i-295 without having to get off onto pennsylvania avenue. today d.c. mayor vincent gray and d.c. council member marry chay will unveil a bill that will provide sweeping changes to the taxi district. the bill would include mandatory payment options like credit card readers and pay by phone. they would also have panic buttons for drivers and passengers to use during emergencies.

all cabs also would be a single color. the proposal comes after the d.c. taxicab commission passed a fare hike without much service improvements. before the hike goes into effect, there must be another public hearing before commissioners take their final vote. a prince george's county family says it has questions after a police officer shot and killed one of their relatives. it happened late saturday night in the 7500 block of greenleaf road. police say an officer was on duty in an unmarked car when he saw a man, 35-year-old rodney edwards, lying on the ground. police say that's when the officer approached him. edwards pointed a gun at the officer. the officer then shot edwards, killing him. edwards' family says they can't believe he would point a gun at a police officer. >> he didn't know why he was shot, what he was doing, and even though why would you shoot somebody so small five times. you know what i'm saying? five times. and then we still can't get an

answer to what's going on. >> police tell news 4 they did recover a gun from the scene. this is the 15th shooting involving police in prince george's county this year. a new record for the county. today the military hearing will resume for the army private accused of spilling secrets to wikileaks. yesterday attorneys for bradley manning argued his supervisors should have seen enough red flags to revoke his access to secret information. they cited at least two instances in which manning flew into violent fits of rage and said he suffered from a gender identity crisis. manning could face life in prison if convicted at a court martial. alsoed tod etoday, the man of trying to assassinate president barack obama will be back in court on a detention hearing. on friday the judge ruled that oscar ortega hernandez is competent to stand trial without any more mental health evaluations. prosecutors asked for extensive tests, but a judge denied that request. a preliminary psychiatric screening found ortega hernandez competent. he is accused of firing an

assault rifle at the white house last month. the president was out of town at the time. the clock is ticking for congress to extend a payroll tax holiday, but a vote in the house could put lawmakers back at square one. the house is expected to vote tonight on a senate plan passed saturday. an extensive tax holiday and long-term unemployment insurance for two months. but house republicans are hinting the vote on a short term extension will fail. they say house and senate leaders need to sit down and hammer out a year long extension if they want the tax cuts extended. >> how can he do tax policy for two months? we really do believe it's time for the senate to work with the house to complete our business for the year. >> the senate bill also delays a decision on the keystone oil pipeline, something house republicans want included in any tax extension. if a deal is not worked out.

payroll taxes could go up january 1st. new from overnight, 140 characters apparently equal big bucks. a saudi prince is investing $300 million into microblogging site twitter. twitter is a high growth business. it was instrumental in aiding protesters in this year's arab spring uprisings. the prince is also an investor in apple and rupert murdoch's news corporation. asian stocks are trading down in response to north korean leader kim jong-il's death. jackie deangelis joins us this morning. good morning. >> good morning. bouncing off of earlier losses in concert with the asian markets which fell on the news and uncertainty resulting from the death of north korean leader kim jong-il. south korea's kospi index dropped as much as 5% overnight. japan's nikkei down more than 1%. meantime, u.p.s. says this

thursday will be its busiest shipping day of the year with an estimated 26 million packages. u.p.s. expected to process an amplli average of 25 million packages this week. u.p.s. credits online shopping for the big boost to its business. back to you. >> jackie, thanks so much. hope you have a great day. thanks. holiday shopping procrastinators, you could find some great bargains, but also big crowds between now and christmas. pricegrabber.com reports 41% of consumers, they will shop sometime this weekend. 43% of those who will be out shopping say they wait because they believe they will find the best discounts now. and super saturday, ridiculous. we drove out to the mall. >> did you get in? >> yeah. we waited for 15 minutes at a light just to turn into tyson's corner, and then we decided we can't do this. we ended up going to a smaller town center. even that, we couldn't find a place to eat. >> you have to do that before you shop. you kn >> we're going to try again throughout the week.

you know on saturday, even though it's christmas eve, there's going to be a lot of people out there still. >> why don't they open the stores at midnight like they do after thanksgiving. we could shop on the way to work. >>'haing also, some other fun news. the national zoo, they're getting an early christmas present. today the zoo will announce a major gift to help fund the giant panda program for five more years. >> the reason why we put the shopping and zoo stories back to back, because it is a zoo at the shopping mall. according to "the washington post," philanthropist david rubenstein is offering $4.5 million to panda reproduction programs at the zoo. earlier this year, the smithsonian signed a $2.5 million agreement with china to keep the pandas right here in washington. the agreement stipulated that one or both of the pandas could be traded for others if they can't breed. >> breed.

>> what are they basketball players? first string doesn't work, bring in the second. they're so cute. i love the panda cam. one of my favorite things. >> you want to dress like a panda this morning. it's a cold start as we get going this morning. we have a clear sky. i was taking a brisk walk and had my camera with me. looked down. oh, we had a delicate dusting of light snow and took this photo. you can see individual snowflakes,crystals. later today, no snow. just a few light clouds coming in. the predawn glow over the potomac river. reagan national, a cold 31 degrees. a south/southeasterly breeze only around 5 miles an hour thankfully. it is frigid this morning, down in the low to mid-20s most of the region from the mountains all the way to the atlantic beaches. near the bay, near 30. montgomery, arlington, fairfax, prince george's counties down in

the mid and upper 20s. much of washington away from the river is down into the 20s as well. 31 right on the potomac at reagan national. we'll stay here below freezing. we have a few high clouds drifting in. we may be in a perfect position to give us a spectacular sunrise coming up here in about 30 minutes. sunrise this morning is at 7:22. we'll have lotss of sun this morning, then clouding up by late afternoon. we should make it into the 40s, touching briefly the low 50s early afternoon. tonight should be cloudy. by dawn on tuesday, we'll be dawn into the mid-30s. i think we'll stay above freezing here from later this morning all the way in toward the end of the week. cloudy tomorrow, highs upper 40s. might get a sprinkle tomorrow. just a small chance of that. then a likelihood of rain off and on on wednesday from morning all the way to evening. highs reaching the upper 50s on wednesday afternoon. thursday morning some sun back. clouding up during the afternoon. highs in the 50s again.

another shot of some light rain briefly late thursday night into friday morning. then sun back friday afternoon briefly. then turning chillier as we get toward the holiday weekend on christmas eve. looks right now wet. could get some rain from time to time through the day and chilly rain at that. saying above freezing. morning lows 30s. afternoon highs mid-40s. for christmas day, we ought to dry out. and temperatures in the mid-30s in the morning. afternoon highs into the mid-40s. all day long, you can follow me on twitter and get all the latest weather, science, technology, and nature news. danella, how's traffic? >> i'm going to retweet you. we asked for a white christmas, not a wet christmas. got to fix that for us. traveling the inner loop of the beltway in virginia, chopper 4 is over there right now where we have lots of volume. this is due to an accident as you make your way towards the dulles toll road. the accident blocks two of your left lanes, and you're jammed as you make your way from i-66

traveling on the inner loop of the beltway and slowly approach the dulles toll road. you can see these cars are jammed. it's going to be a headache for you this morning. again, two of your left lanes are blocked in this area. i-95, multivehicle crash is cleared up. several cars along the right side of the shoulder lane here. they look like they're getting out of the way. delays on i-95 still seeing them as you travel northbound. i'll give you a travel speed at 37 miles per hour. and making your way from prince william parkway to the capital beltway, you're at 21 miles per hour. joe, back to you. >> danella, thanks very much. a major winter storm aimed at the southwestern great plains could snarl travel plans today. blizzard conditions are expected this afternoon in parts of new mexico, texas, oklahoma, kansas, and colorado. the storm could leave up to 18 inches of snow in some parts of the country.

forecasters say the storm will last through tomorrow afternoon. d.c. public works officials are trying to make sure last year's snow removal problems won't happen again. today d.c. residents are invited to attend a public roundtable. public works director ken howland will testify at the city council chamber. last year was a tough one for the district as back to back blizzards dumped almost 30 inches of snow in just a few days. the public meeting is set to begin starting at 11:00 in the morning. they'll miss the playoffs for the tenth time in the last 12 seasons, but the redskins can still play the role of spoiler. their defense came up big against the giants, intercepting eli manning three times, including that amazing one-handed grab by deangelo hall. rex grossman overcame two interceptions to get 180 yards and a touchdown. the skins were seemingly in control all game long, shutting down the giants 23-10. >> i think everybody really concentrated on their job.

i thought collectively to play the way they did, they'd like to have everybody do their job and really be focused. we had nice interceptions and good pressure. big time third down. next week the skins are become home against the minnesota vikings. a developing story this morning. longtime north korean leader kim jong-il is dead. north korean 69-year-old leader tied of heart failure while on a train on saturday. kim's funeral is set for a week from wednesday. his son will reportedly be named his successor. his successor. meantime the world eye on north korea for signs of

instability in a nation pursuing nuclear weapons. president obama talked to south korean president lee myung-bak overnight and put the nation on high alert as a precaution. north korea conducteded at least one short range missi itile tes today, but the south korean military could not confirm the report. >> let's get an out the door forecast from meteorologist tom kierein. >> layer up. it's a cold start. there's a live view from the city camera. just a few high clouds drifting in that may be in the perfect position for a screensaver sunrise. we'll have temperatures stay below freezing at 9:00. highs today reaching low 50s this afternoon, increasing clouds, cloudy tomorrow. small chance of a sprinkle. rain likely wednesday. thursday drying out a bit. could get more rain friday and again saturday. danella, how's traffic? big problems inner loop of the beltway at the dulles toll road. as you make your way on the dulles toll road, an overturned vehicle, and it's blocking two left lanes.

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