Hurricane warning in Azores as Gordon intensifies

Video: Big storms predicted for January, February

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2. Closed captioning of: Big storms predicted for January, February

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   >>> after crippling heat waves in summer, a big change may be in store. weather predictions, a cooler and wetter winter ahead. we may see scenes like this. joining me now, dr. reis holter who wrote a book called "the instateable bark beetle ." we won't talk about the book this morning, but i want to talk to you about the winter. how bad will it get?

   >> well, good morning, craig . by all accounts, it's -- there are going to be a lot of snow on the eastern seaboard , but more importantly, it -- the drought looks like it will persist on the plains, and that's really why we are right now. the mississippi river is down, craig , and this -- this is -- these aren't good times, man.

   >> and going -- looking ahead to the winter, when we start talking about the frigid predictions, are there particular areas that will see it worse than others?

   >> well, you know, we're hoping that we're going to see snow in the rockies. that's for sure. and as i say, the eastern seaboard in january and february, supposed to get some pretty good storms. but, you know, what they haven't taken into account is this missing sea ice , craig , up in the arctic, and when the ice isn't there, all the energy that's stored in the arctic, bleeds up into the atmosphere, and then we get these huge blobs of the jet stream bringing more intense cold weather down into the lower 48 so it's a crapshoot right now, you know?

   >> let's take a look at past snow totals. we can pull those up.

   >> sure.

   >> take a look at these. i think you can probably see them on your screen there. is this year's prediction part of normal fluctuations or looking at something entirely different here?

   >> yeah, well, we are looking at something entirely different. the earth is warming up, and as things warm up, we are getting wild storms, wild weather, and we are supposed to see higher totals, but, you know, it's like there is a new normal happening all the time, and we know one thing, the weather is going to be wild, and wooly.

   >> thank you, dr. reece halter, always a pleasure. love the orange shirt as well.

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