• Video: Why the Europeans are better at forecasting our weather than we are

    The predictions from European computer models, which have 10 times the computing ability of the National Weather Service, have increasingly become more accurate than our models with the starkest example being Hurricane Sandy. NBC's Al Roker reports.

  • Holiday travel alert: Central US storm brings flight disruptions, deadly blizzard, and a tornado

    The powerful storm made for dicey driving conditions in Iowa, causing a 25-car pileup. In Wisconsin, the governor declared a state of emergency. And in the South, several tornadoes spawned from the same weather system. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.

    Miguel Llanos writes

    The first major wintry storm of the season hammered the Midwest on Thursday, causing a pileup in blizzard conditions that killed three people, dumping a foot of snow in some areas and creating travel problems during one of the busiest periods of the year. Those travel woes could extend into the Northeast, with high winds and rain expected there Friday.


    Nearly 600 flights were canceled at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on Thursday, according to FlightStats, and an additional 700 were grounded at Kansas City International, Midway (Chicago), Detroit Metropolitan, Minneapolis-St. Paul International and other Midwest airports.

    Southwest Airlines canceled all flights at Midway starting at 4:30 p.m. local time, NBCChicago.com reported.

    Full coverage of the storm at The Weather Channel

    The storm system also spawned a tornado that flipped vehicles in Mobile, Ala., and cut power to 400,000 homes and businesses. Some 130,000 were still without power Thursday afternoon. 

    At least six deaths were tied to the snowstorms: In Iowa, three people died Thursday in a pileup involving more than 30 vehicles on Interstate 35, NBC affiliate WHO-TV reported; in Wisconsin, slick road conditions led to two fatalities; and in Utah, a woman who tried to walk for help after her car became stuck in snow was found dead, officials said late Wednesday. Search and rescue crews on snowmobiles found her buried in the snow just a few miles from her car.

    Snow, whipped by 50 mph wind gusts, have been causing white outs and leaving residents in the dark. The Weather Channel's Mike Seidel reports.

    Blizzard or winter storm warnings were issued for 16 states on Thursday, Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel told TODAY.

    Northeast cities can expect rain and high winds from the system Friday morning, said NBC meteorologist Bill Karins. Most of the snow should move into Canada Friday night.

    A foot of snow fell on Des Moines, Iowa, by early Thursday and residents across the state were urged to stay off the roads.

    "Because of the wind, travel is pretty treacherous, especially into Iowa, as the storm moves east," National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Dergan said.

    The snow cover will drag temperatures much lower in Iowa and Nebraska, he added. "We're talking single digits. We may even see some sub-zero temperatures in Nebraska. This cold weather will stick around for several days, maybe until the day after Christmas. So we're definitely going to have a white Christmas."

    Iowa State Police

    Some of the vehicles involved in a pileup on Interstate 35 in Iowa are seen Thursday.

    Blowing snow led to school closures in parts of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. All state government offices also closed in Iowa. Storms in those four states left around 130,000 homes without power. 

    "Thundersnow" was reported in Iowa Wednesday night, as thunder and lightning accompanied the storm as it trekked across the state. 

    Dietra Tate / NBC 15

    This vehicle at a car dealership was flipped over by a storm in Mobile, Ala., on Thursday, Dec. 20.

    In Alabama, a tornado peeled the roofs off homes and buildings and toppled vehicles in Mobile, but caused no serious injuries, Al.com reported. Arkansas also saw damage from high winds.

    The storm system earlier delivered heavy snow and strong winds to parts of the West, where trucks tangled on icy roads on the Oregon and California state line.

    Snowstorm prompts state of emergency in Wisconsin

    In West Texas, winds from the same system kicked up a dust storm Wednesday that caused accidents along Interstate 27, resulting in one death and more than a dozen injuries, NBC affiliate KCBD reported.

    At Dallas-Fort Worth airport, American Airlines said it canceled about 120 flights Wednesday night due to the storm. 

    In Nebraska, snow blowing sideways on Wednesday night forced the closure of a 146-mile stretch of Interstate 80, a major east-west highway. 

    Much of the nation is dealing with a big blast of winter as a massive snowstorm barrels from the Rockies to the Midwest, with some parts of Colorado buried under more than a foot of snow. NBC's Mike Seidel reports.

    In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. Schools were canceled in advance of heavy snowfall and the University of Wisconsin-Madison postponed Thursday’s final exams.

    Before the storm, several Midwest cities had broken records for the number of consecutive days without measurable snow.

    In Chicago, people made a run on snow shovels and salt ahead of what should be the first snow to hit the city in 290 days (the record is 296). 

    The storm has package delivery companies nervously checking the weather forecast during this busy time of year. "We’re closely monitoring the storm," FedEx spokesman Scott Fiedler told NBC News. "We have a team of 15 meteorologists who track the weather around the world every day."

    Related: UPS, FedEx weather experts work on timely deliveries
    Related: Chicago braces for 'thundersnow'
    Related: Bad in US? Try Russia, where some parts as low as 50 below
    Related: Slideshow of wintry scenes around the world

    Along the East Coast, the I-95 corridor isn't expected to see much, if any, snow.

    "Snow may make it as close to New York City as Western Connecticut but right now, other than a few flurries Friday night, I think New York City through Boston will be mostly snow-free," Tom Niziol, the winter weather expert at The Weather Channel, told NBC News.

    "Areas to the southeast of the Great Lakes, from Cleveland through Syracuse will get heavier snowfall," he added. "Higher elevations from the Adirondacks through the western slopes of the Central Appalachians will also get snow."

    NBC News' Isolde Raftery and A. Pawlowski, as well as The Associated Press and Reuters, contributed to this report.

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  • In wake of nor'easter, 'patience is the name of the game'

    Those who lost their homes during Hurricane Sandy are salvaging what they can from the wreckage, and trying to stay afloat financially as they cope with the aftermath of the storm. NBC's Ann Curry reports.

    Miranda Leitsinger and Miguel Llanos, NBC News writes

    Updated at 11:24 p.m. ET: BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- After waking up to several inches of snow and more than 200,000 new power outages, residents in areas battered by Superstorm Sandy on Thursday got back to the long-term work of rebuilding. 

    Miranda Leitsinger

    Snow dusted debris outside homes Thursday in Breezy Point, a community in the Rockaways section of New York City.

    "Patience is the name of the game here," said Joseph Murray in Breezy Point, where snow from the nor’easter dusted the New York City community destroyed last week by flooding and a fire. 

    Families here on Thursday continued efforts to save their waterlogged homes from mold, with some piling items on the layer of snow in 40-degree weather. 

    New York City and Long Island will begin rationing gas to relieve frustration and long lines at the pump, NBCNewYork.com reported. The rationing does not apply to emergency vehicles, taxis or individual gas cans.

    Murray, 27, was at his family’s home after sanitation workers cleared out their pile of garbage, leaving three salvageable nightstands and a lamp standing outside. 

    "Be patient with Mother Nature  because she doesn’t care about any of us," was how Murray rationalized the bizarre bouts of weather. "Let her do her thing and then when she’s ready to let you do your thing, she will."

    Cleanup crews already overextended from Hurricane Sandy are working around the clock to clear snow that recently fell across the region, causing more people to lose power. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    Murray did have an eye on Friday’s weather forecast, noting that "it’s going to be 60 degrees, this is all going to melt." 

    By late Thursday, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island had their power fully restored. New York and New Jersey saw a drop in the number of customers affected by the nor'easter. Now about 60,000 customers are without power between the two states because of the storm; more than half a million remain without power total in the two states, including outages caused by Sandy.

    West Virginia, however, has struggled to bring power customers back online.

    The overnight nor’easter boasted wind gusts of more than 50 mph and dropped heavy snow on already-weakened tree limbs, leading to new power outages. 

    In New Jersey alone, 167,000 homes and businesses lost power overnight, Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday. "This sets us back about a day" in terms of getting all power restored, he added. 

    "We're right back to the same situation," Kirk Walker of Hackensack, N.J., told NBCNewYork.com after power went out for the third time at his home since Sandy struck. 

    "They said it was gonna be a rough winter," Walker added. "Sign of things to come, I guess."

    Officials there on Thursday said they had convinced the local utility to scrap its policy requiring that each home without power be inspected before power is restored, Newsday.com reported. 

    With the new outages, some 700,000 customers were without power across the Northeast around midday. That number was reduced to some 600,000 by early evening.

    Are you left in the lurch after Sandy? 

    Record snowfall totals were recorded across the area:

    • New York’s Central Park received 4.4 inches of snow on Wednesday -- a record for a Nov. 7 and the earliest 4-inch total in the park's history, NBCNewYork.com reported. By Thursday morning the total had reached 4.7 inches.
    • Newark, N.J., got 6 inches by Thursday -- more snow in 24 hours than during any previous November on record.
    • Bridgeport, Conn., received 3.5 inches of snow, beating the Nov. 7 record of 2 inches set in 1953.

    Some areas inland got 12 to 13 inches of snow.


    "This is a classic nor'easter," NBC meteorologist Al Roker said on TODAY, "just very early."

    PhotoBlog: Hot meals on Staten Island

    Conditions were still miserable Thursday morning. In New York City, winds were around 25 mph and it was 36 degrees with showers forecast before sunny skies on Friday.

    In New Jersey, parts of which saw 9 inches of snow, police said ice and snow contributed to the deaths of two people in a car whose driver was speeding, NBCPhiladelphia reported.

    Two people also died in Connecticut in traffic accidents attributed to snow, The Associated Press reported.

    Full NBC coverage of Sandy's aftermath

    Hundreds were evacuated ahead of the nor'easter, some because of flooding fears and others due to post-Sandy logistics.

    John Makely / NBC News

    Medeleine Dobriner was moved by the Red Cross to the Manresa Jesuit Center shelter on Staten Island so that her earlier shelter, a school, could reopen.

    Medeleine Dobriner of New Dorp on Staten Island was among the latter -- having to move because her shelter was in a school that was reopening.

    "This is my third shelter and usually change is good," Dobriner, 66, told NBC News, "but not in this case."

    Throughout the region, people wore coats indoors as they endured yet another night without heat.

    "I thought I was lucky when power was restored last Thursday, but last night it went out again," said Michael Platt, an electrician from Toms River, N.J., who estimated a foot of snow fell in his area. "The kids have been home for nearly two weeks and I'm not working, and when I'm not working I'm not making any money. This hasn't been easy." 

    "Can you believe this? Enough is enough," added Cindy Casey, whose Belle Harbor home one block from the beach in the Rockaways was swamped by Sandy, as she looked out at the snow blanketing the neighborhood devastated by flooding and fire. 

    Some of those who had weathered Sandy told NBCNewYork.com they felt like a cruel joke was being played on them.

    "Kind of laughing about it at this point," said Danny Arnedos, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. "To go from a hurricane to a nor'easter and driving in the snow in 10 days is pretty unbelievable."

    "I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next," New Jersey Gov. Christie said Wednesday. 

    Coastal flooding proved minimal, but commuter bus and train services were disrupted by the storm, with the Long Island Rail Road briefly shutting down all operations to the city's eastern suburbs on Wednesday night.

    Gasoline remained in short supply in the New York City area, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday announced rationing based on odd and even number license plates.

    Official: NY disaster chief fired over tree removal

    Airports saw 1,600 canceled flights on Wednesday due to the storm. Some 600 more flights were scratched Thursday, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware. The majority of those are in the New York area.

    The losses from Superstorm Sandy are still rough, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday he had seen a report estimating $50 billion in damage and economic losses across the region, with $33 billion in New York state.

    "That's a staggering number," he said.

    Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

    Mario Tama / Getty Images

    A snowstorm hits the Northeast as residents are still struggling to pick up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

    Launch slideshow

    NBC's John Makely as well as Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Coming to Tampa? Tips to keep Isaac from spoiling your convention experience

    The Weather Channel's Bryan Norcross tracks Tropical Storm Isaac's movement and predictions about where it is headed.

    Kerry Sanders, NBC News writes

    Dear delegates to the Republican National Convention and visitors:

    Welcome to Florida and Isaac.

    I've covered hurricanes for 30 years, from as far south as El Salvador to the tip of Long Island at Montauk Point.

    So if you are from a landlocked state or one far from the hurricane zone, a few tips that you won't see on most lists:

    *Pack some zip-lock bags. You will need them to protect so much -- from your phone to a pair of socks you put in your pocket or purse.

    *Bring shoes that you can walk in water with.

    Since you don't want boots, as those won't work well headed to the convention hall, try Crocs. Put your shoes in your hand, roll up your pants, slog thru the water and dry off. Crocs dry easily and are weightless -- you can stuff them in your bag/purse.

    Trust me, you can't escape the puddles, and those odd-colored Crocs are just fun enough to make people smile in the misery.

    Want to skip Crocs? Get some bread bags and rubber bands to cover your shoes. It's ugly but works.

    *Get a tiny pin flashlight that goes on your key chain. You won't need it here with all the auxiliary power, but it's nice peace of mind.

    *Grab a baseball cap to protect your hair from the rain.

    *Umbellas are a pain. They blow inside out. You need a very light rain coat. (It's hot during a hurricane/tropical storm, and you don't want a coat that makes you perspire or worse: sweat!)

    *Finally, don't focus on the category of the storm. I've seen tropical storms create more havoc than a category 2 storm.

    Inside the forum, you won't even know there's a storm. And if you're a guest at the beach while your loved one is busy with politics, bring a book, and if the weather doesn't clear up by Wednesday, consider a drive inland. Orlando and the theme parks are only twohours or so away. Just check weather.com to see of the skies are sunny nearby.

    Enjoy!

    Kerry Sanders is a Miami-based correspondent for NBC News

    Florida's governor declares a state of emergency as residents and tourists flee Key West. Storm preparations are under way all along the Gulf Coast. NBC's Thanh Truong reports.

  • Areas in worst drought categories rise by 50 percent, US says

    NOAA

    Miguel Llanos writes

    The drought ruining crops, shrinking water supplies and exacerbating wildfires intensified dramatically over the last week, U.S. forecasters reported Thursday.


    The weekly Drought Monitor shows "widespread intensification" in the central U.S., the National Drought Mitigation Center said in a statement.

    Across the contiguous U.S., the total area under all kinds of drought grew only slightly but the most severe categories -- extreme and exceptional -- rose from 13.5 percent to 20.5 percent -- the highest level since 2003.

    The jump "this week was the largest since we started the U.S. Drought Monitor" 12 years ago, Brian Fuchs, a climatologist and Drought Monitor author, told NBC News. "This is really showing the rapid intensification of the drought due to the heat/dryness over the region with little relief for anyone."

    "We’ve seen tremendous intensification of drought through Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska, and into part of Wyoming and South Dakota in the last week," Fuchs said in the center's statement.

    A drought is now gripping more than half of the nation, with the latest U.S. Drought Monitor showing some of the worst areas are expanding. In Tennessee, crops are dying and families are struggling to face the losses. NBC's Thanh Truong reports.

    Every state had at least a small area categorized as "abnormally dry" or worse. "It’s such a broad footprint," Fuchs said. 

    The Weather Channel noted the jump is the equivalent of adding 219,000 square miles to the worst drought categories -- "an area slightly larger than the states of California and New York combined," it  noted.

    Related story: Food prices to rise next year, USDA says

    States posting dramatic increases in just the last week included Illinois, which went from 8 percent in extreme/exceptional drought to 70 percent, and Nebraska, which went from 5 percent to 64 percent.

    In Illinois, the drought is impacting water supplies in towns like Pontiac. "The Vermillion River does not have enough flow for us to use it as our primary source of water," one field observer reported Wednesday to the Drought Mitigation Center. "We have had to switch to a secondary source of water, located in a reservoir a few miles outside of town ...  A 'dirt' like smell and taste is being noted ... We NEED rain, very soon."

    The intensification also means drier soils and deteriorated pastures.

    America's ongoing drought disaster is getting worse before it gets better. NBC's Chris Clackum reports.

    "Over 90 percent of the topsoil was short or very short of moisture in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with virtually all (99 percent) short or very short in Missouri and Illinois," the monitor stated. "Over 80 percent of the pasture and rangeland was in poor or very poor condition in Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana."

    A longer drought index compiled by the U.S. shows this year's drought now covers the most acreage since a dry spell in 1954. Two Dust Bowl years, 1934 and 1939, also had larger drought areas in the Palmer Drought Severity Index, which dates back to 1895 but is not as detailed as the Drought Monitor.

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  • 'Devastation ... like we've never seen' in twister-hit town

    At least 12 people were killed after devastating tornadoes and storms steamrolled through the Midwest and South. NBC's Lester Holt and TODAY's Al Roker report.

    NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services writes

     

    Updated at 8:45 p.m. ET: HARRISBURG, Ill. -- At least 12 people were killed -- including several crushed by debris -- as tornadoes marched across the Midwest, flattening parts of several towns including the tourist hub of Branson, Mo.

    Hardest hit was Harrisburg, where four women and two men died, some 100 others were injured and more than 200 homes were destroyed or damaged.

    Most if not all the Harrisburg dead were killed by a home tossed atop their own property early Wednesday, a witness said.

    Whitney Curtis / Getty Images

    Steve McDonald stands among debris from the home of his mother-in-law, Mary Osman, who was killed in the twister that raced through Harrisburg, Ill.

    "It's a house on top of a house," said Mike Hancock, 29, who with several others tried to rescue the victims. "We crawled in there as much as we could. Then there wasn't enough stability, the whole foundation was shaking. We had to get out of there," he said.

    "We have devastation in our community like we've never seen," Mayor Eric Gregg told a press conference, where officials said the twister had peak winds of 170 mph, making it an EF-4 on the 1-5 scale used by the National Weather Service, with 5 being the most severe.

    "There are hundreds of homes damaged, millions of dollars in damage," he added. "The hospital is severely damaged. There's a mall with 10 stores that was destroyed."

    Forecasters warned more twisters could strike the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians through Wednesday evening as the storm system moved east.

    Rock Center reports on the aftermath of the powerful tornadoes that ripped through America's heartland, killing at least nine people. The twisters blew houses on top of each other and toppled buildings as they hopscotched through parts of Missouri, Illinois and Kansas. NBC's Lester Holt and The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore report from Harrisburg, Ill., one of the towns hit hardest by the tornadoes.

    Three other deaths were reported in Missouri, where a suspected tornado hit a mobile home park outside the town of Buffalo. One person died there and around a dozen people were injured. Two others died in the Cassville and Puxico areas of Missouri, state officials said. Three deaths were reported in eastern Tennessee, The Associated Press reported.

    In Harrisburg, police issued a curfew overnight and the area most impacted was evacuated as a precaution. Some 3,300 customers were without power in the town of about 10,000.

    In Kansas, 12 people were injured when a EF-2 tornado made a five-mile-long run through Harveyville on Tuesday night, officials said. Three of the injured were in critical condition, and 40 percent of the town suffered damage.

    NBC affiliate KSHB TV reported that an apartment complex and a church were among the damaged buildings in the town of about 250 people.

    Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback issued a disaster declaration for the area, parts of which were without power.

    NBC's Al Roker reports on the unseasonable tornadoes that ripped through Illinois.

    Other hard-hit areas included Branson and Lebanon in Missouri.

    In Branson, 32 people were treated at one hospital for injuries, mostly cuts and bruises. A tornado moved through downtown overnight, heavily damaging the city's famous theaters and hopscotching up Highway 76, uprooting road signs and scattering debris.

    Officials on Wednesday gave the tornado a preliminary rating of EF-2 and said it ran an 8- to 10-mile path.

    The injuries could have been far worse had the storm hit next week, when the tourist season picks up.

    "If it was a week later, it'd be a different story," said Bill Tirone, assistant general manager for the 530-room Hilton and adjacent Branson Convention Center, where windows were shattered and some rooms had furniture sucked away by high winds. Hotel workers were able to get all guests to safety as the storm raged.

    Mark Schiefelbein / AP

    Storm debris is piled near the entrance to the Dick Clark's American Bandstand Theater in Branson, Mo., on Wednesday.

    John Moore, owner of the damaged Cakes-n-Creams '50s Diner, said the apparent twister appeared to "jump side to side" as it moved down the entertainment district, right through the convention center, across a lake and into a housing division.

    "The theater next to me kind of exploded. It went everywhere. The hotels on the two sides of me lost their roofs. Power lines are down. Windows are blown out," Moore said. "There's major, major destruction. There has to be millions dollars of damage all down the strip."

    Jennifer Verhaalen said she saw a white funnel cloud followed by a wall of rain as the storm closed in on the town around 1 a.m.

    She said she retreated to a back bedroom with her husband as the storm slammed into two hotel buildings, tearing the roof off one.

    PhotoBlog of the destruction

    Across the road, a strip mall lay in tatters, its roof missing and several walls collapsed.

    Branson has long been a touristy outdoor destination for visitors who came to see the beauty of the surrounding Ozarks. But the city rose to prominence in the 1990s largely due to the theater district, where venues featured the star power of country music and celebrities including the Osmonds and Andy Williams.  

    John Hanna / AP

    Damage in Harveyville, Kan., includes this home.

    In Lebanon, a tornado was reported at 12:25 a.m. and numerous reports came in of damage in the area.  A tractor-trailer was reported to have been blown off Interstate 44 nearby.

    Newburgh, Ind., also saw damage from severe storms. Several homes and a business were hit, though no injuries or deaths were reported.

    The National Weather Service said it was forecasting more tornadoes on Wednesday, including "one or two possibly strong" ones as well as "damaging wind over parts of the Tennessee Valley to southern Appalachians" into the evening.

    The system also skirted northern Arkansas, bringing gusts of up to 60 miles per hour in the northwest. A wall cloud was reported in Cherokee Village, where trees were scattered along roads, the weather service said. Residents of Clay County in northeastern Arkansas reported hail the size of golf balls, and similar-sized hail was reported in Mountain Home.

    Mathew Fowler / Harveyville Gazette via AP

    Damage is seen Wednesday morning in Harveyville, Kan., after an apparent tornado passed through Tuesday night.

    In northern Oklahoma, gusts of up to 80 mph flipped trailers and damaged homes near Cherokee.

    Tornado season normally starts in March, but it isn't unusual to see severe storms earlier in the year. Forecasters have a particularly difficult time assessing how serious a season will be in part because tornadoes are so unpredictable. This year, two people were killed by separate tornadoes in Alabama in January, and preliminary reports show 95 tornadoes struck that month.

    NBC News, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Chocolate dipped with sprinkles

    Lester Holt

    NBC News' Clare Kim and Anne Wallace enjoy their ice cream (and the air conditioning) on an sweltering day in New York.

    With the heat index in Manhattan at 100 degrees, I declared an ice cream break this afternoon. A group of us bugged out of the newsroom a little while ago to hit the Mister Softee truck at the corner of 49th Street and 6th Avenue. It not only satisfied our collective craving for something cool, but hopefully also provided a shot to the local economy.

    There was an item in the New York Times reporting that sales of Mister Softee ice cream are actually down this summer. In case you're not familiar with them, Mister Softee trucks are a ubiquitous part of the Manhattan landscape, and operate primarily in the Northeast. However the prolonged heat wave may have gotten the best of them this year. According to the man who manages Mister Softee distribution, it's been too hot this summer for New Yorkers to venture out. Can you believe it, too hot for ice cream? He speculates folks are either holed-up in their air conditioned homes or at the pool. Apparently other ice cream companies are also reporting a slump in sales. On behalf of the Weekend Nightly News staff let me simply say we stand ready to do our part to help the ice cream industry stay afloat (did somebody say ice cream float?).

    The weather, on several fronts is our big story today. First, former Tropical Storm Bonnie has weakened, allowing containment vessels and personnel to start returning to the oil operation in the Gulf. The storm may have fizzled but it still cost them valuable time in their efforts to "kill" the well. Then there is the oppressive heat gripping not just the Northeast, but parts of the South and Midwest. On top of that the Midwest has been clobbered by violent storms that dumped more than seven inches of rain in the Chicago area and triggered severe flooding.

    We've also got a update to a story we first reported here last Saturday about the surge in pets being turned into Louisiana animal shelters by owners who have landed on hard times because of the oil disaster. I think you'll like how this is turning out.

    I hope where ever you are you are staying cool today. Thanks for checking in and we'll see you tonight on NBC Nightly News.