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Potentially Historic Winter Storm to Impact Much of the U.S.; Trump Says a Massive U.S. Armada is Heading Toward Iran; Experts Say, Climate Change May Be Making Severe Winter Storms More Likely. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 23, 2026 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news all throughout this morning, a dangerous winter storm bearing down on millions of Americans, up to two feet of snow in some places, hundreds of flights already canceled. We have an updated forecast on the major winter threat stretching from Texas through New England.

And a 5-year-old returning home from preschool is among the latest round of ice detainees in Minneapolis. What we're learning about the family amid growing unrest over the Trump administration's mass deportation tactics.

And are they erasing history? The City of Philadelphia is suing the Trump administration for taking down displays about slavery.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And the breaking news this morning, it is on, one of the biggest, most threatening winter storms we have seen in a long, long time. This could impact half the country. At least ten states have declared states of emergency already. Heavy snow, ice in dangerously cold temperatures all in play, more than 230 million people are under alerts across 1,500 miles from Texas to the northeast.

Some of the snow forecasts you see on this map are just eye-popping. Actually in a different map, you can see around Oklahoma City, we're talking about nearly two feet of snow there. In parts of the Midwest, you're going to see more than 18 inches, and that goes from New York and Boston, Philadelphia, potentially Washington, D.C., a foot and a half in some of the major population centers in this country. That's serious. Even more serious might be the catastrophic ice accumulation that could knock out power across the south, more than three quarters of an inch in some areas. That's a lot of ice.

And if you think you're flying, you might not be. Already more than 1,400 flights have been canceled. That's just for Saturday. Let me give you a sense of the timing for all of this. Today, Dallas to Memphis will begin feeling the brunt of it, tomorrow, Atlanta, Louisville, Charlotte. Sunday, that's the snow, Philadelphia, New York City, Washington, D.C.

CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is with us, our Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is at Reagan National Airport. Let's start with the forecast. How do things look right now, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, so pretty much the same that we've been talking about. You've got some areas off to the north that are only going to see snow areas to the south that are simply just going to get rain, but then you have this pinkish purple color in the middle where those folks are going to get, well, a little bit of everything, all kind of mixed in over the next 24 to 72 hours.

So, let's take a look. Starting tonight, you're going to start to see some of that snow and ice begin over portions of Oklahoma and into Northern Texas. By Saturday morning, it begins to spread eastward, but it also starts to expand. You start to see more of that pink and purple color begin to fill in as we make our way through the day, Saturday.

Some folks will get a little bit of a break in between the waves, but then that second wave begins to come back in, especially as we head into Saturday evening, those temperatures start to drop back. More and more folks are going to see the snow and the ice as opposed to rain.

But there will be some folks that do end up seeing that warm up, especially as we go into Sunday afternoon, a little bit farther to the east. When it is all said and done, some of these areas could pick up half an inch to one inch total of ice accumulating on things like trees and power lines.

[09:05:03]

Snowfall, you've got a wide swath here of some spots that could pick up 10, 12, even 14 inches of snow, again, for some of these areas that are just simply not used to high totals like that.

Now, we shift farther to the east. Now, Saturday morning, we're starting to see it creep into Memphis and Nashville and Knoxville. By Saturday evening, now it's starting to spread into the Carolinas, Virginia, and even into Northern Georgia. By the time we get to Sunday morning, you see a lot of pink and purple on this map. And by Sunday afternoon, you do start to notice a bit more green on the map. That's because those high temperature Sunday will get above freezing for some folks, so you'll see it transition back into rain. But then Sunday night, we cool back down again, and some folks will see it changing back over to either snow or ice before as we finish out the rest of the day on Sunday.

So, for a little bit farther east, yes, you could still be looking at extremely high totals of ice, some up to an inch. That includes areas around Charlotte, Greensboro, North Carolina, portions of Nashville, Chattanooga, stretching down across areas of Mississippi, Arkansas, and even Northern Louisiana.

BERMAN: And that creates just such huge problems. Allison, thank you. Now let's go to Pete Muntean at Reagan National Airport. Pete, I got to believe with a foot of snow coming there on Sunday, nothing's coming in or out, but that just begins to tell the story of travel over these next few days.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And the good news, John, is that the disruptions today are pretty minimal, although it is early and things can change quickly. And we will see those numbers climb and climb as we get closer and closer to the storm. We're talking impacts on dozens of cities, major hubs for the airlines.

So, let's take a look at the departures board here at Reagan National Airport, not too bad right now. We've only actually seen one cancellation here so far today. But today's disruptions really are not the main event. We're talking hundreds of cancellations, but now airlines are canceling cancellations in the thousands tomorrow. We're talking 1,400 preemptive cancellations by the airlines nationwide tomorrow. That is a huge number at some really big hubs for the airlines. Dallas-Fort Worth, 50 percent of flights there are already canceled. Dallas Love, huge hub for Southwest Airlines. 60 percent of flights there are already canceled tomorrow. Oklahoma City, Nashville, Memphis Atlanta, they are also on the list of airports that will be really seriously impacted, right, by this.

This is what airlines are doing right now. They're offering what's called travel waivers, meaning you can change your flight or cancel your flight for free. They're also preemptively moving folks to other flights. It goes without saying that tomorrow, Sunday, those will be really, really tough days for travel. We'll probably see some of the biggest cancelation numbers we have seen in years. The superlatives are really big. The impacts are going to be really big.

The good news right now, mostly just snow showers today in Chicago and Detroit, those are places that can typically deal with snow as it comes through.

BERMAN: Yes, get where you're going quickly, because after today it's just going to get harder. Pete Muntean, thank you so much for that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, Tennessee's governor Bill Lee has issued a state of emergency as the snow is expected to begin falling there tonight. And while some parts of Tennessee will stay cold enough for that snow, of course, areas further south, including Memphis, they're now looking more at like mainly sleet and possibly even freezing rain. Over the weekend, temperatures are expected to plunge to the single digits and basically remain there and below freezing through at least Tuesday.

Joining us right now is the mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, with how you all are preparing. Mayor, thank you so much for your time this morning. Where is your focus right now?

MAYOR PAUL YOUNG (D-MEMPHIS, TN): Our focus is making sure that our teams are ready. We're now at our Office of Emergency Management. All of our teams are here preparing for the storm and making sure that we are doing all that we can to alert the residents, the conditions that we're getting ready to experience. It's still kind of a tossup between whether we'll have more ice than snow. We're hopeful that we'll get more snow, because, as you have already indicated, when we have a lot of ice, that's when we have challenges with our power grid, and it's harder for our plows to clear the roads because the plows don't clear the ice in the same way.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It's just -- and it's just more dangerous for absolutely everyone. I was looking at some of the -- some of like the local news is storm is a lot of people talking about, and maybe comparing it to the ice storm of 1994, which is still one of the most destructive weather events there for your city. I mean, how bad could this get mayor?

YOUNG: Yes, it could be definitely be bad. Everybody in Memphis remembers the ice storm in 1994, and that was a very challenging time, lots of limbs falling into the roadways and power grid had a lot of challenges. And so we're hopeful that we won't have those same conditions, but we want our residents to be prepared.

[09:10:00]

And so our message to our residents is to stay at home and not to travel on the roads to the extent that you can avoid it and make sure that you are prepared and you have enough resources in the home so that you can sustain for a couple of days if needed.

BOLDUAN: And it's the sustained for days which I was going to ask you about, because our weather team had a map up earlier, and I was seeing, I think, in through Tuesday you've got like highs of nine degrees, eight degrees. I mean, if you're dealing with freezing rain falling mixed in with some snow and some sleet, I mean just like add it up to a mess and then you're just marinating at single-digit temperatures for days. I mean, how long could this mess stretch into, do you think, for everyone living there?

YOUNG: Well, based on what we've seen, it looks like the temperatures won't get to a high that will start to melt any precipitation that falls until around late Monday, Tuesday. So, we want our residents to be prepared to be able to withstand should things not clear up as quickly as we would like for them to.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. We had -- we just had one map up, Mayor. It says certain areas that kind of includes Memphis. It could see a quarter of an inch of ice. And, man, am I hoping that does not happen. I'm hoping that forecast shifts for you all and we're really thinking about it. I know you guys are preparing and everyone there needs to be safe and you're great city.

I really appreciate you jumping on this morning. Thank you so much.

So, many cities, just like Memphis, mayors, the city leaders, they're really trying to bear down and prepare this morning.

Also, right now, a major convoy of military assets is headed towards Iran, or as President Trump is describing it, an Armada. Does this mean a military strike in Iran, though, is imminent after, remember, President Trump told protesters there in Iran to keep protesting, that help was on the way?

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And the vampire thriller Sinners making Oscar history with the record number of nominations. What a brand new category has to do with, well, all of that, ahead.

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[09:15:00]

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, President Trump says a convoy of U.S. naval vessels is heading toward Iran. He says he would rather not use them, but is not ruling it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're watching Iran. You know, we have a lot of ships going that direction just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction, and we'll see what happens.

But we have an armada. We have a massive -- we have a massive fleet heading in that direction. And maybe we won't have to use it. We'll see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: With us now is CNN Political and National Security Analyst, New York Times legend David Sanger. Good to see you this morning.

The reporting was that President Trump was close to using the U.S. military against Iran a week, ten days ago, when Iran was cracking down on protesters there, he decided not to. Where do things stand now, do you think?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: John, when he decided not to use the forces, there were sort of two reasons. The first was he won a brief concession from the Iranians through a number of cutouts, an assurance that they would not hang several of the protesters who they had run through their what resembles barely a court system and that they would stop shooting protesters in the streets. It happened to be that the protests were dying out.

So, the urgency went away. But the fact of the matter is that as the more we learn about these protests, the more we learn about the numbers who were killed. And the fundamental dynamics here, a regime rotting from within and probably trying to go reassemble its nuclear program is going to give him plenty of reason if he decides to strike. The question is, strike for what end? Because it's not clear how you use this military force in a way that actually benefits the protesters. BERMAN: Yes. There's a reason, but the question might be to what end, and not just that but where, David, where do you strike? Is there any more clarity on that?

SANGER: Well, there are a number of options out here. One is to go after the sort of local militias that have been enforcing the government's will to put down the protests, and that's the besiege force. And he could hit some of their headquarters and so forth. But, of course, these are all in crowded urban areas. And you can't do strikes there without killing civilians.

It's the opposite, John, of what happened in June when he struck these three nuclear sites, all of which were in remote locations, and he could, you know, bury the nuclear material. The planes could turn around and go home. And he talks about that with great pride. In fact, he keeps a model of the B-2 bombers that were used in that strike on his desk in the Oval Office, right next to a bust of Lincoln.

[09:20:10]

So, it's pretty clear he's pretty proud of that.

But that isn't what this operation would be like. He could also go after some nuclear sites that they missed. He could go after some missile sites. But these are all steps with the that the Iranians would certainly respond to probably with missile strikes of their own, and that's what has the Israelis concerned.

BERMAN: You know, very quickly, there are now trilateral meetings taking place at a military level between the United States, Ukraine, and Russia and the United Arab Emirates. What would it take for progress in these meetings? What would progress be?

SANGER: Well, Steve Witkoff, the president's sort of adviser and negotiator on all these issues, who saw Putin, President Putin yesterday in Moscow with Jared Kushner, said that at this point, they're down to pretty much an argument about land.

Now, I'm not sure if that's completely correct because there are all kinds of other issues that were cooking, but I think at this point the president, President Trump's frustration is more with President Zelenskyy for not giving into Russian demands for land that Russia hasn't even taken over yet. And I think the president just wants to solve this any way he can.

The Russians have very specific demands and think that they are winning. So, they're in no particular rush to go strike a deal.

BERMAN: All right. David Sanger, great to see you this morning, thank you so much for your insight, as always. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And with this massive winter storm about to bear down on more than 200 million Americans, a closer look ahead at how climate change is making weather events like this even more extreme.

And the source of every 90s kids' dream. The home from the hit show, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, is up for sale.

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[09:25:00]

BOLDUAN: The breaking news this morning, the triple threat of snow, bone-chilling temperatures, and the threat of ice here to stay for the weekend. Every state, east of the Rockies, except for Florida, will see some of this dangerous weather at some point in some mix. Climate change may actually have a big part in how severe and making severe winter storms like this one more likely and more extreme.

CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir has always a great explanation for it, because as John was talking about, when people say, oh, global warming, why are we talking about how cold it's going to be? But it's all wrapped together.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: It is. It's all connected in this climate crisis, a broken ecosystem that we're adjusting to in real time. It seems especially cruel that a warmer planet would bring record ice storms and ten feet of snow in some places. But that is the case thanks to the breakdown of the polar vortex.

Scientists explained to us that that polar vortex is, in better times, like a tight belt around the top of the pole holding all that Arctic air up at the North Pole. But as ice melts around the Arctic, science believes that is affecting this wobble. Like the belt is loosening and you see these long lobes or fingers of cold air going down deep into the Southern Continental United States, you saw this a couple years ago in Texas. They had that deep freeze there as well.

And so while we're seeing record low temperatures, they're much warmer than they were, say, in the 70s because, for example, Minneapolis, their record low temperature these days is about 12 degrees warmer than it was back in the 70s. But there are still days like this where record sort of bone-chilling, cold events still happen and then bring a lot more snow than we're used to in some cities even used to it in places that are very accustomed to heavy snowfall seeing much more because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. We see that playing out in these rain bombs in California when things are warmer. But in the -- when things are colder like this, when that polar vortex breaks down, that's when we get these triple whammies.

And this is going to be a real test of infrastructure, Kate. That's inches of ice, half an inch of ice on top of trees, on top of power lines. It's going to unfortunately plunge hundreds of thousands of people into the dark over this weekend right now. So, it is vital to get prepared best you can, check on the neighbors, all of that stuff.

BOLDUAN: And you have done great reporting. I always remember during hurricanes of just how these more extreme weather events are really putting a test on city planners, local officials on where they put their money, how they plan their cities, where they put residents, how they handle infrastructure that's going to be under an inch of ice. It is -- it all wraps into the, we're not prepared and we're playing catch-up, which can be very, very, very dangerous. Bill, thank you so much, as always.

Let's get back to Minneapolis. Sara is standing by. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you so much, Kate. We are live here in Minneapolis actually on a pathway inside showing you what is happening in the city right now. Most people are home. It is extremely cold out here, but there is going to be a protest today.

[09:30:02]

People outraged again as to the way that ICE has been operating in the city.