February 12, 2021 • No Comments • National News

ABC NewsBy MAX GOLEMBO, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Multiple storms will move across the U.S. this weekend into next week bringing snow and ice from coast to coast.

Thursday’s storm hit the South with freezing rain and sleet and turned roads dangerous from Texas to Virginia.

In Fort Worth, Texas, at least six people died and 65 others were injured in a massive freeway pileup that involved over 100 vehicles. Fort Worth police said the icy roads likely contributed to the crash.

Some areas in central and western Texas got up to 1 inch of ice accretion. There were also widespread reports of half an inch of ice accumulation in Arizona, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Now, that storm is moving through North Carolina and Virginia with snow and ice. Raleigh is under a winter weather advisory for freezing rain and sleet.

On Friday morning, 36 states, from Oregon to Maryland, are under some sort of snow, ice or cold alert.

Meanwhile, a second storm is already wreaking havoc in Oregon, Washington and Northern California, where snow, ice and gusty winds are causing treacherous road conditions.

A winter storm warning is set for Portland, Oregon, and a winter storm watch is set for Seattle, which is expected to see heavy snow and gusty winds. There is even a blizzard warning for the Columbia River Gorge.

Part of that western storm is moving quickly east, and will bring an icy mix to the Mid-Atlantic by Saturday evening into Sunday, where a winter storm watch has been posted for Washington, D.C.

By Sunday night into Monday, a third storm will move out of the West and slide south into Texas and Oklahoma.

A winter storm watch has been issued for Dallas, Oklahoma City and nearly all the way down to the Mexican border. Heavy snow and gusty winds are expected there.

This third storm is then expected to move to the East Coast. It will bring an icy mix to the I-95 corridor and heavy snow inland.

With all these storms coming up over the next five to seven days, almost all lower 48 states will see some sort of wintry precipitation accumulation, even as far south as San Antonio, Texas, and Jackson, Mississippi.

Apart from that, dangerous cold air will pour into the South, reaching Texas by Sunday into Monday.

Wind chills could reach below-zero temperatures even as far south as Dallas and Austin, Texas.

The North will also see some cold. Winds chills could dip as low as -60 degrees and frost bite could set in on exposed skin in as little as five minutes.

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February 11, 2021 • No Comments • National News

kali9/iStockBy MEREDITH DELISO, ABC News

(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Assault charges against two Buffalo, New York, police officers seen in a video shoving a 75-year-old man to the ground during a protest last year have been dropped, prosecutors announced Thursday.

Officers Aaron Torgalski and Robert McCabe faced felony assault charges over the June 4 incident at Niagara Square. In the video, protester Martin Gugino is seen walking in the direction of the officers before they are seen pushing him. Gugino fell flat onto his back and bumped the back of his head on the concrete, video shows.

The grand jury voted to “no bill” the case, ultimately dismissing the charges, Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said during a press briefing Thursday.

Flynn defended his decision to bring charges against the officers.

“To this day, I’ll stand by the fact that charges should have been charged, and there was probable cause at that time to charge that offense, and I stand by that,” Flynn said. “I make no apologies for it.”

The grand jury proceedings are sealed and Flynn was unable to elaborate on what happened, but he said prosecutors “put all relevant evidence” before the grand jury, including multiple witnesses.

“I sandbagged nothing,” he said. “You have my word on that.”

Both officers, who were suspended after the incident, entered not guilty pleas during their arraignment in June. The case was delayed getting to the grand jury due to COVID-19 restrictions that had closed the courts, Flynn said.

Joseph Latona, the attorney for Torgalski, told ABC News they were “obviously very pleased” by the grand jury’s decision.

“We feel they made the right decision,” he said. “And obviously it was their decision to make.”

Thomas Burton, the attorney for McCabe, told ABC News they are focused on getting the officers “back in the saddle where they belong.”

“Nobody wanted to see Mr. Gugino get hurt, but this did not happen because these two cops sought out to hurt anyone,” Burton said. “The bottom line is, there’s nothing malevolent here.”

Both officers remain suspended pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation. It is unclear at this point when that will be completed, Buffalo Police Department Captain Jeff Rinaldo told ABC News Thursday.

The Buffalo police union issued a statement in support of the officers following the grand jury’s decision.

“As we have stated all along, Officers McCabe and Torgalski were simply following departmental procedures and the directives of their superiors to clear Niagara Square despite working under extremely challenging circumstances.”

Gugino was among fewer than 20 demonstrators protesting against the death of George Floyd in Minnesota while in police custody. The protest occurred after a Buffalo curfew, Flynn noted.

“There was a curfew, and he broke the law,” Flynn said. “He should not have been shoved. He should have been arrested peacefully.”

ABC News reached out to Gugino’s attorney for comment.

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February 11, 2021 • No Comments • National News

ChristopherBernard/iStockBy EMILY SHAPIRO, ABC News

(FORT WORTH, Texas) — Multiple people are trapped following a freeway pileup in Fort Worth, Texas, according to the Fort Worth Fire Department.

The number of people trapped was not immediately clear.

Fort Worth police blamed the I-35 crash on the weather — freezing rain has caused slick roads in the Fort Worth area.

pic.twitter.com/G41eVxBxUJ

— Fort Worth Fire Department (@FortWorthFire) February 11, 2021

The accident scene covers about 1.5 miles, ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA-TV reported.

“Expect lengthy delays,” police warned in a tweet. “I-35 is backed up in both directions from I30 to 820.”

“If you are involved in a minor accident with no injuries, please exchange information and continue on safely. You can then notify your insurance when you arrive at your destination,” police tweeted.

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February 10, 2021 • No Comments • National News

ramihalim/iStockBy JULIA JACOBO, ABC News

(LOS ANGELES) — Juvenile great white shark populations have been increasingly moving up the California coast as climate change warms ocean waters, according to a new study.

The marine predators typically remain in warmer waters in the Southern California current, but an “unprecedented” number of sightings emerged in central California during the 2014 to 2016 heatwave, and now the sharks have migrated even farther north, the study, published Monday in Nature Scientific Reports, states.

A “dramatic increase” in baby great white sharks has been found off Monterey Bay since 2014, especially in juvenile sharks less than 2.5 meters in body length, according to the study. Small white sharks had been reported in the area prior to 2014, but the presence of juveniles had been “non-existent or extremely rare” before that point, scientists said.

Monterey Bay has always been home to larger great white sharks, but they had never ventured so far north because it was too cold, Dr. Salvadore Jorgensen, Ph.D, research associate at the University of California, Santa Cruz and one of the authors of the study, told ABC News.

The emergence of the juvenile white shark populations was “unexpected, sudden and outpaced established scientific monitoring programs,” the study states.

The baby sharks prefer a “Goldilocks” temperature range of between 60 and 70 degrees, which has shifted about 175 miles north since 2014, Jorgensen said. Through historical records and satellite imagery, the researchers determined that they are tracking a warming ocean, he said.

Juvenile white sharks on the West Coast typically reside in nursery areas off northern Mexico and southern California, and they remain in a “relatively narrow” temperature band, which is a distinct pattern within white shark populations, researchers said. White sharks are “unique” because they are endotherms, mammal-like with warm bodies, and the smaller sharks are unable to maintain the temperature in colder temperatures, Jorgensen said.

The growing migration is signaling the “real danger” of climate change and “the way that oceans are changing so quickly,” he added.

However, although the juvenile sharks have been migrating north, their overall habitat has declined as climate change redistributes marine species and ecosystems, according to the study.

The ecosystem in the Northeast Pacific waters has experienced extreme conditions over the past decade, highlighted by unusually warm conditions from 2013 to 2016, according to the study. In the fall of 2014, a warm mass of surface water, often described as the “Pacific Warm Anomaly” or “the Blob” entered Southern California and created persistent warm waters that endured the El Nino events in 2015 to 2016 and 2018 to 2019, scientists said.

The warming anomalies over multiple years has caused widespread shifts in species, multiple unusual mortality events and impact to commercial fisheries across the region.

In addition, the sharks are the “single greatest mortality source” facing Southern sea otters as reports of strandings of the threatened species with shark bites increase. When the juvenile white sharks bite the sea otters, it is investigative, rather than consumptive, as sea otters and their lack of blubber are not a food source for great white sharks, according to the study.

The shift in shark population is also significant because it can potentially create problems with commercial fisheries, protected species conservation and public safety concerns, according to the study.

It was members of the communities that discovered the uptick of juvenile white sharks in the area, Jorgensen said.

“It was our job as scientists to find out what’s happening,” he added.

Kelly Sorenson, owner of the On The Beach Surf Shop in Monterey, told ABC News that he was surfing with his sons at Del Monte Beach on the south end of Monterey Bay in 2019 when they saw a juvenile shark about 20 yards out. However, he said he was not threatened by the young shark’s presence.

“You’re already aware, swimming in that zone,” he said. “You know, they’re juvenile. As long as mommy’s not out there, that’s fine.”

In May 2020, a surfer was killed in a shark attack about 100 yards off the shore of Manresa State Beach on the north end of Monterey Bay.

A drone photographer told local Bay Area news station KRON at the time that he had observed dozens of great white sharks swimming in the area in the days before the attack

Sorensen said that while he believes drones are making the sharks more visible, he is now “more aware” that they’re out there.

“They’re the talk of the town when people see them,” he said.

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February 10, 2021 • No Comments • National News

ABC NewsBy DANIEL MANZO, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — The winter blast that is occurring across much of the country is going to get worse before it gets better.

On Wednesday, winter weather alerts stretch nearly coast to coast, affecting at least 100 million Americans, due to several major weather concerns.

Arctic Air is locked in place over much of the Midwest and Chicago will see its sixth straight day below freezing, with at least another full week or more of the same weather expected.

The Arctic air has pushed the jet stream pretty far south and is causing several storms expected to move across the country in the coming week.

A major concern is an ice storm that will develop from Texas to mid-Atlantic over the next few days with rounds of freezing rain and snow hitting the region through Friday.

Ice accumulation will cause power outages and dangerous travel for the next few days as well.

As the precipitation becomes all snow in the mid-Atlantic, it will accumulate locally over 6 inches of snow, especially in the higher elevations from Virginia to Pennsylvania with the heaviest and most organized snow for the mid-Atlantic coming on Friday.

There could be, locally, over a half inch of ice — especially in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky — and this could have major impacts on the region through the end of the week.

Additionally, a winter storm will hit Oregon and Washington on Thursday and Friday, including Portland and Tacoma.

Locally, up to 1 to 8 inches of snow is possible, including freezing rain which could have major impacts in those metro areas.

A look ahead at the computer models shows this Arctic blast is going to get much worse this weekend and early next week.

Computer guidance suggests the bitter cold will make a surge into the southern U.S. and expand eastward, especially Sunday and Monday.

This will likely result in widespread record lows in the central U.S., where temperatures at times could be 50 degrees below average.

This will force the jet stream to become quite amplified and still favor storms to track along the southern U.S. and then up the East Coast.

Simply put, the recipe for more impactful weather, mainly in the form of snow and ice will remain across much of the U.S. through the next week.

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