here's rob marciano. >> reporter: tonight, 43 wildfires in the southeast burning across 8 states, investigators saying some of those fires were intentionally set and already making arrests. including 21-year-old johnny mullins, who allegedly confessed he set the fire in attention to his facebook page. >> got some forest fires here. >> reporter: the aspiring weatherman, seen here warning people to be aware of flames, now facing a felony arson charge. smoke from the fires fanning out hundreds of miles. spreading a haunting haze across the southern sky. >> the smoke almost blocks out the sun. >> reporter: in lake lure, north carolina, this brush fire engulfing the entire hillside, forcing some families to flee their homes. >> it's devastating and heartbreaking. any rain on the way for the south? >> there is some rain in the southeast, but not for the fire zone. take a look at the radar. it's close, in the carolinas, but the fires are in the dry air. it's going to go up the east coast, and tomorrow, along the i-95, not a lot of heavy rain. but some rain, nonetheless. but through the next five or ei

. >>> let's go right now to meteorologist rob marciano along the west sideig >> reporter: hey, byron. traffic is heavy here, but it's dry across the east coast. not going to last, though. we've got a large system that stretches from canada all the way to mexico. look at the radar. some wet snow across the noern great lakes. heavy rain from detroit back to chicago, south to i-70. and thunderstorms this morning across texas have weakened along interstate 10. tomorrow, that front moves off to the east, but kind of weakens. winter precip into western pennsylvania and western new into the pacific northwest. safe travels to everyone on this holiday. byron? >> rob, thank you so much. >>> next, president-elect donald trump and his family have already made their holiday getaway. arriving last night at the airport in palm beach, florida. they're spending thanksgiving at their mar-a-lago resort. for mr. trump, it is also a working holiday. he's named two new members of his cabinet. abc's mary bruce is in palm beach tonight. >> reporter: tonight, donald trump's luxury mar-a-lago resort, now a sec

. >>> let's get right to rob marciano with the track of this thing. >> it's a powerful, pattern-busting storm. severe storms, and rain turns to wind-driven snow and lake effect snow. warnings up for western new york already. lakes. will feel like the teens in chicago and pittsburgh, 20s in d.c. and atlanta. a rude awakening after a mild fall. david? >> thank you. >>> next tonight, chaos on a highway after a school bus driver loses control. at least 23 students among the injured tonight. two with critical injuries. this evening, the investigation. >> reporter: this was supposed to be a scholastic achievement trip for dozens of high school students from chester county, tennessee. but instead tonight, 23 of them are recovering from injuries on the highway, after one of their school buses lost control exiting onto this offramp. >> and it flipped back over to the left side and it turned over. >> reporter: first responders outside nashville needed a long line of stretchers. students who weren't hurt stood together, and prayed for those who were. there were three buses total. all headed to the

. >>> let's get right out to rob marciano. where is the storm now, and where is it heading next? >> reporter: it's centered in northern new england, but what's remarkable, how much snow has fallen away from the lake effect snow zone. look at the radar. it's still coming down in parts of the hudson valley. accumulating heavily east of albany. with over a foot of snow. piling up along i-80. want to show you as what's going on as far as windchills. tomorrow, 23 in cincinnati. 28 in atlanta. so, a cold blast of winter after what's been a pretty mild fall. dan? >> rob, thank you. >>> adding insult to injury for any travelerorried about this, thousands of workers at chicago's o'hare airport are preparing to go on strike week. airports across the country looking to avoid long lines like we saw last summer. here now, gloria riviera. >> reporter: tonight, fears an already hectic travel season could be even worse. 2,000 employees working at major hub, chicago o'hare, from baggage handlers to cleaning crews, are poised to strike over low wages. in a statement, american airlines said, "we ar

marciano, tracking it all for us. >> reporter: hi, david. another day here in the northeast of soaking rain. south.e rough stuff isn the soe begithere. thats.a tornado warning out rig for charlotte, north carolin a dangerous situation there. you certainly want t be takin cover. and these storms roll all the way down to fla. with the bad has come the good. fi inches of record-breaking rainknoxville. some of that getting into the re zone, helping that situation for sure. tomorrow morning, the heavy rai moving into the northeast. wintry precip in through maine and heavy rain through boston. by tomoow, it moves offshore, and finally, some quiet weather for two days. that will be good. >>> we also have new reporting tonight after that deadly plane crash. the horrific scene, that tea celebrating a cinderella season, then almost every one of them dying on that flight. thehagh gng in bad weather in colombia, with that brazili soccer team -boa this veo fmir sco knee we are now hearing recordingsf thes desper wordsn the final moments. here's abc's dav

. >>> let's check the forecast yet again with rob marciano. hey, man. >> for a lot of people right now it's the since last winter. the codest stuff getting into the south. 29 it feels like in charlotte, 34 in nashville and a lot of places with that cold sinking air dealing with some smoke from the wildfires. we'll see moderating temperatures through the day. another storm coming into the pacific northwest. they could have used more rain in seattle. i'm not sure what a help washington's -- usc's defense had. wind and rain and up into portland and seattle, 2 to 4 thursday and friday into this week. much cler weather, some much needed snow and this may shift things up into the central plains, as well, come the end of the week. th kelly ann: endingffweekend on a. sunshine in place. temperatures inching toward 60. we're near 60 tomorrow. rain creeps in on tuesday. we'll start to cool down into the 50's. our next warm-up heads our w by late week and into the weekend. >> this weather report is brought to you by mcdonald's. a super-duper full moon ton

. >> eva, just an awful story, thank you for your reporting rob marciano for a look at the weather. good morning, rob. >> have some incredible pictures to show you out of el paso, texas. hail that accumulated across el paso. at times shutting down interstate 10 with some drainage piling up three, four, five, six inches of accumulation, not snow. hail and this is from a stubborn low pressure over the four corners and look for rain across parts of new mexico. flash flooding there yesterday. probably see a little more today. highway 27 closed for a time. ahead of that, though, we continue this very, very mild trend across the center part of the country, way above normal for a spectacular kelly ann: good saturday morning. i'm meteorologist kelly ann cicalese. a chilly start to your saturday, but we will see some of that sun break through this afternoon. temperatures managing to hit the low to mid 50's. clouds late this afternoon and evening, but staying relatively dry. next chance of rain could bring a few sprinkles as we move out to the coast and also t for your sunday afternoon. here'

more from abc's rob marciano. >> reporter: 43,000 wildfires investigators saying some of the fires were intentionally set, and, already, made arrests including this 21-year-old who allegedly confessed he set the fire in eastern kentucky to draw attention to his facebook page. >> before the fire -- >> reporter: the aspiring weather man seen here warning people to be aware of flames now facing a felony arson charge. smoke from the fire spanning a haze across the southern sky. >> the smoke blocks out the sun. >> reporter: this brush fire ungefling the hillside, forcing some to flee their homes. >> it's devastating and heart breaking. >> reporter: there was some rain in the southeast sunday, but only in the eastern carolinas, not the fire zone, and the forecast for the next week does not call for significant rain there. abc news, new york. >>> our thanks to rob. looking at the weather now for the rest of the country, it's mostly sunny around washington, and the northwest is likely to see heavy rain today. >>> high temperatures around 60 in the northeast, not bad. 81 in my miami, 70 in denve

abc's rob marciano has all the latest. good morning, reporting on the extreme drought, the fires and the rain that was finally to come last night but before that happened the winds cranked and the fire spread. >> huge fire. blown out of control right now. >> reporter: overnight wildfires raging across eastern tennessee. burning at least 100 homes. >> yeah, it's time to go. >> reporter: forcing evacuations and threatening one of the area's biggest tourist attractions, dollywood. >> if you are a person that prays we could use your prayers. destination turned into an orange armageddon. smoke and ash filling the streets downtown. owners trying to protect hotels and lodges already lit up with holiday lights. more than 10,000 animals are trapped at ripley's aquarium of the smokies. the fires fanned by strong winds up to 60 miles per hour and the southeast's worst drought in a decade. >> conditions are extremely dangerous. stay off the downtown gatlinburg as authorities order a mandatory evacuation there in oh, my god. it's so ho