The most powerful storm of the winter season pounded Colorado with up to 6 feet of snow in the Rocky Mountain foothills and forced the cancellation of more than 600 flights in Denver before heading east toward the central plains.

Wake County residents who sought the meteorological wisdom of groundhogs Wednesday got a decidedly mixed message.

Every Feb. 2, a slew of weather-predicting rodents lift their noses in the air to test winter's strength, offering groundhog-hole predictions from Punxsutawney, Pa., down to Lilburn. Ga. But the best guesser comes from Garner.

Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil told people to prepare for six more weeks of winter on Thursday, making him the minority opinion among his groundhog brethren who seem to think that spring is coming early.

Temperatures in the Triangle may reach 70 degrees today.

A line of rare winter tornadoes roared through Alabama early Monday morning, ripping apart homes and businesses and prompting the state's governor to declare a state of emergency. Two people were reported killed.

Winter's one-month birthday passed in Raleigh without an icicle, a snowflake or a day below freezing - great news if you sell popsicles, bad luck if you sell sleds.

Cold air is rushing into the Triangle.

Tornadoes apparently touched down Wednesday evening in the North Carolina foothills northwest of Charlotte, flattening buildings and trapping some people in the wreckage of their homes.

After several days of unusual warmth, the Triangle is in for a short cold snap this week. Temperatures won't rise above the 30s today, but the coldest air comes tonight.

A cold front is heading toward North Carolina, bringing snow and wind chills below zero to the state's highest peaks.

When a tornado upended their lives in April, a home for the holidays seemed an impossible wish for the Miller family. But if this year taught the family anything, it is to expect the unexpected. Theirs comes in a new 2,000-square-foot home finished just in time for Christmas.

The city has hired a contractor to remove storm debris left in streams by the April 16 tornadoes, the latest step in a cleanup eight months in the making.

Violent winds that wreaked havoc in Western states eased Friday but hundreds of thousands of people remained without power and crews struggled to clean up smashed trees, toppled power lines and debris-strewn roadways.

The sun-baked northern states of Mexico are suffering under the worst drought since the government began recording rainfall 70 years ago. Crops of corn, beans and oats are withering in the fields. About 1.7 million cattle have died.

A day after deadly tornadoes struck the Southeast, survivors looked for what they could salvage, huddled in loved ones' hospital rooms and shared stories of how they made it through the furious storms.