Asia Cold Snap Causes Death, Travel Delays
VAUSE: It's been a rough ride for stocks in the Asia- Pacific region. Trading has wrapped up for the day in Tokyo so let's look at the numbers of the Nikkei down by 2.3 percent and the Shanghai Composite down by almost 5 percent. Hong Kong Heng Seng down by almost 2.5 percent. The Sydney exchange was closed for the Australia Day holiday. The cold snap in Asia has led to travel delays. Thousands had flights delayed in South Korea. Thousand more faced delays in China. Deaths reported in China, Taiwan and Japan, all of which are seeing historically low temperatures. Let's go to our Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for the latest on the frigid weather. It's cold out there, man.</s>PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's so cold. And it's disheartening to look at what occurred. When you see folks in Taiwan and Taipei, with the large-scale fatalities. And the human body does a fantastic job at acclimating to warm temperatures. But it takes a long time to acclimate to cold temperatures. If you live in a seasonal climate, every autumn, your body gets the initial shock when it drops. You look at across portions of Beijing. Around minus ten this time of year. On Saturday, bottomed out to minus 17. And coldest in six decades in spots. Warmed up a little. Dramatic warming trend. And we think temperatures will get above coverage over the next coming days. Minus 18. Down to minus 14. A warming trend, and the minus 6 this time of year. And Hong Kong, temperatures getting closer to average temps. The cold air where it belongs in three to four days. The cold air in Taipei, that didn't exist a couple of days ago. The overnight temperature, down to 16 after a 4 a few days ago. The rain showers come back. The temps mad rate back out. And in Seoul, we drop to around minus 18 degrees. And the trend takes you up to around 6. Just like that, things look to be changing for the better in the forecast, over this region of Asia and the warming trend continues for this region. A little cooler towards the latter portion of the week for Beijing. But nowhere near 18 below. I looked into the wind chills here with our weather producer. And the temperatures at their peak, they're dropping to around 17 below, the wind chills were minus 31 degrees in Beijing. That's enough to cause frostbite. That's a dangerous story in Asia in the last couple days.</s>VAUSE: I remember those days. Maybe not minus 30. But close to it. And it is bitter. Pedram, thank you.</s>JAVAHERI: It's brutal. Yeah.</s>VAUSE: We'd like to show you what's happening right now in the Pacific near northern California. Storms triggered by El Nino, have been tearing away cliffs. Residents at an apartment complex are under mandatory evacuation for their own safety. They can only return to their homes briefly to get the personal belongings. A short break. When we come back, Democratic candidates for president made their pitch to voters with less than one week until the Iowa caucuses. We'll have the highlights and maybe the low lights, as well.