Good morning, everyone. I'm Kate Baldwin. It's Monday, February 23rd. Here are the five things you need to know to start your day.

Number one, the blizzard. The Northeast is getting walloped. Once again, this snowstorm hitting hard enough that the weather peeps say that it's reached bomb cyclone status.

More than 40 million people are under blizzard warnings.

More than a foot of snow fell in a matter of hours in many cities across along the East Coast overnight.

Power has been knocked out for more than 300,000 people. In New Jersey, this is the first time in 30 years the entire state is facing blizzard conditions.

It's one of at least seven states to declare a state of emergency ahead of the storm to help mobilize resources.

With snow coming down at inches per hour and wind gust topping 60 miles per hour in places,

travel in the northeast is just simply a mess and really shut down.

More than 10,000 flights have been canceled from Sunday through Tuesday.

In Long Island, a snowplow overturn causing a fuel spill that took hours to clean up.

And there's still hours to go.

Blizzard warnings are in effect through the morning hours, with snow beginning to hopefully then taper off.

Number two, the kingpin. A scary

situation unfolded in a matter of hours overnight in Mexico with a wave of

violence hitting several major Mexican cities and states after the country's

military operation that killed Mexico's most powerful cartel leader and one of

the United States's most wanted fugitives on Sunday.

You see this drone footage recording plumes of smoke rising in the streets as cartel members responded to his death.

Suspected organized crime groups, burned out cars, exchanged gunfire with police, and also blocked off roads in places.

The cartel leader at the center of this is known as El Mentioncho.

He's a former police officer who then oversaw the Halisco New Generation Cartel. The U.S. State

Department classified him as a specially designated global terrorist earlier this year.

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