22News at 4PM: Digital Edition 2/6/2026

streaming from the 22 News Broadcast Center. This is 22 News at four p.m. Digital edition. Hey, happy Friday. I'm Nick Oresko and thanks for joining us for 22 News at four o'clock. Top stories in just a moment. But first, we have some bitter cold and snow on the way. Meteorologist Adam Trump go tracking that as well as current traffic. That's right. Not too bad out there today. It was pretty comfortable. We do have some changes on the way, but so far traffic not being affected by the weather out there. It really shouldn't be because things have been dry, just kind of cloudy this afternoon. You can see Interstate 91 traffic moving pretty smoothly. A few delays here and there on 2 91 area 91 where a lot of the merges are otherwise traffic moving smoothly, both on the Mass Pike and again up on Interstate 91. Let's show you the temperatures out there right now in the twenties and thirties. So fairly seasonable for this time of year, 29 right now in Springfield, 28 Westfield. It's 30 degrees in Northampton, Greenfield at 31 27 in Pittsfield. But these changes, these temperatures are really going to change, I should say, as we head to the weekend, dropping dramatically winds are going to pick up and we actually have some snow to talk about coming in for tonight. We'll show that to you in just a couple of minutes, Nick. A man from Springfield will face more than a decade in state prison for firearm and drug charges. 39 year old Michael Rouse was convicted in January of trafficking large quantities of cocaine and fentanyl and various gun charges stemming from a previous motor vehicle stop. He was sentenced on Wednesday and will serve up to 18 years in state prison. The Northwestern D. A. S. Office says his sentence was enhanced by his record of multiple crimes, which includes a 2009 conviction for manslaughter. Meantime, fire crews in Springfield responded to a fire on Dawson Street this morning. We are told that Dawson Street and a portion of White Street have been closed. There's no word on a cause or if anyone was hurt. We'll continue to provide updates as soon as we get them. The U. S. Military carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Thursday, U. S. Southern Command said on social media that the boat was traveling along known narco trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco trafficking operations. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding. There it is in flames. Two people died in that strike, the latest in a series of boat attacks that began in September. This attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration's strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people. The United States and Russia have agreed to reestablish military dialogue for the first time in more than four years. The step is another sign of warming relations between the two countries since President Trump took office and sought to end the war in Ukraine. The agreement emerged from a recent meeting between senior military officials on both sides. High level military communication was suspended in 2021 ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Meantime, on Thursday, talks in Abu Dhabi between American, Russian and Ukrainian officials on ending the war entered a second day. Got some snow on the way for tonight into the day tomorrow. Adams back with more. That's right. We have issued a weather alert primarily for the extreme cold that's coming in, but we will have to deal with some snow as we head through tonight. It's not going to be all that much, especially for us here in western Massachusetts. So there's a sky cast seven o'clock, lots of clouds around. So if you have any plans this evening, you should be in pretty good shape. It's later tonight, especially as we head towards midnight. We start to see some light snow, some snow showers that's going to be with us through the overnight. So you can see at three o'clock it gets a little bit steadier, but it's mainly light overnight. Then tomorrow morning is in this line. Darker blues indicating some heavier snow showers, maybe even some snow squalls. This is the leading edge of some much colder air that's going to be working in. We're gonna see temperatures tomorrow getting up in the twenties early in the morning. But after this band of snow comes in, the temperatures drop and the winds will really pick up. But we're gonna continue the chance for some snow showers and flurries through the afternoon on Saturday. There we are at 10 a.m. Can see some of those snow showers and there we are in the afternoon hours. Some flurries and snow showers continue. It's tomorrow night that we start to see the clouds break up and skies will start to clear out with the winds are going to continue to pick up temperatures really dropping off. Actually, air temperatures down below zero, but the wind chill will make it feel like it's 25 to 35 degrees below zero Saturday night through the day on Sunday, especially in the morning hours. You can see seven o'clock we're clearing out Sunday morning, but we're gonna continue to deal with those winds throughout the day, even though we'll have plenty of sunshine. Nick 2026 Winter Olympics, otherwise known as the Milan Cortina Olympics, kicked off today in Italy. This is the most spread out Olympics in the history of its inception, with competition venues spreading across an area the same size as the state of New Jersey. And while the opening ceremony took place this afternoon, some competitions in curling and hockey have already begun. If you missed the ceremony, you can watch it. Prime time coverage tonight at eight o'clock on 22 news and ahead of the Super Bowl, a pair of Patriots coaches won big at the NFL Honors last night. Head coach Mike Rabel took home coach of the year for the second time in his career, while his offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, one assistant coach of the year, becoming the first Patriots assistant to do so. Drake May finished second in MVP voting. He came up to votes shy of winner Matthew Stafford and rookie running back. Trivion Henderson came in third for offensive rookie of the year tonight on 22 news. Starting at five o'clock, the president of Springfield City Council has been accused of committing conflicts of interest during a recent meeting will have the city's response. Plus, a dispute over a bid to audit the legislature has moved to court will tell you why two state court officers will not participate in website accessibility audits. Plus, in honor of Black History Month, we'll take an inside look in the process behind creating a black American heritage flag. Adam so far so good on this friday afternoon. And as we head to the evening hours, traffic moving pretty smoothly. Interstate 91 on the mass pike. You do see some slowdowns in 91 in the Springfield area to 91 area. Some slowdowns. It looks like route 20 out towards Wilbraham. You may have some backups there and route 20 going into Westfield as well. But overall, traffic moving pretty smoothly on this friday afternoon. Nick, we have updates all weekend long at W. W. L. P dot com. The free 22 news app and always on 22 news plus we'll see you tonight starting at five