>> take a look at this. our winter weather alert continues this noon. a little spinout there. the heaviest snowfall is under way right now and as you can see because of this transportation officials are urging people to stay off the roads entirely. the dangerous road conditions are already causing problems out there. wow. well the snow is piling up across the region and it's expected to last through this afternoon. jacqui jeras is timing it all out and joins us now with a look

at the first forecast. jacqui? >> wow, it is really coming down right now outside of our windows. visibility is down to almost nothing. you can see this very intense snow band right across the district. it is just shifted southward inside of the beltway. they're getting snow now in fredricksburg and still getting reports in southern maryland, though, of rain and then a little sleet mixing in from time to time. i want to show you the snowfall rates because this is really key at this time and what's going to help this to accumulate very very quickly. and it's this green band that we're seeing here from annapolis stretching through to washington, d.c. and just down to the south and the west. south of fairfax and down towards manassas and in that green band, we're estimating an inch and a half to two inches per hour is coming down. and that is really going to total up in bringing down that visibility. so this is really the worst that we've seen in the downtown area. now, notice we have a little bit of a brighter spot down here between fredricksburg through charles county stretching over just to the north and we've got

some darker blues patching in along the blue ridge and areas off to the west. i want to show you the conditions downtown because our temperatures started in the 40's in the overnight and have been plummeting ever since that time. and now, we're at that critical temperature in d.c. with 32 degrees meaning if you're still seeing some slush in spots or wet spots, that's going to go away very rapidly and we could see a little bit of a flash freeze on the roadways. our visibility is well below a mile all across the region. making it really tough to see on those roadways and you can see the progression of that arctic air as it spreads in across this region. the heavy bands of snow will continue through late afternoon and then we'll watch it taper off in the evening hours. by 9:00 toneight, we're done with this. clearing skies overnight and plummeting temperatures. coming up in a few minimum from the belfort furniture weather center, i'll have your snow photos plus we'll take a look at numbers that we've seen across the region. you have to use two hands to count it already in a few spots.

autria and jummy back to you. >> areas to our north will see some of the most snow from this system. our john gonzalez live in frederick this noon with a look at the conditions there. john? >> jummy, good afternoon. boy, it is really coming down here in frederick and it has been for about six hours. it has been relentless. hard snow and it's that wet, dense, heavy snow. take a look at crestwood drive here. this is a back road leading to one of the neighborhoods here in frederick, maryland, just to give you an idea of what the secondary roads look like. not a whole lot of pavement there. and that's after many, many plows have gone through. this car has been parked here all day and gives you an indication of how much snow has fallen here in frederick, maryland. a good five six inches of snow. these folks here have been very busy. this is a plow driver that we found moments ago. sir, how long have you been working today? >> since 5:00 this morning. >> what have you seen out here? >> a lot of snow. >> how long will you be out here and how much have you been plowing? >> until it stops and we'll get everything cleared out in the

parking lot. >> seen any messes out there? >> oh yeah. we've seen quite a few messes really. it's nasty. >> that's from a plow driver himself. we'll continue to walk down the parking lot. this parking lot has been plowed a number of times in the last hour. take a look. it's quickly as they plow it it gets covered up once again. nice covering of snow at this hour. we'll talk to this gentleman here. it's been driving and it's been slick, you say. >> it's very slick yes. they've been plowing but haven't got them down very much yet. >> have you had any bad experiences so far today? >> we slipped a little bit going down. we went over to wal-mart and the roads weren't really good. >> so you heard from two drivers there, very slick out here in frederick. again, five, six inches and it's cold at last check about 30 degrees. so it's definitely under freezing right now. reporting live in frederick, john gonzalez abc 7 news. >> our team coverage continues now on the roadways. suzanne kennedy has been driving around all morning long monitoring the conditions for

you. she is live now on the outer loop of the beltway in bethesda with an update from mobile track 7. suzanne? >> it's been fascinating to see how things have changed throughout the day with some rain, some sleet, some snow and then back to rain and now we're in an all snow event right now. we are on river road beltway at river road. we are in bethesda and people are going very slowly right now. 30, 40 miles an hour in a 55-mile-an-hour zone. you may be able to see in front of me right now, there are plow trucks that are out here there are trucks that are treating the roadways and there is also a tow truck that's working its way across the beltway right now. mostly what we're seeing right now are vehicles dealing with the conditions that we have in front of us. i want to show you some still photos that we took earlier today and some video. we'll go to the video first and the video shows something very interesting. we saw up in frederick county where a plow truck had gone right off the side of the road

and couldn't handle the conditions they were experiencing and they had to bring out heavy machinery to pull it out on the side of the road and the ditch that it found itself into it. i want to show you some still photos. these were captured on i-340 eastbound. lots of cars over the side of the road. smaller vehicles that couldn't handle the conditions. and slid right off the roadway. a lot of people are overdriving the conditions and not knowing what they were doing and choosing, perhaps, to drive a little too quickly for conditions. let's go back now to what you can see right here on the beltway. we are at river road. we are driving no more than about 35 miles an hour. not too many vehicles out here as there would be at 12:05 on any given thursday. you can see me there's a plow train dealing with the conditions right now. maryland state highway administration said it put out about 2400 pieces of equipment to deal with the conditions that we are experiencing and they are deteriorating rapidly.

i can tell you we have seen many vehicles traveling just too fast. both tractor-trailers and individual personal vehicles. so if you do have to come out today, best advice will leave plenty of time and also do not drive to -- too quickly. in some cases, there's ice patches and that will cause problems for people who are driving around the area this afternoon. back to you guys. >> ok suzanne. you guys stay safe. thank you. here's what you need to know if you plan to take metro. all metro access service for the day is suspended. right now bus service is on a moderate snow plan and that means that some routes on hilly or narrow streets are suspended and other routes will take detours. metro rail plans to operate on a normal schedule but warns delays are possible. a snow emergency in effect in the district. and that means cars must be moved from emergency snow routes or you'll be towed and drivers fined. at a press conference this morning, d.c. officials said they are doing trash collection today but may not get to

everyone. anyone whose trash isn't picked up is being asked to hold on until next thursday. the d.c. citizens snow team is also out in full force helping residents in need. >> we focus on vulnerable populations, helping people in need and it's good because they may not be as flexible and able to get out and shovel their snow. and neighbors who volunteer and sign up are not only doing something good for their neighbor but helping out the district of columbia. >> serve d.c. says one of its main focuses today is helping shovel snow for elderly residents and churches. road crews are out in full force. linda grant from the d.c. department of public works joins us now on the phone with what's being done right now. linda? >> hi. what we have now we've got about 200 plus vehicles that are out there, we're in a plowing situation situation. we've had some accumulation of

snow over the last couple of hours. we've had these trucks they've been on their routes since 2:00 this morning in preparation for this snow. we have a snow emergency in effect. it went into effect at 7:00 in the morning which means that there should be no vehicles out on snow emergency routes. otherwise, if it's $250 ticket and you can't be towed, also i want to say about trash and recycling collections, our crews are doing their absolute best and get as many as the recycling and trash cans collected today and that is our commitment. however, if conditions should prevent getting to your house, please hold on to your trash and recycling until your next collection day. >> linda what are the conditions right now on the streets of the district? have you heard from your crews who are out there on the

roadway? >> yes. the streets are -- they are snow covered. there are areas where, you know it's a little warmer and we've got several climates in the district. so in the warmer parts, you know downtown areas maybe not as much has accumulated on the streets. but in the outer areas of the district, we do have accumulating on the street, that's why we're in a plowing operation. would like to let you know that when we start a deployment, we have in addition to our heavy plows that are handling the main streets, we also have plows that are operating on 82 routes that we call these our residential routes residential streets that are particularly challenging, they are in hilly areas of the city but i do want to let the

public know that we do address residential and commercial streets simultaneously. >> thanks for joining us. >> you're welcome. >> more coverage of this winter weather alert far from over this noon. >> we'll check in with jacqui jeras for a look at current snow totals and how much more is expected to come down and we'll take you inside the maryland operations center where they are keeping a close eye on the roadways. we are showing you a live look here so you can barely make it out because of all the snow.

>> welcome back. this is a live look at the beltway near i-66 where you can see at tch time hour not a whole lot of cars are out there on the roadways. as we know, a lot of folks have the day off from work today because of this snowstorm and we're seeing this snow across the entire viewing area. one of our photographers joins us on the phone from harpers ferry, west virginia. how is it looking? >> jummy, it's been snowing since about sunrise this morning. is heedy as she goes. we have about six inches on the ground and in on this car as you can see here. we're coming to you live stream. all of the cameras here at wjla have this new technology where all photographers can go live for breaking news. as you can see, the roads are not plowed here at harpers ferry on the side road. i'll zoom down to the street there. they've made one pass earlier

today. the last storm caused quite a problem. they had major backups a couple of weeks ago so here we are at harpers ferry, winter's wonderland with six inches on the ground. >> sounds good. look at technology thanks rich. >> that was rich showing boss this is why i didn't make it in today. this is my road in harpers ferry. i can't get out. >> for us we're not going to be getting home. we'll be camping out here a little while. we're in the thick of it right now. >> isn't slowing down any time soon. >> it's not. heavy band is starting to shift a little bit south and by my estimate here, everything that we've been seeing on my radar and looking at some of the snow rates accumulations behind the scenes i'm thinking southeast d.c. towards suitland into bowie, you are the folks that are getting the heaviest accumulating snow as we speak. it's still coming down really good in other sports too, from winchester, down to front royal.

and a few of you are still waiting on that snow to begin and that's the story in extreme southern maryland, a lot of this pink still here is rain. we're getting reports of sleet pushing into that region as well. heavy snow will continue through the middle of the afternoon and the numbers will continue to go up. a little tour here on the weather bug network. this ground here in alexandria was bare. everything now is coated in white. 33 degrees now in alexandria. rockville started bare in this parking lot this morning. 27 degrees and a little icy underneath that snow that's adding up in the parking lot and montgomery college and in laurel maryland look at that someone is out driving around. you shouldn't be out in this stuff. it's definitely hazardous all across the region. the numbers are coming in. these are preliminary but look at it so impressive. seven inches now in winchester. six inches in frederick, maryland.

four inches in front royal and around four in germantown as well. you've been sending us your photos and thank you for doing so. keep sending them to us on our facebook page and if you tweet them, make sure you use the #dmvsnow and that way everybody here at abc 7 can get your photos and you'll have a better chance of getting them on the air. this photo was taken earlier this morning that really tells the story of how the roads are getting covered and becoming very icy. this is from dave johnson in ashburn, virginia. and the roadways are not only bad but the airways are as well. many, many cancellations and i know some flights have been getting in and out at dulles airport. kids are home today. schools are closed. having a good time in the snow here. this is sledding in barryville, virginia where five inches are on the ground there. temperatures in the lower 30's. everybody at or above freezing there. we have some snow and sleet covering the ground here.

33 in lexington park. 30 in andrews and really going to be icy now with the temperatures in the lower 20's to our north and west. and they're just going to continue to drop now through the rest of today and into tonight. as we look at the broader view here, you can really see that feed of moisture that stretches all across the northeast, mid atlantic, all the way down into the deep south. this moisture actually goes past mexico. that's how impressive this is. our futurecast will show you into the afternoon hours, we'll continue to watch that heavier band shifting south now of i-66 and highway 50 and as you head through the late afternoon hours and early evening, it's going to start to taper off with just snow showers in our northwestern zones and starting to intensify, perhaps, in parts of southern maryland. late to mid this evening, it will all come to an end and our skies are going to be clearing out through the overnight hours. when we're done, h expecting? somewhere around six to nine inches for you in winchester through loudoun county to

montgomery county three to seven inches for d.c. down towards manassas and two to five inches in our southern suburbs. temperatures tonight could reach record lows. we're looking at single digits to lower teens. it is going to be very cold all through the day tomorrow as well. our highs only reaching about 30 degrees. if you're tired of winter my friends, get out of the way and show you a little bit of good news. there is your seven-day forecast it's going to take a bit to recover tomorrow staying below freezing but the sunshine will be out. the warming trend will continue this weekend with 40's and next week, we have 50 degree temperatures. i don't want to say it outloud but i'll just knock on wood and i'll say it anyway. right now, i'm not seeing any snow in our seven day forecast. just getting warmer after today. after today. >> finally, halleleujah! >> we have turned the corner. >> all right. thank you, jacqui. well, the snow has been coming down here in arlington for several hours now. >> our eileen whelan has been tracking the conditions all morning long and she is live outside the abc 7 studios with

an update and her shovel. eileen? >> my shovel. exactly. i figured, you know if nothing else, i can kind of help some of the people here. i don't know if i'm doing that good of a shovel. but anyways, really heavy, heavy snow here. i don't know why i put it up there, folks are going to be going, what is she doing? it's snowing and coming down pretty good. it's a heavy heavy wet snow. it's pretty good for some awesome snowballs. all right, anyways, you can see the road conditions behind me. they are definitely snow covered and still a little bit of slush. as the temperature continues to fall, it may ice up a little bit on top of that. some of the big flakes continuing to fall here in arlington, i did a little snow earlier. you're actually going to be looking at it backwards but i am snow over it. how about you? we've been asking you all day can you tell? we want your pictures #dmvsnow.

share them with us and let's make the best of it. hopefully this is the last one this season. back inside to you. >> eileen we can't use the words that we would say to talk about how over it we are. thank you very much. well diane cho is tracking all the road conditions in maryland for us this noon as she is live from the maryland operations center right now. diane? >> well autria as you can see behind me here they have cameras all over the state keeping a close eye on the conditions out there and we've been watching this what once was an overturned box truck out there. it's upright again on the beltway in prince george's county on the outer loop at branch avenue. we're told that fortunately, there weren't any serious injuries involved there but we've seen several accidents out there and incidents out there since we've been here for the last couple of hours. if we zoom out a little bit, we can see the other cameras here to the left. we can see the snow is coming down at a pretty steady rate in some areas across the state. >> conditions are going to

deteriorate and we have to worry about refreezing tonight. even if we get everything plowed and salted temperatures are going to drop down to the teens tonight. going to be a lot of refreezing. got to be careful out there. >> they have about 2700 pieces of equipment out there. salting and plowing and they will likely continue throughout the night. in hanover, diane cho, abc 7 news. >> the roads aren't the only problem today. right now, we want to take a live look at i-270 right near 370. airports, they are also a mess. up and down the east coast. we will check in on the conditions at reagan national next. the world is filled with air. but for people with copd sometimes breathing air can be difficult. if you have copd, ask your doctor about once-daily anoro ellipta.

it helps people with copd breathe better for a full 24hours. anoro ellipta is the first fda-approvct containing two long-acting bronchodilators in one inhaler. anoro is not for asthma. anoro contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. it is not known if this risk is increased in copd. anoro won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition, or high blood pressure. tell your doctor if you have glaucoma, prostate or bladder problems, or problems passing urine as anoro may make these problems worse. call your doctor right away if you have worsened breathing chest pain, swelling of your mouth or tongue, problems urinating or eye problems including vision changes or eye pain while taking anoro. nothing can reverse copd. the world is filled with air

and anoro is helping people with copd breath air better.

>> new video just in of a delta plane that skid off a runway at laguardia airport and crashed through a fence. no injuries are reported and right now, passengers are getting off the plane and then trudging through the snow to the airport. laguardia airport will remain closed until at least 7:00 tonight. well, this winter storm is causing major travel troubles throughout the country. thousands of flights have already been canceled and our chris pabst is live at reagan national airport with a look at the impact on the skies. that cancellation gordy tweeted chris unbelievable. >> of the thousands of flights that have been canceled around the country as you mentioned, 460 of them alone are at this airport. this airport usually has about 850 flights a day. that's a little bit more than half that have already been canceled. most going into the early

afternoon or later evening hours. if you look behind me here, you can see they are trying to keep the runways open. as of now, the runways are still open. not many planes are going in and out of here. maybe one every 20 minutes, one every half-hour. it's pretty rare. when they do take off, normally we can hear them. but with the conditionsn't see them all that well. with 460 flights canceled, of course, this is affecting hundreds of people. the trains the amtraks getting people to where they need to go. a lot of these people can't get there because the amtraks are sold out. we spoke to a couple of people who came here from richmond. they didn't think that in march, they would have to worry about this cancelling their trip. they scheduled a trip to barcelona, spain. they got to go from here to j.f.k. couldn't get on amtrak because, as i said it's already been sold out. they don't know what they're going to be able to do. it took months and a lot of money to plan this entire trip. they may not be able to leave now until sunday. do we have a plane leaving? we have a plane leaving right now here behind us. just took off.

heading up into the whiteness. of the sky and the snow. here's what the ladies had to say. >> i'm really hopeful. it's not sticking or anything and no blizzard or anything. i was kind of shocked once i got here to hear my flight got canceled. >> as of right now, they have no idea what they're going to do. maybe staying the night here in the terminal. >> what a place to stay the night, chris. amtrak modified its schedule around the region today. acela express and northeast regional service will operate between d.c. and new york city but just not as frequently. keystone service from harrisburg, pennsylvania and philadelphia and new york city will also modify its schedule. shuttle service across most of new england will operate as normal. marc train and v.r.e. service have been canceled. and our team coverage of this march snowstorm continues. >> coming up we will be back

out in d.c., maryland and virginia checking on the conditions.

>> you are watching abc 7 news at noon, on your side. autria: the national guard is staged for snow and possible flooding. brianne carter is live with a look at conditions.