22 in hagerstown. anything that had a chance to melt earlier today, this afternoon, will now refreeze during the overnight hours and bring us slick spots come early, early tomorrow morning. here's good news. this is the snow that's now quickly coming to an end as it moves on off towards the east notice still looking at moderate snow at this time. the further south you go into southern maryland heavier snow but the best news frederick and martinsburg and hagerstown further off to the west, cumberland, your skies are beginning to clear and the colder air beginning to funnel in from the north and west. satellite and radar, the wider view shows the snow overhead right now. that wintry mix further to the south of us and then the clouds beginning to thin out just off to the west of us. we'll end with a look at the snow totals so far today, eight inches at winchester. frederick around six inches. germantown, six inches of snow.

this is on target for the forecast that we had been planning on for the past several days. snow will come to an end. look at the temperatures in town waking up tomorrow morning, only around 10 degrees. talk about a warmup in the seven-day outlook. all that and much more coming up in a few minutes. >> thanks for not saying i told you so. let's get out to the team of reporters out there showing the conditions all across the region. >> our stormwatch team coverage continues with rich live in winchester. hi, rich. >> you how are you doing? talk about getting slammed. winchester got it pretty good here. we're talking about eight inches, that heavy, wet snow that maybe skiers like but drivers don't. look behind me. this is an access road to one of the shopping plazas we talked about this. this is the stuff that's going to freeze tonight but when we pan over further, we can see route 7. we actually have some pavement showing, folks it has been a

struggle here. look earlier, this is i-81 a little after 2:00 this afternoon, they had a car fire combined with the conditions out here and it backed up traffic in the northbound lane for quite a long time. a backup for several miles. other route as we've been talking about, route 7 pretty stubborn. they had an army of plows, vdot plows and county plows up and down this road and it still remains slushy for much of the day. this is a challenging time for drivers, even for folks with s.u.v.s. lot of folks getting weary of this. >> the roads are horrible and visibility is less than a quarter mile. a lot of snow coming down right now. >> first half was kind of not so bad with the snow you know, it's cold. hopefully it's the last one. getting tired of this?

>> yes, sir. >> yeah, a lot of folks are getting tied tired of this. the snowfall is beginning to dissipate but again the big challenge, this stuff behind me is stuff that slush will be freezing later. more challenges for drivers. in winchester richard reeve abc 7 news. >> the virginia national guard is prepared to tackle winter weather problems today. more than 60 soldiers from the 116th infantry combat team was deployed in northern virginia and the shenandoah valley. they are to get out to help first responders. some use humvees to provide transportation where heavy snow is probleminging the roads. >> we're seeing a number of crashes and slideoffs because the roads are slick and snow covered. >> that's right. montgomery county reporter kevin lewis spoke with the driver whose car ended up in a precarious position teetering on a guard rail. >> whiteout conditions along 270

in frederick county. this car slammed into a guard rail another urbana while this vehicle skated into a ditch. >> i'm lucky. i'm real lucky. >> mike snyder stood tall as this ford escort rested on its side. the seat belt and sturdy guard rail kept him safe in this curious crash. >> next thing i know i'm sliding up the hill and my gosh look where i ended up on the guard rail. thank goodness it saved me from going down this ravine. >> someone pulled up next to me and they were like hey, you you got a flat. you need help? >> tyler hit a slick spot while driving in germantown nailed the concrete curb. this was the outcome. >> too slippery. my car is just not good enough to get up those kinds of hills. it's a civic. i call it a honda sled. >> planning for the worst, montgomery county deployed the entire armada of snow plows and salt trucks. drivers say they need space to

do their job right. >> trying to maneuver around the traffic in our way is less traffic, the quicker we can do our job. >> in case you didn't know, montgomery county has a live interactive map showing which streets have and have not been plowed. we have a link to that map on our website to get there go to wjla.com. kevin lewis, abc 7 news. >> and also a driver is recovering after his box truck overturned in camp springs. it happened this morning along the outer loop near the branch avenue exit. the driver suffered minor injuries. >> cleanup there. now, let's turn to the district to see how things are shaping up there. d.c. bureau chief sam ford is live in southwest. actually northwest. sam, where are you? what's happening out there? >> i'm at dupont circle leon and take a look over there, you got a convoy of plow trucks who have been moving around the circle here today.

some 220 trucks d.c. says it has out in the city today. the federal and d.c. government were closed today and the deputy mayor for public safety said that was good. he thought if had not been closed, it would have been as he put it a dangerous rush hour. one thing the city seems to have plenty of today was taxi cabs. drivers were offered a $15 surcharge for each trip to encourage them to come out today and it seems to have worked. the surcharge ends at 7:00 tonight unless they extend it. the snow emergency declaration meant snow emergency routes had to be cleared of parked cars. $250 fines for those who didn't get the message. city officials invited reporters into the snow operation center where monitors showed conditions at numerous conditions and where public works director william howland says this is not a normal winter. >> 2011 was the last normal year that we've. 2010 we had the blizzard but we had almost 70 inches of snow in

d.c. 2012 and 2013 we had less than four inches of snow in those years. there has not been other than in the last six years, there's been one normal winter. the rest of them have either been warm or unbelievably cold. >> and we're back here live at dupont circle. there's talk there will be a snowball fight at 5:30. we'll be here of course to see what happens there. but back to what he was talking about. he said that last year the city put down 55,000 tons of salt because of weather. this year he says the city will put down at least that much and may have to buy more. reporting live from northwest washington sam ford abc 7 news. >> ok sam, thank you so much. well metro bus service is operating on a moderate snow plan today. under that plan, some of the routes are suspended while others operate on detours. at this time all metro rail

stations are open with service above and below ground. however, metro access service is suspended for the entire day. metro encourages riders to sign up to receive updates of any change in their service. >> amtrak is running on a modified schedule today. the acela express and northeast regional service will operate between new york city and d.c. but less frequently. the keystone service between harrisburg and pennsylvania is modified as well. check the train schedule before you leave. >> let's check in with horace holmes live in mobile track 7. how is it looking out there right now? >> not too good alison, as a matter of fact. the photographer and myself have been on the roadways. we're just pulling at this point on to i-270 in germantown all the way from damascus. the plows, we saw an army of plows a little while ago hitting

270 and they've done a good job but it's still a little slippery. we took a detour into germantown a moment ago and listening very closely to kevin lewis' story shot earlier in the day with the spinouts in the area and things have not gotten better on the roadways since he filed that report. earlier in the day. but the good news is as you can see from mobile track 7 our cameras out here as we're looking at 270 at least going in this direction north towards frederick, there are not too many people on the roads. coming on the southbound area back into d.c. there are a number of people in the roads and that's not what the snow plows want to see. they want to see these roadways cleared as the snow continues to come down here it is slick. they want to have their way out here so they can get these roads cleared off for people who were absolutely necessarily need to be out here on the roadways. right now, we're going to try to make our way as far as we can --

as close as we can to frederick and see things are farther up on i-270, the snow is still coming down and it's coming down a little lighter than it was earlier in the day but it's still very very slick out here on the roadways. back to you guys. >> be careful out there, horace. this brutal winter weather has been a travel nightmare across the country this afternoon. in new york, a delta plane skidded off a snowy runway at laguardia airport and crashed into a chain link fence barely missing the water. the passengers had to slide down an inflated chute to get to safety. at least six people suffered minor injuries. officials say the runway had been reported safe minutes before that accident. >> shortly before the incident at approximately 11:05, two planes landed and reported "good braking action" on the runways. the runway this particular runway had been plowed shortly before the incident and pilots on other planes reported good braking action.

>> so the weather is causing plenty of cancellations and delays at local airports, too. >> chris pabst is live at reagan national and he's got a look at the latest numbers there. >> leon and alison on an average day here at reagan national airport, this is about 850 flights that go in and out of here. but today, 520 of them have already been canceled and, of course, today is not over. another 100 has been delayed but if you look behind me here there is some evidence that some more planes here will be leaving here very shortly. the runway is technically open it's not closed here officially. we haven't seen a plane going in here or out of here in some time. i can't see what they're doing down there. with a zoom of the camera you can probably see better than me. i can assume they're trying to do something to get the plane ready for some flight. 520 planes already have been canceled here. 520 flights and we spoke to people who are going all over the place, of course it's an

airport. we spoke to one guy trying to go to columbus ohio. here's what he had to say for his luck so far to get a plane to get him home. >> i was scheduled for a 3:00 flight today and they called this morning and said that was canceled. got rebooked. the next flight got canceled. >> airport officials say that they do hope by early in the evening, the planes perhaps the one behind me here they can start flying out of here. the terminal is getting packed with people, 520 flights. clearly a lot of people are in there. the trains amtrak trains have been full going out. the people don't have any other option except to get on one of those planes that could be leaving later tonight. awful lot of people sleeping in this terminal on this wednesday night. thursday night. live at reagan national airport, chris pabst, abc 7 news. >> it feel like wednesday, thursday and friday. >> the days are running together. >> exactly. all right, chris. coming up at 4:00 here our

winter weather coverage continues with a live look at the roads. >> when we return, we'll go live to the wtop traffic center and check on any accidents out there. >> one of the challenges of course, we got you covered on this snow day. i'm joce sterman and we'll show you whtt2wút2núq4 bt@qi.4 tt2wút2núq4 "a@qy"p tt2wút2núq4 bm@qr)é tt4wút2núq4 " dztq 0n@ tt4wút2núq4 " entq @j tt4wút2núq4 " gzt& ymx tt4wút2núq4 " hnt& ic4 tt4wút2núq4 " iztq #ál tt4wút2núq4 " jntq 1z, tt4wút2núq4 " lzt& )7p okay, i need a better pizza. one made with only real cheese. a pizza my family will love. (announc) freschetta naturally rising crust pizza. freschetta.

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>> you're winter weather coverage continues with a live look at the roads. steve will have an update on the forecast here in a few minutes. don't go away. >> it is no surprise that pictures are a hit on social media today. the #snowday is trending on twitter. >> joce sterman live in the newsroom with this tough assignment today. down there playing with the storyteller looking at photos all day. joce? >> absolutely. i got the primo gig here. i get to stay inside and talk about what other people see while they're out and some of that is challenges guys like this photo that came from one of the d.c. area airports that points out the only thing getting out today are the snow trucks, lots of frustrations there. this woman in the district says you know it's bad when a snow plow gets stuck for 10 minutes on your street in the district. that is tough. talking about earlier today, this protest of sorts on the capitol lawn. hashtag that was trending for a while. sled free or die. they refuse to back down from that one and carried out

sledding earlier today and seeing a lot of snow measurements. people want to share exactly how much they're dealing with. this one from fairfax, virginia i love this video so much. this little girl can't get started. it's not the biggest hill you've ever seen. but man she is tenacious. she scoots that little bum down and she gets right down the hill. and look at the giggles for that. that's what it's all about, these snow days. right? you get a little bit of that. we're seeing pretty photos. silver spring snow there artistic. lots of clogges snowy sidewalks will be a problem for people getting around. got to take care of the birds, dogs, cats in this kind of weather and just leave you with this one, guys. you don't have a sled? no problem. find yourself a cafeteria tray. go old school dorm style like this kid do. you're no worse for the wear. does he look like he's not having fun? see all your pictures and videos, too like this little guy. we're posting them all to our website at wjla.com. we want to see your snowman, your snow angels your fun, your challenges, all that.

post them to our facebook account and we'll get them here on the web. back to you. >> all right. good deal. >> that's funny. you guys talking about the hills that you thought were big when you were little. >> huge. wow. >> wait a minute. >> out of breath which you get out of there. we have better news on the way. the snowline quickly, quickly coming to an end and the roadways stink out there. no other way of putting it. bad driving and later on tonight when temperatures fall well below freezing, talking single digits and teens, that's where we'll look for the refreeze with the stuff that had an opportunity to melt so far today. lots to get through but the seven day, i'm liking it. talk about the good first i wish. here's outside right now looking from the roof camera and the visibilitys are down and look at the visibles on this map here. looking at 1/2 mile at reagan national and the same in frederick, maryland and in montgomery county, dulles down to 1/2 mile but well off to the west of us cumberland maryland now has visiblities at 10 miles.

that's because the snow has finally come to an end. the skies beginning just starting to finally clear on out. that's the best news of all. bad news is clear skies will really allow our temperatures to drop quickly especially with the fresh snow pack out there. 30 degrees at the airport right now. winds are out of the north-northwest at 10 miles an hour. wind chill factor making it feel a bit colder out there. if you head out to walk the dog or maybe going to the market that you've been delaying all day, temperatures are cold and only going to get colder as you move through the next several hours. here's the back edge. now cleared. frederick county beginning to move into montgomery county and fairfax, should arrive inside the capital beltway within the next 45 minutes or so. heaviest snow to the east of us. annapolis, dunkirk also mixing in a little bit of sleet across extreme southern maryland. as mentioned, this is the back line and this will continue to move towards the east as we move through the dinnertime hours. the wider view shows the action moving out of here.

here are the skies, trying to clear out. the cloud cover beginning to clear out but the snow pack, that's what's going to keep us cold. here's the hourly forecast moving through the overnight hours into early tomorrow morning. look what happens to these temperatures. talking teens by 1:00 in the morning. by 4:00 in the middle teens. waking up inside the beltway, temperatures around 10 11 12 degrees and out to the west, dulles could see single digits and that will likely at least top the existing record out there. you could also tie a record low at b.w.i. marshall. this is our storm scan. it gives you the wider view showing that line now quickly advancing towards the east. another small band to the north and west. i don't think that's going to amount for a whole lot as it moves through the next several hours. futurecast looks like this. 8:00 tonight, we'll see a few scattered snow showers here and there. clouds will quickly clear waking up early early tomorrow morning. sunshine, beautiful sunrise. it's going to be cold. definitely want to bundle up and tomorrow will be the one cold

day one super cold day on the seven day outlook. morning lows around 10 in gaithersburg. around 14 in quantico. daytime highs around 30 degrees. average high for this time of year is 52 degrees. yes, 52 degrees. let's end on a policy note. look for the daytime highs on saturday sunshine. daylight saving time 52 for a high on monday. talking 50 on tuesday. middle 50's on wednesday. and by thursday of next week, we could be looking at temperatures around 60 degrees. so that is what one, two, three, four five days at 50 degrees or higher. eileen whelan, you are outside. if only we could fast forward to thursday, i think we could probably be feeling your feet and hands at this point. you've been out there all day long watching the snow and talking about building in arlington. is it finally starting to come to an end? >> you know, i can tell that

it's just about to. but, you know, steve what i noticed is in the past hour or two as the temperature is falling, the snow texture is changing. it's more of the sandlike feature and the winds are start to go blow. you can see how this snow has impacted our little snowman here. hey, i got to give a thanks to whoever was walking around arlington and put these tree branches in for arms. i feel like my snowman is now complete. you can see the snow starts piling up. i did tweet the picture but let me show you what conditions look like out here. first of all, the roads. there's an inch or two of just slush out here. what i'm starting to notice especially watching the cars, a lot of that slush is starting to accumulate through the undercarriage of the car so i can only imagine, i mean how difficult it's going to be you know, as far as losing traction and the temperature really is falling very quickly so it's

going to be really, really slick overnight. i also have to give a huge shootout to the crews that work at our building, they've been working around the clock to clear the sidewalks and everything. but just as soon as they clear it, it starts to pile up again. so anyways, guys i'm going to you know, try to lend a helping hand. until then leon and alison i'll send it back inside to you. >> you'll have to drop that mike if you want to be effective there, ok? there we go. all right. >> one handed shovel. doesn't work out too well. >> shovel is bigger than she is. all right. "good morning washington" begins early friday morning at 4:00 so you know we'll keep you updated on weather conditions, traffic and any closings and delays. >> let's get a check on the traffic situation. bob emler in the wtop traffic center with the details. lots of problems out there bob? >> we're getting a lot of people spun up and even problems on the beltway. if you're home best to stay there right now. this is the beltway inner loop we are looking at before the georgetown pike. everybody is stopped with a

crash. nobody is going anywhere coming out of tysons headed for maryland. all travel lanes are stopped right now. great reason to stay home and of course even on the major roadways around the region right now and the beltway here at river road even though traffic is moving even on the outer loop coming south and pretty snow covered out there. same is true on 395 and just about everywhere. in some cases, you do see pavement until the the snow stops. it's very dangerous out there. you can't get to connecticut avenue because that hill is very icy. traffic is able to move up that. here, nobody is moving. inner loop before the georgetown pike. i'm bob emler on 103.5 wtop radio. >> keep us posted and when we come back on abc 7 news at 4:00 look to some other news in the day. who reached out to help sweet briar college students after the school announced it's closing this summer. >> and who calls it a "do nothing" congress. one committee went ahead with its hearings today despite the

weather. then again it would have been too ironic if they

>> the weather, rather, led to many closings today, as you might expect including government buildings. >> but the snow did not stop one hearing on capitol hill. senior political reporter scott thuman is live in our newsroom to explain this. scott? >> alison leon we all know the

city essentially shuts down with bad weather and that includes most of congress. in fact, they recessed for the most part early yesterday afternoon just to get out of town before the snow even fell. but not everyone and understandably. this morning, we popped in for one of the only hearings going on and they have no good excuse to cancel if they did because this energy and natural resources hearing was being held by the senate arctic caucus members. that's right. the arctic caucus. that exists if you didn't know. and they certainly couldn't let even a healthy dose of snow stop them since agnes king of maine, al franken of minnesota, bernie sanders of vermont and dozens of hardy northern alaskans also in attendance. and they all are used to this cold weather. they were discussing everything from caribou to whaling to maritime law and while it was a packed house in the audience plenty have had both there and on the day at times, most people

looking for a true snow day on the hill. they didn't let the snow stop them and once again, it's in their d.n.a. right, leon and alison snoo --? >> right, how ironic is that a body that is accused of never getting any work done working on a snow day. >> when you're from alaska, vermont and minnesota, you don't have a reason not to show up. >> all right. still ahead here at 4:00 new developments in the second trial for jodi airias charged with killing her lover. the decision that left some people in the courtroom with tears. >> first, we continue our live team coverage of the winter weather. steve will have an update on the snowfall and what to expec

>> we are following another winter weather alert right now. snow falling for most of the day around the d.c. area. >> if the snow wasn't enough for you, get ready for some bone chilling temperatures now. steve rudin tracking all of it for us, steve? >> the back edge of that snow finally moving closer to the capital beltway moving through central montgomery county towards rockville and bethesda eventually making its way to tysons corner as it moves to the district. we'll look for colder air that arrives late tonight and early tomorrow morning. i mean colder air talking single

digits to lower teens waking up early tomorrow morning. this is our hour-by-hour forecast. should dry out nicely here by 10:00 tonight. we'll start to see the stars at 1:00 in the morning. look at the temperatures, 15 and then 10 degrees by 7:00 in the morning. anything that has had a chance to melt earlier today will now refreeze during the overnight hours. be careful on the sidewalks, on the side roads come early tomorrow morning and i suspect we'll have a lot of cancellations around here especially with temperatures this cold. at least the wind chills won't be super bad. however, on that threshold of an advisory, nothing has been posted right now with the exception of extreme western maryland where they have the wind chill advisory overnight into early tomorrow morning. any way you look at it, it will be cold tomorrow. 30 degrees. that's it for the daytime high. at least we'll have the sunshine. winds will be out of the north at five to 10. let's end on a brighter note here. i can't stop showing you this map or this seven-day outlook. 50 degrees on sunday.

even though we lose an hour of sleet for daylight savings time i'll take it in exchange for 52 on monday. 50 on tuesday. middle to upper 50's by wednesday and thursday. and i would not be surprised next week we surpass the 60 degree mark. halleleujah! >> we need to hear that and we need to see that. right now we're being hazed. we need to see the light at the end of the tunnel here. all right. >> sounds great. thank you. >> all right. some folks who have been getting hammered today are in northern virginia. actually out in centreville. northern virginia bureau chief jeff goldberg is checking on the snowfall out there. >> he's live there right now. how is it looking? >> i think haze is a good word. i think you nailed it leon, that's what's been happening with everybody out here all day today, we've seen the snow finally start to let up just a little bit but it's been hitting real hard in the past couple of hours. i'm joined by my friend wayne turner who is so cool he wears sunglasses in the snow. what kind of challenges are you running into? >> as far as we get the snow off

the ground, it keeps coming back. >> it's coming back. have you seen anything like this for a while? it seems like a remarkable storm. >> 2009 and 2013 i think it was. >> cold night, what does it look like? is it going to be a tough one? >> it's going to be a tough one. we need to get the snow up before it starts freezing. >> no question lot of work to do. thank you, mr. turner. you have a good day sir. we'll show you, it's been difficult road conditions not that long ago. we saw this van trying to climb the hill here on lee highway in centreville, not able to get a grip on the road. that's the kind of day that's been out here. we've seen it all day long one after the other vehicles having a difficult time getting any grip at all. we've also seen some fender benders in which cars whether it's a speed factor or whether it's really just losing a little bit of control, that's the kind of situation we've seen all over the place. obviously, the message for drivers is to not speed because it's too hard out here. don't be out here if you don't

have to be. back here live, this is lee highway in centreville by 28th. this is obviously a very busy stretch of road most of the time. very quiet today. does seem like a fair amount of drivers have heeded the warning and not be on the road if you don't need to be on the road. that's the advice that agencies have been giving. for the cars that have been out here there have been some problems and as wayne was talking a moment ago, as the storm continues and this freeze sets on driving conditions are going to be difficult through the night. certainly something we're all going to be watching and certainly paying very close attention to and remaining cautious. live in centreville, jeff goldberg, abc 7 news. >> ok. jeff, thank you very much for that and horace holmes also has been out in this day. driving around in mobile track 7 checking out the roads across the region. >> why don't we check in with him? horace where are you right now? >> we are just north of frederick on i-70 and i've got

great news. up here the snow has stopped. no more snow up here. i'm hearing cheers from all over the area. and as you look at mobile track 7 and look at our camera off to the roadways in front of us you can see they've done a great job. here comes a snow plow to our left. we've seen them out here on this part of 70 and 270 coming up north from germantown over the past about 20 minutes, they're doing a good job clearing out the roadways and they're really going to be able to now get that salt down that chemical down on the roadways in preparation for tonight. that's their job in this part of the state of maryland and the snow has stopped out here. that's the good news. we're going to turn around and go into montgomery county where it is snowing. continue to stay off the roads and the the job is to get the salt down and try to prevent the

freeze on these roadways for tonight. that's the situation in frederick. back to you guys in the studio. >> looks great, thank you. virginia commonwealth university is reaching out to sweet briar college students forceed to find another place to continue their education. announced just this week it is closing. this summer due to financial problems. some 700 students are enrolled there. v.c.u. says it extended its transfer application deadline and will work with students who want to continue their education. >> turning to other news today, testimony resumes in the boston marathon bombing trial. the man who lost both legs in that bombing testified that he locked eyes with tamerlan tsarnaev before the explosives went off. tsarnaev was killed days later in a gun battle with police. attorneys for the surviving suspect, dzhokhar tsarnaev argue he was heavily influenced by his older brother tamerlan to carry out the attacks two years ago. prosecutors say he's a terrorist who saw the u.s. government as

an enemy of islam. convicted murderer jodi arias will escape a death penalty. the judge declared a mistrial in the sentencing part of the case. they deadlocked on the sentencing. the judge will sentence arias to life in prison or life term with the possibility of release after 25 years. arias was convicted of killing her ex-boyfriend in 2008. prosecutors say they will not be filing criminal charges against nascar driver kurt busch. nascar officials indefinitely had suspended busch last month after patricia driscoll accused him of choking and beating her. the delaware attorney general's office says there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges. >> coming up here at 4:00 a tough day on the roads, of course. whoa, look at that. because of the weather. we'll show you what drivers endured in parts of northern

virginia. >> and as we head off to break, here's a live look at the roads. 124 in maryland there, folks. be careful if you have to travel. if you don't stay home and watch us. update on the weather for you coming up just ahead. as a small business owner you wouldn't deliver just half of what you have to offer to your customers. so why are you settling for half-fast internet? only verizon fios comes with speedmatch - uploads as fast as downloads so files go out in a snap. don't miss your last chance to get $200 back when you upgrade to fios internet and phone for just $99.99 a month with a 2-year agreement and get $200 back. hurry call now it's your last chance. this offer ends march twenty-first.

>> breaking news now from metro, agency says that metro bus service will be suspended at 9:00 p.m. tonight because of this weather. metro rail will remain open until the normal closing time at midnight. metro access service will be suspended until friday morning. >> all right. let's turn our attention now to northern virginia. the snow plows are out trying to clear the roads here. >> that's right. as brianne carter found, some drivers had trouble. >> watch as this white mustang skids and then spins 360 degrees along east market street. just up the street more slipping and sliding on the snow covered roads. >> there was a couple of accidents. really bad one up the road a while ago. car is pretty totalled. >> by mid morning several inches have piled up on these neighborhood streets. across northern virginia, vdot has nearly 4,000 trucks out working to clear the roads. the plows are down but with the

rate of snow falling, it just keeps piling up. if needed the national guard is on standby ready to help with the winter weather mess. also trying to stay ahead of the weather, karen couquet. >> you really have to scrape in order to get it to come up. but, you know, it's winter yet. we haven't gotten to spring. >> with conditions continuing to deteriorate, this starbucks store owner decided to close the doors at noon. >> roads are a little bit scary. a little bit slippery, a little bit slidy. >> and this is that type of snow that is wet and heavy so you really got to get in there to get it up and then, of course, if you're not really great with your skills myself included, then you're going to be left with a slushy mess out there on the dry, the sidewalk or even on the roadway, that is what a number of people in the neighborhood just beyond here were experiencing this morning. we've been experiencing all types of snow here in leesburg throughout the day from very large flakes to this smaller

almost ice -- frozen precipitation type snow that we've been seeing this afternoon. of course the concern is we continue to see temperatures out here drop. we started in the 40's earlier this morning. we're now into the upper 20's. the concern, of course what happens to all of this overnight? in leesburg, virgin

>> the weather isn't the best but some folks are doing what they can to have fun with it. >> that's right. diane cho checked out neighborhoods in anne arundel county and she's live with what she found today. hi diane. >> hi diane. alison leon i think i can safely say that most of us back at the station probably hate the snow by now. we're done with it. ready for it to be over. we found several people out here in anne arundel county who say they absolutely love it. the snow has been falling at a pretty steady rate out here and doing so for the last few hours since we've been driving around now and it's making driving pretty difficult in some areas, as you can imagine. in fact, we found a postal service truck stuck on a side street and the employee told us that's the second time it happened to her today. while she was dealing with one headache after another, we found someone else riding around on

his four wheeler having fun it and a dad who was looking forward to finding a hill nearby since he was deployed overseas last year he says he didn't get to enjoy the snowstorms with his 11-year-old son last winter. >> tell us what you're excited about to do. >> now we get to go sledding. i've been waiting for a couple of good snowstorms and i definitely got it this year. now we'll go sledding. there's definitely enough snow on the ground here to go sledding. you don't have to go far and don't have to get in your car to get to those hills. if you have to get behind the wheel, you may not want to do that because as you can see right here where we are, there's definitely enough to make the driving conditions pretty treacherous for you if you try to head out. back to you in the studio. >> thanks diane. good news is the super doppler holmes radar, horace holmes out there working for us and said he thought -- i guess it stopped in frederick. >> really coming to an end quickly here.

we've been showing our roof camera in rosslyn looking over the city. before you couldn't see anything at all. look what suddenly appeared. now see the potomac. this is the light at the end of the tunnel. as we move through the next hour or so we'll look for conditions to gradually improve in terms of snow coming to an end. temperatures not going to warm up, we're getting much colder overnight. the temperatures that will be well, well below average for this time of year. visiblities are now finally beginning to increase a little bit across central montgomery county. up to about a mile and a half. head further to the west. martinsburg, visibility at four miles. seven mile visibility over at winchester and cumberland looking fine. let's take a look at reagan national airport 28 degrees. winds are out of the northwest at 16 miles an hour. wind chill factor of 17 so as you go out to shovel this evening, you'll want to bundle up. hat, gloves scarves the works. you'll need it as we move

through the next couple of hours or so. we'll start you off with montgomery county. earlier today germantown picking up around seven inches. damascus maryland at about 6.5 inches of snow. head to fairfax county where the snow totals are pretty much the same. 6.4 in reston. and arlington county sort of a mixed bag in terms of snow totals ranging from four inches in cherrydale barcroft saw 3.2 inches of snow. we'll continue to add to this for the next half-hour to 45 minutes. we do not expect significant additional accumulations. winter storm warning does continue. however, i believe it's going to probably cancel out a little bit before the expiration time of 10:00. 9:00 it differs as you head further to the west. we're going to look for clearing skies later on tonight. here's the leading edge of the snow coming to an end. just beginning to move into upper northwest d.c. around bethesda. it will eventually make its way across the rest of the metro area as we move through the next

half-hour to 45 minutes. we're thinking by 6:00 tonight all this will be off to the east of us and then that colder air will funnel in from the north and west and that's what's really going to drop our temperatures a whole lot. here's the hourly forecast. calling for 22 degrees, 10:00 tonight. 18 by 1:00 and then late tomorrow morning, inside the beltway, temperatures around 10 degrees or so. even colder off near dulles. single digits are not out of the question. we could potentially tie or break record lows at dulles and b.w.i. marshall. this is the futurecast. and we'll take you out with this. we'll look for improving conditions and our temperatures. cold, cold cold. at least tomorrow our high will be 30 degrees. that will be the coldest that we'll see in the next seven days because by next week, we're talking daytime highs in the upper 50's to around 60 degrees. >> maybe this is the last snow. >> i hope. >> you know? >> i've had enough! >> can't get here soon enough, that's for sure. >> all right. let's see how things are looking on the other roads in the area.

bob emler at his post at the wtop traffic center and it looks like pretty bad scene there bob? what's this? >> on the inner loop of the beltway before the georgetown pike, all lanes had been stopped for a while around the crash and that's now start to go improve a little bit as we're getting two lanes to the right on this accident. but some pretty big tie-ups out of tysons as we drove. people are having trouble getting up the hills in the region, that's for sure but here on 66 near 123 traffic is moving all right for the most part. but the snow cover even on the interstates and it's going to stay that way with the temperatures dropping well below freezing tonight. going to take a while before it clears out. here on 270, light traffic and again, a little bit hard to see the pavement there and again, those hills are nasty. a lot of people are getting stuck on them. i'm bob emler with 103.5 wtop radio. >> coming up next on abc 7 news at 4:00, the winter storm did not prevent some businesses from opening today. we'll talk to some of the owners who braved the weather for

>> and welcome back everybody. our winter weather coverage continues right now with this look outside. you can barely see the capitol. >> it looks like russia. >> it does. that's the kremlin we're looking at there folks. i'm sorry, that's the capitol. >> yeah it's really something outside and prepare for a cold night because the temperatures will be dropping. >> on the way down now. so a lot of businesses did close today because of the snow. others opened as usual. >> caroline tucker spent the day at some businesses out there that kept the doors open. >> this diner is a columbia pike staple. the old school diner advertises that it's open 24 hours a day. >> we actually called them but they were like yep, we're open. why not? >> even on a snow day, you can find plenty of people trudging through the snow to get a taste. >> i'm taking a little bit a break. it's a snow day so, you know. >> across the street pedro and vinny is getting ready for the

lunch crowd. richard arnez wasn't sure what business would be like. >> lot of people can't afford lunch. we decided to be open. >> how about you guys? >> even through the snow the people came for the burrito. >> wasn't far from our house. >> i come here like i don't know, a lot. like at least three times a week. >> on snow days like today, businesses here along columbia pike rely on the foot traffic and people working from home. >> definitely a plus not having to drive into the office and then drive home at the end of the day as well. >> some folks were told to go home early from their jobs. >> i look out the window about an hour ago and saw this mess. >> arnez may, too, decide enough is enough. >> we don't have you know people coming in then we decide to close early. >> caroline tucker, abc 7 news. >> heavy snow still falling in

parts of our right now after a day that only has us hoping it will be winter's last blast. >> fingers are crossed now. all right the storm closed schools, virtually shut down travel at the three airports in the area here. in the last 20 minutes, we learned that metro would be suspended all bus service at 9:00 p.m. >> we've learned that faquier, prince william counties as well as falls church manassas city and manassas park schools will all be closed again tomorrow. now, we have team coverage of this winter weather alert with abc 7 news reporters spread all across the area. >> we'll be getting to them. let's begin with meteorologist steve rudin in the stormwatch 7 weather center. we're close to the end here. >> we are indeed. close to the end. that back edge of snow quickly, quickly advancing towards d.c. and southern maryland. give it about another hour to an hour and a half and you will notice the snow quickly, quickly coming to an end. and then that cold air will funnel in from the north and west of us. you can see the snow beginning

to break apart. what it's left behind though impressive snow totals between four to seven inches around the immediate metro area with higher amounts further to the north and west. as we move through the hourly forecast, nighttime lows eventually fall to the single digits to around 10 degrees with record lows possible at dulles international airport and b.w.i. marshall. look at these lows projected lows only eight in martinsburg. 14 in quantico. what this means anything that had a chance to possibly melt today will refreeze overnight. slick roadways come early tomorrow morning especially on sidewalks and side roads. with slick conditions, be on the lookout for a lot of school closings and potential delays. future cast looks like this. it will be dry as we move through the early morning hours tomorrow and the best news of all, the upcoming weekend. it is going to be warmer. it is going to be brighter. and the next seven days my goodness, you're not going to