[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] leon: slammed with snow, the d.c. region buried tonight. right now, a windchill advisory north and west of the district. we have team coverage of it all. our crews are all over the

region, surveying the conditions and the cleanup. alison: first, we have school closings once again. the majority closed for a second day in a row. we have a complete list scrolling on the screen and at wjla.com. we are still waiting on a call from the federal government. leon: steve rudin is here to tell us what we need to know for the morning. steve: the snow is gone and we are dealing with cold temperatures, and the wind chill on top of that. outside the belfort furniture weather center, 21 dulles, 19 gaithersburg, 21 winchester, just part of the story. it feels like the single digits in gaithersburg, feels like 11 lexington park, maryland, seven degrees in cumberland, maryland. the wind speed and direction and of the north, northwest, the wind increasing. the national weather service has posted a windchill advisory north and west of the district until 10:00 in the morning.

it will be a cold start friday, the temperatures in the single-digits, lower teens. noon time only about 22 degrees with a high of 30. silly quite a bit of melting tomorrow -- still quite a bit of melting tomorrow. how about warmer temperatures on the way? that is coming up in a few minutes. leon: nearly 500 crashes on virginia roadways today in just four hours. state troopers responded to more than 220 disabled cars. jay korff is live in sterling where he has been keeping and i on the roadways. how are things looking? jay: leon, this is what happens when you do nothing to your car encased in snow, several inches already fallen. as you were talking about the deep freeze, own chilling cold, icicles forming on this vehicle.

that is not the real big problem. the real big problem is right here -- a sheet of ice underneath this. it will be really disastrous tomorrow. at day's end -- >> to disaster. jay: northern virginia was overwhelmed by the power and beauty of the storm. >> i've never seen king street so desolate. jay: plows worked overtime to clear streets and parking lots. this was a day for brooms, snowblowers, not cars. >> just trying to get in front of it before the temperature drops. jay: in four hours thursday, the police in northern virginia responded to more than a thousand calls from service. one man was just moments from home when he dearly will boss everything.

his car crashed into way road sign and was only inches from killing him. >> through the sunroof, next to his ear into the head rest of his seat. jay: his rosary, still undamaged, hangs from the review beer. >> i'm just glad to be alive. jay: right now, one of thousands upon thousands of snowplows in northern virginia, trying to clear roadways, parking lots. i know based on vdot numbers 16,000 it with streets, that is how many they will try to clear in the coming days. jay korff, abc 7 news. alison: a big job ahead of them thanks. at this hour, fairfax connector has suspended all service as of 11:00.

scheduled bus trips will not go one. we will keep you updated on when service will resume. leon: there is a big problem in arlington county. they are facing a road salt shortage, the crews forced to use alternatives. tom roussey continues our stormwatch team coverage. tom? tom: we still have a lot of activity, big trucks behind me on wilson boulevard. we also have trucks going by on wilson boulevard, plow trucks all over the place. this is masking the big issue, the biggest weapon salt? they are running out of it. this is where arlington county stores its salt in the winter but the stockpile is all but gone. what you see inside a sand. the county says the rough winter has forced crews to use far more salt than normal. for the storm, they are relying on what is left sparingly and counting on the sand a lot more than usual.

the county is also relying on good old-fashioned plowing. and in a scene that you would expect more in boston this winter, in clarendon crews were scooping the snow and trucking it out. driving was still a struggle. inside that car was franklin. >> is very bad. tom: who has been delivering pizzas. >> people are waiting for us. tom: on top of this sign, we got in arlington somewhere around 5, 6 inches of snow, a good-sized storm. in arlington county, a spokesperson said they are hoping to get a new shipment of salt very soon in case it is needed as the very long winter continues. live in arlington, tom roussey abc 7 news. alison: cars were slipping and sliding on maryland roadways as well. roz plater is in frederick where she has seen lots of drivers struggling. how are things looking now? roz: the much icy everywhere you

turn. officially we got nine inches of snow, but tonight they are moving into the big piles. im 5'6" inches, and this pilot is easily twice my height. they are working against time. at this point, everything is freezing. >> is a cold enough? roz: it is cold enough to freeze. so begins round two the battle now to beat the ice. ice on the sidewalks, black ice on the roadways, and the stubborn kind in parking lots. something this houston man has never seen before. >> it's a new experience for me. roz: at its height, near whiteout conditions on 270. we spotted bit bid outs and strata drivers one after the other. >> a truck was coming into my lane, cut me off, and i slid.

i went into the ditch. roz: the snow has stopped falling, plows are trying to get down to bare pavement. followed by the salt trucks. and as businesses try to dig out, this will likely be an all nighter. >> it has been rough, heavy through the day. roz: the towering piles of snow in parking lots tell the story best, one powerful storm after another. >> at least we got a break in between last winter. this winter it has been every week. it has been a real rough. roz: it will be rough tonight. this is the ice you are dealing with even trying to get around as they are piling the snow. we are told, indeed, they will be working all night, and even by morning this job clearly won't be anywhere near done. live in frederick, roz plater, abc 7 news. leon: take a long time for that to melt.

metro is trying to resume operations. they will not have real service on a normal schedule. bus service is suspended until at least 4 a.m. tomorrow because of road conditions. metro access service is suspended until at least noon tomorrow. alison: the snow brought the federal government to a stop, but life in the city is starting to move again. a bit more carefully. stephen tschida is in dupont circle with what is happening there. spttephen: this is a half-inch of ice which came from the sidewalk i'm standing on. main roadways are passable, but slushy. >> getting much colder. it's dropping really fast. stephen: the temperatures will likely make lingering puddles hard. >> i'm not going to be walking after about 11:00 tonight. the slush is going to turn into

ice. stephen: while plows worked into the evening and there was plenty of salting some sidestreets are still waiting for attention. not to mention a lot of sidewalks. the salt helps but the freezing cold will likely make dicey driving and trekking tomorrow. >> i'm hoping to get off work tomorrow. i'm hoping it is nice and icy. stephen: and it is. this was a big pile of slush with two inches of water, but it is icing quickly. tomorrow it will probably be a solid block of ice all across the city. reporting live, stephen tschida, abc 7 news. leon: watch your step. a big mess that all three area airports at the height of the storm with nearly a thousand cancellations at reagan, dullesd, and bwi.

dozens of other flights were delayed. now the airports are working to restore normal operations, but there are lingering delays. alison: stay with abc 7 and we will have all the updated traffic and forecasts. "good morning washington" will start early at four a.m. with jacqui jeras and brian van de graaff. leon: fire crews battle a big rowhouse fire in baltimore. alison: and harrison ford seriously injured in a small plane crash.

leon: developing now, harrison ford is in the hospital tonight after his p[lanlane crash landed on a golf course. he was flying a world war ii vintage airplane that had engine trouble on takeoff. his father tweeted that his father is battered but ok. stay with abc 7 and we will keep you updated. alison: this just in from prince

george's county, fire crews had to battle a fire in bowie. the fire is out at this hour. the authorities say the cause is under investigation. leon: reports of flames coming from a train on the silver line. metro says the train is out of service and the cause is under investigation. fire crews responded to the scene, but a water pipe broke sending water under the platform. nobody was injured. alison: nearly 40 people out of their homes tended after a rowhouse fire in baltimore. this was along the 5100 block of cordelia avenue. fire crews battled flames in nearby roadways were closed. in the end nine homes were destroyed, no word on the cause. leon: terrifying moments at laguardia airport after a plane slid off the runway. two people were injured.

airport officials said the runway had been plowed and other pilots landed on it. they say that the delta pilot did everything he could to slow down. he stopped just a matter of feet from the edge of the airport. normal operations are under way now at laguardia. alison: hundreds of drivers spent hours trapped in their cars on a kentucky highway. unbelievable. kentucky saw 20 fresh inches of snow in the last way for hours. the governor declared a state of emergency. some drivers tweeted they were stuck in their cars more than 12 hours. the national guard was called in to help rescue them. leon: 26 mile backup. how do you unravel that? that's amazing. alison: a terrible situation. steve: we were really lucky. imagine if our temperatures were below freezing and this was all snow.

yesterday we had about three quarters of an inch of rain. that would be about seven to 10 inches of extra snow on top of what we had. count our blessings, we were lucky on this. it will melt quickly. we will be on to spring time before we know it. there is your peptalk. 37 degrees at reagan national. the bigger story, the windchill factor. it feels like 15 degrees. that will continue to fall as we move through the overnight. the highs today, early this morning, just after midnight 45. the average today, 52. the record, 81 degrees, sounds nice, way back in 1951. we will probably set other records tomorrow morning. 18 gaithersburg, 21 frederick 19 martinsburg, the temperature slowly falling. the windchill factors are beginning to also fall as the wind picks up out of the north and west. single-digits is what feels like

in gaithersburg, 10 degrees andrews, lexington park 11 degrees. the national weather service has posted a windchill advisory until 10:00 tomorrow morning including all of montgomery county loudoun county, frederick county, all the area shaded in blue. even though it does not include the district or southern maryland, it will be cold early in the morning heading out the door. if you have school or work or have to walk the dog, not pleasant. very cold air, sigel digits in detroit. the same in chicago. that cold air moves our way for just one day. the satellite radar, the skies clearing out, beautiful sunrise tomorrow morning. the nighttime lows, single digits, lower teens, the wind increasing. the forecast lows tomorrow, 12 degrees at dulles. keep in mind, we hit 12 degrees, that will break the record low at dulles which is currently 15. we may also break the record low

at bwi-marshall, which is 13 degrees. they are expecting 11 early in the morning. the high-pressure overhead as it moves our way. the wind will change direction just in time for the weekend. instead of super cold air, we have a warm up on the way. that warm-up extends through next week. imagine that, sounds good. 30 degrees lots of sunshine tomorrow even though the temperatures make it above freezing. we will see a great sun angle the march angle, which will melt things a lot, re-freezing late tomorrow night. the best news of all, the seven day outlook. daytime high of 50 degrees sunday lower 50's monday. by wednesday and thursday of next week, we are talking daytime high temperatures in the middle to upper 50's, and cannot forget sunday that we spring ahead one hour, daylight savings time. that means the sun will set after 7:00. alison: lots of melting. steve: we need a break.

we were on target, though. alison: you were. robert: keep the warm thoughts going now, spring baseball, the nats opened up their spring season in 80 degree weather. sports is coming up.

announcer: and now the toyota sports desk, brought to you by your local to get a deal is. robert: caps hosting the wild tonight. alex ovechkin was on the scratched list tonight, lower body injury. trying to backup some of the slack, the caps on the power play. the good guys up 1-0. trouble in the third palmer scored two goals single-handedly giving the wild the lead.

caps lose, 2-1. >> i thought we played them really well. he is arguably the best player in the national hockey league right now, and we played without them, and we played well enough. we were one mistake away, at least, of winning. robert: the nats enjoying amazing weather, 85 and sunny in florida. newcomer max scherzer kicking off the season, gets the k. he threw two innings. denard span, the r.b.i. single. the nationals have to rally, and they did, winning 5-4. >> it's good to get out there the first start of spring. we've worked hard the past several months, so it's nice to get out there and get on the mound and pitch in a game. robert: o's and jays in tampa.

chris davis, no score. this is hot to right center, and that is not coming back, leon. another twp-run shot. o's win 5-0. how is this for a birthday present -- the first ever spring at-bat. that is a grand slam to right field. on his birthday, no less. celebrating birthday number 22 in style. first round of the hsbc championship today. the par 3. why else would we show this? it is an ace. i think i would have done a happy dance. but that's me. and american be lehigh -- beat lehigh. i know the quality gentlemen's

sport, but there should be a happy dance once in a while, hole in one. leon: you earned it. alison: and sleeveless in the sunshine has to make you happy too. leon: a snow day rebellion, breaking the law.

alison: civil disobedience

through sledding. last night we told you that capitol police said no to sledding on capitol hill, today people were there. the police were there, but they did not ticket anyone, they let them have fun. leon: in arlington, there was an organized snowball fight. the was a battle between the kids and the adults. -- there was a battle between the kids in the adults. alison: today you could call it an unexpected tribute of sorts in the form of two snowmen. mike can mean was live on air when this happened. mike: take a look at these people, guess who they are. notice the mustache year, the baby bump. that is right leon and alison

in snow form. did you ever think that you would see that? alison: hilarious. leon: he has to get to work on that hair. alison: i think you are wearing red lipstick. leon: a man has to do what a man has to do. alison: job.

alison: it will be cold in the morning. steve: really cold, with the windchill factor north and west of d.c. the march sunshine angle will make it feel better. near 50 degrees sunday. five days in a row at 50 degrees or better. we have not seen that for a while. alison: i like the saturday forecast. leon:

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