once it does later tonight we'll see the high winds and rate of snowfall increase and the rate that it increases will increase. for the moment this is what we have on doppler radar. a steady field. it's accumulating as it falls. west and northwest as well. on the live doppler we have a couple of rates of what it is falling. some areas are fairly light. less than an inch an hour is the rate right now. you will see it go up over an inch an hour. in the heaviest times we will have moments tomorrow night and in the morning where it will be snowing two or three inches per hour. i will literally pile up in front of your eyes here. this is the nature of the storm across the area. look at the satellite and radar together. the darker shades of blue are the area where the heaviest snows continue to fall. it's moving southwest to northeast across the area. what is interesting is how it

will change tomorrow when the upper level pressure system and the new low developing. the snow moves this way and during the day tomorrow might move back in from west/northwest as the entire circulation mixes in gulf moisture, atlantic ocean moisture and the high level energy above the surface of the earth will come together to create a rare event. every nine, fen, 15, 20 years we see a blizzard, snowstorm of this magnitude. that is what we are dealing with in the evening hours. we still have an issue with the warmer temperatures in the circulation. heavy rain across the outer banks, the coastal carolinas. ice in between in piedmont and the coastal plains of north carolina. part of our area northern county may be in sleet area. but even those areas will turn back to snow before it ends tomorrow afternoon. on the future cast, take a look. what you are seeing behind me is not much of anything. shot off a roof, i think.

of gray skies and snow. blowing around. this is the heaviest snow by 1:00 in the morning. the snowstorm will be in full year by 1:00 in the morning. we will have a mix. getting to the early morning hours and the storm chugs up the coast we could get thunder and lightning thrown in with heavy snow. evenly the snow will taper but it will be snowing moderately and steadily in the an and the early evening hours before the tendency will start to taper off. when the snow is finishes we are still talking about 24 to 30 inches of snow north and west of town. close to 20 inches even in the eastern suburbs. we will have a lot more. steve rudin is on deck next with continuing coverage of the blizzard of 2016. jonathan? jonathan: thank you. states of emergency have been declared across the region. d.c. maryland, virginia. michelle: joining us on the phone is virginia governor terry mcauliffe. governor, first, thank you. we know this is a busy time for you. thank you for joining us. governor mcauliffe: thank you. michelle: what does the declaration allow for the commonwealth? governor mcauliffe: we moved

quickly. we started deploying wednesday afternoon. put 500 vehicles and te quipment in northern virginia wednesday. thursday at 8:00, we declared a state of emergency. the first state to do it. that allows you reposition and move out of the roads. we moved the equip out of the hamptons because you won't get as much snow. we redeployed them to up northern virginia. in virginia we have 13,000 pieces of equipment. 9,500 contractors, state employees on the commonwealth. so we are monitoring the situation. part of southwest got significant amount of snow. we have 1,426 virginians without power. we are working with dominion power to get them back up as fast as we can. the state police right now are working on 297 active incidents. we have 500 guardsmen out right now. they are doing 23 missions as

we speak. they asked for 200 more. we authorized that. we have everybody out and plenty of salt. we have salt liquid to go out. equipment and the personnel. we will get a lot of snow but we are prepared and ready to handle the storm. jonathan: that is a lot going on considering this just got started. what concerns you the most about historic storm like this, and what would you like to say to everybody in virginia regarding this storm? governor: we have the equipment and the personnel to deal with the large amount of snow. the biggest concern is if people go out of their homes. i'll asking for the next 36 hours, stay home have a beer play cards, watch sports or whatever. i can't tell you what a problem it is for one of the plow drivers when he comes upon an abandoned car. you have to stop, get around it. you know late sunday, monday, tuesday we'll go back to the 40's. so if you let us do our work this the next 36 hours we can get the streets clean. we have so many trucks and

equipment out on the street today. just keep the cars off the roads. that is the biggest menace we have today. if you are out and an incident we have to get the state police involved. our national guard are dealing with the issues of elderly people in southwest virginia needing medical attention. they help us with that. we have 60 teams that have come to virginia around the country to help dominion. the emergency operations center. we have several hundred people over there. staff is moving on any situation. we are prepared for this. it's from one to three feet of snow. i worry about i-81. it could be three feet of snow. 70,000 cars and trucks a day use that road. working hard to keep it clear. northern virginia with millions of residents. we have the streets treated we're ready and now to have to start plowing. michelle: governor mcauliffe live on the phone. thank you. governor: thank you. michelle: outlining the

state's game plan for the next 48 hours. urging our viewers and everyone to stay off the roads. that is the take-away. jonathan: no question. that is the biggest concern. he's the governor and he is watching all the points of this. d.c. mayor muriel bowser had similar thoughts on the storm. michelle: she made a plea to city residents, do not ignore this blizzard potential. mayor bowser: we see this as a major storm. it has life and death implications. all the residents of the district of columbia should treat it that way. jonathan: the mayor was urging residents to be off the streets by 3:00 this afternoon. we are past that deadline. from the looks that we have taken around town a lot of people are paying attention to what she had to say. now following breaking news, a house fire in potomac maryland. michelle: kevin lewis is on the scene. a quick response. partly because so many heeded the warning to stay off the roads and out of the way. so the crews were able to arrive in quick amount of

time. kevin: absolutely, guys. i will tell you. what a going in a weekend where blizzard conditions are so likely and to lose your entire home, just so sad. the family is still here. they have loaded the honda pilot s.u.v. with whatever belongings they could put in there. a lot of white plastic garbage bags filled with their clothes. the damage to the home is really significant. you can see some of the members that live here standing in the front yard. the windows broken out. i want to show you pictures tweeted out by the montgomery county fire department earlier. this is what they saw when fire trucks pulled up out front. heavy, gray, thick smoke pouring out of the first and the second floor. fire department telling us, this is the information relayed to them from the actual family that lived here. that they were euell losing some type of fuel, gas --

utilizing some fuel, gas device in the basement likely because of conditions outside right now. heavy flames in the basement and smoke on the second and third floor. the families were able to escape. one firefighter suffered minor injuries. he had a burn to one of his hasn't. it -- burn to one of his hands but it didn't look like he had to go to the hospital. this is the next door's neighbor's garage. fire department storing the equipment in here. you can see the oxygen tanks. the oxygen masks that were used in the fire. even a stretcher here. some equipment the fire department uses to break down into doors and gain entry into the homes. there is also a canteen truck here to provide the firefighters with snacks and gatorade because the conditions clearly not ideal for firefighters with cold temperatures and the snow

coming down. that is the latest at the house fire in north potomac. i'm kevin lewis, back to you. jonathan: thank you. michelle: despite the blizzard conditions, we are experiencing right now the march for life. went on as planned. thousands of demonstrators from across the nation came out to the national mall to march. organizers of the pro-life event said bad weather wouldn't stop them from marching. some demonstrators we spoke to said they had plans leaving town as soon as the march ended in order to beat the storm. jonathan: if you haven't peeked outside, this is not the time to head out. you heard the warnings in the past few days. getting out on the road now if somebody happens you have nobody to blame but yourself. it is a mess. michelle: these are the live traffic cameras. you are getting a look at a few drivers out there. hopefully they are heading to the destination where they plan to ride out the storm. you can see all the roads covered. we have heard from the agencies talking about how they'll be out in full force but this is an extremely difficult task for them to attack all the roadways with

such intense storm. we have been hearing that the intensity of the storm only going to build as the hours roll by. brianne carter is at national airport. the same goes for runways. we won't hear the roar of planes taking off over arlington tonight right? brianne: no. that is true. usually on the tarmac, friday afternoon it would be busy. you would see the planes coming and going. shuttle bus to the regional flight. look. it's at a standstill. for the reason? because of this. take a look here. this is what has been lifted. next to is it is canceled. all the flights have been canceled except for a very few in this hour expected to take off. not good news for many folks in here who were hoping to get out ahead of the majority of the storm coming in today into tomorrow. now a lot of airlines went ahead and precancel and rebooked a number of people on

flights that set to go out tomorrow or sunday and tried to get them on earlier today. some people, though, said they couldn't get an earlier flight and got here to the airport to try to get on a night to get out ahead of the majority of the airlines making the cancellations. airport operations aren't normal right now. we have plowing on the runway as well. but the airlines are making all the cancellations. we talked to one couple. you can hear one plane happening now. they are taking off wyoming talked to a couple hoping to be taking off. they were headed to st. martin but they have a plan "b" if it doesn't happen. take a listen. >> now we just have to go back to arlington and ride it out there. brianne: hope for the best. >> yes. things are booked and things have been scheduled. brianne: so what will they do? they said they will have to wait it out here. if you see the area and hopefully get on a flight

monday and still make the vacation while it will be shorter. we talked to other folks not from here. some of them had prebook hotel for tonight knowing they may not get on a flight. they hope they can get on that metro early enough or in a taxi to get back to that hotel. we will continue to watch the boards. only a few flights set to take off in this hour. the rest has been canceled at reagan national. reporting live, brianne carter. jonathan: thank you. michelle: air travel isn't the only service in jeopardy. amtrak is on a modify schedule. check your train status before heading to the station. jonathan: give them a call. or you show up and it's like oh not there. metrorail running for a few more hours. it will be shut down at 11:00. not just above ground. we are talking about entire system will be shut off. michelle: if you are planning to get around the d.c. area by bus, metrobus service stopped at the top of the hour, folks. both bus and rail service have been suspended for the entire

weekend. so you need to park it. jonathan: yes. michelle: that is what they want you to do. the snow started spreading across virginia, first. jonathan: the storm is moving up from the south quickly. started to blanket roanoke. here are parts west of the beltway and north of the city. they have been the hardest hit so far. in the past we have seen the storms hit hard here. richard reeve is joining us live from araban -- ashburn and it's already a mess down there. richard: it is coming down out here. this is looking north. you can see the people slowing down a little bit. we have seen plows moving up and down here. earlier, about an hour ago people were flying down the road. no more. people are slowing down as they go down. let's show you why. rich, show the folks on the ground. this is how much snow we have in the area now. i would guess oh, roughly one or two inches. maybe three inches in some places. this is a light snow we have been talking about.

this stuff is going to get heavier as the evening goes on. here is the other problem for folks in the metro area. see this gas station? no more gas. that is a real problem. a lot of folks have been coming by wanting to fill up. ourselves included. our vehicle has a half tank of gas. but no more gas at this particular gas station. but again, the snow continues to fall here. we do have video to show you from the dulles toll road if we have that. they have been salting in a staggered fashion where, they have both plows going all the way across the toll road. they basically block the toll road and salt that thing down. they don't want a repeat of what happened the other day where we had icing issues on that toll road. looks like a live long for everybody. reporting live, richard reeve abc7 news. jonathan: what happened the other night was a nightmare but they redeem themselves

with this big storm going through. deep your phone and the tablets plugged in to stay connected. if the power does go out, you just need a cell signal to get the live broadcast at wjla.com. and the apps at facebook and twitter. we are there for you as well. still ahead for us at "abc7 news at 4:00" -- we are continuing to monitor conditions on the roads. we look at that and have an update on the forecast and the snow totals we can look forward to. michelle: reminder if you see it, send it. we have some pretty good pictures already.

wow. the internet is crazy fast here. i know, right? it's so nice to have everyone over. hi hey. mmm. i just laid an egg. does anybody want it? joey, you want some gasoline? yes, please. mom, guess what? i married a clown and we're having tiny little clown babies. mhm. i just bought a hammer. with internet fast enough for everyone your guests might get a bit carried away. get out of the past. get fios.

kimberly: i'm "7 on your side" kimberly suiters. for the last three hours we have been trying to he an homeless woman find shelter. we have called the homelessless hotline in d.c. it's been busy for three hours. we called 311, they said we know the line is busy. we're aware of that. keep trying, keep trying. we called in arlington the folks to help you get off the street. they said they will find shelter for anyone you need it but you have to get to the headquarters first. to give you a look here in rosslyn. it is not too bad.

it's better than it was two nights ago when people were slipping and sliding all over the place. can you come a little closer? i want to get our shovel to show you. it's getting tight. just from shoveling the sidewalk. we are getting the piles. this is up to almost seven inches. we are at six inches here. there is somebody -- first, look at the guys shoving here. they have been shoveling for the last hour nonstop. they could be doing this for the next three days nonstop. we have a shovel. we are going to help a little bit. this is early in the storm and not too terribly dangerous yet. some people are having fun. who is that? julie wright. julie wright. you have been up since 2:00 in the morning. >> i have. i have to be on the air at midnight tonight. what fun traffic will be. if you can't beat them, might as well join them. happy blizzard 2016. kimberly: our beautiful snow

angel julie wright. back to you. jamie: we are seeing areas on the road where the visibility is low, just like this. take a look. on the beltway near good luck road. you get an idea here. there are tracks as you are traveling. you can see and barely see on the other side the beltway that we have a few headlights. the volume is heavy here about 15 minutes ago. we move to the map. the reason for that is because of the plow truck convoy. when they go through, there are four lanes and four truck they were using all four lanes. best to stay behind. we saw in one area there were only two trucks but we weren't at "abc7 news at 4:00" -- at four lanes. people were trying to get around on either side. not good idea. go slower and stay behind the plow trucks. bigger picture, yes, we have the baltimore washington parkway. same on the mixing bowl. we have a few areas that are slow. i am so happy to report we do

not have any major crashes right now. none. some crashes on the side road. the heaviest spot on the beltway is the outer loop. keep that in mind. horace holmes is actually live in this weather right now. how is the visibility out there? horace: visibility isn't too good. let me show you. you are talking about the snowplows. you can get them coming out here. they are about to get out on the road on 66 coming off of the cheney bridge on the 62 -- on the 66. they are pulling out in front of to us do their job. you can see traffic is slowing down. they have been waiting for this. they have been on the side of the road waiting for enough snow to hit the roadway to go out and put the clouds down and start clearing out what is at this point a very icy and a slushy and slick i-66. so the traffic is stopping right now. as the snowplows start to pull

out. we will stay in traffic. we will be up all night long. we are live streaming on wjla.com mobile track 7 so you can watch. jamie: in that area you can see everyone slowly moving. again, my advice is stay behind the plow trucks and the visibility is low. back to you at the desk. jonathan: thank you very much. when the plow trucks go out you can see the folks behind them. those are the folks that have to be out for some reason or another or heeding a warning. let the trucks do their job. michelle: you don't want to tailgate those trucks at all. jonathan: or go around them. they try to go around the truck and get banked up. michelle: talk about how much snow is falling so far. what are we up to steve: less than an inch in one area. ng it in some areas? chantilly with two inches of snow already. going by an inch we are now 5% of the way to our forecast prediction. jonathan: we barely got it

started. steve: this is just the beginning. if you think it's rotten now wait until you see the next 95%. it will only get worse. i want to show you the top storms in washington. this is the duration of the entire storm. this storm starting today and through tomorrow and maybe even early sunday, you can see we very well could make it to number three or number two by the time it is all done. so a big storm. i remember the blizzard of 1996. i thought that was huge. take a trip around the capital beltway on our radar. you can see where the heavier snow is located now. you look at the areas shaded in darker blue. this is to the north of the district around silver spring area. head to tysons corner area around mcclain. idlewood, looking at moderate snow at this time. we head south around springfield. you can see the heavy snow

beginning to push on in. as you move east to prince george's county, the situation is not a lot better. we will look for conditions to continue to deteriorate as we move through the evening hours and get really nasty as we move through the overnight. let's pull everything out. you can see the moisture flowing our way. this storm is just beginning to develop. it will take a little bit of time and crank up later tonight and early tomorrow morning. that is when we are likely to see the snow totals in upward of two to three inches an hour. with the heavy snow, we could hear a few rumbles of thunder. the future cast will take us hour by hour as we move through the next day and a half. you can see the dark blue. that is the heaviest snow. 2:00 in the morning. heading tos more of a rain event. fast forward to 7:30 tomorrow morning. many of you will wake up not to two or three inches of snow but maybe 12, 13, 15 inches of snow. it will continue through the

morning hours. moving through the afternoon it will begin to wind on up. then look how slowly it moves on out of here. 2:30 in the morning on sunday. the last of the snowflakes falling across the area. finally for the day on sunday we will see sunshine. we will need sunshine to clean up the mess that will be left behind. this is the forecasted winds projection for you. movingmoving there the overnight hour through the day on sunday. it will ease. we have the high wind warning that is in effect from 1:00 this morning, saturday morning i should say to 1:00 in the afternoon tomorrow. anne arundel, cullvert and winds gusts up to 50, 60 miles per hour. blizzard warning in effect for d.c. metro area. this is the forecast snow totals. we move through the overnight. look how the snow will to pile up quickly. i want to show you what happens as you wake up tomorrow morning. snow total. maybe 16 inches on the ground.

20 to 30 in district. southeast could see 15 to 20. so a lot of snow on the way. this is the beginning. we have you covered the entire stormwatch7 team on duty tonight tomorrow, sunday. >> thank you for that. michelle: as we go to break, another look at the snow coming down. we will be right back with team coverage all night.

welcome back to continuing coverage on newschannel8. brian van de graaff. we are hearing from reporters all the area. but we are trying to see the fun factor. our own erin hawksworth is trying to sled. i'm not sure if this is a safe type of behavior, play, or this is dangerous. we'll check out what is out here. we have a lot of fluff snow out here to have fun with. not too wet and heavy. it's fluffy. more about the fun. it's interesting. there are a lot of people outside the studios in rosslyn but the majority of them are my coworkers. we're having a good time. it proves we have you covered.

we have so much of a team covering it. the roadways around the corner. are you just out walking? want to say hi on tv? you're scared? i scare people. sorry about that. the roads are already white. it's cold. we'll have more fun. coworker scott abraham is at the verizon center this evening where there is not going to be a game. what is going over there right now, my friend? scott: i wish i was watching erin sledding. i'm jealous. the verizon center is going to be quiet for the next couple of days. tonight's caps game postponed. tomorrow night's wizard's game postponed. the conditions are getting worse downtown. you can see the folks trying to clear the sidewalks already. probably go over there after i have done my hit. you are wasting your time because this is going to get worse and worse. i want to come here. new buddy here. matthew. matthew is having fun with the conditions. look at you all bundled up. can i get a high five? all right. got tv time. nice job.

have fun out there. so we talked about the caps' game being postponed tonight. i actually met a man from canada earlier. it's a funny bit here. take a look. you know they are supposed to play a hockey game tonight and basketball game tomorrow. they postponed that. are you upset? is it a wise choice? >> they postponed? scott: they postponed it. >> the only reason i'm here is to go to the game. i'm just learning this right now. scott: look at this. we are provading a service for this man. he was going to the caps-ducks game and it's postponed. they postponed it an hour ago. what are your thoughts? >> i'm disappointed. it's not like i can fly out of here. i will be stuck here for a couple of days. scott: yeah, my friend. he will be staying in a hotel for a couple of days here with the weather. interesting enough, as we took a walk around the block to get a sense and see what kind of activity was going on. most of the restaurants

believe it or not here around the verizon center are still open. people are in there eating and drinking. having a good old time. braving the conditions indoors. i think after this my man kendall and i, my photographer will get something to eat. for now, we'll send it back to you. at the verizon center, scott abraham, abc7 news. jonathan: thank you. the little fellow made it up the street so fast. >> i know. jonathan: this is your blizzard 2016 headquarters. we have an update on the heavier snow and the stronger winds coming our way after this. this is just the beginning.

announcer: this is stormwatch7 winter weather alert. >> chance of precipitation. 100%! michelle: yes. 100%. we nailed it. adorable there. abc7 viewer carol sent the wonderful video in. the 6-year-old reading the forecast. we are tracking the heavier snow which is moving into the area right now. just about all of us has seen it. check this out from yolanda in fredericksburg. all right. we don't have that. >> that's all right. michelle: we do want to talk about the map. doug: here is the picture. a time lapse there. it's pretty cool. michelle: from a couple of hours ago. look how quickly it all piled up. doug: share your pictures and the videos with us at pics@wjla.com.

we will get them on air and online as well. come back with michelle and i standing here. give you information. it may not make out all the details. see the red lines here? these are the interstates highlighted in the eastern u.s. right now 32,000 miles of interstate in the eastern u.s. are under some sort of winter storm warning advisory, watch. we pulled this out in the blizzard area from spotsylvania to long island. 30 million people are affected right now. if you take the whole it can and kaboodle here that are currently under the advisories warnings, watches blizzards 88 million people. michelle: when will the heaviest bands roll through. doug: tonight. and to tomorrow morning. around noon we'll see a little improvement but the snow won't be finished in total until late tomorrow night and sunday morning. let's get start and get you pictures and the information we have. this is a live look at the montgomery county campus college in rockville. the snow is there. look at the temperatures. it is mighty cold.

winds aren't a big deal yet. at 3. but once the winds pick up, it will change. nancy sent this from pentagon row. we'll see really, really big snow totals continuing to come around the area here. over the next 12, 20 hours or something like that. we will really see a lot of changes coming our way the way it will look around the area. this is bethesda right now congressional country club. a live look. it is really coming down in bethesda right now. 23 degrees in bethesda. we are really cooking with it. pentagon row down the road from the studios. a lot of road to share. this is on the chesapeake bay and more snow falling and will continue for quite a while. the story will be a lot of snow coming our way. we are still in the ballpark here. 24 to 36 inches of snow. plenty is pushing in.

the temperatures is colder than we thought they would be. so it will be a while. ocean city is covered with snow now. winds are out of the northwest. once the kids come off the ocean -- once the winds come off the ocean, it will change to rain. the storm itself is going through a transformation stage. it will redevelop off the coast and lift northward. that is when we get to the teeth of the storm, the heart of the storms when we have the highest and wind and the snow totals. we will monitor this and share it with you coming up. that's the latest. michelle: doug, thank you. two days before the snow started falling a blizzard watch was issued. it was upgraded to a warning yesterday. that is in effect right now. it's because of the wind that is coming that doug highlighted with the snow that could bring down power lines and bring outages as well. d.c. bureau chief sam ford is at the headquarters in southeast. what is the latest from there? sam: well, michelle, we are

outside d.c. homeland security emergency management agency. where the mayor will be giving us an update on the situation in the city in n half an hour. we traveled around the city today looking at various things from the situation at pepco to the situation out there on the street of the city. before the snow started falling, d.c. traffic backed up, leaving the city at noon. and one gas station on capitol hill had run out of regular gas. only high and diesel left. the road salt crews were busy all day. by 2:00 p.m. d.c. was in the midst of snowfall. public works, snow monitoring center was in full operation. also this afternoon, pepco called a news conference saying they have hundreds of crews standing by in the vent of power outage -- in the event of power outages but there could be hindrances if the winds are as projected. >> when we face a situation that we have winds that are 35 miles per hour and higher that

impacts our ability to put bucket trucks up in the air as well as the issue concerning accessing the roadways. so all of those things have to be taken into consideration. we ask the customers to be patient in the process. this is an all hands on deck operation for us and we are committed to restoring the customers as safely and quickly as possible. sam: if you lose power, how do you contact pepco? that is what we asked them. if you lose power call 1-877-pepco-62. 1-877-pepco-62. or if you want to be high-tech, they have a web address here. pepco.com/mobileapp. you can download this app and report a power outage on the app or look at the progress in terms of repairing your

particular situation. pepco.com/mobileapp. you may recall in the news conference this morning the director of homeland security said if d.c. had just 25,000 power outages, that would be a good day. we asked pepco about that. they didn't exactly agree with that. but they said whatever happens, they believe they have sufficient personnel to handle it. the number of crews are on the scene. so that is the situation here. again, we will hear from the mayor in about half an hour from here at homeland security and emergency management. reporting live from southeast washington, sam ford, abc7 news. and newschannel8. jonathan: thank you very much. that lend itself to give an idea how big of a storm system they are bracing for. what you are seeing outside, this is just the start. if you didn't get a flight out before the snow started chances are you are stuck here for a while. michelle: yeah. adam with the sister station in baltimore is live at b.w.i., where it is a

ghosttown. no flights taking off, huh adam? adam: that is right. if you have thrown out of b.w.i. on friday evening you can only imagine how much of a mad dash it is. it's different here at concourse d and every concourse. this is what it has looked like. nobody checking baggage. nobody at t.s.a. if you come with me to the departure and the arrival board you will see pretty much across the board all cancellations. you can pick out a few on time and early but pretty much all the way through canceled. we went to the website on b.w.i. at 2:30. every flight has been canceled. departure and arrivals. we tallied 270 of them. we were in contact with the airport spokesperson who told us for tomorrow it is not looking any better. expect extremely limited flights. if any for saturday. and for sunday. no word on that. a lot of cancellations here at the b.w.i. since this afternoon. live at the b.w.i. thurgood marshall airport adam. michelle: to be expected

especially with a storm of the intensity. thank you for the report. when we come back, an update on the metro service. we have been talking about that. the buses stop running in a matter of minutes. keep it here.

alison: good afternoon everyone. i'm alison starling at the live desk in the newsroom right now. we are following a developing story as the conditions outside begin to deteriorate. the cut off for metro bus service is minutes away. so let's go to our phone lines. the metro line. is metro cutting off at 5:00. >> the plan announce yesterday by the g.m. you said 14 minutes to go before the last trip is made on the metro bus. the wases departing at 5:00 will make their way to the end of the line. we don't want to leave anyone stranded on a bus. there is no bus service tomorrow or sunday. alison: talk about the trains. what are the plans for the

metro rail? >> rail will stay open until 11:00 and then it will closed and remain closed tomorrow, saturday and all day on sunday as well. we plan to announce how it looks for monday and next week. alison: a lot of people are asking, what if sunday looks clear, the snow has stopped and things are moving a bit on the roads? is there a chance wmata will reassess for sunday? >> we can reassess but based on the forecast, it all seems to be, the forecast the happening exactly as the forecasters said it would. so we don't think we will be in a position to reopen on sunday. i want to manage even's expectations. i think even on monday and early next week you will still see impacts from the storm. both on bus and on rail. we will keep everyone updated as we go through the storm. certainly on sunday we will be rolling out a lot of information on our website. and we'll be relying on you

all as well. so folks watching channel 7 or 8, we will make sure you have it as well. alison: is this the first for metro to make this kind of cancellation? >> for blizzard, yes. we did close the system in super storm sandy in 2012. so not unprece shut down if system but it is for blizzard or a major snowstorm. alison: thank you. keep us updated if anything changes. best of luck. we ask you to stay with abc7 news and newschannel8. we will continue to track the winter storm, the blizzard as the heavier snow bands will move in. it will get worse out there. we have an updated forecast for you in a moment. leon and i will be back up at 5:00. we're back after a quick break.

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thunder, snow, the works! everything for everyone. minus warm weather. remember ocean city what it looks like in the summer? ahh, not so pleasant now. 30 degrees. winds from the northeast at 18 miles per hour. jesse and shana from potomac enjoying the first start of the snow. thank you for sending in your photo. we appreciate it. keep them coming in. is this a sign of spring? i don't think so yet. cardinal in the snow. thank you for sending this to us. look at the snowfalls. the totals so far, doppler radar indicated snowfall totals already around three inches. southern frederick county, around two. is and heading to fairfax. dunkirk around two inches or so. a lot more on the way moving through the next few hours. it will pick up late tonight and early tomorrow morning. the area of low pressure going to develop. that is going to bring us nasty weather in the next 24 hours or so.

this will lift out of here. by this time tomorrow night we will begin to wind things down, just a little bit. heavy snow will arrive moving$a in to the nighttime hours and into early tomorrow afternoon. 2:30 in the morning and we could see the wind gusts around 30, 39, 40 miles per hour in the metro area. continuing to the early morning hours and then the winds will ease a little bit as you move through the later hours of the day. high wind warning will be in effect at anne arundel st. mary's county till 1:00 in the afternoon. everyone in red is blizzard warning for the day tomorrow and early sunday morning. in terms of the snowfall total a lot on the way. this is just the beginning. if you are going on the roadway or thinking about checking out the supermarket or hardware store, a lot of

places are now closed. sidewalks are slippery and the roadways as you can see on the screen next to me is covered with snow. even though not a lot of snow now. enough to cause problems. by the time the system moves out of here we will look at 15 to 20 inches around the capital beltway. possibly more than that. 20 to 30 as you head to montgomery county and frederick county, near leesburg and winchester. then lighter amount as you head through extreme western maryland for garrett allegany and washington county. a lot of snow on the way. keep you updated at wjla.com. stay with us.

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jonathan: the time to stock up and prepare for the storm was yesterday or early this morning. michelle: we have seen conditions get worse throughout the day. suzanne kennedy is live in chevy chase. it's pretty bad out there.

suzanne: it absolutely is. we have an inch and a half. connecticut avenue is a mess. we are seeing people on roads despite the fact that d.c. asked everyone to get off the road at 3:00 this afternoon. we haven't seen buses come down the street. a bus stop here. usually it's busy but the bus line suspended at 5:00 this afternoon. we are seeing driving that is tricky. i drove three miles to by a neighborhood just down connecticut avenue. i can tell you it's slippery and slushy. the snow is heavy and wet. it is a long road ahead of us before the storm is over. reporting live in northwest washington, suzanne kennedy abc7 news. announcer: you're watching stormwatch7 coverage of blizzard 2016.

leon: abc7 is on storm watch tonight for blizzard 2016. alison: that's right. some 30 million people in the path of this massive storm. right now we are standing by for a press conference from d.c. mayor muriel bowser on the city's response to the storm. metro just suspended bus service at 5:00 p.m. leon: right on schedule. same will happen to rail at 11:00 tonight. the schools, kennedy center, anything that was planned for the weekend has been canceled or postponed. so get warm and safe and stay there. alison: we have crews spread out across the entire region to keep you informed about the blizzard of 2016. we are planning to be here on the air as long as we need to be to make sure you have the information you need to stay safe. the storm coverage begins with chief meteorologist doug hill. doug: hey there. we are keeping an eye on the snow. it's getting heavier and now on the doppler radar we can

pick out some of the areas that have the heavier bands. the lighter color here. as we get through the teeth through the strong part of the storm, get in the middle of it late tonight you will see bright colors all over the place. we can use technology to tell you north of the area, west of -- well, i can't see anymore what it is but a town in maryland. west of frederick the snow is falling inch and a half per hour. a good snow rate developing there. we will continue to see the snow rate increase across the entire area tonight. temperatures are on the cold side. in the lower 20's. everything is sticking nothing is melting. as we get through the night the temperatures may start to rise. but that will be well south and the east of the metro area. there is no sign already. it's 29 in ocean city right now and snowing. when the winds change, it will