a guy using cross country skis here along capitol hill heading to the capitol building. it's a majestic sight with a fresh coating of snow but definitely chilly. we are looking forward to getting back inside our car. leon: you do that, mike. you're watching stormwatch7 coverage of blizzard 2016. maureen: you are looking live at the white house. so pretty but deceptive, too. hours inw about five the storm, what we are calling "the blizzard 2016." been coming down nonstop since 1:00 this afternoon. we still have a lot ahead of us. right.hat is we have the abc7 and the newschannel8 team across the d.m.v. we will bring you 24/7 coverage throughout the storm. bus service stopped running an hour ago. train service that will be 11:00 tonight. maureen: after that, metro will stay closed until monday.

of course the drivers are asked to stay off the roads as to keep snowk and ice cleared. as the snow is just beginning this afternoon between 2:00 and 3:00, virginia state they responded to 136 reports of crashes across the state. the roads are only going to get more difficult to navigate as the night goes on. to get updated numbers on that and check in with jamie sullivan who is watching the roads. stillnow doug hill is watching the skies. doug, everything going right according to schedule on this one. doug: yeah. this was spotted early and it's behaving exactly as we it would. we're at the very beginning of the system. the actual storm just now is shape off the coast of north carolina. once that gets cranking up movingonight and northward along the coast, the rate of the snowfall will increase and that is when we strong winds develop as well. snow outside at the belfort furniture weather center and that is thered, area now under a blizzard warning.

it extends from spotsylvania county, virginia, northeastern to long island new york. 30 million people in the area under the blizzard warning. that continues locally until 6:00 a.m. here is the time lapse from school.inia high 19 degrees there. clouds slowly rolled in. flakeswer and the started. this is the view before it got dark a few minutes ago here fallingnty of snow and more to come our way. as far as the temperatures go, they are very cold. the storm very cold. we will see pretty much it will hold steady throughout most of the area for several hours. 21 in frederick and andrews. 23 in annapolis. nation's capital. we -- 23 in the nation's capital. we have a little breeze, not but enough toet drive wind chill to 9 in andrews. 11 in washington. chills will go to the single digit and may approach zero. factor.a big the winds are the primary reason that the area is under a blizzard warning. it doesn't matter how much snow is falling or on the ground, the blizzard warning

has to do with the and the wind. both will be huge factors. ice is a problem. problem all day long in part of north carolina. south side virginia getting a taste of ice, too. you will see the green and the yellow. heavy rain and the thunderstorms developing along banks and the southern portion of coastal carolina. we could have thunder snow the area tomorrow morning. satellite and radar again on a closeup showing the dark blue heavy wet snow. in a band moving northward. some of that has fallen two, a half, three inches per hour. we are just beginning. by the time it eventually tapers off and it will late tomorrow afternoon or evening, we are talking 20 to 30 inch widespread.s anywhere from pennsylvania line through charlottesville, closer to southeast suburbs south, 15 to 20 inches. less amount on shore. steve rudin will join me in a few minute and the weather duty tonight. we'll let you know everything that will happen. a lot will happen.

are here. we maureen: thank you, doug. one of the storm watch weather team member is roz plater. she is in an important placement to. salt dome at district heights, maryland. the salt comes from that helps keep us streets and the highways clear. to be activeve there now. business.ery sonorous? roz: we have the snow coming down consistently, settling. is a fine wet snow, not a lot of accumulation. look now. i will go where they haven't yet.d only about an inch, inch and a so. or not much accumulation. this will probably ice quickly. the snow command center for prince william's county. the salt dome. they have 350 trucks working the roads here during this storm. will show you video from earlier. the crews having work 12-hour shifts at 10:30

or so this morning. be out there of course doing, they have been salting earlier. pretreating roads tuesday. they have a head start on all of this. they will mostly tonight be doing plowing operation. they have begun to do some of that already. of courseill focus on the main roads. then go to the side roads. when they go to the side asked peopleave specifically to do something plows. the here is director, public affairs for the department of public works. >> our residential thehborhoods, if residents have no heeded our parked on the side of the street it makes it problematic for our plows to in. roz: so, again, what they are asking for the folks on the residential areas is to park on the even numbered side of the street.

so the plows can get in the neighborhoods. it may take a while for them to get in neighborhoods, however, because they have 1900 miles of roadways here in prince george's county. of the county and the southern end. aa lot of it is rural. while to get to side streets and the neighborhoods. so again, they are asking you to stay home, stay off the road and let the plows do their work. they are out there doing some of plowing already. we are live in the district heights. i'm roz plater, abc7 news. got it.u the busiest places around here is the airport because folks the storm in before hit so they could get out of here. maureen: that might be problematic tonight. at the carter is live reagan national airport to bring us up to date on travelers waiting for the taking that aren't off. brianne: you got that right. think we might have heard in the last 15 minutes the last flight arriving here to airport.tional the wind has really picked up over the past half hour or so.

two hours weast have seen maybe two or three snow.ent type of icier, fluffier snow at the reagan national airport. flightsll be no more going out tonight. the last flight is scheduled to take off in the next couple of minutes. no flights scheduled to leave here tomorrow. no reason to come here to the airport at this point. to give you an update on the crews plowing what they are dealing with. the stormwatch7 snow stick. we have two inches. that is what we are seeing mostly in spot at the reagan national airport. me.ou look beyond this here, this would be packed on a friday night of people after they would pick up, people coming in to town for the weekend. there is no one out here. the only people we have seen been the plows here. and the crews working at reagan national airport. saidpeople we talk to they tried to rebook earlier today to be able to get on a flight. justs said they were going to take a chance that they could get out ahead of

what was coming in here today. talked to said b.y do in fact have a plan take listen. >> there is a plan b. we have a hotel on reserve. backup plan. >> hopefully get back in town down until monday. brianne: just happening right now, we are just seeing a flight take off. be theeve that will last flight here. it was the last flight still listed on the departure board the past half hour. we just saw the flight take off. lastlieve that is the one leaving from here at reagan national airport. we talked to officials. all flights tomorrow are canceled. the wind and the snow picking up. reporting live, brianne carter, abc7 news. leon: all right. thank you. leon: all shut down. maureen: i wonder if the last -- flight was going south. leon: it's out of here. get back to horace holmes who has been traveling around

the region in mobile track 7. making his way this way, making his way east from i-66er county and now on near nutley street. what are you seeing now? are you seeing folks out there? from officials they are seeing too many people out on the roads. horace: yeah. as a matter of fact we are a an accidento up here. s.itch camera look.n take a it did back up traffic on i-66. there are people out here and getting icy are at this point. completely covered with snow. here.ows have been out the plows have been out here. it looks like the police have wreck off to the side. pulling up on it right now. look like he has been out there. it stopped traffic for a second but moving smoothly now. are seeing people still on the roads on 66. police would like you to grit

home. i don't know what to folks are doing out here. i know what i'm doing out here what they areow doing out here. we are on 66. we will move from here to the totway to move to maryland see how it looks on the roadways there. guys.o you, leon: thank you for that. inwill get you back to you a bit. drive carefully. stay with 7 throughout the blizzard 2016. to stream the coverage at wjla.com. constant updates on the wjla.com facebook page. twitterourse the abc7 feed. job can download -- you can the stormwatch7 app. are sure your devices charged so you can stay connected on up to date on how the storm is moving and how it is affecting you. leon: more of our continuing coverage just ahead after a break. for the girl scout meeting...

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leon: live pictures here of the white house. that is looking south toward the mall. trees. see the now you can see to the right, the upper white corner the snow is filtering down. down heavier than last time we looked. >> don't see anybody out there anything --

shoveling anything or moving snow around. someone do that. leon: that is one family dad won't be out doing shoveling. that is for sure. maureen: we want to bring you up to date. this is the beginning of the storm. a few hours into it. there is a lot more to come. then the second headline is indoors. leon: that is right. we are still getting reports that there are still too many drivers seen on the area roads. we have heard it from the suzanne kennedy who is in chevy chase area and from onace holmes on the roads i-66. mayor bowser said it about the district as well. if you are thinking about going out, folks. don't do it right now. this is a bad time to start the roads. things will only get worse from here on out. maureen: the road crews need have the space to go out, removedown salt, to the snow. and for their own safety it's important that you stay out of way. leon: that is right. maureen: if you have to be out

is a different story. your options. we have had quite a bit of time to prepare for the storm. forome you are ready it -- we hope you are ready for it. we want to keep the roads clear. a emergency the last thing you want to hear is you were on the road or someone else on the road interfered with emergency vehicle's ability to get to a house fire, rescue somebody, or to deal with physical or a health problem. leon: that is right. let's check to see how it looks right now in the rosslyn section of arlington. joce sterman is outside out for usings right now. what are you seeing out there? joce: well, leon, the roads slowly clearing. people getting out of the way. we know one local business is going to do their part to keep drivers off the road. it's the lost dog cafe in arlington. pizza from them earlier tonight. they usually have 18 drivers on a friday night. them.usiness for they have cut down to just two. they are doing something

historic. they have been in business 31 tomorrow and will close for the first time in three decades because of the weather. they don't want their own on the roads. all the things you mentioned. they want to stay clear of everyone else. not going to open tomorrow for the first time. they have the drivers out tonight, a few of them. this is, you know, a family business. the place has been around forever. they had people in today. people who walked from the community in to get a little bit of pizza or exercise, a little bit of fun before the big storm comes in. but they just don't want to risk it. for the first time in 30 years. to the owner. here is what she had to say. in 31 years big storms. what makes this different to make you want to close? the 30 to 40-mile-per-hour winds. we usually stay open for the people that can walk here in the neighborhood. will don't think anybody be walking in that type of wind. joce: yeah, even if you live westover andnear the shopping center, all the businesses say they were going

to close because they just be outxpect people to in these conditions when it's so windy. other, they don't want you on course, theyof don't want you on the road. we have seen only a fire engine in the last 15 minutes in rosslyn. that is good news. people are heeding the warning. staying off the roads and staying out of the way. guys, back to you in the studio. maureen: thank you so much. leon: let's get to doug hill right away who is watching this. everything has happening, falling into place like dominoes here. absolutely. we start out sharing a cool nasagosom the project. the satellite, what you see is the one low pressure center and is starting to weaken yielding the energy to the newly developing storm center. this is the main event storm the coast off south carolina, off myrtle beach. that will take over. find is an upper level low that is swinging behind it. really august meant the moisture pour -- augment the moisture off the atlantic ocean. moisture.lf now once atlantic gets into play and the winds come up.

it's snowing now, wait a few more hours. blizzard warning for spotsylvania county, long island, new york, until 6:00 a.m. sunday morning. 30 million people under warning. temperatures in lower 20's. that won't change. we have enough wind to drive wind chills lower. everything else will pick up. steve rudin has that story from the belfort furniture weather center. be awfully windy, steve. steve: windy, noisy, snowy and the as we move through overnight hours. be prepared. may even hear a rumble of thunder. look at the winds out there. wind speeds from 20, 25, 30 per hour. it area of low pressure, will transfer from the coast to give us a heavy snow moving overnight. show you what it looks like. the heaviest bands are exiting richmond moving northward. eventually making it to fredericksburg and leonardtown and the district. that will be the first heavy band across the area.

as i show you the future cast, you can see the heaviest snow south of d.c. by 4:30 in the morning it is overhead. it will come down at approximately two or three inches an hour and will allow snow to pile up quickly. toould not be surprised wake up tomorrow morning and some areas have 14, 15, maybe inches of snow on the sundaybut it will exit morning. show you the winds. forecast wind gusts, upward of 35, 45, even 60 miles per hour ocean city. looking at the overnight, 5:00 tomorrow near 70-mile-per-hour wind gust in ocean city. .hat will be rough especially for extreme beach erosion. further west you go is not much of a problem. gustle-per-hour wind projected at 8:00 tomorrow. ocean city and the winds finally begin to ease as we through the daytime hours

of saturday. take you out with a look at the forecast, snow totals. anywhere between 15 and 20 inches for part of southern maryland, prince george's county, district and alexandria. west we willand bump that up to 20 and 30 injuries for frederick, baltimore, leesburg and winchester. i'll take you to look at the next seven days. once we get the storm out of conditions improve. sunday, lower 40's on monday. 50 on40's to around tuesday. we will get a melting action going on. roads are bad. it is only going to get worse. we will keep you updated from the belfort furniture weather center. head to jamie sullivan with a look at the roadways. jamie: first, i want to start metro. if you travel metro this everything or are planning to, single tracking on every single line. orange, blue, silver, red line, green, yellow line. this is in various locations. there is nothing i can give you to pinpoint exactly where. it is all because of the blizzard preparation.

single tracking on all of the metro lines. are talking about getting out there now traveling in virginia. slow we through how are. heading south on 395. 17 minutes from the 14th mixingbridge to the bowl. outbound, 66, from the beltway the fairfaxo county parkway, 15 minutes. we can never say that on a normal weekday through this hour. this is always bumper to bumper and it takes much longer. 95 as many cars on pproaching the occoquan. past that point to triangle we are slower. are going to be traveling along the beltway, you can see here through prince george's county yes. mostly in the yellow. we are not seeing a lot of red. let's look outside. run through what we are seeing. a look at randolph road. you can see the car just turning out. we are okay. it's slush we do have right here. carseeing a lot of slipping and sliding. you are probably wondering why accidents mentioned yet? that is because we don't have

many accidents, which is great news to report. a few minorg fender benders. that is it. but this is what you have to if you are going out. back to you. leon: thank you, jamie. to aen: as we head break, here is a picture of our "7 on your side" team members. they are cleaning off our of ourte dish outside studios here in arlington. we have to clean it off every hours in order to stay on the air. leon: they will be busy hours. the next few for sure. they will be working through the nights. make sure we don't let you down. folks, stay connected with us throughout the blizzard of 2016. all of ouraming coverage at wjla.com. updates have constant on the wjla facebook page and twitter feed for you as well. download the stormwatch7 app for your tablet or smartphone itunes toplay and have it with you at all times

on all of your devices. your devices are charged and stay connected.

maureen: our big storm hit nashville at the height of the morning rush hour. thele on the roads found vehicles sliding all over the place. obviously to give those people but it looks like really was a lot of ice. expecting about eight inches of snow from this storm. leon: all right. so the north of there in virginia. 500 members of the national guard are standing by to help out if needed. governor terry mcauliffe tells us that the department of transportation is gearing up as well. governor mcauliffe: we have 13,000 pieces of equipment, personnel, plenty of salt. we have 650,000 tons of salt. million gallons of liquid salt. we have the personnel and the equipment. leon: we'll keep our eye on how it's shaping up out there. leon: we'll keep our eye on how it's shaping up out there. we are

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breaking news tonight. the storm, deadly at this hour. 80 million americans. tens of thousands without power. the tornadoes, as well. dangerous conditions from the deep south to new england. blizzard warnings now in effect for several major cities. thousands of flights cancelled. planes off the runway. we have team coverage straight ahead. the race for 2016. the conservative revolt. the list of names saying donald trump is not ready to be president. calling him unmoored, crazy. trump's new message in return. and barbara bush with her own message. is it aimed at trump? flying while drunk. the passenger plane, and the pilot arrested. breaking news, deadly listeria. now linked to lettuce. the new recall this evening. and the major new announcement from the academy. did will smith's