here's what everyone is waking up to, more snow today. let's go into the commonwealth of virginia. this is west maple avenue in vienna and it is snow covered. >> this is heights metro station. i think it's irving street. you can see completely snow covered, cars trying to navigate around this mess this morning. thanks for staying with us on this extended edition of news4

today. >> another storm means another snow day for most of you. the federal government is closed for this a third day in a row. the d.c. government is closed, all local school systems are closed. if you plan to take metro, it is only running under ground. no above ground service for metro rail. also all flights in and out of reagan, dulles, bwi canceled most of the day. >> let's get the latest on the storm and see how much snow we're expected to get here. tom kiron is monitoring conditions on storm center 4. >> the snow is beginning to fall moderately to heavily across much of the region. where you see much of the blues and agree green areas where it snowing hard. out in western loudoun county

and western jefferson county, now northern prince william county and on the radar right in now southern montgomery down and northern ann arundel county. the snow continues to advance to the north so we're going to see more of this heavy snow moving into the metro area here over the next few hours. we'll have the heaviest snow from now all the way until around noontime. then this afternoon we'll get some very strong winds coming in. meteorologist chuck bell is joining us now with all the latest snow totals. we're keeping on top of the storm as it evolves. >> we're continuing to get more and more snow totals. tim out in steves city, virginia, 10 inches.

winds nearing on 30 miles an hour. so four inches of snow with the winds already ramping up. ron and laurel, maryland, five inches of new snow on the ground and heavy snow coming down and also a viewer in edgewater, maryland, six inches. three to six inches of new snow already on the ground, we have another four to in some places maybe ten inches of snow possible before the day comes to an accident. winds will be up around 30 to 40 miles an hour. hardest hit areas are going torn around the bay. >> here's the scene now, live picture right near the 14th street bridge, look at that t visibility has really diminished now, maybe quarter to a half mile at the most. the snow falling at the rate of about an inch an hour.

temperatures now 29 degrees in washington so it certainly is sticking and it's in the mid and upper 20s elsewhere. upper 20s in prince george's county, montgomery, arlington and fairfax county. and it's even colder out in western maryland, they're down into t teens right now, and blizzard warnings are up for the highlands of west virginia across the northern counties of maryland and closer to washington, howard, anne arundel counties. that extends across pennsylvania and these winter storm warnings all the way up to the midwest. these storms have impact over a very wide ea. and the storm is spinning away here right over the ohio valley now. the main upper level, mid level low of that is once it gets off the coast it's going to cause some explosive development of low pressure just off of the coast right here and as that

happens, we're going to get some very strong winds as this low pressure deepens rapidly just off of the coast. we just got the very latest update on satellite radar. you can see it's raining here across southeastern virginia. it's a ltle bit of mix of rain and sleet farther north and west, but there is all snow as we look up around our region over the last 12 hours or so, we're seeing this upper level spin move in. it's going to be passing right over virginia and increasing our snow amounts all the way up to around 12 inches by the time it all ends by 7:00 p.m. today. strong winds tonight into tomorrow will cause significant drifting. jerry, how's the traffic. conditions needless to say are not good and the winds are beginning to hit this area. here's the american legion bridge, right side is the outer loop, left side the inner loop. let's head over and take a look

elsewhere. northern virginia, 95 in springfield, 14th street bridge, visibility is way down now, so that means more potential for problems if you're getting out on the roads. northwest washington, the snow continues. massachusetts avenue and still some of the more major secondary roadways are still quite tough going in all jurisdictions, not just the district, getting out of your neighborhoods, getting out of your house may be the biggest issue at this point. we'll keep you updated. >> when the snow emergency sign is almost covered with snow, we're in trouble. >> let's check out the situation on how it's looking in maryland. megan, good morning. >> reporter: well, good morning, it's really coming down, very pretty big snowflakes are accumulating on my arm and unfortunately accumulating out there on the streets. but some folks like the people who work for the postal service

may have to go to work. your friends call you chip? >> yeah. >> you got to go to work. >> got to go to work, got to do what you got to do. mail must go, and we're so dedicated to give it to you all the best way we can. unless it is unsafe. but we will do the best we can. >> you're not driving, you're hitching a ride with a koe worker? >> i'm actually hitching a ride with my co-worker today. he has a better vehicle than i do today. we're going to do the best we can to get out there today. just be patient, that's all i can say. >> reporter: you're walking down this access road, which is not great, describe it. >> it's like a skier without skis. but you take your time, you take baby steps, sometimes you have to go back to that duck duck walk, you know, you get to it the best way you can. >> reporter: duck duck walk, i like that.

>> be safe, if you have to come out here. if you don't have to come out here, stay home. and people like us, wish us well while we're outhere. >> reporter: be careful getting to work. have a good one. people out and about and mainly what we're seeing on the roadways, trucks, tractor trailers quite a few of them making deliveries and the contractors and the plows and things like that. but every once in a while you do see a car and we have seen those cars get stuck because the roads are not in good condition. secondary roads, neighborhood roads very, very sloppy. in some cases we have inches of slush that's built up on the roads. 301 doesn't look that bad. we have seen a number of plows out here this morning. it is most definitely passable, but it isn't perfect either. what we had is a hold over from

the last storm, is that kind of frozen compressed, packed snow, you'll be going along and things will be going pretty good and you'll hit a patch of that and it's frozen and it's bumpy and it will make your car jump around a little bit and it's not pleasant. so you know what? stay home, get a cup of hot coccok cocoa and stay in. >> thanks very much, megan. let's go to virginia now where a lot of side streets have not even been cleared once since last weekend's storm. >> kimberly is live. >> reporter: who better to give us a look at the side streets than two joggers here. ann mare lee and kai.

what are the streets like? >> the side streets are worse than maple after. it's packed snow. vienna has had a problem with removing all the snow. even from the last snowstorm. >> reporter: and what about this fresh snowfall? >> i thought it was packed, but it's just loose and slippery. i guess we got a little bit of sleet. >> reporter: just a little bit icy, annmarie and kia out for a jog today. we drove into this parking lot early this morning. this pile was not here when we drove in. this is thanks to the snowplows, they're doing their work here on west maple avenue and clearing the roads. but that means we're going to have a tough time getting out of this parking lot. you can also see on top of that slush pile a nice layering of fresh powder. so we're abt, oh, it's about

two inches to the ground here in vienna, virginia. motorists not having a hard time. we haven't seen anybody stuck on maple avenue, it is their main street in downtown vienna. i did see a pick-up truck struck this morning, but traffic is very, very light. but even small little sedans getting by right behind the salt truck, not having any problems. the snow has been coming down at a steady clip ever since we have been out here since 3:00 this morning. it is a pretty sight, but if you don't have to get out because of the icy mix, it's probably a good idea to stay home again. reporting live in vienna, i'm kimberly suitors. >> at least you're stuck at the party mania store and right across the street from the sleepies. so you're in good position. >> reporter: i'm more concerned

that the starbucks is actually going to open at 8:00, they have a sign that says don't blame us, blame the weatherman. they say they will open at 8:00, to hopefully they will. that's more important to me than party mania. >> chuck's already complained that whoever wrote that note needs to be fired. >> blame it on mother nature. we'll find out exactly what know is doing right now. >> here's meteorologist tom kiron with the latest on the snow conditions. >> it began with some light snow and actually had some moderate snow last evening and then a period of sleet and freezing rain. now it's back to all snow where you see on the radar there, the green is where it is snowing heavily. right now we're getting heavy snow here in loudoun county and also a batch of heavy snow in northern prince william county getting heavy snow. also some heavy snow in jefferson county, west virginia.

and elsewhere right around washington, we have got some light to moderate snow. deep pockets of heavier snow. howard county, frederick county, maryland and other parts of southern maryland. they have had some light coating of icing and some snow earlier, now it does look like it's going to be snowing back in even there here over the next couple of hours. we had a report in hagers town, 11 inches from the storm there so far and into west virginia in morgan county, had a report there of nine inches of snow. out in garrett county, weather watchers there reporting nine inches. it's four inches at reagan national airport. we have had reports of up so six inches in annapolis county. three inches in charles county, over to near fredericksberg and a couple of inches in the central shenandoah valley, but it will continue to pile up. and montgomery and fairfax

counties have had three to four inches, the southern parts of the sown, northern parts of the montgomery county up to six. under 20s throughout much of the region. we are cold this morning and below freezing. blizzard warning in effect for later on this afternoon for all these counties in red. highlands of west virginia all across north central maryland. howard and ann arundel counties under blizzard warnings. that means sustained winds of 40 miles an hour. now the warnings, also show blizzard warnings all the way up to long island. and as those winter sto warnings all the way into new england all across pennsylvania into the ohio valley. got a spin ithe atmosphere over the lower ohio valley. that is heading over across virginia over the next few hours and as it gets off the coast, it will cause explosives development of low pressure and

that is what's going to whip us with the strong winds by later on this afternoon also tapping additional moisture off of the atlantic and giving us more snow. total amounts of eight to 12 inches, the northeastern maryland, 12 to 16 by the time it ends this evening. sunshine returns tomorrow, but still blustery wind, drifting of the snow significantly tonight into tomorrow morning. jerry, how's the traffic? >> conditions continues to deteriorate. rhode island avenue at 18th street northeast. we saw a little bit of change earlier. we'll switch gears and head over to springfield along is i-95 corridor right over the springfield interchange. at this point, even with some treatment, going to be definitely very, very

treacherous so you need to take your time if you have to go out. one more stop, we'll head over to maryland along the belt way and route 29. the traffic with the plows there, that's 29 over the capitol beltway. the plows have just come through to treat the roadway. as the snow picks up and the winds pick up, if you become broken down or involved in an accident, you get out of your car to try to find help, you could get disoriented and realize you may be walking into the roadway, you may get lost if you're just going out for a stroll. seriously this could be very dangerous as we're getting into the worst of it it appears right now. >> on the telephone right now, we have anne arundel county mayor, you've got a blizzard warnings and you already have six inches of snow? >> that is correct, but one ray of sunshine, we will have our full capacity of salt very

shortly. that would be about 12,000 tons. we're down to 2,000 tons of salt. we're able to secure 400 tons of salt yesterday. but the blizzard conditions are expected starting at 10:00, we have got close to 300 trucks out on the road, unfortunately we have downed trees, 24 roads are closed. one i know of 24th and newman way in crawford, but we know that we have been out helping utility employees that have been stuck on parkway drive in hanover. yesterday i delivered personally several residents citations thanking them for reaching out helping their neighbors. i call them snow angels, people who in the face of this adversity find it within themselves to go out and help their neighbors and i thought that kind of service ought to be recognized. >> that's what it's going to take, all the members, individual members of the

kmuchbts sticking together and trying to get through this. >> we have unfortunately 52 homes without power. i know the pge crews are working on that as well. >> what about the crews? do you have enough salt and crews and equipment? >> i have been out there to thank these crews who have been working long hours, 12-hours shifts, i wantsed thank them. but one inconvenienced resident is one inconvenienced resident too many. so we're going to try to clear these streets within the next few days. >> the county government is shut down for today? >> it is. >> and the schools the same? >> it is. >> how do y catch up when all is said and done? >> we were working yesterday so we got a lot of work done yesterday. but fortunately we have computers and phones and we can do some work from our

residences. >> good luck getting through this. >> thank you. >> it was another long night for road crews around our area. >> stacy is in northwest d.c. in the coffee heights area. is it getting worse? >> we're seeing the snow is just whipping around, we have got high winds, you can see there which direction it's blowing i and it's coming down really fast. we have had about two to three inches of snow out here in northwest. i also feel safe saying that pretty much, you know, it's a ghost town out here because normally by this time of day, we have a whole lot of traffic out there, 14th street, we would have more foot traffic than we have seen. but i tell you, if ere's a couple of people who we have been seeing out here throughout the morning is the guys out there shoveling out the walk. so for everyone out here who lives in the con dose, know that you can walk out here to the cvs because they're open this morning. but we have been monitoring the roads and taking a very close

look at what's been happening out here. when we first got here, we had plows going up and down this road and now it's all covered again. and it's starting to do that slushy, nasty kind of thing. we have had our trucks sliing around through all of that snow and ice and this is what we're dealing with. when that wind hits, it's just a huge wind gust and this is what tom has been talking about all morning, in fact all week, he's worried about what's going to happen with these gusts moving the snow that we already have on the ground plus this fresh snow and dealing with drifting which could affect our accumulation totals. we're seeing that wind already here in the washington area. this makes for very dangerous drive situations, you can be in the city or enter else, we have been talking about all of that whiteness, when you're trying to drive withll of that white, trying to find the offramp,

trying to find the exit, trying to find out which laeb you're supposed to be on. sometimes you can't get directly on to your ramp if you're not quick about it because they have plowed the outside edge so you don't have enough room. all of this this stuff is an issue when we have the snow coming down. that's buy we're saying to people it's such a good idea to be in the house if you don't have to be out here. out here people are pretty much staying in the house. this is a place with heavy foot traffic and lots of drivers and we're just not seeing that this morning, people are definitely staying in. we're going to be providing reports for you throughout the morning. back to you in the studio. >> are there businesses open now? i know some people can't get to work. and columbia heights area has a lot of businesses, what are you seeing? >> like i said, the cvs is open. i don't know if it's time for anybody to be out here yet.

but the cvs open. that's the one place people can definitely go. you can get whatever you need at the cvs. >> there's a surprising amount of traffic there at 14th street. >> if you can count it, joe, i don't call it traffic. we have like three or four cars out here, but you know how it normally is on 14th street. you know this is a major, and this intersection can get so gridlocked and this is the time of day for this to be happening. while we have a few cars, folks who had to go to work, i'm sure that's the case, but, yeah, no, this isn't -- i would call this a ghost town in comparison to what we usually see in this area this time of day, definitely. >> but your point about getting disoriented really is point well worth making and i have been out in this snow and when all that snow is coming at you and everything looks white and everything looks different from what you're used to seeing, you can get lost for a moment and

that's when zechbts can happen. >> especially with the plowing, because so often when we're driving and close to home, it's kind of like a feeling, you feel where you're supposed to make your right, you feel where you're supposed to make your left. when the plowing comes, things are just changed a little bit. i drove past my exit the other day because that plow line is so long. i missed my exit. >> we're giving you a live picture right now of massachusetts avenue. and this is in northwest washington. it looks like that's a fire truck trying to make its way up the road there. yesterday we had some people telling us that even though it is a main artery through washington, d.c. was just a mess, there was slick patches of ice out there and road crews are working hard out there. that looks like those are plows trying to make their way up massachusetts avenue. >> that's a good scene to see. let's go to the telephone and with us right now from the

maryland state highway association, kelly, thanks so much for joining us. >> sure. >> what can you tell us about how the road conditions are in suburban, maryland? >> we're in our housing operation center and we're getting a good bird's-eye view of all the work that's going on across the area. we are starting to see the snow cover beginning to fall and we do recognize that it's mixed in with some sleet so crews are continuing to plow, but we're applying salt as we need to. but this is becoming a plowing operation rather quickly. >> and tell us about your supplies and your equipment and the amount of salt and sand you have and your crews? >> we do have our deployment of our crews outtoday. question have replenished our saltd supply. our crew of course are tired, but they're pushing forward, this has been a long couple of

days and we do understand we have another band coming through probably next week. so this is going to be a pretty substantial february for us. >> and you're there in the state highway administration operations center and then the entire state of maryland is getting slammed by this storm, is that not right? where would you say the worst of it is? >> this is definitely a state wide storm, we're seeing a lot of accumulation falling around the i-95 corridor. we're getting a rain sleet mixture over there. this is a state wide effort that we have. we're asking our folks to be patient with us. we'll continue to plow during the course of day. but if you have to go out, look for our crews and for those merge areas at those interchanges. >> thank you for joining us and good luck. >> thank you. >> let's get another check on the forecast from meteorologist tom kiron.

so tom, what's the storm doing now? >> the trends are for increasing snowfall rates. where you see the green is where we are getting some heavy snow in now western fairfax county across just about all of loudoun county. northern shenandoah valley, in this green area is wheree're getting the heaviest snow. elsewhere light to moderate snow. we have totals of four to five, even six inches, piling up, ten inches farther knot. temperatures from 20 to near 30 degrees. blizzard warnings, 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. winter weather advisories those counties in blue farther to the south. and we'll have the storm system continuing to move through and developing low pressure off the coast and that will give us more moisture and eight to 12 inches of snow by the time it all ends at 1:00 p.m. or so. >> thanks very much, tom, we'll

be back with more, but a reminder that the federal government is closed. d.c. government is closed in fact all the school

7:291 is your time right now, this is a live shot of maryland where you can see a truck is there stopped on the road. megan has been reporting that the main roads look pretty clear. let's check in with tom kiron once again to find out how the storm is moving through our area. >> thanks for checking in with us folks at home. thanks for watching this morning as we get going on this wednesday morning. we have had the snow increasing as we take a look now at this radar where you see the green is where it's snowing heavily. this is drifting to the nort

it's going to be crosses to the potomac, as well as into frederick county. washington county, in jefferson county in west virginia. there's another batch of some heavy snow in northern prince william county, all of this is moving off to north as the storm system is continuing to move our way. elsewhere where you see the dark blue, it's light to moderate snow in the district and parts of southern maryland. but this band, this area of some heavy snow is about to cross the potomac, and about to move into maryland and should be doing so shortly. chuck bell is joining me now with a perspective on this storm as well as the totals we have had so far, chuck? >> the totals continue to come on in. if you have a snow report please feel free to send it to me at chuck.bell@nbc philadelphia.com. janet in stafford, virginia,

four inches of new snow there. ray up in walkersville, maryland. todd in hagerstown, 11 inches of new snow in hagerstown, maryland. sue and bill have eight inches of new snow at their place. northwest berkeley county in west virginia. tim reports 12 inches of new snow up in the panhandle of west virginia. he also reports near whiteout conditions, also as you get towards ridge, west virginia nine inches of snow. winds are gusting between 32 and 35 miles an hour. that is creating near whiteout conditions and only 25 feet of visibility there. also in williamsport, maryland, 10.5 inches of new snow there. this is going to continue to people up. before the snow started, we already had 21 inches of snow in the washington area, picked up another four inches last night. so where is this stacking up on our snowiest months ever?

february of 1899 when we had 35 inches of snow just in the month of february. now in 2010, 24.8 inches, so anything we get is going to continue to add up on to there. this is an important month here, february of 1899, the 1898nd 1899 winters were the all-time snowiest winters. our winter now is in second place, only behind that 1899 winter. and was that a cold one as well. i have some pictures for you. this was taken after the blizzard of 1899 and the one thing we're missing out on here with this particular particur storm is the unbelievable cold weather that followed this storm in 1899 four record lows in a row. the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th of february in 1899. the record low temperatures were minus 8, minus 15, and 4 above

zero. so unbelievable cold that followed that one. it's going to stay cold arm here, but nothing quite like that. >> here's a live picture now in bouie, you can see the roads are now loaded with a fresh coang of snow and it continues to snow. that's a live picture in prince george's county. as we take a look at the temperatures, it's just 30 degrees in washington. in the upper 20s in montgomery county and fairfax, this snow is falling and sticking and temperatures are colder in the central shenandoah valley. southern maryland and near the bay as well. blizzard warnings in effect for later this evening for all these counties in red, including this highlands of west virginia, washington, frederick county in maryland, carol, howard, ann arundel, northern part of the eastern shore. blizzard warnings means sustained winds of 35 miles an hour or more beginning later on

this morning and into the afternoon. the blizzard warnings extend up the jersey coast, southeastern pennsylvania and around the new york city area too. so this storm is having widespread impact. all those other counties and big winter storm warnings including in new york city all the way across pennsylvania and into the ohio valley and the central appalachians. we can see a circulation in the atmosphere. then as it gets off the coast, there will be an explosive development of low pressure here and that low will track along the coast, as it does it will whip in very strong winds. totals of up to 12 inches are likely. we have already gotten up there in the highlands of west virginia in some locations, but generally around the metro area, 8 to 12. west virginia, and parts of

southern maryland too, you're going to get eight inches before all this ends this evening. and tomorrow we'll get some sunshine back. >> we continue to show pictures around the area, this is interstate 66. you can see just some fresh tire tracks in the roadway. let's go over to maryland. i'll hit as many cameras as i have time for. notice the wind beginning to whip up a little bit more now, the cameras beginning to shake just a bit. hang on tight if you have to go out. belt way over in coalsville road. crews came by just a couple of minutes ago and they were doing some work over there. so we're okay for the moment, but as quickly as all this is moving in, this is going to change very, very rapidly. we'll show you one more maryland camera. trust me, it' the belt way near route 202. so stay put, crews are out working as best they can. but now the winds are picking up and the visibility will certainly go down with more snow

and it's going to be very, very treacherous. >> all right, let's check out the situation on the snow in maryland right now. megan mcgrath is out there in maryland. >> reporter: well, things are definitely getting sloppy out here, take a look at the wroids behind me here, this is a secondary road, an access road that runs light along staid route 301. it is ugly and just standing here for the last several hours, we have seen all kinds of people get stuck in this slush, we have seen people having to push them out, get out the shovels and dig them out. and there's one truck that's still there. it's been there since i've been there early this morning. we're seeing a lotf people who are walking to work. we have seen a number of people who ligot rides close to where

they work. we spoke to a woman with the postal service who walked as far as she could and one of her colleagues came and picked her up with his suv. so ty went on and made the last leg of that journey. he's described what he's seen out there on the roadways this morning. >> it's very dangerous out there, but if you take you time, you can make it. a and. >> describe 301. >> 301, one lane a i wouldn't invite someone to go out unless you have to. >> the neighborhoods? >> side streets no good. >> reporter: you immediate the have that four-wheel drive? >> you have to have the four-wheel drive or don't even attempt to come out. >> reporter: we have seen in the last couple of hours route 301 really go downhill.

you can see there's quite a few people out there braving the weather, but it was not completely snow covered early this morning. at this point it is covered. this is a plowing operation, we have seen the plows go by with the plows actually down and they're scooping away the snow here, so we have definitely seen an accumulation, this turned to snow at about 4:00 this morning because we got some sleet and some ice earlier this morning. people who got out early this morning found their cars covered with ice not snow. you're going to have to get tha ice scraper out because once you get that fluffy stuff off, you're going to have a layer of ice. it's been steady since about 4:00 this morning. right now it's more nine, but it's real steady snow that's coming down. however you slice it. whatever it looks like, it's starting to stack up out there on the roadways and they haven't finished cleaning up from the last storm. not a good situation, and just enjoy yourself at home.

the kids are off, my kids are off, hang out with the kids, go sledding. >> now to virginia where a lot of the side streets haven't been cleared. even the main roads are having problems right now. >> kimberly suitors is live in vienna now. >> reporter: we have been having some fun this morning. but it's a blaze saturday now. conditions have changed in the last 30 minutes. take a look. victim is definitely reduced on the roads. if you don't mind panning off to the right for a second. just to show the mounds of snow they're dealing with here in vienna, virginia. this is their main thoroughfare through downtown vienna so this extra powder is really unwelcome. take a walk with me right here near the party mania truck. this might be considered an emergency vehicle on days like today. if you're just waking up and you have to get out, you've got this

snow to deal with, that's easy to get off your car, but you also have this. and that ice is going nowhere fast. i had to contend with that early this morning. and then on the front of the truck, the fun thing about this, if you can make kind of an igloo wi this sort of snow. this is obviously left over from the storm earlier in the week, and if i can get through here, yeah, that's about an elbow deep, mayba little deeper, maybe up to, you know, midway up my arm. so a lot of snow in fairfax county, virginia and as i said, in the last 30 minutes, nr whiteout conditions here in fairfax county. so the situation has definitely deteriorated. still we have not seen cars having too much trouble, but again, this is the main road, this is the road that has been plowed all morning. i understand many neighborhoods

in vienna are absolutely impassable. early this morning you could see all the trucks coming, you could see all the cars coming easily down maple. visibility has definitely been severely reduced in the last 30 minutes. >> kimberly suitors live for news4 joining us. >> it looks like the worst of it is getting going right now. >> reporter: it is and the winds have really picked up. >> let's talk with john townsend with aaa. good morning, john. >> how are you? >> we know that a lot of people have been told already to stay off the roads, but unfortunately, there's some people like the postal workers who have to get out there, some advise, please? >> be aware of your situation and the conditions out there which are rapidly deteriorating and things are going to get worse, like the old batman show, the worst is yet to come. and that's what we need to keep

in mind today. >> what would you advise folks if they do in fact have to head out to be prepared to deal with this. let me ask you this is aaa available for folks who get stuck in this snow? if you're a aaa member and you get out there and get stuck, is aaa responding to calls. >> we have had about 80,000 calls throughout our area. this is an amazing week. we are running across a whole gamut of problems associated with vehicles, but the most important ones are to extricate people and to rescue them. given these conditions, there may be some delay and some delay may be between 30 minutes and 40 minutes so that's important to realize. and we say to people who are stranded and stuck to stay with the vehicles, the temptation is to leave their cars.

but it's easier for us to find youf you stay with your car. number two, run the car for ten minutes every half-hour to hour, but make sure the tail pipe is free of snow or any other debris. i had a situation the other night where two people died and were knocked out in their cars. >> where was that? >> in prince george's county. >> you do want to run the engine only periodically not con standly, right? because you don't want to use up all the gasoline. >> to avoid using up all the gasoline. but to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning and allow the window rolled down about an inch or two. and if the car is disabled, what you should do is to put up a flag on your antenna or raise the hood so people will realize

that. the other tip that we give to people is, to also take them some supplies such as water and snacks, booster cables, in case someone does have to combi and rescue them. blankets and flashlights. cell phones that's fully charged and take the charker with you so you can make the emergency calls. >> thank you. we hope that nobody goes out there and gets stuck. >> let's check in with meteorologist tom kiron with the storm center. tom, it looks like from all the reporters that the winds are picking up throughout the area? >> at dulles airport, 40-mile-per-hour gusts with visibility down to about 15 to 20 feet out in the highlands of west virginia. now as we look at the radar, where you see the green is where we're now getting some heavy snow, snowing heavily in fairfax county, prince george's county,

getting some light to moderate snow as is the district of columbia. fairfax and loudoun county, this is heavy snow. also we're getting heavy snow reports in western frederick county right along south mountain and braddock mountain and those higher elevations are gusting over 40-mile-per-hour now so there are whiteout conditions there. elsewhere on radar, we are seeing just some lighter snow farther to the east of washington. however south of washington down interstate 95, they're getting a band of very heavy snow there as well. and across the potomac river in la charles county, they're getting a band of some very heavy snow as well. we're going to continue to see these bands of heavy snow throughout the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon. then it should taper off and end, maybe a couple of hours after sunset, around 7:00 or 8:00 this evening. here are some of the snow totals

that are just coming in now. up in new market, ryland, that's in frederick county, they have had 11 inches. bakers town, 11 inches. out here in morgan county and western berkeley county, up to a foot as fall from this storm. winchester, 5, 6, 7 inches. four to five inches in fairfax county, five to six inches in prince george's and anne arundel county, three to four inches in charles county and to near fredericksburg. it is below freezing all around the region. it is certainly sticking, temperatures in the 20s. there's that gus as dulles airport just had a gust of 40 miles an hour. i'm not sure if that's perhaps a typo, but still t story is that we're seeing some strong gusts coming in. right now, all these counties in pink, theyre under a winter storm warning throughout the rest of the day. the blizzard warning starts at

10:00 this morning. we're getting blizzard conditions now on the hhland to west virginia and those high spots of washington and frederick county there are blizzard county, as well as howard and anne arundel county. and the fairfax county, loudoun county, prince william, stafford county, all souther maryland now, this is all blizzard warnings, and i'll check the times, we are saying this is blizzard conditions right now. all this coming from low pressure that is going to be rapidly deepening here off the coast as we get into the afternoon hours, it is going to deepen rapidly, explosively and move off to the east. as it doe pass it will bring more moisture.

10 to 15 inches of new snow in this zone will be common and farther north and east, perhaps up to 20 inches, this may be up to four to ten inches across the rest of virginia and southern maryland and the lower eastern shore. 45 to 55-mile-per-hour gusts will be common from now all the way into this evening and into tomorrow morning, so we're going to have whiteout conditions as well as deep drifts. we can see four, five, six-foot drifts from these very strong winds. and now, jerry, how's the traffic? >> tom, as the conditions continue to deteriorate, we'll show you what it looks like, it looks pretty calm at the moment along key bridge as crews came and treated the roadway. let's go over to maryland on i-95, a very desolate spot. a couple of stretches of i-95 wide open and that's bad as the wind picks up and the snow picks up as you head over to baltimore and washington. if you have to travel, be forewarned and be prepared.

>> that's the best advice, just stay put, because the worst is yet to come sadly. >> thank you, jerry. >> we're going to take a break now at 6:49, we'll be back with more coverage of win

30 degrees as we take a live

look outside our time right now is 7:51. welcome to this coverage of winter storm round two.

the snow is picking up, the winds are picking up and we are now under a blizzard warning in our area until 7:00 tonight. >> andrews throughout our region have had a long night, they have been trying to clear up the snow for the last few days and now more snow is falling. >> tracey wilkins has been in the columbia heights area all morning long. tracey. >> you can see what it's looking like, joe, this is an official blizzard, the snow is blowing from every direction. i could stand over here, i could stand over there, it's still going to blow right into my face. you can see these people, if you are off in the distance, you can barely see the people in front of you. it is -- this is very low visibility out here very low visibility. we got freezing temps out here, people are trying to -- i was saying that normally here in this intersection we have had a

lot of people out here, we have got a lot of traffic and it's really crowded and congested. a lot of people walking. i'm calling this a ghost town because this is not what it's normally like in this section of columbia heights. now the people who are out here, they're not out here for fun. in fact i talked with one gentleman who was part of that mass snowball fight, he's just tired of the snow. we talked to another woman about why she was out here today. we should hear from -- she said she worked for children's hospital as essential personnel. once again, let me go ahead and let you hear what this woman had to say, you can understand why some folks are out here in this blizzard. >> it's amazing, but i'm trying to get to children's hospital. i'm one of the hospitals at children's medical center.

i'm talking to an engineer who's going to come and pick me up. >> how are the roads gettingaround and getting everybody? >> it's real hectic, unbelievable. >> when they say essential personnel, you of course are essential, you got to get here. >> yes, we do. as the operator, we have to get there, yes. >> i was watching her just a little while ago, still making her way down the sidewalk over there. and see this, this is a shame. there's just so much snow out here that this is the best that folks can do. she's waiting for her ride to come pick her up so she can get to work. let me show you what it looks like down this stet. when that wind picks up, it's just blowing and the visibility gets worse and worse and worse out here. just treacherous road conditions and you can see, we have somebody walking down the center of the street there because, again, you know, i just have to say this, it's so dangerous, it's so much better for you to

find a spot to get up on to that sidewalk as soon as possible than it is for you to try to walk down the middle of the street here. because, i mean, cars can't really see out here, the few cars we have on the roadways. the wind is whipping just so incredibly fast. the snow is coming down thin but quickly and it's really causing an issue for visibility. you've just got to be careful. get up on the sidewalk, especially here in this area where they have done some plowing, this is where you want to be. columbia heights metro station, know that all above ground schsz has been canceled. no service at the bus stops, no above ground metro service, your service is going to be have to be below ground. columbia heights the station is operating. most folks are walking from home over to the metro stations to get to work. this is why you can't go down the middle of the street. you have an ambulance making its way down here now, so folks really need to be careful.

but the bottom line is, we have been saying to people, if you don't need to go out, don't go out. the folks who are out here, have to be out, like us, they have t get in to work. they're trying to figure out how they're going to do that with the metro operating in some areas and not operating in others. and walking in what is really miserable conditions right now. these are the folks who are either essential personnel trying to get in to work to take care of their jobs today and they're doing it in some really nasty weather. so, you know, just be careful if you're out there and you're driving, look for these pedestrians, look for folks who are trying to make their way in. take your time this morning, it really is getting nastier by the minute. >> you have a clear message, if you don't have to go to work today, don't so those that do have to go to work can get in. >> how is it looking out there

right now? >> poor visibility is how it's looking. what tracey just said about snow blowing in your face, right now, is is river road. some found this is a main commuter route into the district that a lot of commuters would be taking and going into the drikt, there's actually more cars coming from the district this way. we also have some potential power outages to report, bradley and golds borrow, we heard a tree broke down some power lines. mcdonald's on river road usually opens at 5:00 a.m. for breakfast. the morning crew arrived at 7:30, i just knocked on their door, they are hoping to be open by 8:00. you see a customer pulling in or perhaps part of the work crew, but the doors are locked. so normal morning routines are disrupted. over at talbert's ice and verage, they have a couple of cars there, they're using a snow blower, you can see cars coming down river road.

but you kbts see too far up river road. we're looking up now toward whole foods and it is whiteout on river road. the cars coming toward us are coming toward the belt way on river road into the district of columbia. now i want to report a few driving conditions, my caravan dave carter came down from germantown, he says that 270 is very, very slushy that, means when someone passes you they throw ice up on your windshield. make sure you have your wash you are fluid, and your windshield wipers are in a good state of repair if you are goi out today, which is not advisable. take a look at river road, which a plow must have passed here but you don't see tire treads and

you don't see payment and you're not going to because in the last half hour conditions have deteriorated. we'll keep you updated from river road and bethesda as we go throughout the morning. >> river road is a main artery, what do some of the side roads look like wre you are? >> we came over from bethesda from leland. leland is a side road, but now it's a major road. it hasn't been touched by a plow. >> chris, thank you. >> we haveome late-breaking developments in the weather development. let's go to chuck bell. what's the late zbles i can tell you what, they have expanded the blizzard warning to include the district now and that's a welcome addition for anybody who's actually outside in the snow because i'm here to tell you the winds have really picked

up here in northwest washington over about the last 20 to 30 minutes. near whiteout conditions and already an additional nine to 12 inches of snow has come down across large portions of northern maryland out into the panhandle of west virginia. out here at the front lawn of channel 4, our unofficial measuring spot, i was out here yesterday, we had 18 inches of snow out here on the lawn yesterday, now we are at 22 inches, so we have had at least an additional four inches of snow since the sun went down late yesterday afternoon. not to mention the wind has really increased in speed and as you guys know, the only difference between a heavy snow and a blizzard is the amount of wind. winds are gusting already between 25 and 35 miles an hour across many of our weather watcher locations. out at dulles airport, winds are gusting to near 40 miles an hour and out here on the front lawn at channel 4, i don't know if you can see the sideways angle

of the snow out here just yet, but the blowing and the drifting out here is already becoming a very large problem. it's only going to get worse as we go through the rest of this morning and this afternoon. everyone's wanting to know when does all this come to a stop? i think the last snowflakes fall mid to late morning hours in and around the washington area and gradually move up the northeastern corridor up into the baltimore area by later on this afternoon. already a fresh three to four inches of snow here at the front lawn of studio 4 where it is blowing and drifting. >> where's your parka, chuck you. >> you're running a beautiful coat. >> people were stuck in the snow, what's happening, megan? >> our timing is not right this morning. they just got out. but they were literally right there. you can see the tracks that they left behind.

we have got this access road here that runs along sooitds route 301 and it is extremely slushy. and we have got an open mcdonald's and an open bob evans here and so the hungry are coming out into the snow and they're trying to go up this access roa to get a little bite to eat and what we have seen literally all morning long is folks getting caught. there's one truck, the black truck has been here since before the crack of dawn when we first got here. and then all morning long, we have seen car after car try to go up this little hill and get stuck. fortunately, generally speaking, people come out, they help, they push, they pull out shuffles and then everybody gets through. the conditions are not good out there, we have really seen them go downhill in the last couple of hours. initially we were saying that route 301 and by the 50 interchange, that it was passable, that it wasn't that

bad. i current say that any longer, we have got absolute snow covered conditions now on route 301 and people should just stay off it. we have seen the plows, they are out there, they're doing their job. in fact here we have got one out there, look at the amount of slush and snow that they just scooped out of that intersection. they are out here, but we have had a significant amount of snowfall since early this morning. i talked to one of the many contractors that were out here removing snow from parking lots and sidewalks and he talked about something that he's a little concerned about. he says that there are a lot of people that are out there on the roads and they're not having proper respect for the plows that are out there, we're talking about the big heavy trucks like what we just saw, you've got to stay out of their way. he says people are driving right around them and there's real potential for accidents. >> what i'm seeing that's real bad is a lot of cars tt are just flying past trains of plow

trucks. and even on two lane roads, they're going into the opposition lane to swerve past them. people aren't making good decisions. >> reporter: so don't blow by the plows, get out of their way so they can do their jobs and so that everyone can be safe. but we are definitely seeing a deterioration out there on the roadways. the secondary roads and the neighborhood streets, we always hear that, but it's the truth. they are extremely sloppy. but we're also seeing sloppy conditions out on the main roads like route 301. you can see this little car going down, it's slipping and sliding a little bit. this is some serious slush we have got accumulating down there. and out on some of the major roads, you have real difficult to drive through the snow pack. i mean in some areas, you'll be cruising along and there will be this very bumpy snow pack and u don't want to hit that going at any speed at all. so take it easy out there.

>> okay, thanks very much, megan. >> and let's find out exactly what this storm is doing now. tom kiron is in the storm center. >> the blizzard warning area has been expanded into virginia as we were thinking earlier this morning. it did look like those conditions were going to deteriorate and here's a live picture of in washington downtown, you can see the wind is blowing, and the snow is blowing, and we're doing to have blizzard conditions all the way into this evening, low pressure is deepening rapidly and it's causing winds to increase so all the these counties in red are in a blizzard warning now and all the way into this evening, it includes, washington, prince george's, montgomery and fairfax. king george, and also in the blue ridge, the panhandle of west virginia. so all these counties, including southern maryland have just been

added to the blizzard warning, charles, calvert and st. marys. which means winds sustained to 35 miles an hour and even higher than that. they had a gust at dulles to 44 miles an hour and the national airport just had their peak of the day of 30 miles an hour. just had a gust of 40 miles an hour out at quantico, a gust of 38 miles an hour. charlottesville, a gust of 35. the visibility is 0 only a tenth of a mile at dulles airport. just a half mile visibility at reagan national. do we have the city cam at reagan national? as we look also, visibilities are way down, there is the live picture from our city camera and it is a whiteout, we cannot see anything, the wind is blowing very hard there, and the snow is

drifting and look at this, down in southern maryland too, they have only got a third of a mile of visibility. in just the last 15 minutes, victims have dropped dramatically with this snow now that is beginning to blow really hard. now as we look at the radar, where you see the green, that is where it is snowing hardest. and yes we are getting heavy snow now in fairfax county, in northwest washington and across much of montgomery county west of interstate 270 and now loudoun county so this is the area now getting the very heaviest snow and we're going to see these conditions continuing all the way into late to early afternoon. late morning early afternoon. and that is when the snow should begin to taper off. right now the heaviest snow from this storm hitting this entire region areas to our west and north and west. south of washington, also some

strong gusts have caused near whiteout conditions in stafford county, parts of charles county and afternoon the bay. it's beginning to snow there where earlier they had had some icing, here's some of the totals we're going to have to upgrade, probably adding an inch or so on on the of all of these that we have already had so far. parts of frederick countyinto washington county, temperatures are all below freezing. look at these blizzard warnings all the way up the jersey coast all the way up to long island and this is a deeper area of low pressure that's passing out of the appalachians, right over to low virginia bringing in very strong winds and bringing more moisture off the atlantic bringing snow totals of o'of up to 15 inches. now let's go to jerry edwards with the conditions on the roads. >> well, tom, the conditions are absolutely horrible now, we're talking about whiteout conditions, earlier this

morning, this is 395, earlier this morning we could actually see pavement. obviously no longer. let's go to maryland, i want to hit a couple of cameras as quickly as i can. we'll check out maryland along the 270 corridor, out of germantown, this is coming out of hyatts county, it is really, really slammed. georgia avenue, that's not bad but that might be a little bit more of a protected area, but notice the camera, the winds are beginning to shift thereupon as well. crews have a lot of work ahead of them. you just stay put and let them do their thing. it's really going down very quickly out there. >> the crews have to deal with low visibility as well when they have to navigate the traffic and the bad roads. >> let go to vienna, virginia where we saw the wind really begin to pick up. >> here's kimberly suitors out there in vienna.

>> just as joe said that huge gust has come in, you're talking about crews earlier, you're talking about a water main break on west maple. th just fixed it a moment ago. these crews were out here working until midnight until now. long, long hard conditions. take a look at the roads here on maple avenue. it is near white you conditions. you can see as shaun pans around here, there's a ton of snow already in vienna, virginia in fairfax county, virginia. all we see mostly here are utility trucks, trucks wi plows and people with good attitudes driving their four-wheel drives. but in the last hour, the snow really has begun to come down, just as megan described where she is, everywhere we have walked is now covered. this is my little measuring stick, the black parts up to an

inch. so we're at least three to four inches here, and this has happened quickly in the last two hours or so. with the winds not blowing, it's not nearly as bad. but the moment it kicks up, it's really near blizzard conditions here. by the way, we talked about being snowed in here, plowed in, because we drove into this parking lot and then the plows came through and blocked us in. we are no longer blocked, thanks to some good samaritans who walked out here with their shovels. we have got that video to show you coming up in our next hit. right now i'm reporting live in downtown vienna. >> stay safe out there kimberly. let's check out how things are at the airports. >> tara hamilton joins us now. good morning. >> good morning. >> the conditions are worsening, how is that affecting your crews out there.

>> they were making some good head way on clearing what snow has fallen from our run ways, but now as you know, this blizzards situation is covering everything back up again, plus it's making it very difficult to see out on the airfield. so this is going to delay, i'm sure progress in terms of clearing the airfield. we're going to have to get through this situation and get back out there. >> i missed a little bit of that, you said they're going to stop working for a while? >> we're pulling them back during this blizzard period because there's little to no visibility as you can understand. >> we're looking at a camera right now. >> there you see not mh. so we had fortunately the crews had gotten a lot of snow up that had already fallen. we have to take it each stage of

this storm and do the best we can. >> this morning i think you said there were a few flights going in and out of dulles, but now are all flights cancelled? >> all flights are canceled through the day today. >> if this condition that we're seeing now continues, it's unlikely there will be scheduled commercial flights at dulles either today. >> tara hamilton, at the washington metropolitan airport this morning. stay with news4 for continuing coverage of this blizzard winter storm round 2.

you can see the winds are gusting right now. and this is the blizzard of 2010, round 2. >> wow. >> welcome back, everybody. joe after 4 1/2 hours went to go stretch a leg and you guys have been doing an incredible job, i should let you know. versus saturday, thiisuch trickier getting in. i came in about 7:00 where it's not slick, it is slushy. if you're just now joining us, the visibility is getting down to next to nothing. >> let's get a check of what the

situation is like in bethesda. chris gourd is live, chris, tell us the latest. >> well, good morning, i don't know the exact definition of a blizzard. tom kiron can tell you, i believe it's like 35-mile-per-hour winds. you got to cover your ears. i didn't wear my scarf today. you should have one covers your face. you see visibility is poor, there is not much traffic and that's a good thing. let's go across the street, looking over to talbert south where you can bare ly see that, this is a truck coming down south. you see that visibility is so poor, if you look up at the traffic lights, you can hardly see, i'm going to guess 50 feet, 100 feet, you can see taillights in front of you, ely slowly, be careful. we are broadcasting from, these people are only about 35 feet

away from us and they're under a canopy and you can barely see them. so that's what we're dealing with today. near whiteout conditions. take a look over here. we got a plow coming in they're trying to plow parking lots, convenience stores, restaurants, mcdonald's has just opened. they were supposed to open at 5:00. now we're going to show you some video this morning when we were traveling through bethesda we could only go about 125 miles an hour. we are told that pepco is working on power lines that are parking. we are told on fire, they were at bradley and golds borrow.

so there will be more some more power outages with these deteriorating conditions. here on river road, it is getting worse, conditions deteriorating, people walking right in the middle of the road, to try to get to work. a lot of people have been walking and there's not much more to say. the pictures tell the story. there's one more thing to add. the wind is whipping up to the degree that if you have anything outside, like furniture on your patio or a table you might want to turn the table upside down so it doesn't blow over, chairs, anything that's movable, this storm is different from the one we had the other day in that there's a lot more wind. there's the latest from bethesda on river road.

>> to virginia we go down. >> good morning. tell us what the situation is like in fairfax county right now. >> well, i'm here at the emergency operations center. and we have a number of people from county agencies here. we're trying to provide for the safety, health and welfare of the public, and like we just heard, there's blizzard like conditions out there here in fairfax county. we're trying to assess different structures for structural integrity. we're trying to determine whether or not we should reopen our shelters. we had them open on monday, closed them on tuesday, but we may have to reopen them. we're trying to provide support and coordination to provide light safety. property conservation.

we're work working on the roads the roads are not all plowed in fairfax county yet. we want people to stay safe and stay warm. >> that's a problem, because your crews have to be working to remove the snow. what do you tell them about driving in these conditions. we also have a lot of safety messages and messages about your roof. one of our fire stations had problems with the roof. we're telling people now is not the time to get out on a ladder. but we do want people to be cognizant of the fact that there's lots of snow on top of

roofs and we want people to unbury the fire hydrants. that's a very important ssage. we want people to be careful when they're walking through the streets. the lanes and the streets are very limited maybe there's only one lane going through and if you're walking there, it gets a little dangerous with a car passing. >> we preerkd it. that was a good question you asked about crews and safety. they're pausing right now because of these wind conditions, the victim is reduced to nothing. >> and all the jurisdictions are probably having another big pow-wow to figure out how to put those drivers out on the roads in these conditions. chuck, it's looking bad out there, how bad is it? >> it's really taking a turn for the worse down here. blizzard warnings have been issued for the entire nbc 4 viewing area and that is a very

wise upgrade on the part of the national weather service. the winds are really howling out here. our towers stand a couple of hundred feet over the building here and you can hear the wind whistling throughout the entire there. the winds out here are easily between 25 and 35 miles an hour. thankfully it's calmed down just a smidgeon here since i came on the air. snowfall amounts continue to really pile up. frederick and fairfax, five inches of new snow there, william, donald whiteo report. leesburg has six inches of new snow.

we had 18 inches yesterday during the 4:00 news. the winds are really try starting to pick up. the only thing i forgot to pick up were my goggles and earmuffs. >> look at that, it is really starting to whip there now. and as we take a look at this map. the blizzard warning area has been expanded, it's now in effect. it wasn't supposed to go in effect until 10:00, but now it's in effect as we speak. blizzard warnings all the way into this evening, and all these counties in red. blizzard conditions, near whiteout conditions. just a couple of hours sooner than we were thinking. so it is turned to the worse. and look at the latest wind

gusts, a gust of wind at the dulles airport at 46, reagan national just had a gust of 42. visibility is down to just a 10th of a mile now at national airport. the conditions are just all white at this hour. it is complete white out here now look at this, victims are under a half a mile all throughout southern maryland and across west virginia. here's the latest radar, the areas of green are showing the areas of. snowing hard as well in montgomery county.

these other pockets of green are in near whiteout conditions. to the north they are getting some bands of very heavy snow in fred rake county, maryland. these are slowly tracking off to the north and will be coming into howard county, into carol county and into prince george's county. that area of very heavy snow will be moving into prince george's county shortly along with the very strong gusty winds that continue to come in and whip in out of the north and west as low pressure is now rapidly deepening off of the atlantic seaboard. since this all began yesterday afternoon, and up to a foot of new snow on the ground in parts of frederick and washington county, elsewhere we have had five to six inches of new snow. temperatures are dropping, 27 now in washington. look at dulles, they're down to 26 degrees with those whiteout

conditions. blizzard conditions all the way to long island now. now rapidly deepening low pressure just in the last hour. low pressure is rapidly deepening here in the center is just -- it's the air flowing into this deepening low out of the north and west that has really increased our winds, this will increase our snow totals up to 15 inches of new snow throughout much of the region and we'll have that tapering off and ending by this evening, last flakes maybe by midnight, but still strong gusts overnight into tomorrow morning. the road conditions deteriorating, i'm sure, jerry, right. >> i'm going to go up to maryland here, this is the capitol beltway around university boulevard. notice the wind whipping the camera, a good indicator that things really are going downhill. can't even see the pavement in hyattsville right now. river road in goldsboro road,

the same situation where the conditions are going down. up in albany, maryland right now, we did see pavement just a few moments ago around 108 and prince phillip drive but that is going downhill pretty quickly. and the winds are just nathszy out there. we're staying on top of it all day long. >> you goto hold on because those cameras are moving. hopefully kimberly suitor's camera, last time we checked with you, it was whipping out your way in vienna. >> the wind blowing over the cameras, take a look at west maple here in vienna, near whiteout conditions, the winds have subsided for a quick second, but it's miserable ought who are, it really is and it's gotten progressively worse in the last hour and a half. if we pan right here, we just want to show you, we were plowed in earlier this morning.

we are no longer plowed in because of some good samaritans, take a look at the video that was shot in the last half hour. this strike family walked from their house, with two shovels, two children and a dog. they left mom and baby at home and came and literally, their dag, they're 6'6", he dug us out of this parking lot. >> we asked him why he felt compelled to come out and help us out. >> we wanted to come out and help so you can go ahead and move around the town wherever you need to go. >> we really try to help out neighbors. and neighbors talking to neighbors. so my kids wanted to come out and help out. >> is this actually fun for you guys? >> it's okay. >> what about you? >> yes, it is fun.

>> why. >> because i'm missing school and, you know. >> but your dad has you out here digging out news trucks. >> yeah, that's kind of the down side, but -- >> and look at your eyelashes. >> yeah. they'rall covered in snow. i want to tell you about vienna -- the soundy coffee out deliver tousd. they brought two lattes. www.soundry.net. very kind people taking care of us. but it's not recommended that you go out.

>> i like putting out requests, i just think it's nice to see what people decidee need. thor at the soundry was very nice. >> she's got the coffee shop. >> the storm is also pummeling our neighbors to the north. from westchester county with more on conditions out there. how much snow is out there on the ground in westchester county, tracey. >> we just can't compete with you guys down there. you have to pardon my -- we have been here for hours now and really we will only accumulated about an inch. but the belly of the beast will be right here in the next few hours. we're expecting 12 to 18 inches

of new snow. they have been on the case since last night. at 2:00 in the morning, sat trucks got on the roads, snowplows, the whole bit. they have been trying to compete with the hills in westchester county that makes things so rough and so slick out here. it's hard to keep up with the snow falling at this pace and it's just going to get worse. states of emergency declared in yonkers, new york. they have to remove their cars from the snow routes. we can't compete with you guys, i talked to my friends in clinton and bouie and they have been snowed in since the weekend. >> we have got a special gift for you. put it in perspective, we got hammered back over the weekend, tell us about new york, the big apple specifically, you guys really dodged it. >> we really did dodge it, there was a lot of people saying i'll believe it when i see it when it

comes to this storm, but it was a pre-emptive strike but avenue seeing what you guys got,e were minding our ps and qs. only the third time in the last three years they have done so. >> some people make fun of washington county. you all in westchester county probably handle it better. are you finding it that people aren't taking any chance this is time around? >> i have to say there are a lot of cowboys on the roads. we did not expect to see so many people coming to work this morning especially with the public schools closed. but people are chancing it. and with the snow picking up, if you are going 30 miles an hour, you are going too fast. >> tracey, thanks very much. stay safe out there. >> let's get the latest on the roads, apparently jerry edwards has some important traffic information. jerry, what have you got? >> the word from the local authorities now is they're asking you to get off and stay

off the roadways, if you must go out under emergency circumstances only, this is what you need to do. clear the snow from your headlights and taillights, make sure you windshield wipers work and put your flashers off. but authorities are asking us to ask you to get off the roads because we have whiteout conditions in the entire metropolitan area and a very serious situation developing out there. stay off the roads, again, emergency situations only should you be on the roads. wipers on. clear your head lamps and your tail lamps of all snow and go out for emergency reasons only. >> jerry, you were here all day saturday, compare these pictures on your traffic cams today to what you saw then. it looks a lot worse from here. >> it's much worse, saturday's snow was heavy and kind of fun know. this is turned into a potential life threatening situation with the wind now and we're seeing cars just kind of sliding all

over the roads. so that's why police are asking us to ask everybody to get off the roads and stay off the roads and wait for all of this to get cleared out because it's coming down really, really quickly. >> let's check in with tracey wilkins who's in northwest washington. tracey good morning. >> good morning. you know, because we have been out here since 3:00 a.m. you've been seeing my pictures and you know what it looked like when it was dark and we had light snowfall and then the winds were starting to pick up. and i said oh, we're feeling a little bit of winds. but here it is, this is the blizzard. these are the blizzard conditions we have been warning people of all morning in northwest washington. it is like almost zero visibility. you can see straight down the street. let me show you straight down 14th here, matt, all you see from that car are the headlights. thank goodness that they have the headlights on. without those headlights, without those flashers, you

would not see that vehicle coming down the street leer. this is how serious it is. and we're standing, you know, not even 100 feet from that vehicle there. this is why they don't want folks on the roads. we have been talking with people who are going to work and asking why are you going to work this morning? and they're saying we're essential personnel. and people are saying i didn't realize i was essential personnel until last night when my boss told me i had to come in. some of them are getting rides, only under ground metro is rolling right now. they're not doing any busses no above ground train stations, only below trains are inviting folks to come on in as people are using tse forms of transportation 20 get in to work. we were just talking to some folks earlier today about having to go to work in a blizzard. this storm, two in arow, what

do you think of this? >> it's incredible weather for washington, d.c., unbelievable. >> reporter: are you on your way to work? why are you out? >> i'm on my way out. >> reporter: had to go in? >> yes. >> reporter: how are you going to get there? >> i'm going to walk, it's a mile and a half. >> reporter: what do you all think of all of this? >> death a little crazy. butñi fortunately i live close enough that i can walk to work. >> i'm not crazy about going to work in it. but what can you do? got to go. >> snowmageddon, he said he was tired of it. there's a car coming down 14th street right now no headlights. watch as it appears out of comple whiteness.

couldn't even see that vehicle until they got up here to the light. it's really bad out here. they're asking folks to stay off of the roadways unless you absolutely have to get on to the road and drive somewhere. and i mean, really, there should be some communication about doing that because it is that bad out here. it's hard to walk, it's hard to see where you're going, the snow blowing in your face and the wind blowing in your face, it's freezing cold out here, let me show you the accumulation we have got out here on the sidewalks here, earlier this morning, we had just a light covering here on the sidewalk, metro had plowed all of this. now we're looking at three, maybe four inches in some spots. with the wind blowing, it's hard to get a really good measurement of what's happening here. it's definitely sticking. now we're having some issues on the sidewalks. the streets are slushy, again, everything coming down is sticking, so we have got some accumulation out here on the roadways t work they did, the

plowing, it almost seems silly to talk about getting out right now. but if you're goinging to on the roads, know that you're dealing with zero visibility. you're dealing with slushy roads, roads that were plowed this morning and now we have this. we haven't seen a truck com in a minute and i'm assuming that that's because of the way the road is looking. i'm tracey wilkins live this morning in northwest. >> that suv, not only no lights, but it's got snow on it, so it's white on white, you can't see it at all. >> here's megan mcgrath with the latest out there. megan, what are you seeing? >> i'm feeling very spoiled and lucky because i am not seeing the kind of wind that those guys are seeing. the wind has picked up a little bit. i mean we have got some signs over here from the mcdonald's, they're flapping a little bit

here but it's nothing crazy and we have not seen any white house conditions here in bow which. we have had whiteout snow since 4:00 a.m. and it's been steady. this is an access road that parallels route 301 and you can see we have got a truck that's stuck there and all of the act accumulate lagsz of the slush that is there and it's continuing to build, we have got inches of slush across this road service, off in the distance there, that is route 301 and we're near the route 50 interchange. when we first got here this morning, you could see some of the pavement here because the plows had been through. what we're seeing now is that they are snow covered and they are very, very slushy. have had a lot of four-wheel drives going through here, a lot of trucks, a lot of plows, a few cars, not a ton of cars but a few cars, so ty are getting through, so it is passable but it is extremely slushy so not

good driving conditions. fortunately at bouie, we're not seeing the whiteout conditions not yet. i'm sure i'll suffer later, but not yet. >> everybody takes their turn, right, megan? >> that's right. >> last time we checked with gordon, major artery, it looks like heavy snow coming down there, chris? >> very heavy snow, you know, i'm on river road, you see almost no traffic, snowplow over here, just plowed was at mcdonald's. over at calverts, they're trying to clear out the driveway. they had a snow blower, they have knot now go have now gone to an excavation shovel. they're trying to clean up that area. you can see the visibility in our camera lens as the snow is pelting. i talked to a motorist to get a first person account of somebody

who just got off the road, here he is. >> there's not many cards so i don't think they'll keep it clear for much longer. >> what do you think about the visibility? >> it's bad. i could only see three cars ahead of me. i was driving behind a truck and i didn't know. >> and you didn't know? >> yeah, there were three cars in front of me and then the truck and i couldn't see the truck. >> so visibility is about -- >> 30 meters, 40 meters. where are you from? >> albania? >> albania? is it worse in albania? >> so you're saying you're from albania and it's a pleasure compared to this? >> snow, we don't get that much, no. >> here's somebody from albania who says the winters are milder in albania. i don't know about you, but i always thought albania would

have been a tough go in the snow in the winter time and that we in the mid-atlantic states had it easy because in prior winters we have always had maybe one snowstorm, maybe two snowstorm. but i call it a fourth snow because it would either melt away because of the rain or sunshine in our area. many of us are from different parts of the area, we have come here, you know years ago i lived in utica, new york. up in new york state, oswego used to get like 104 inches and i used to laugh at that that i moved down here 20 get away from it. this winter is one for the books, we have been hearing about that from chuck and bob that if we get in excess of nine inches, this is going to be the worst winter on record. a little bit of advice, when you go out, remember an extra scarf or a change of hat because everything today is kind of getting soaked. so if you can cover up your

face, your ears and you may need a change of hat or even -- okay, you know, i'm just being told here if you want to see me, you're going to have to -- there you go. i hope that's a little bit better. >> that's you, chris? >> live tv. there's a snowplow, which give you an idea of what we're dealing with in terms of the snow and the blow and the visibility which is really about 30 feet or so. >> hey, chris, that plow was booking beside you there. are most of them going that speed? >> joe, repeat your question? >> jim, here, chris, that plow was booking there, are most of them going that fast? >> no. and -- but i do see a car every once in a while going fast, you know, you should only go -- first of all constant speed, second of all 20-mile-per-hour, 25 at most. that plow surprised me a little

bit. but we're on river road and there's nobody on it so i guess he felt he could do that. we're on a sidewalk, we're a good ten feet away, so we're not in danger, we're not putting traffic in danger. we're conscious of this all the time. if we're anywhere near traffic we wear the reflective vests. there are people walking in the road, that's what i would be afraid of with people going that fast. he thinks river road is open. i have seen people walking to work, carrying bags, carrying umbrellas, so i wouldn't want anybody really trying to get out there and go fast. in terms of spinning your wheels, i saw one of those luxury cars, light luxury cars turn into mcdonald's, end up in a snow bank, spin its wheels trying to get out and back down river road, spinning your wheels trying to go too fast, not a good idea. slow and state wins the race.

>> chris gordon, another good point he mentions too is stay dry out there because it's only going to be a long, long day if you get wet. >> and it will hurt. this is a live look at massachusetts avenue northwest. you can see massachusetts avenue is a main artery to washington, d.c. but it is still covered with snow and slush. yet we had people calling in and emailing complaining it was a sheet of ice, now with the whiteout conditions it's virtually impossible to get down that road. let's find out what the forecast is doing. >> word of the hour, deterioration, tom kiron joins us from the storm center. we saw megan getting a bit of a break. but as we saw chris and tracey, they look like they're getting hammered where they're going. >> these winds have picked up quickly in a matter of just 15 minutes, we went from calm conditions to just 40 miles an hour. as a result the blizzard warning area has been greatly expanded, now earlier this morning it was

right along northern parts of maryland. look at this scene from downtown washington, it certainly is a blizzard there, near white you conditions in many locations and the snow continues to come down at a heavy rate there as well. and the temperature now in washington is down into the upper 20s. and look at this blizzard warning now. this has been expanded from this morning, it does include much of northern virginia, all of maryland, the eastern shore, far southern maryland and this is in effect now all the way until 7:00 p.m., we will have near whiteout conditions from time to time with winds gusting to 35 murps. look at the latest wind gusts, with we just had gusts at dulles airport to 46 miles an hour. 36 now the visibilities, it's

down to just 1/10 of a mile in washington. 1/10 mile down at dull let. a quarter to half a mile in maryland. farther west and north. we have got visibilities a half mile or less at som locations along the peaks, the winds are incredibly strong, gusting to 40 to 50 miles an hour there on some of the high peaks, especially in the highlands of west virginia. now visibilities are better farther to our south and west because the snow has stopped there. but we're getting heavy snow here in northern virginia, all the way down to the tide water and also heavy snow from just on the eastern side of the bay, across the bay, all the way across maryland, up into pennsylvania. this is the radar over the last three hours. we have a circulation in the atmosphere that's just now coming into west virginia that is going to be injected into a coastal low that has already

rapidly deepening here, and as a result when that feature does get into this coastal low pressure system it's going to cause it to deepen even more and as a result we may see even stronger winds. here are some updated snow totals just coming in. new snow on the ground near fredericks befrg in spotsylvania county. they have had five to six inches of new snow, five to six onew in fairfax county, prince george's and montgomery county, frederick county has had almost a foot of new snow as has washington county. winchester has just picked up about six inches of new snow. annapolis they have had six incv%( of new snow. the temperatures now down to 25 in washington and continues to dr. just 25 degrees here now. it's only near 20, areas just to our west. so it is frigid, the windchills are down into the teens and single digits with these very strong winds.

so the blizzard warnings are not only here, they extend in the eastern shore up the jersey shore, southeastern pennsylvania this area is going to be getting hit with very strong winds later today and also up into long island. so as we look at the wider view, we have got this energy to swirl if you will coming into the mid levels of the sphere, just into west virginia as we have a service low here that is gradually deepening, but when that energy hits that surface low, it is going to explosively deepen and bring in more energy off of the atlantic. ten to 15 inches of new snow common throughout this entire zone from washington points west and north, south and east. even more northeastern maryland up to ten of new snow and parts of virginia. it's going to taper off and end tonight. into tomorrow morning, causing four and five zrifts of snow. jerry, how are the road conditions now? >> we'll start with downtown

washington, you have to work very hard to see anything at all. the bottom line is you shouldn't state police are reit rating, get off the roads and stay off the roads. notice carefully, just above the roadway there, the snow is going sideways, as you would travel, theoretically along pennsylvania avenue. state police are saying stay off the roads. get off the roads. this weather is now definitely life threatening. let's go to northern virginia along 395, northbound and southbound, we had a multicar crash just minutes ago. southbound 395 at duke street. now is not the time to venn clur out, now is the time to hunker down wherever you can for the time being. >> let's hope the few people we saw there are essential personnel. we did see a lot of four wheels and trucks out there. >> we're going to go now to

assistant chief scott graham with the montgomery county fire and rescue, he joins us now on the phone. tell us about the calls you have to respond to with the blizzard like conditions out there. the call load is pretty much the same as we run each and every day. we have medical emergencies, we have fire alarms. some of the calls we're starting to receive are folks that are starting to be concerned about the roofs and the best advice we can give them is if you believe you have an issue with your roof, if you hear the creaking, the cracking of the roof leave the structure, go to a shelter or to a friend's or relative's home. now is not the time that we can deal with it. as far as the fire rescue, all of our emergency medical service

calls we have snowplows in each of our battalions and we also have the maryland national guard that will allow our personnel to get in and evacuate people quicker if we need to if we can't get our vehicles down there. but it seems to be, you know, the calls seem to be normal. we would ask that should people lose people and for those folks who are still without power, using alternative fuel sources in their homes, kerosene heater are very, very dangerous. we ask only burn in a fireplace or a wood stove, something like that. we have had a few calls of carbon monoxide and that's been caused by actually lighting charcoal grills in their homes. so we beg people not to do that. >> tell us about the dangers of these high winds and heavy snow combined. you were telling us that you

should leave your home if you hear your roof creeking. is there anything else that we should be aware of? >> the trees and the power lines. don't try to go around it, you're going to find yourself stuck in a ditch. power lines that are down, don't drive over them, just stay clear of them. report them to the 311 or nonemergency number so they can know where the power companies know where these things are. as far as being out, the greatest advice i can give you right now is stay in. i came from the western part of the county, montgomery county from our emergency operations center and i might have seen six cars southbound total on 270 which is great. we know that there's essential folks, doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters, folks in the media, you have to get in to be able to help people. but if you don't, sit back and watch it snow and dream of the caribbean. >> that's exactly about all we

can do. but it's good that the word is getting out. assistant chief scott graham. we thank you for taking time with us out in montgomery county. >> well, let's check in with kimberly suitors, she's been in vienna, virginia all morning long. are the conditions getting worse? >> it's beautiful out here, it's just gorgeous. conditions are horrible. you can see a guy, he's trying to clear off his car and he thought it was a nice, snowy day and, boom, he gets hit by those high, heavy winds fast and furious. very uncomfortable. you can see people trying to make their way along route 7, brutal to be out. we were out starting about 3:00 in the morning, it wasn't that bad then. i drove route 66, nobody on there except for a stuck pick-up truck.

got into downtown vienna here in fairfax county, really not all that bad, then the wind really picked up and the snow started blowing sideways and coming down hard. joining us is jeff kercher, he's a pharmacist, what are you doing out there. i'm here for vienna drug centers so anybody who needs to come and get their prescriptions they can come in and get them. i've got a sleeping bag in case i can't get home. >> show me that shovel, that's kind of dinky and this is a heavy soó. >> it is, but that's the best i can carry in my car right now. >> you're being professional, you said i thought you guys were crazy enough to be out the so -- >> exactly, but we have to be there for the public just like you guys. >> jeff kercher, pharmacist here

in vienna. a few businesses are open and the southern hospitality is pouring in. we showed our latte, and then moments later, the vienna inn drove up and said breakfast is on us and then we're getting lunch. we're not moving out of vienna. we're staying right here. snow, sleet, sunshine, we're staying here. >> is that a slurpee at this point? what have you gota cup? >> it's a latte with a frozen top. >> it works. >> it's good that people are out there helping others. check on the elderly, check on your neighbors and help everyone out. >> we saw collins out there, all he had to do is put out the word and he got fed all weekend long. >> all right r we're going to

take a quick break now, we'll be right back with coverage of the

and welcome back to the blizzard of 2010 round two. these are live pictures right out of our studio here in northwest washington on nebraska avenue. that wind is kicking up. we heard from tom earlier, we have got gusts around our

region. 38, some topping 48 miles an hour. we're counting on four to five-foot drifts. this is a blizzard for everyone in our region right now and it's only deteriorating. tracey is at 14th street and irving. >> the wind has tied down just a little bit. it's not whipping quite as hard as it was the last time that you all came out and talked to themi some serious issues, you can still barely see all the way down 14th street. and this is what's dangerous for pedestrians and for folks who are crossing in the crosswalks

walking out there in the roads, a strong possibility that vehicles won't see. this is why for right now, they don't want to see any vehicles out here on the roads. now look, just as i said to you, the winds are calming down a bit. here we go. they're back. very cold. very windy. when the wind hits you, it cuts your face, it's freezing cold, but for the folks who have to go to work, you see people walking out here. the boss has said you got to come in. >> you're on your way to work? >> yes. >> how do you feel about having to go in? >> it's something you got to do. >> because there's a camera here.

>> looking down irving street, if you don't have those headlights on, nobody's going to see you. i love what she said when we first started talking. she didn't realize that she was essential personnel, but evently she is. so everybody's been talking about the food that they have been getting. shout out to pass sellies right down the street here on 14th. they are open. in fact they're only one of two places i have seen open. they brought us coffee and sand wishes and they want to make sure we're staying warm. they say they love channel 4 and they've been watching us all weekend and i know they have because they were saying specific things about their coverage. so they want you to know that they are open.

for folks around here, you can walk down here, walk don't dry. thank goodness for friendly people and bringing us hot coffee. >> some cars don't even have their headlights on and i understand that local police are asking police to turn their flashers on and in many situations, because these are whiteout conditions, in order to be seen by others, you really have to have your four-way flashers at all times. >> it is definitely helpful when we have vehicles doing that, it's definitely helpful. i'm seeing a car way off in the distance that i can barely see from here. i can see just a little bit of its headlights.

but you're right, if it did have flashers, that would be so much easier to see. when that wind blows, you can't see anything. >> the reason why pepcos keeping their crews off the streets. is this a safety issue? >> unfortunately we're talking about the wind conditions and what we're looking at due to the blizzard warnings that the actual wind speeds are in excess of 35 to 40-mile-per-hour wind gusts. our crews are basically in place as we wait for the weather conditions to subside. in other words if there is a crew that is out, they are not driving away from a work location, but they are ceasing operations due to the strong gusty winds that we have

experienced. while we still have customers that are out, it will still continue to restore. but as of now, because of the strong winds, not because of the snow per se, but a combination of the strong winds and the white house conditions, we are ceasing our operations until the weather abates.

we don't want our cws to be driving to locations, so where you are is where you are until the storm abates down to safe levels. there's probably no chance ñi somebody's even going to working on it until sometime laterñi on this evening? >> there may be situations where we can work through our underground or some of our large contribution feeders where we can work through our sub situation situations overhead operations until the winds we've a.

>> joe, you mentioned a -- is that a blizzard warning until 7:00 tonight? >> that's right, it's a blaze saturday washing, but it's the third time this winter we have had a blizzard warning. we have been pounded by un -- it covers a huge area, all of the panhandle of west virginia, in fact all of maryland it may continue on into early this eke.

so this is unprecedented to see such huge areas locally under a blizzard warning. here are the latest wind gustses, this is why we have upgraded much of the region to blizzard warnings is that these gusts have increased dramatically and in the last hour, just had a gust at dulles airport at 34. >> this is all snow, all blowing and drifting snow now with visibilities a third of a mile or a quarter of a mile or less throughout much of the region. looking at the radar, you can see, yes, the snow has pretty much tapered off and ended

through the shenandoah valley all the way through richmond. this is a big difference up there into washington and across maryland, radar over the last several hours showing this tremendous amount of inflow. want to know. >> if you hate winter, this day is your arch-nemesis, no doubt about it. even snow lovers like myself are starting to think, well, you know, maybe ving time -- springtime wouldn't be a bad thing at all. we only need 9.3 inches as of the day before yesterday, picked up almost four inches before midnight. bassed on my measurements out here on the front lawn. yesterday we had 18 inches of snow. we're now at 25 inches so we have had 25 inches outere on

the lawn at channel 4. todd up in hagers town has 14 inches of new snowhere in hagers town. nora in spotsylvania. and our friends ed and nancy up intark cannery in virginia, six inches of new snow and can hardly see the nose in front of their face.

>> snowing very heavily across all of montgomery county and howard county and up into even frederick county and southern carol county and this is going to be slowly move off farther to the north and pull away and then will likely probably not see a lot of heavy heavy snow like that for the rt of this storm. so, yes, nine inches in montgomery county there, four, five inches common around washington new snow, high amounts, 14 inches of new snow hagers town, temperatures up 24 in washington. big area under blizzard warnings, all the way up into western maryland and up the jersey coast to long island. big effects from this storm and a huge area, we have got circulation in the atmosphere coming out of the ohio valley that will be hitting the coastal

low that's already beginning to come into ocean city. the winds are feedings into this low right now. like pouring water out of a bucket and it continues to flow down toward that low and that's why we have those strong winds out of the north and northwest. finally we're get the snow -- >> live pictures in the district, northwest washington, massachusetts avenue at 45th reet in -- on the ramp from

270 to 370, a tractor trailer had an accident. again, authorities are asking us to ask you to stay off the roads. if you must go out for emergency purposes, turn your headlights on, make sure your wipersçó wor and turn your flashers on, back to you. >> good advice. >> let's see what it looks like in bouie, maryland. that's where megan mcgrath is. >> the wind just shifted direction and it's kind of blowing directly into my eyes. we're not seeing the whiteout conditions or the really crazy

wind that kimberly and tracey are seeing, although we are seeing a deterioration in victim. this is route 301. and back there where you could sort of see those big road signs, there's an overpass for route 50 there, and we used to be able to see that earlier this morning. now you can see that our visibility is really getting pretty bad here. i wouldn't call it whiteout.ñi you can see that the street lights are on. but they do have their headlights on. it is getting difficult to see people theñi vehicles that we'r seeing are supposed to be out there, the plows, the contractors who are taking care of the -- we're seeing very few cars, a few suvs, people with

four-wheel drives but nothing too stream. you can see we have got a contractor who's going through right now. we do have a minivan. a minivan, not sure where they're going, but a couple of passenger vehicles here, but very, very light traffic, which is not tu surprising. >> there has been a stream of hungry people coming up this hill. i think that's where that suv is going and we see a lot of those cars get stuck. we have a truck that's been here since the wee hours of the morning.

i saw a line of people walking up the road and i said, hey, where are you going? they said we're going to work. so a lot of people are getting dropped off and they walk the rest of the way. again, as you can see, i'm squinting at you, i'm sure i'm going to have mascara and stuff running down. >> no, you look great. >> look at the victim just in the time i talked to you. it's going down, down, down.

let's go to kimberly suitors, in vienna, virginia. >> i hope everybody will continue to feel very sorry for us because we're being treated like royalty out here in vienna, virginia. take a look at this snow bank. we noticed this a moment ago. we don't know where this came from, part of somebody's bumper. that hurts, that is a pretty strong wind gust blow iing alo g along -- some places on 495. oh, about an hour, hour and a half ago and conditions have not improved much. we told you that we were blocked in and this parking lot in vienna, virginia. this was until the strike family

walked from their home with their two kids, with their dog, with their shovels and dug us out. their dad is 6'6", a very strong man. i actually did help shuffle just a little bit. it's very heavy snow. we asked him what compelled him to come out this morning. >> well, we heard on the news th you were snowed in. and we wanted to come out and help. so you can go ahead and move around the town wherever you need to go. >> are you moving from house to house business to business helping out like this? >> in vienna, we really try to help out neighbors and it'sñi neighborsñr helping neighbors s whenever we can. >> do you enjoy this?

>> yeah, but i get to be out of school. >> and look at your eyelashes? >> the strike family learning to be humanitarians, a front loader, driving down maple avenue, pushing the snow out of the way as best you can. you can see even the front loaders can fish tail a little bit. conditions are improving, maybe a little bit compared to about an hour ago. all this week we have been updating you on the party mania trucks. look at the way the snow has really come up to this truck

let's see how deep it is. let's see. there it is.ñi >> we are under a blizzard warning until 7:00 tonight. >> and pretty much everything is shut down, government, schools, everything, stay home if you can at all possible. >> we're going to take a break and be right back.

9:23 is our time rigight now. taking a live look down

massachusetts avenue right now, i believe and you can see the snow blowing out there, it is continuing to build up on the roadways.çó çóçó the plow driver cut behind me and you're krauzy for standing out here. and to give you some idea, i just talked to añi motorist, le him describe it to you.

>> it's slippery, but it's not that icy. i needed to take my wife to get coffee at starbucks and we got there just before it closed. >> so a lot of shops are closing.xd we showed you mcdonald's earlier. they usually open for breakfast at 5:00 a.m. the crew opened at 7: 30. they are not open. they say they're going to be closed all day at the mcdonald's on river road. you can barely see the traffic light. let's go over tohe sonoco

station is just about 35 feet from us. i just did a live shot for msnbc and i got an e-mail from denver and they said we just saw you on msnbc, we have less snow here in denver than you do in maryland and this was somebody from maryland who basically said, imagine that, i had to move to denver to get away from the snow. right now, my leather gloves are now soaked through, but i have a change. this is a different snow than we had the other day. we don't have much accumulation, we have more wind starting to whip up again, it just comes and goes. if you go sledding or whatever,

know this, just go out for a short period of time because we're really dealing with the elements now and it's beginning to whip up. it's more of a blizzard than we had the other day. that's the situation on river road where there's very little traffic and we told you a lot of shs, restaurants, grocery stores, closed already. call, if you're going to go out, call ahead. because that trip may not be worth it.ñrñi >> you can see the snow drifting out there.

it is rough, wind blowing, snow coming down, the windchills are going to be much lower tn in saturday's storm. >> folks please, be smart about it if you have to go out. and as chris mentioned too, pace yourselves throughout the day because it's going to take a lot of energy and finesse out there to get around. let's go to megan mcgrath right now. she's in bouie to see if things have changed there recently. megan? >> you remember, i don't know, an hour or so, i said it felt lucky that we weren't getting the wind and everyone was talking about whiteout conditions and we didn't have it here in bowie? that has changed in the last few minutes, we had our first taste of whiteout. we're in a bit of a lull here, but you can see that the visibility has really gone downhill here. and we are starting to see that

wind moving into the bu write area. you can seehe street signs back there for route 50 getting very, very difficult to see at this point and when we do have these wind gusts, it just kicks up whatever power is on the top and just blows it down people who are considering leaving their house or going out on an erand or something, you might want to hold out a little bit until we see the wind die down in the area. again, very, very difficult to see out here, make sure you have your lights if you're already out there. we have also been seeing all morning long issues with cars getting stuck, on these secondary roads, these neighborhood roads, there is a lot of slush, a lot of snow, just really, really sloppy conditions, whooo! we have got a whiteout condition

going on now. we just had another big gust of wind. it kicks up all the powdery snow that has been falling here. but in connection with the wind that we're seeing right now, we're seeing people slipping and sliding. route 50, we got reports that the were reduced lanes of route 50 because of a snow cover. i talked to a woman a little while ago who's actually staying at a hotel up the street because her neighborhood never gets plowed. so she figured it was safer to stay in the hotel so she ran to

the convenience store to get some milk. >> i had to run down to the store to get some milk and i just came down this road and it's awful. >> r. >> reporter: did you get stuck at all? >> i have a four-wheel drive but i was slipping and sliding. >>n view of the conditions you're seeing, how's your neighborhood? >> it's bad, ty didn't even plow my street for three days. >> reporter: so for folks in the bouie area, we're now on the hook where everyone else is seeing heavy whiteout conditions. you might want to hunker down for a while. i knew it couldn't last forever. we're going to take it on the chin for the next ten and a half hours or so.xd it's going to be are rough out there.

>> south of washington we have shut down service south of washington and into richmond. service south of washington that we are offering and sort of to the southwest to lynchburg and the president has also runxd.

>> we have limited service, and by offering a. >> we will monitor the situation philadelphia and north. it wast quite a bad over the weekend. we have additional crews at all of our situations to help keep the platforms clean and also we need to take special attention to our wires that feed electricity to the trains. weeed to make sureçó that ices does not build up on those wires so that it's able to propel the train. >> let's find out more about the storm right now. >> he's up in the storm center, tom, are these winds getting worse before they get better? >> we have had gusts to nearly

50-mile-per-hour in southern maryland and here is a live picture near bouie, maryland. you can see the wind is really whipping there and the snow continues to come down and it's horizontal at times as the wind has been gusting over 40-mile-per-hour there. look at everything in red. it is under a blizzard warning. i cannot remember in my 27 years here such a huge area under a blizzard warning. in fact the entire state of maryland is under a blizzard warning. garrett county all the way to ocean city. all of delaware under a blizzard warning. and northern virginia as well, a blizzard warning. and the highlands of west virginia this is in effect throughout the rest of the day and into this evening. now the wind gusts, the latest gusts at nei s reagan national, an hour, that just occurred recently.

it's like getting a -- look at the visibility. right now it's down to just a quarter of a mile or so around washington and princ= =iip r(t&% county and in anne arundel county as well as in southern maryland, they are getting the driving, wind whipped snow right now. near quarter-mile visibilities quarter west and north. the winds are not as bad. the snow not coming down as hard. the snow is right around our region.

reagan national the windchill is just 10 degrees. so you just don't want to be out in this, certainly even just walking now is going to beñr really treacherous, because of the windchills so low you can quickly get hypothermic with this strong wind and with these cold temperatures, in fact it's only in the low and mid 20s right now. looking at the radar now, we are seeing areas of still heavy snow where you see the green in montgomery county,till snowing heavily, it is snowing heavily now in western howard county, up into now carol county. this is the zone where you see the green where the heaviest snow is falling, it's drifting off to the north and northeast and ever so slowly. so we're getting that very heavy snow there.

it is snowing heavily and blowing heavily here in northwest washington. that's where my colleague chuck bell is. chuck, how are the conditions now? >> i can still hear the wind whipping through the tower out here. the one that's right up on me obviously is a little bit more sensitive. the wind, it comes and it goes in huge gusts out here. the winds have been gusting easily over 40 miles an hour here in northwest washingtonxd 25.5 inches of snow on the front lawn of channel 4. had 18 inches yet. and yet i cut that block of snow

down, it wasñi 18 inches tall a we made a 12-inch square out of it. that 12 by 12-inch snow weighed 20 pounds. this is already adding up. a lot of folks are having roof problems. unfortunately, it's so dangerous to get out in these conditions if you're getting any fresh new snow totals, send them in to me chuck.bell@nbc.com. if grow dare venture any further out than past your mailbox today. the address is ic at nbc washington.com. we'll try and get as many of your i'm here to tell you, tom, conditions really variy pretty wildly out here.

you can't hardly see anymore than about 100 or 200 feet in front of you at any given time. by all indications we only need a couple of inches to break the snowiest winter record. i can just hardly imagine the winter of february of 1899 they had every bit this much snow in fact even a little bit more, but they didn't have electricity, they didn't have a lot of central heating just people with fire woods and close relatives, that's about the only thing you can do to stay warm, keep your relatives close and your friends closer and everybody else in a big huddled mass. because i'm here to tell you, it's cold and it's windy out here. that february of 1899 that temperature dropped to 15 below after that one. by comparison 26 degrees on the front lawn with the blowing snow. uncomfortable as it is, it's not quite as paralyzing as it was

then. this is a very dangerous set of circumstances to walk out in. a lot of the sidewalks are done so people are walking on the roads, that's never a good idea. >> as you say, the conditions can be calm at times and the wall of wind and snow is hit you at 40 miles an hour. look at some of the totals we have had. on servers and weather watchers observing up to 14 inches. northern montgomery has had almost 10 inches. four or five inches of new snow farther to our south, six inches of new snow from spotsylvania county. do appreciate your reports observers and weather watchers. now a told 25 degrees in washington. the windchill just near 10 degrees to single digits, it's only near 20 degrees now in prince george's county,

montgomery, fairfax and arlington counties, and we have a huge area under this blizzard warning and it does cover the entire state of maryland. unbelievable. and it also covers all of delaware, much of new jersey, southeastern pennsylvania and up into long island and the panhandle of west virginia. now what's causing all this snow and wind. we have got an area of low pressure here that's now beginning to deepen just east of ocean city and we also have a mid level circulation that's over virginia and it is going to deepen even more rapidly cause even more wind, leaving us with maybe up to 15 inches of new snow across much of the region. and finally, it should tap off and end by tonight, but the winds won't be over, we'll still have those winds gusting over 40 miles an hour through the night tochbl and perhaps even into tomorrow morning. we'll get some sun back tomorrow, things will be much 1ñ i wanted to ask you, we

all remember the perfect storm book and movie with the storm off the coast causing the problems, especially for ship traffic. and i want to call to mind all the ship traffic that's coming up the chesapeake bay. i just got an e-mail from a friend of mine who's a chesapeake bay pilot. during the last weekend he was taking a 600-foot long cargo ship down the bay to hampton roads. he said they had wind gusts up to 70 knots and just keeping that thing in the channel is abenormously tricky endeavor. i just want to know if you know what the conditions are on the bay for all that traffic? >> it's not frozen, so it's open water. and in addition there was a precious ship mptd that arrived at bat harbor yesterday afternoon. 40,000 tons of salt was delivered to baltimore distribute gd to all the jurisdictions around the region to be put on our roads and to help improve our driving

conditions so that was certainly a welcome shipment that did arrive there at baltimore yesterday. now let's check on the traffic, jerry, how is it looking now? >> a little sampling around the area as we take a live look inside the capitol beltway. this is interstate 66 in falls church hard to recognize, isn't it? the good news is that there's very little if any traffic at all. authorities are asking us to ask you to stay off the roadways, only emergency personnel and you should only venture out for emergency purposes and emergency purposes only. elsewhere wll giv you a little sampling, making the trip around town. the capitol beltway what was clear this among is no more. a belt way crash involving a dump truck. opposite side of the roadway inner loop and allentown road had a jackknifed tractor trailer. so you definitely want to stay off the roads. venturing out there, in a car, suv, whatever you got on four

wheels. tracey wilkins has caught a lot of people on two feet. >> a lot of people have gone in to work today as you said, not everyone by any stretch of the imagination. want to say thanks to the folks who brought me some coffee this morning. we have lots of people who live in this two or three block raid yusz here. so there you go, you can go on down there and check out some of their coffee. they said they have been very busy with lots of wind. it will float in a little bit. but then it will get high and then it will float in a little bit. he took the metro in here,

columbia heights station, he says trains are running fine let me show you the roads at irving street.ñr >> i think you got the beer, sweetie.

>> taking care of the baby here and walk them. >> fortunately i live right above that building. >> we're going to be open at 1:00. >> thanks, folks, as you're crossing the street, be careful, be careful.

when that wind picks up, you just can't see it. >> sometimes you just got to take out the dog. >> let's find out what the situation is on virginia roadways. jennie mccord of vdot. what is going on with your folks? it'soming down so hard and so fast? how are they even attempting to keep up with it. >> we are definitely seeing whiteout conditions right now, very, very minimal visibility out there, and some of our crews

are certainly pilling off the road at this point just to wait for that to die down. that's why we're asking folks to stay off the roads. i your crews can barely see, then we know we have very dangerous driving conditions right now. >> are your folks out there still trying to plow or does it reach a point where you say just pull back, stay safe,xd we'll g at it after it stops? >> if it's certainly dangerous enough that they can't see, they will pull over until that dies down. but we have 2,000 trucks out there, we have called up trucks from hampton roads. all over other people from vdot, virginia. we knew this was much more than our folks could handle. more crews coming to help relieve the folks that have been working nonstop for the last week or so.

>> jennie mccord, we thank you for taking time with us to give us the vdot perspective. we wish you and your crews the best of luck today. it is going to be a long day. tom mentioned wind gusts out there nearly 50 miles an hour. we have got a blizzard warning until 7:00 tonight. take a look. you can't make out what it is, but this is the kind of visibility that we're dealing with all over our region this afternoon. >> lookses like a screen savor almost. >> stay with us, because our coverage of the blizzard of 2010 round two continues.

as we continue to follow round two of the blizzard of 20 so, we're looking at a live picture of massachusetts avenue.

veritable whiteout conditions if you're driving out there. some people are trying to walk. there are pedestrians in the middle of the road. many of them are wearing white. you'll never see them. be very careful if you're heading out now. >> if you are out driving, which they recommend you not do, turn on your four-way flashersñi instead of just your headlights and make sure that your headlights are clean and clear because they get covered with snow and other vehicles and pedestrians can't see you coming. >> there are cars that just assume there's nobody out on the road and they kind of take over the roadway. you do have to let them know you're coming either with a honk of your horn or they might just be sitting there. >> we're going to go to john townsend with aaa. >> good morning, again, chuck. >> what's the deal out there for drivers? >> it is absolutely treacherous and terrible.

white houseo whiteout conditions and wind gusts reported up to 50 miles an hour. extremely dangerous conditions, follow the advice of follow authorities and avoid venturing out in these conditions. >> let's give fair warning to people who might be thinking about heading out. you of course have emergency response and you respond to people who get stuck, who have flat tires who have car problems, but in these conditions, how long can they expect to have to stay in their car by the side of the road or in a ditch before help can come? >> our expected response time now is up to 55 minutes. that's almost an hour. so you have to be prepared for those types of conditions. and before you ventureñi out ma sure that you have ample supplies and that you again remember theñi situation with t carbon monoxide poisons where two men died in their 20 from carbon monoxide poisoning, that's the great danger. the other danger is being

involved in a serious crash and it may take a protracted a. of time before a rescuer can get there. >> you commenced the carbon monoxide poisoning, what what are the kinds of conditions that cause the carbon monoxide poisoning inside yourvehicle? are you saying you should not have your car running at all? >> the first thing you should do is clear the tail pipe. make sure the exhaust pipe is clear and then run your engine for ten minutes so the cabin of the car can stay warm and then turn the energy off and crack the windows, at least two inches. because carbon monoxide is base a silent killer and you will fall asleep before you know what is happening to you and dieg that way or have carbon monoxide poisoning. >> so, john, aaa is actually suggesting as most jurisdictions are, stay in if you don't have to get out? >> right. >> stay in, avoid venturing out. weather conditions, follow the advice of local authorities,

stay home. it's not safe to travel now, do not travel if you don't have to. >> also we mentioned people running their engines, there's the fear of running out of gasoline if you run your engine too much as well as poisoning. what about your battery, a lot of people want to keep the lights on, the flashers on, the rest of it. how quickly will you use up your battery if you're out there by the side of the road. >> well, remember the life expectancy of a battery is oy three years, if you have had your car for four years, you might be in trouble, because each situation is come pounded by the fact that you have put a tremendous toll on the battery so you have to be extremely caw chus about that. the thing to do is check your battery. batteries cause more car starting problems than any other factor and that's a tremendous

problem. and in conditions like these, your battery has 35% less started power, that's the problem. >> tell us what are the majity of the calls coming in to aaa asking for, being stuck or is it battery problems? >> about 40% or 50% of all of our calls are for exy indications and for tows. 15% of the calls, believe it or not are for flat tires. >> in these conditions, flat tires. >> tells you something about bald tires moving in the snow. he had to replace all four of his tires the other day. >> you should have extremely good tread on your tires now because you're going to need it. remember the tires are the only part of the vehicle that touch the road. >> exactly.

john townsend with aaa. thank you for joining us. let's take a look at to the number of power outages we have. dominion virginia is reporting 4,000 without power. bge over 4,000. smeco, 251. and the numbers are expected to go up with this heavy snow and these high winds. >> and we have kelley on the phone with us to talk about what's going on at the 34d ph.d. state highway administration. how are the roads looking in maryland? >> probably in the half hour or, so we have had quite a spike in some instances we have been responding to. a little bit of visibility and the high winds are not making for a good -- if you haveñi pla that you don't do that afternoon and allow our crews to continue our plowing operations.

in maryland, the entire state is under a blizzard warning until 7:00 tonight. how are you dealing with supplies and people and equipment? >> we do have our full deployment out of staff and equipment. we have had -- but also with the continuing snow accumulation that's happening we're going to continue to plow. we're able to replenish our salt over the last couple of days, so we have plenty of salt available to combat the ice. but our major fete right now is the low victim. our crews are continuing to plow on our interstates and second dare roads. we're encountering stranded vehicles or abandoned vehicles,

with the low visibility and high winds, we aise that you postpone your travel plans. >> the transportation department has actually pulled its plows back because of the conditions. it's not safe for them to be out there according to what the officials in montgomery county think. what about the maryland state highway administration, any thought of pulling your plows and workers back because of safety reasons? >> we're going to be continuing to plow and salt as we need to. we have had a significant a lot of plowing that has been done in the last few days and today as well. >> they're off the roads because of safety. >> state highway crews are continuing to plow at this time. >> thank you very much, we continue to watch for those roads out there. let's see la the weather is doing. we know it's snowing, how much are we going to get now. >> we could get up to 15 inches of new snow around the metro area by the time it's all ended by this evening. but the big story now is the

entire state of maryland is under a blizzard warning from garrett county, which is up near pittsburgh under a blizzard warning and most of northern virginia, also under a blizzard warning. so is the district of columbia. and as a result, we are having really sort of unprecedented conditions over a wide area. what does a blizzard warning mean? it means sustained winds over 40 miles an hour and near whiteout conditions as we have got all that cry tiera filled as the situation is continuing to be cold and windy. look at the latest gusts now, reagan national just had a gust of 434.ñi and that just occurred in the last hour and the gusts are, along with the snow creating near whiteout conditions and visibilities down to just nearly a quarter of a mile throughout much of the region as the wind

driven snow continues and as we look at the windchills, that is the other thing, it is so cold now, it's only near 20 degrees. the windchill at dulles airport now just two above zero, windchill at prince george's county and andrews air force base just six degrees, feels like ten in washington. now i'm happy to report, though, it looks like the radar is showing a decrease in the heavy snow. so we may begin to see finally the storm as far as the heaviest snows are concerned are beginning to wind doichb. right now the very heaviest snows are in prince george's county and from mt. vernon through alexandria and arlington and around bethesda over to silver spring. the dark blue areas are where it's falling a little bit less, but still, nonetheless, it's coming down pretty hard. and now we need to go back to the studio, back to you. >> because we have maryland governor martin o'malley on the telephone with us. thank you for joining us.

>> good morning. sir. >> what are you telling marylanders today about the weather and what are you suggesting that they do? >> i think everybody i don't mean to laugh, be u i sound like a broken record. if you didn't heed that advice before, you need to heed it now. there are whiteout conditions on almost all of our records. it creates very dangerous conditions, there's some motorists are who are even pulling over and trying to weather this, by pulling into underpasses and then they don't need their flashers on and that creates a potential to get rear ended. so this is a really treacherous time these next three or four hours. we have gten through this without any traffic fatalities in maryland so far, and i would like to keep it that way, but the only way we can is if citizens heed our warnings and stay inside for the next three

hours. >> the entire state of maryland is under this blizzard warning. can you recall a time in history that the entire state has been under a blizzard warning like this? >> i can't, but i'm a young man of a mere 47 years of age. i'm told that we haven't had this amount of snow fall in this period of time in recorded history and the double punch from mother nature has been really been overwhelming. i visited yesterday with the operations center in montgomery county where his biggest problem were these power outaging and staying on pepco to give people power. all of the counties are fully staffed and throwing everything they have at keeping the streets open and protecting public safety. a lot of neighbors no doubt are frustrated. we haven't been able to scrape down in this blizzard to bare payment but that's not going to happen and we don't want that to

hatch, we want to keep the roads passable for emergency vehicles, if mother was to fall and break a hip or dad has a heart attack, we want the national guard and the paramedics to get through. so we're just going to all have to be patient about scraping down to the pavement, we're in a blizzard the likes of which we have not seen in our state in modern history and we need to be primarily concerned all of us about public safety. >> we are hearing that montgomery county had stopped some of its emergency vehicles from oning right now because of the dangers of using them in this kind of wheout conditions. we were just talking with m ph.d. state highway, they have not done the same, would you suggest that they do? >> in our operations people certainly have the power to be able to do that and we will when it gets to that point. the highways are a different deal than the side streets.

there's less traffic out there. we may get to the point where we do that at any moment, so stay tuned. >> but vernor, you've got personnel on your state highway administration manning trucks and plows all the way fro ocean city to garrett county in pittsburgh. what an enormous expansion of space to try to take care of. how are your people and supplies and equipment holding up to all of this? >> they're holding up great, especially the morale. managing the salt supplies has been a challenge and a chore. i was just on a conference call about 20 minutes ago with the county executives to make sure that we're all straight on how to get salt, but the morale of our people,áiñ tell you, i wish citizens could kind of travel with me and see the goodness that exists and all of their neighborthat are working on the county crews and the city crews and the national guard. i mean these are really the best that maryland has and they're putting everything they have

into thisçó and many of them haven't seen their spouses and their families for four days so we're lucky to have the sort of public servants out in the middle of is this stuff. >> i wanted to ask you about the national guard, have y called out the national guard and to what extent are they helping with the situation? >> we absolutely have, in fact we called them out in the last punch from mother nature and they have not been uncalled since they have's the word. we have about 500 personnel that are supporting this mission and they have primarily deployed with their humvees to support the paramedics and first responders so they can get through areas that are impassable if a citizen needs to call 911 services. so that's what the national guard are doing. we gave a number of medals to them yesterday. a coup, of the guard aually helped deliver a little baby boy in the midst of this storm. so those sorts of stories are happening every day in this

state. >> governor thank you for spending time with us this morning. >> we're going to have a lot of -- now we'll talk to the montgomery county executive. good morning, sir. how is monlt bombry county faring. >> we haveeard that montgomery county has pulled its snowplows and road crews off of the roadways because of safety issues is that true. >> yes, we will get back out as soon as conditions permit. right now with the intensity of the winds and the whiteout conditions, it's a caution for us to pull them back and we'll have them back as quickly as possible. we do need to give them a little bit of rest and we'll have them right back out. h we'll have it as soon as practical to get back on the streets. >> and how are your folks holding up? >> this has been a horrible several days since last friday,

they have been working hard, how are they holding up? really quite enthusiastically. they're ready to go and we're prepared to do what we need to do in order to get the job done as quickly as possible. >> we have heard that some jurisdictions are having difficulty keeping enough supplies on hand and that trucks and graders and sup plurs are breaking down. >> i just had a call with the secretary of -- we have been running trucks, literally around the clock between montgomery county and the port of bat. we we will have ample supplies of salt and sand to distribute on our roads. whinl you have this amount of snow that continues to fall, it will take its toll, but we will have ample salt and sand. >> all right, montgomery county

executive, thank you very much for joining us and good luck today. >> we're going to head out to theñi columbia heights area, th district of columbiañr now, whe tracey wilkins has been watching things all morning long. >> good morning, we're here with the d.c. fire ems, he has come out here to join us and i appreciate that so much and the blizzard conditions, let's talk about what's been going on with ems, the calls that you all hav been getting. babying being born and now this un. >> we had a total of five or six since the storm began. overall, we're up to 2,200 emergency responses since the first storm began. and there's been dozenings upon dozens of other nonemergency events that we're simply helping people out with, it's been very robust, very busy, we just had a really heavy response load. >> and you have to do that with the roads and the conditions that they're in and how is that

impacted you all trying to get around. >> we're still using our snow chains. we also have six customer service units, the city's broken up into six geographical battalions. they go out with just about every other ambulance. they have nose shovels and then on top of that we have several humv humvees. the d.c. national guard are doing a great job, and finally if all else fails, there are several cranes, several wreckers that the fire department are exclusively using to get fire trucks and ambulances freed up. we haven't missed a run yet. we have been able to get there in a timely fashion, in some cases they have gone into the neighborhoods, picked up a pashd and then gone to the waiting ambulance. >> let's talk about these roof

collapses. have you had anymore today? they're up to 21. they have ranged from total devastation, to fairly minor. we're really nerve us with the snow load and the winds are not helping. folks have asked about shoveling their roofs, that's just not good idea. that's going to be almost a guanteed injury especially in these conditions and this level of exposure, if you can use a longhandled broom perhaps you can remove some snow. the betts thing is to maintain your roof system over the years. if you know you've been having some roof problems, maybe it's a good day to go visit some friends. this is really important, again, we were talking with pete earlier this morning and he was saying, you know, if you know that you've got some issues with

your roof, just as the chief said, it's a good idea for you to goossibly stay with someone else. but also most of the problems they have been seeing have been either with condemned buildings or buildings under constructions and not sound structures with a ice heartry roof. if you're not hearing any creaki, you probably have an okay roof. it's really buildings that have somehow been compromisedhat they're worried about. i want to show you before we go back to you guys, down irving street here at the crosses over 14th, it is completely covered. they were out here this morning, they have come down with the plows, but most definitely there's some serious issues out here, with the snow coveringp the road and the visibility you can't see down that street because of all the fog and all

of the snow. that's fine, you got to walk by. but just a lot going on out here and it's dangerous for people who are driving and even questionable for folks who are walking as well. >> the folks that you are seeing out there, is any place open? are they going somewhere? >> oh, yes. i don't know where everyone's going, but i can tell you that there's quite a few places open because we got breakfast from pot belly. the coffee and tea shop from down here, they came and gave us some coffee as well. and i've also been getting some e-mails from people are living in condos around here. they've got some great stuff, we'll have that for you in just a bit. this is a great foot traffic type of area. people live in the condos out here, it's a very dense, populated area. you don't see many of them out

here because a lot of them got to stay in today. the cvs is open and the giant. >> okay, thanks a lot. >> if people brought you breakfast, maybe it's time for you to start talking about lunch. >> right, oh, lunch, wouldn't it be nice to have a turkey sandwich? wouldn't it be great? >> thanks very much, let's check on the roads in bethesda right now. >> chris gordon is out on river road in bethesda where there are a lot of little stores out there, but is there anything open out there, chris? >> chris, you there? well, we just about lost chris, we haven't lost chris, but chrir is not able to communicate with us right now, we know exactly where he is and he's doing fine we hope. he's there now, hey, cris, hi. >> are we ready to go? >> hit it. >> there is chris gordon on riveroad in bethesda.

you can knee near whiteout conditions behind us, a lot of the stores and restaurants in this area closed, we have guests come in to russ hamel was kind enough at our request to come out, along with sergeant pete davidoff. commander hamel tell me what you're doing today and what yu're advising. >> we're out here because we saw two guys standing out here freezing to death we wanted to make sure that you're okay. if you don't have an emergency please stay off the roadways, give these emergency crews a chance to clean up the roads. give the police officers and firefighters out here a chance to respond to true emergencies. so if you do have an emergency stay home, enjoy the day and watch news channel 4 and have a good day. >> i read it to you almost literally last time we had a storm back in december, you were on 270 and it was very, very difficult driving at that and we, as i say ran into each

other, we got a chance to speak. how would you compare this snowstorm to that one and the one we had the other day? >> it's funny because sergeant davidoff and myself were speaking about this. this really reminds us about the one back in 1979. blizzard conditions out here, when we were coming over here it's hard to see the traffic lights. we have a lot of walkers out here. we have a lot of people -- we have had some skiers on the roadway. we're trying to tell people to stay inside because people just aren't seeing each other out here. give us a chance to clear it up and come out tomorrow. >> when you say 1979, i'm trying to remember being a veteran, washington's birthday blizzard in 1979? >> i was just about 6 years old. >> it was washington's birthday weekend and it socked us pretty hard then and we'reçó getting h pretty hard on top of what we

had over the weekend. >> i went to dinner that night, and by the time i came out to dinner we had aut 13 inches. their plow is behind us. and so we have a chance of actually surviving here. then 1996, we got socked in, but good. >> we did back then as well. and it looks like this one's going to rival those. so, please, be safe, if you have to go out here, pay attention to what you're doing, driuu slow, get behind a plow, don't cut between the plows. >> there's a lot of restaurants and stores and grocery stores that have aually closed, whole foods closed here on river road and the starbucks. so there isn't a lot of reason to go out. we're at a sonoco station on river road. it is open, they are plowing, so you can get gas if you need it, but there's precious little reason to go out. >> we haven't seen many places open at all. besides this gas station and are

couple of other stores along the way. sergeant davidoff said that every starbucks in bethesda is already closed. >> let me get your observations on the day and when i say observatns, know's blowing in your eyes pretty good. >> i would echo what the commander said, it's very hazardous, was actually unable to make it withoin a cruiser wi a four-wheel drive. i have been driving in the snow for years and any kind of slope, any kind of traffic in front of you, if you stop at the wrong place, you're not going to get started again. >> that's a full-sized heavy vehicle, a crown victoria, a ford. >> so you switched to? >> i switched to a jeep which we're in now. >> if somebody doesn't have a

heavier car or an suv or heavy snow tires, what would you reck zblend i would recommend you stay home. >> i don't know if we're calling it a blizzard by the definition of blizzard, but i think most people would refer to this as blizzardconditions. the other day you could go out and shovel the top layer of your driveway. zblild call this a blizzard standing out here in it. again, stay home. >> yeah. are you under any orders from the chief of police? >> no, we asked our officers to use common sense, wre starting to give some direction to them about how they respond to calls today. obviouy today you can go lights and siren, but you can't go over 10 to 15 miles an hour. we're using a lot of caution out here keeping our officers safe. i'm sure the fire department is doing the same thing. >> i want to thank you for coming out at our request to

talk to our viewers because we haven't necessarily get to you and move around in this. thank you very much for taking the time to be with us today. and let me send it back to you in the studio. >> and not only for coming out to talk to us but for all the work that they're doing. >> thank you for the work you're doing. >> let's take a look at our forecast again now, let's talk to tom kiron and bring us up to speed on exactly what's going on with the weather. >> there are blizzard warning out there from virginia to ocean city. this blizzard warning in effect into this evening. blizzard warning means we'll have sustained winds 35 miles an hour perhaps or higher with whiteout conditions with the driving snow. and look at the latest gustses we have had. packs river 40 miles an hour, last hour it was 48, looks like the winds may be dying down just a little bit right now. peak gust in washington 25 miles an hour.

out at dulles 36, the visibilities are still quite low, down to just a quarter of a mile or so, that looks like the minimum victims now, this last hour it was down to near zero in many locations, with the winds relaxing just a bit. the visibility have improved a little bit. look at the windchills though, windchills only into the single digits now, it feels like just nine degrees on the radar over the last several hours showing that it's drying across northern virginia. much of virginia and west virginia the snow has stopped temporarily, but the storm is starting to get organized just east of ocean city, and it is in that process right now. it will begin to crank some of this moisture back down into here, which could keep the snow going into this evening. as we take a look at some of the totals we have had. we have had tenxd inches in

montgomery county, a foot out in frederick county, up to 14 in washington county a foot in the panhandle of west virginia. around five to six urges across western virginia. joining me now is my colleague chuck bell to give us a historical perspective on all this snow.

19 inches of snow there, in clover heavy, maryland and in round hill, virginia. and if you have a new snow report, you can send it to me directly. you have picture .

all the way up to long island, blizzard warnings in effect, so this storm is affecting a very large area. we have a coastal low that's rapidly deepening right now. we also have an upper level spin in the atmosphere sitting over western virginia. it's going to deepen even quicker and it will crank in some more atlantic moisture and also keep our snow going as well as give us a lot of wind, a lot of air is rhing into that low pressure system right now it's rapidly deepening. we could pick up as much as ten to maybe even 15 inches of snow in this zone before it all ends by late this evening. maybe up to 20 far east earn maryland. so still very gusty winds even after the snow ends into tomorrow morning and then sunñr returns thursday, friday and saturday. road conditions have really deteriorated. jerry, how is it looking now.

>> in maryland, route 301 at the bridge remains closed to traffic. that's because of whiteout conditions. let's head out and take a check on a couple of traffic cameras, here's 395 at duke street. the snow is just pounding on down as it continues to come down and severely eliminate the visibility. it's been a long day. let's head on over and see how we're doing elsewhere. a check on the belt way in maryland. as we noticed earlier this morning, best thing to do stay off the roadway, state police are asking to stay off the roads if you must go out for emergency purposes. make sure you clear your headlights and your taillights and just go very, very slowly, only for emergency reasons. >> very good point, again, jerry, thanks. we heard from montgomery county pulling plows off the road because of blizzardxd condition and to give their crews a break. >> we have suzanne hubbard, are

your crews out on the roads still working with these whiteout conditions? >> we have our cws out, we have very seasoned drivers, we have not pulled them. we have told them if they are having problems seeing with the whiteout conditions to pull over and just stay in place until they feel that they're comfortable enough to get back out on the roads. >> which are the biggest trouble spots for you right now? >> the major roads, certainly? >> well, we have pulled all of our heavier equipment that we have put into the residentials, less the smaller 4 by 4s in there and put all our heavier equipment on the primaries to ensure that we continue to keep them as clear as possible. >> and are you still dealing with a lot of people without power out there in prince george's county? >> no, actually we have been working very closely with the utility companies and the last message i received from them is

that they only had 200 persons in prince george's county without power. so we have been going in and clearing places so their utility folks can get in there. >> susan hubbard with the department of public works, we appreciate you giving us an update. we are under a blizzard rning until 7:00 tonight. >> we're going to take a break and we'll be back in just a moment with more on theerun of 2010, stay with us.

we beginning important information on the storm, much of our area is under a blizzard warning. police are asking motorists to stay off the road. peo is pulling people off their jobs because of the wind and road conditions and plows have been working to clear snow at two washington area airports but are pulling back as blizzards conditions worsen. >> due to the extreme weather conditions, frederick police chief is urging residents there to stay home and off the streets. chief, it is treacherous out there and we can't say it

enough, stay out. stay off the roads, in your homes, what are you tellingxd folks in your area. >> we are telling them absolutely that, to please stay home unless they have an absolute emergency and they need to call 911, we have pretty much whiteout conditions, obviously our officers are out there and dpw is trying to do its work but we're uing people to stay home and spend some time with your family for a change. >> how tough is it for you to get out and respond to any emergencies? >> it's tough, we have maximized our four-wheel drive vehicles but we're used to dealing with this kind of stuff, that's what police do, go to the emergency. but we need for everybody else to stay home. it is extremely hazardous, almost no visibility at the moment. >> describe for us the kind of emergencies yore seeing out there in frederick, maryland today? >> well, luckily, it's been

fairly quiet, there was a roof cave in over the night, a flat roof at a residence, no injuries. other than that, for the moment, it hasn't been too bad, but, you know, traffic issues and trees down and wires down and those kinds of things, the normal routine things that you have in any city. >> so you're strongly suggesting that people stay where they are and not try to fiddle around out there? >> absolutely, we cannot urge it enough. it is extremely dangerous out here. the wind is very high, visibility is very, very poor. and we just need folks to stay home and be patient. and, you know, let all the first responders and dpw work their way through this. >> we thank you for giving us an up date out your way, we appreciate it. even pepco crews as we reported

earlier, they are sheltering in place just staying put because it's just too dangerous for a lot of these crews and a lot of these plows to get out there on the roads because they just can't see. visibility has been reduced to zero. >> we're going to move over to the old dominion now whe kimberly suitors has been out there all morning long. >> barbara, when the wind is gustsing, it's an absolute whiteout, looking down maple here in downtown vienna, this is actually pretty good insofar as visibility, visibility is not great, we had a wonderful breakfast in vienna this morning, talking to some police officers there in vienna who said that the hardest thing about this storm is because the visibility not only the white houseout conditions with the

wind, but also the tall snow banks can drivers cannot see around. they said that they were driving under an overpass and peopled that stopped to clear their windshields and they nearly, you know, they had to slam on the brakes to avoid a collision. we told you earlier we're snowed in here, actually plowed in. remember the nice family that came and dug us out? kind people of vienna, don't come back out here to dig us out, we do have a shuffle, we can do it. it's like a small town, you know, right outside of d.c., especially when it storms like this. businesses are open in vienna. at least the central businesses, the pharmacy is open, we met the pharmacist, he drove in from

leesbu leesburg, gruders is open, we want you to know you can getñi groceries. starbucks, they're not allowed to hand out coffee, but they do give away gift certificates, and we used one of those. the funeral home director just came by and said if you need a warm place you can come over to the funeral home. i think for now we'll stick to our truck and keep it safe. keep panning left, shaun, if you would, please, look at the conditions down maple. normally you can see at least half a mile, a mile down the road, visibility is severely limited. barbara, jim, go ahead. >> i was just going to say there's not much on street parking in that area. folks are probably going to have to get tre by foot, wouldn't you say? >> the parking lots are still being plowed. even the plot we're in was plowed this morning. you can park in this lot.

i have a four-wheel drive but i didn't have to use it a lot when i moved out of the way for the plow. it's just not that bad and i say not that bad, i don't want to encourage people to come out. it's very icy under this snow. terrible driving conditions, but if you do need to g out, if you need medication, if you need food, the parking lots are being plowed. but you can see this gentleman walking out here. it's tough, the sidewalks are not passable. he's got to turn to face the traffic to make sure he doesn't get hit. i jogged down maple with an eye on traffic. not optimal conditions, please, enjoy the

they have just supported tremendous hours and we just had a shift change at 8:00 this morning and many of the guys that came on, men and women who came off the road this morning are watching. i hope most of them are sleeping, but if they're watching, we really want them to know how much we appreciate what they're doing. >> we certainly do appreciate what they're doing out there. and we do notice that some of the main arteries, wconsin avenue, connecticut avenue, are fairly passable, but many of the side streets look like they haven't been touched since the start of the snow. any idea when you'll get to those streets? >> i think there are some side streets that have not been touched for a variety of reasons. that's because of, you know, they're either narrow, the cars are parked there, and it's hard for us to get a plow down them. some of them are very hilly. and so what we did yesterday, we brought in front end loaders --

front end loaders as well as bob cats and we're working on those streets that were hard to get to. but i really do think we've gotten a lot of the neighborhood streets, we just have not been able to do them right down to the pavement. and there's a difference. i mean, some of them have been plowed, you know, twice, or three times, they just need -- they need some more work and they need some help from mother nature to melt that layer of ice that's on them. >> we all have to be a little patient with this kind of weather that we've had, blizzard conditions out there for the last -- how long has it been now? >> well, since friday night is when it all kicked up. john lyle, thank you so much for taking the time with us. we appreciate it. well, speaking of d.c., our man winter, pat collins is back out in the elements, in northwest washington. are you at your stomping ground, there, pat, or did you shift locations from saturday and yesterday? >> reporter: i am at any post here in connecticut, thought you wouldn't see me this morning, did you?

but we made it. i've got to tell you, it's the wind. it's the wind. it's the wind. take a look back over there, larry. you can see it's blowing the signs, it's blowing the leaves. it's blowing the sw and this is no time to be out driving in the city of washington. however, there are some people out here walking in the city of washington. and where did you go? >> we realized we were missing two essentials this morning when we woke up. toilet paper and beer. so we ventured out, down the street, to the cvs, which was open. >> reporter: got the toilet paper. >> got the toilet paper. >> reporter: and got the beer? >> got lots of beer.

>> ten or 15 years ago, they're full service. >> they are, indeed. >> pat, thank you, we'll be checking back. hang in there for us. >> stay warm. >> we're going to talk to tom kierein now. he's been tracking the storm throughout the beginning. tom, looking outside right now, tell us, are we still getting all the blowing that we were predicting? it certainly looks like it from the shot we just saw of scott collins. >> we certainly are. the storm started out yesterday afternoon with some light snow. and between midnight and 3:00 a.m., had sleet and freezing rain. back to all snow since then. look at that live picture, near whiteout conditions continue. we have winds that are gusting 30 to 35 miles an hour to near 40 miles an hour. look at the blizzard warning, that is in effect. it covers all of maryland,

northern virginia, the highlands of west virginia. we know you're getting whipped with strong winds and driving snow and whiteout conditions there in west virginia, as we are here in the district of columbia and across northern virginia and all of maryland, delaware, under this blizzard warning that is in effect into this evening. the national airport just had a gust of 39 miles an hour, 40-mile-per-hour gusts. that's certainly in the blizzard category. anything over 35 miles an hour with driving snow and whiteout conditions is considered a blizzard and we have the criteria fulfilled. that is for sure. look at the visibility now. at reagan national, down to 1/10 of a mile. that's right back down, very low again, from what it was earlier. and it's at about a quarter of a mile now at dulles and at andrews air force base and bwi and indianapolis as well as pax river. those are the lowest visibilities we have now. it's about a quarter of a mile in martinsburg, west virginia,

too. and as we take a look at the windchills, it is cold. temperatures are only around 20 degrees now, and the winds with those winds feeling like 6 degrees in washington, single digit windchills common, all around the region. it is just really dangerous to be out in this, for any length of time. you're risking hypothermia. it's even really treacherous for walking. it's just the best idea just to stay inside far while until things settle down later on this evening. now, the regional radar is showing that the snow has tapered off and ended across much of west virginia, the shenandoah valley, and in a line from near charlottesville to richmond, south of there, the snow has handed, but it is still snowing hard here north and east of that line. and the radar locally here, showing, thankfully, no more eas of green, because that is where we've had the heavy snow. the dark blue areas are where we're still getting some moderate snow, anyway. charles and prince george's and an run dell counties in the district, montgomery, loudoun

county, all still getting moderate snow at this time. some of the snow totals coming in by observers. joining me now is my colleague, veronica johnson, with some of those latest totals coming in. >> they have been coming in, thanks to you, of course, sending them in. jeannette, springfield, she said she's gotten a lot of snow. mo in eastern clark county, 6 inches of new snow. mary in north arlington, virginia, reporting 8 inches of new snow. steve in jefferson, maryland, 14 inches of new snow. ashburn, virginia, 11 inches for danielle. 14 from charles town, west virginia. montclair, virginia, 7 inches of new snow. the list just continues. 13 for thurmont, maryland, that's north. and we could get another additional 6 inches by the time it ends this evening. we're talking around 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. meteorologist chuck bell has been asking you to send in your

snow totals, but give us your idea of what you think we should do with all that snow out there. so much just sitting around. we'll be reading your ideas on the air. meanwhile, in terms of snowiest winters ever, you know, we've been adding up the totals, take a look at where we stand. we've gotten more an 50 inches for the season, or at least close to that, 48.6. it's not going to take much more. actually, we should be able to add to that already from what we've gotten today. i took a look at what the great lakes, gets places downwind of the lakes, raw chester, erie, they average between 63 and about 69. we're getting close to that. so where are we living now, up around the great lakes, tom? >> not much to go to get to the all-time snowiest season. we probably will this winter. it certainly has been unprecedented. let's take a look around the region. we're getting some great photos. if you get a photo, send them to

us. look at the temperature now in washington, only 21 degrees. it's been dropping since dawn and the windchills, single digits. and a large area under a winter storm warning, all across new england, all those counties in pink, all the way into the ohio valley and all those counties in red, blizzard warnings. a huge area under a blizzard warning, and it stretches from southern pennsylvania, all across maryland, west virginia, northern virginia, delaware as well as jersey, southeastern pennsylvania, all the way up to long island. because we have rapidly deepening low pressure here, just east of ocean city that is going to continue to deepen, drawing more cold air down over us, as it has done this morning, and also, bringing in some very strong winds that are going to continue. so total amounts from this storm, by the timet finally winds down around midnight tonight, around 10 to 15 inches will be common throughout much of the region. thankfully, we'll get some sun back tomorrow as the winds diminish into friday and saturday as well. so we'll have finally some breathing room and time to dig out from this second big storm

here, just the number of days, a double whammy of 2010. that's the way it looks right now. we'll be back with frequent updates throughout the day. >> we know you will. this thing is massive. tom, thanks so much. like veronica said, we have been getting thousands of pictures in that we've been sharing on our website. now we want ideas of what we should do with the snow. we will read them. make sure you keep it clean out there. i know we're at the tipping point and everybody's a little frustrated and angry, but come up with your novel ways of how to deal with the snow. >> and we'll share some of those pictures with you later today as well. coming up, our coverage of the blizzard of 2010, round two, continues. stay with us.

we continue to cover the blizzard of 2010, round two. throughout this storm, we've been telling you with the snow so heavy, there are concerns about collapsing roofs, particularly flat roofs. we just heard of one that happened this morning. >> that's right. in prince george's county, it's the smithsonian support center. and mark brady from the prince george's county rescue is on the phone with us. tell us about this roof collapse, mark. >> it happened about 7:00 and

it's the garver facility, which houses a lot of the air and space museum for the smithsonian. firefighters were called out ther to investigate a possible roof collapse and in fact, found building number 21 had a roof collapse into the structure and the collapse did compromise the integrity of the entire building. we secured the utilities, the gas, the electric, and the water, to remove that from any complications that may develop, and we turned the fility back over to the security company, which was the only personnel on the scene. >> mark, what about the collection inside? everything safe, or are we able to get things out, or what's the condition inside right now? >> well, the best people handle those art faifacts inside that build are that of the personnel from the smithsonian. and we were able to secure the utilities to prevent that from becoming a problem, and all the artifacts that are inside that

building, again, we're not exactly sure what artifacts are in there, or which ones may be affected, if any, but they are, at this time, exposed to some of the elements and personnel are going to do what they can do to protect them. >> mark, this is just one of many that you folks have been working since saturday. is this going to be the story of the week? more of these to come? and how do you approach these buildings that have come down here? >> well, fortunately, our firefighters, some of them have special training in technical rescue and collapsed structures. and the first thing we have to do is ensure our own safety by inspecting the integrity of the buildings from the exterior and then eliminating any problems that may develop. that's why we go thin there and shut off the electrical, the natural gas, the water to the building to eliminate those hazards. and all we can do at this point is to really eliminate the hazards, make sure the building is safe, and limit access to anybody to go into those particular buildings.

we have had quite a few structures, you know, damaged or affected by the heavy snow accumulation. most of these have been outbuildings. whether it be carports, a gas station canopy, garages, things of that nature. and very few actual structures. we had a strip shopping center last night in the largo area that damaged a day care center, an insurance broker, and a pizza shop. that roof collapsed into those three structures, causing significant damage. fortunately, or unfortunately, we've only had one injury as a result of these roof collapses, and that was yesterday when a gentleman's garage collapsed while he was on a ladder. he sustained injuries and is currently in the hospital. >> all right. >> well, we've been telling people about the warning signs, listening for creaking roofs, and to evacuate immediately. i'm sure that's what you would say as well. >> exactly. and at this point, with this type of weather condition, it's all you can do at this point. you know, we don't even recommend someone going outside

into these elements, much less getting up on to the roof of one of these structures, which we do not recommend anybody do at any time. the only thing you can do is to bunker down inside your home or your place of business. if you do notice anything, strange noises, strange movements, sudden water leaks coming from the ceiling area, evacuate that structure and call 911. >> mark brady, prince george's county fire and rescue, thank you for joining us. >> you do not want to go up there and try to remove it yourself. >> they've been saying that. >> a big, dangerous no-no. we want to head back out to pat collins who's adding up the inches for us. how's it looking now? >> reporter: it's still blowing pretty hard here, the snow is still coming down, but who should join us here but the police chief of the city of washington, chief cathy lanier. what's it like on the roads from your perspective? >> the rods aads are treacherou. not even just the road conditions, it's the blowing, driving snow.

you can't see ten feet in front of your vehicle. it's very dangerous. >> reporter: and your advice to people who are watching? >> stay home. we're been fortunate, compared to the last snowstorm over the weekend, we've seen a lot less people coming out and trying to drive around. but if you come out here in anything other than an suv, you're going to get stuck. you're not going anywhere. >> reporter: what's the snow plan for the police department? >> we've had a plan in effect now, coming up for over a week. so all of our personnel are getting to work. we're very fortunate. officers are resourceful and they find way to get here. we've got over 700 officers in today. right now, especially today, with the wind conditions being what they are, we have officers patrolling in suvs in every district, along with the national guard in humvees as well. cars, the marked cars, we ha about 350 that have cables or chains on them. they can use those for patrol, but we're trying to minimize their random patrol right at the moment, just because the number of accidents are starting to go up. >> reporter: and crime. what's the snow done to crime?

>> it's pretty quiet, pat. it's pretty quiet. i've traveled through all seven districts, listened to the police radio, and it's pretty silent. >> reporter: since the first of the year, crime is really down in our city, isn't it? >> we've had a dramatic drop-off in crime, started in december, and it's been down. >> reporter: and you've been murder free for how long? >> since the first of february. >> got to be feeling good about that. >> yes. >> reporter: chief, i've been out here for a while, i don't see many taxi cabs or buses, but i do see police cars on patrol? >> i'm really proud of the members of the department. they made it to work in large numbers. we have very few people who didn't make it in. my hats off to all the agency in the city. i think they're doing a great job. >> reporter: and one final piece of advice for the people at home? >> please stay home. unless you desperately, desperately need to go out and you have a four-wheel drive to get there, stay home.

>> reporter: thank you very much. police chief cathy lanier, now back to you, jim. >> pat, we just heard her say that her hats off, i notice that her hat's not on, and if her mother's watching, she'll say, where is your hat, chief cathy lanier. >> reporter: you know, i can't hear what you just said. the fire engine's going by on a run. but i know -- the chief's out here, she's on patrol, and she's very hearty and a lot of her officers are out here on patrol as well. >> and important to remember, that's a fire siren, not a police siren. pat collins, thanks so much with the police chief. >> thanks, pat. and we are going to check with chris gordon now. chris gordon has been watching the snow up in bethesda along river road and he can tell us what the conditions are looking like there. has it stopped snowing? >> reporter: i'll tell you, i've been watching the