right now at 4:00 a.m., this is what it looks like in northern virginia. this this a live look near tyson's corner. the snow has stopped. we have dangerous conditions left behind by the winter storm. get ready for the bitter cold, as well. snow-packed streets and ice. >> we've been slipping and sliding all over. a long list of schools and businesses deciding not to take a chance in these conditions. and they are shut down for the day. we are in the district, virginia, and maryland this morning with live team coverage of the winter storm. good morning, everyone, i'm aaron gilchrest. >> i'm eun yang. welcome to "news4 today." we are waking up early with you this morning on this wednesday, january 22nd, 2014, to help you deal with some of the dangerous cold and snow.

>> you can take time to get ready for work if you work for the federal government. federal offices are opening with a two-hour delayed arrival. you have the option for unscheduled leave or telework. your kids have another day off today. every major, and for that matter, minor school system closed because of the winter storm. we have a complete list of closings at the bottom of the screen and at nbcwashington.com. looking outside over washington, d.c., it looks really pretty, but looks can be deceiving. it is bitterly cold with many snow-packed streets. chuck bell with more on what lies ahead. good morning. >> good morning, everybody. there's a whole lot of crunchy, crunchy, crunchy, crunchy as you go down the side streets as the snow that fell yesterday is blowing and drifting around and getting crunchy. temperatures, single digits and low teens across the area. we're at 12 downtown, but 5 in gaithersburg, 16 in culpeper, 10 degrees in manassas. temperatures have fallen 20 to

30 degrees over the last 24 hours. and dangerous windchills means we have a windchill advisory out for the remainder of the morning hours this morning. windchills are currently in the minus five to minus 15-degree range. every warm layer of clothing you should put it on. future windchills staying below zero through the morning and hovering near zero all afternoon. danella, how are the roads? you know, seeing some roads nice and clear. other roads still dealing with snow. first we'll start with an accident on the beltway. outer loop, this time approaching branch avenue. single-vehicle accident. you see on the beltway, main lanes look clear. off to the side, you know, the right lane, most of the roadways here, pretty still snow packed. heads up. the single-vehicle crash. police on the scene. and now we're going to shoot over to northeast d.c. you see the live look, north capital and h. still cloud but not clear. can't even see the pavement here.

heads up. aaron and eun, back to you. >> thank you. 4:03. plan ahead if you decide not to drive in to work and take a bus or train instead. a lot of public transit systems are adjusting their schedules today because of the snow. metro bus will start the day operating on just snow emergency routes. and to see what that means for you, check metro's website. service could expand later in the day. d.a.s.h. service will resume full service starting at 8:. buses that service the pentagon will run until 11:00 a.m. to account for the federal government's two-hour delay. metro rail will run on a normal weekday schedule as was vre. you'll have to keep a close eye on schedules if you take marc or amtrak. marc says all three lines will operate on an s schedule, and the last train on the brunswick line will leave 40 minutes late to take into account the two-hour delay. amtrak says both acela express and the northeast regional will be on a modified absolutely, so you can expect fewer trains to be running today. if you decide to dig out

your car and drive, give yourself a lot of extra time. these are the conditions that one of our producers found in montgomery county on his way in. a lot of the streets he drove on had been plowed at least once. there is still a coating of snow and, in some places, maybe ice as temperatures are in the single digits right now. we are keeping an eye on road conditions across maryland, the district, and virginia to make sure you know what you're getting into in you have to head out. megan mcgrath live on the beltway near tyson's corner. what are you seeing? >> reporter: by and large, we're seeing decent conditions on the major roadways. we are injury count-- we are en the express lanes on the outer loop. you see conditions are far from perfect here. we just had a plow go through about five minutes ago. we, as you can see, have a lot of snow in all of the lanes. you see areas where you sigh down to the asphalt. there's a lot of still white stuff on the roadway here. very, very treacherous

especially as we're going over an overpass because it's very, very cold out there. what i would recommend, if you're traveling on the beltway through the tyson's area, is to use the main lanes. the main lanes are by and large just wet. they're looking a lot better than the express lanes. same situation for the express lanes on the inner loop of the beltway. we have seen similar snow-packed conditions there. so certainly bake in extra time interest your commute this morning. we are still seeing a lot of trouble spots out there. back to you in the studio. >> thank you. 4:05. molette green with more on how the storm is affecting airports here and across the country. that's right, if you have a plane ticket out of town today, hang on. you should call your airline before you head out. look at this live shot of reagan national airport. and on its website, they're saying the roadways are clear. but you will want to use extra caution when driving in to the airport. we've got delays and

cancelations this morning to tell you about. you should know air travel all up and down the northeast corridor took a big hit from the storm. just checked flightaware.com. more than 1,300 flights grounded. nearly 230 delayed. our three major airports operating on a normal schedule. however, reagan national airport has grounded 64 flights so far. dulles has 26 canceled. right now at bwi marshall, 17 flights scrapped. for the latest, back to you. >> thank you. we've called in extra crews early to show conditions around your neighborhood. you're looking live now in maryland. we'll see -- we'll check in with news4's darcy spencer there in a moment. and treating icy and snow-covered sidewalks around your home, the different chemicals to look out for. good morning, everyone. temperatures are going to be staying near the zero mark for much of the morning.

welcome back. look at the time-lapse photos of how fast the snow fell. the video of taken outside of our studios just as storm team 4 meteorologist chuck bell forecasted. five inches fell here in

northwest washington. that's the most snow the district has seen in three years. in other spots, snow came down as much as eight inches. now that the snow on the ground, high winds and freezing temperatures are moving in. chuck bell will be up in a moment to bring you your storm team 4 forecast. despite the freezing temperatures, some people did take advantage of the snow day to have a good old-fashioned snowball fight. the d.c. snowball fight association -- >> did you know there was such a thing? >> no clue. there's a group apparently. they organized a gathering at dupont circle. you see it here. about 200 people showed up. the fight was a big hit on social media, too. the group even started trending on twitter. >> you got it feel good for the snowball association. they've been waiting all winter for some real snow to actually get something done, right? >> good for them. >> right. >> happy for them. not for me, though. too much -- >> i don't imagine you showing up at a snowball fight. >> couldn't happen. today we'll have to deal with these still-bitter cold temperatures, more cold than

what we dealt with yesterday. >> here's chuck bell with more. that's right. we'll bring the snowball to him, don't you worry. i'll have a snowball on the back of his neck before the morning is over. right now, temperatures down into the single digits in the northern and western suburbs to hovering around 10 to the low teens in and around the metro area. minus 14 in hagerstown, minus 9 in st. mary's county. put your mind at ease, everybody. all the snow is gone. the last snowflakes are leaving the eastern shore toward rohoboth and ocean city. good riddance to the snowflakes. it's going to stay cold all day long as temperatures will struggle to get only into the mid, maybe the upper teens, that's the best we can do. danella? >> the roads now, that's what i'm checking. still seeing an accident on the beltway. this is the outer loop of the beltway. single vehicle here just off to the right side of the roadway. taking the beltway, inner loop and outer loop any time soon, i would stick to the middle lanes. those are clear all around town.

we're going to head to i-270. good news for folks, nice and clear. again, center of the road, that's where you'll want to stick to. i'm back in ten minutes. back to you. >> see you then. thank you. where this winter storm is breaking records, especially north of d.c. plus, the frustration that's causing for people in a city known to have an attitude. we're tracking snowplows. we'll show you how to tell whether and when crews are he

14 minutes after the hour. looking live over the nation's capital. 12 degrees outside of our studios. the beginning of a very cold stretch of days. the full forecast coming up in a moment. people up and down the east coast are waking up to amounts of snow they haven't seen in years. new york's central park set a new record with 11 inches of snow. the snowy streets caused a mess for drivers. check out this video of a traffic jam on the upper east side of manhattan. some people say they were stuck

on the buses and backups for more than two hours. philadelphia cleaning up more than a foot of snow this morning. the national weather service says 13.5 inches fell at the airport there. we actually broke records here at dca and dulles, as well. kids in philly took advantage of the snowstorm to get a little sledding in at an iconic landmark. turned out to be the perfect hill for fun in the snow. they got a pretty good ride in. >> looks like fun for sure. give yourself extra time as you head out the door. most major streets have been plowed and treated. some of the side streets are dicey. let's get a closer look at the road conditions in maryland. news4's darcy spencer is in a car driving around montgomery county. good morning. what do you see where you are? >> reporter: good morning. yeah, we're up in germantown. and you see we're making the turn here on to 118. what we're going to do is take you on 270 i believe south heading back toward washington.

we drove out from northwest washington this morning, up river road, on to 270. the good thing is there's not a lot of traffic out there. so we were sharing the roads with some of the plow trucks and salt trucks, not a lot of people driving out there. that's the good thing. you see here as we're taking the ramp, you see a little bit of snow cover on the ramp, and not a whole lane here. so you can't see the lines. but you do have a clear path. you definitely want to take it a little bit slower than you normally would. i don't believe that it's icy, but again, you see the patches of snow here and there. we definitely don't want to hit those. that could be slick. now we're getting on to 270 south now heading back toward washington. you can see traffic is beginning to pick up just a little bit. maybe people head information to work today. so we're seeing a bus here and a couple of commuters out here. look at the roads -- it's wet,

and that basically is it. it's not icy. you see from line to line, all three lanes completely open. no snow cover. not seeing any icy patches. little -- little peas here and there, we just ran over a little bit of frozen i guess it was a little icy patch. but again, the roads are looking pretty good here. again, 270, if you're making your way in toward washington or even 270 north, you should be fine. >> thank you. live for us on 270. thank you, darcy. several plows have been working overnight to clear the roads in northern virginia despite their best efforts. we've been seeing spinouts and accidents. virginia statement have received more than 700 calls for crashes and disabled cars and trucks in an eight-hour period during the worst of the storm. drivers say it is tough to drive in all the slush. >> you can barely see the line. >> as you get below 18, 19 degrees, the chemicals don't work that well at all. >> vdot says krauss have been

working nonstop to treat and plow the roads. and take a look at the evening rush road conditions. there were several accidents on the beltway including this one on the inner loop headed toward prince george's county. a small trailer being hauled by a pickup truck fishtailed, i'ded with a car there. fortunately no one was hurt. drivers said the roads were the worst they've seen in years. >> be super careful, definitely. i think that as long as you drive slowly, then you'll be okay. >> now if you do have to drive anywhere today, leave early, and drive very slowly. now that the freezing temperatures are here, you have to be prepared for the ice that is accumulating on your sidewalks. treating ice is different than treating snow. the maryland cooperation extension service recommends using de-icing salts including magnesium chloride, calcium chlori chloride, and potassium chloride, use a thin coating of salt to avoid damage to concrete and mortar between bricks. to get traction without the damage to your can concrete, the

extension service use sand, fireplace ashes, or kitty litter. it's important to remember that de-icing chemicals can be dangerous for pets. friendship hospital in northwest washington says don't use antifreeze to de-ice your sidewalks. don't or r attracted to the -- dogs are attracted to the taste, and any amount could lead to death. clean your dog's paws off so they don't like chemicals when they get home. and keep cats indoors. cats looking for a warm spot outside tend to climb into car engine blocks. you don't want your cat t get stuck when you go to your car. 4:19. you'll want to watch news4 this evening to see if one of those people will have a pat collins snow stick to see how much snow fell. these are some of the entries in the pat collins snow hat challenge. the best hat wins the snowstick. we've received hundreds of pictures -- wow. >> that's pretty good. >> folks sent in pictures showing how they keep their heads warm when the weather is pretty today. some even told pat what make

their hat so special. >> the more stripes that it has, the more important i am. and if half -- if the entire hat is colored, that means i'm single. if half were white, that means i'm married. >> that's elaborate description of the hat. >> were i can't, he actually got the hat in another country. probably -- >> oh. they made it a -- especially for his -- >> yeah. >> person. >> patted and a team of e-- pat and a team of esteemed judges will decide which is the hat of all hats. >> and they get a pat collins sn snow stick. grand prize. there's no snowstorm without a pat collins snow stick. >> that's how you know it's snowing. 4:21. let's check the forecast. chuck bell is here with a leak at the forecast. chuck? >> good morning, a good wednesday morning, everybody. temperatures have fallen nearly 30 degrees in just the last 24 hours behind the leading edge of the arctic air. the good news in your forecast for today is that the snow is

over. the bad news is this cold is here to stay for quite some time. single digit and low teens to get you out the door this morning. 14 in culpeper and fredericksburg, about 12 in downtown washington. 10 for leesburg and ashburn. the snowfall amount yesterday on average in that 3.5 to 7.5 to eight-inch range, right on the money as far as we were concerned with the forecast. current windchills -- whoa. you need to dress in every layer you have today. current windchills running between zero and minus 15. as i've been saying, the snow is gone. friends and neighbors dealing with the last of the snowflakes. we will not have to worry about snow today. that doesn't mean it's going to be a nice day to be outside. let me give you the good news, the bad news, and the ugly truth with what's going to happen in the forecast. first, the good news. everybody needs a lid good news after a day like yesterday. no more snow today. that's good news. sunshine returns. that's good news. and good sledding weather, all the kids have the day off from school.

and there are a lot of very fine virgin snow hills to sled down today. the bad news -- and there's plenty of bad news -- single digit temperatures this morning. rising only into the teens for high temperatures today. that's not good news at all. and windchills which are below zero now will hover near zero all day long. so you're really going to need to dress in layers today, and the ugly truth about this cold snap -- it's going nowhere. more single digit morning temperatures ahead, potentially for tomorrow morning. maybe even the morning after that. and there's another shot of cold air coming next week. so with all that in mindlet's go through your seven-day forecast. today, partly sunny, but breezy to windy this morning. the wind delay back just a little later on today. very cold. 18 is i think where we'll be for the high in washington today. if you don't have that much snow on the ground, you'll probably inch into the low 20s. tonight, 10 in town. expect widespread single digit again in the suburbs.

tomorrow, mostly cloudy, there's a chance for a little light snow tomorrow. nothing major. just a couple of flurries. highs in the mid 20s felt another single digit on friday morning. and the cold lingers into the weekend. the warmest day out of the next seven days is going to be saturday. another little chance of a fleur or two there. high only 38 degrees. then highs back down into the low 30s by sunday, monday. and next week, another shot of arctic air coming our way. so a whole lot of cold in the very near and the extended forecast. back to you. >> i'm going to do a little good news myself. the good news is if you are up because you have to go to work, it's because you have a job. i don't have the bad, i just have the ugh -- the ugly truth. fox road at braddock, streets are pretty snow covered. heads up. we'll shoot over to montgomery county, georgia avenue at connecticut avenue. i don't know if you saw this car

go by slowly. that's the ticket to safety. give yourself extra time, drive slow. some of the roads -- even though they've been plowed, are seeing snow cover. we'll head to i-66 at prince william parkway. in both directions on 66, i'm not tracking accident. but i am showing you what your conditions are going to be like. so heads up. i'm back in ten minutes. hopefully i'll have more good news. back to you. >> do what you got to do to keep that job. i like that perspective. we'll check the roads in d.c. derek ward live along new york avenue in northeast. how's it looking there, derek? >> reporter: i'll tell you what, take a look behind me. this is inbound new york avenue. you see that's the bridge, and that's florida. this is the kind of road conditions that you are going to encounter. there is passable roads and stuff, they have been treated. take a look at this cab going by here. that's where you're going to have to take it. now, as the roads become more populated, as more traffic gets on here, expect it to clear again. we have seen the plows come through a couple times.

if you take a look here, this is an untreated street. that's 1st street. that's what you will encounter, getting to some of the main thoroughfares that have been treated. of course, sidewalks are snow packed. it's passable, not very icy at this point. definitely it warrants some serious caution if you do come out here. and it's not so much the snow and the surfaces now. it is the wind. and i can tell you that it is a biting wind at this point. any exposed skin is definitely going to feel it out here. and we just encountered a woman who's on her way, first leg of an international trip. the hardest part was just getting from her home over to the train station where she could get to a connecting flight. lots of cancelations and things like that. we'll have more on those difficulties coming up later. right now, live in northeast, derek ward, news4. back to you. >> all right. thank you. there's a way it track how safe your street is this morning. >> yeah. angie goff now with more on how to check without even looking out your window. angie? that's right. waking up, wondering when your

street is going to be plowed? log on to vdotplows.org for virginia's digital snowplow tracker. you can see that most of the trucks in northern virginia when we checked and in fredericksburg, that's where we're seeing most of the trucks, you can also plug in your address and get the option to take a look at live traffic cameras around where you live. you can do the same if you live in howard county, maryland, on the county's website. you can view the snow-removal live. a handy legend also shows what has been plowed or salted. you saw it off to the right of your screen. in the district, d.c.gov has a snow response reporting system, it's updated every half-hour. note, you do have to zoom in to where you live, and then you click the "start" button, then the trucks on the map like here will pop up. and i posted all of these helpful tools at our website, nbcwashington.com. search the word "plow." back to you. >> thanks. we can show you the main reason for flight delays and cancelations in our area.

mounds of snow covered the runways for hours. we'll get a progress report on the work overnight to get more planes in the air. and the special service set up at a major transportation hub right now to help people get out of the cold.

welcome back. at 4:29, snow and ice covering most streets in our area. you'll feel the difference once you step outside.

check out the thermometer set up outside the studios in northwest washington. we have temperatures in the teens. once you factor in the windchill, it feels a lot colder than that. and it may be a few degrees warmer when federal employees head to work this morning. the federal government will open two hours late today. workers have the option for unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework. most kids will not have to go school at all today. every major school system in our area is closed. that list is at the bottom of the screen, of course. it is still growing. it's also on nbcwashington.com for you any time. you will have to plan ahead if you decide to take a bus or train to work today. metro bus will only be running on those snow emergency routes to start the day. you can check metro's website for those routes in each of the localities around here. d.a.s.h. service to the pentagon will run until 11:00 a.m. to account for the two-hour delay for government workers. on the rails, metro and vre on normal schedules today. the marc service is on an s schedule. now, it's