seeing to help you make it to work safely today. right now a lot of delays all over our area, however, the federal government right now is operating on time today. schools, a whole different story. >> very different story. we have all the delays on the nbc washington app and scroll on your screen right now. fairfax county schools just closed. you see that update there. arlington, prince william, and charles county schools are closed. so are the schools in alexander. >> if your child goes to school in d.c., montgomery county or prince george's, they're on a two-hour delay. >> spotsylvania, stafford, and king george counties in georgia are also delayed. schools in . breaking news on the roads right now. just got a note from montgomery

county. i'm going to read it really quickly. sligo creek parkway, the entire thing is going to be shut down, they say, if the morning. they're saying they're salting it. they can't say which section will be shut down wet. so as of right now all of sligo park will be closed down. at 197, we have a disabled vehicle on the left side of the roadway causing big backups. outer loop at river road, have the left lane blocked there. inner loop, the left side of the roadway blocked and the bottom loop major issue. bottom part. a six-mile backup because of icy conditions in that area. you can see some of the mess here this morning and redline single tracking between forest glen and silver spring. >> chuck? >> thank you, melissa. outside this morning it's indeed an icy cold start everywhere here in the red shading. we had just about a half inch to

an inch as the sun went down. the problem was the roads were already cold and with travg already on them, it's all but impossible to apply chemical. temperatures are in the teens and 20s. very, very cold. if it looks wet, it's probably ice this morning. once we get the sun up, temperatures will be above freezing this afternoon. that makes today preparation day across the area. heavy snow starts tomorrow, late afternoon, and a crippling snow event likely saturday during the course of the day. blizzard watches are already out. the impact goes from bad to worse tomorrow. likely to be crip ing amounts of snow and an inconvenience all day saturday and all day sunday. this will be a problem that will continue into early next week. schools may be closed or delayed on into monday and tuesday of next week. how much snow, when does it get here, when does it snow the hardest? those answers are coming up in a if few minutes.

>> 6:03. a pedestrian was struck by a snow plowover night. maryland state police say the man died. this happened on round 1 at the intersection of maple's avenue. they're working to notify the man's family right now. >> snowfall overnight still creeping in. there is now a six-mile backup. "news4's" molette green live near the woodrow wilson bridge. molette, what can you tell us? >> reporter: aaron, this is my vantage point. >> looks like we don't have mollet's picture. this is a frozen picture. we could hear a little bit. she was going to tell us the trafing on the beltway right near the woodrow wilson bridge has been backed up for a large part of the morning. it's starting to move a little bit in the area. there's still one side of the highway that's dealing with huge significant delays.

we're going try to get mollet back for you in just a little bit and have an update. watch out. watch out. >> he's sliding, he's sliding, he's sliding. >> you can see and hear the confusion and just how dangerous the conditions were on the roads last night. this is the scene last night as people were stuck in traffic for hours trying to get home. and a big problem, the roads just weren't treated. many of you expressed frustration and anger on twitter. one person tweeting a 30-minute car ride home during into seven hours because of lack of preparations by mdot. our jason pugh said it was tough. adam tuss said roads were

untreated. the cars were on the road as the snow was falling. >> havdot told them it was too koes for it to have any effect. pete per injer is on the phone with us to give us an idea, pete, what you all have been dealing with. you get the call first when somebody has a problem out there. >> yeah. it was quite an evening into the early morning hours. we were quite busy. nonetheless they have been able to help folks out. exactly what you talk about. conditions were below freezing and a lot of icy conditions especially on the ramps.

it was quite backed up. the conditions continue this mornling. some of the cruise, the firefighters coming to work say it was pretty treacherous in some cases. again, schools are delayed and folks can just kind of stay put until the crews can get out this morning when the sun comes up and get some work done. >> pete, you to gear up for a big storm on friday going into saturday. what do you have to do to get ready for this big weather event? >> we come to work every day thinking we're ready to handle any situation but in this particular case, we are gearing up, if you will. the plan is to upstaff. and in some cases we're putting ems and specialized units in sfsf service. we're adding to. we're ready in that regard. we're just getting cold weather gear ready and coming to work

and seeing how we can help people burke we hope that everybody does a little plann g planning. we've been planning for days. we hope the community takes advantage as well. the most important thing, make sure your alarms are working. have a plan. go over an escape plan in the event you have an emergency. if we get a couple feet of snow, we home people pay attention to that. keep your doorway, froonlt door, back door clear so you can get out in an emergency and we can get in. and then if you have the wherewithal and the fizz alt ability to do so if the snow gets that deep, if you have a fire hydrant near euro house, shovel that out as well. >> pete pier injer. pete, thanks so much.

clear the fire hydrant as well. 6:08. the metrobus is on a moderate tour. if you plan to take the train, only one line has delays as we understand it. the red line in the direction of shady go because of a disabled train. we're not out of the woods just yet where traffic has been backed up in some places all night long. melissa mollet is tracking the top trouble spots. >> tongue twister. no snow right now, but we're still watching that massive winter storm that is set to wallop our area. storm team for is walking it, plus how current conditions are tracking it plus our team coverage on this weather

a weather alert. we're seeing bumper to bumper traffic. >> melissa mollet is tracking. what's the latest? >> the latest, we just heard from montgomery county. sligo creek parkway shut down. b.w. parkway southbound at 198, we're slow. southbound at 198. right now inner loop at central avenue, right side of the roadway is blocked. icy conditions. really nasty. outer loop as you're going into maryland, a six-mile backup. inner loop going the over way, five-mile backup. travel times, 270 looking good from germantown to the top of the beltway.

kind of surprising this morning. that's good for your much nas ter earlier. 66 inbound no problem. again t beltway, bottom of the beltway is your biggest issue. aaron and eun. >> all right, melissa, thank you. there he is with that smile again. >> and look. with the ice scraper too. this is -- i guess you're talking about historic crippling snow. something excited to get about as a weather man. >> you're going to need a bigger scraper than this by saturday but this will do in the meantime. a huge amount of snow is in the forecast. this morning, though, once you sweep the car off, look out. there are a lot of icy patches still on the roads this morning. temperatures are not just below. they're way below freezing.

if the roads look wet, they're probably dry. today is the day to get everything done. road impacts, many icy spots here this morning but travel will be far more dangerous and nearly impossible friday night into saturday. when i see you in a few minutes, i'll show you how much snow each of the models is predicting as well as how much snow i'm predicting. see you then. >> thank you, chuck. while much of our attention has been on the beltways, you're going to finding it rough on the side streets as well. we're live with the slick conditions. >> and you're going to see the skrl of information at the bottom of the screen updating you on the school delays and closures right now, but local districts are already making plans for tomorrow. what those districts are tel ♪

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6:17.

snow is causing problems on the beltway. things are starting to move more. at one point near national harbor, they were seeing about a six-mile backup on the outer look there. >> yikes. and we've been showing you the mess. as you head out the door, you'll see a lot of side streets still covered in snow. right now "news4's" megan mcgrath is live. megan, what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, eun, it really depends upon whether the road has been treated or not. now, this is connecticut avenue right behind me here, and you can see that we're basically dealing with a wet road here. obviously there has been some treatment. there's been a lot of traffic through here and perhaps a plow or two because we're seeing wet pavement. however rn however, i'm standing on dunnel lane. this is still fluffy snow right there. easy to push aside.

as traffic is going by, you can see we have a slippery snow pack. i wish you could see how slippery this is. this is not going to be great if you put on your brakes and try to stop quick. very treacherous. that's what folks have been dealing with. it's a grab bag. we receive some side streets that are better than others and others that haven't been touched and are very, very slippery. it wasn't a lot of snow. i know myself and others included are saying what is the big deal here? but it is just so cold, some of the streets were not treated and what happened is it started to freeze. you're seeing improvement. you see traffic moving along connecticut avenue but we still see trouble spots around the area. give yourself extra time.

fortunately school systems are opening late or even closed. that should buy you time as well. back to you all in the studio. >> all right, megan. thank you. a virginia state trooper is recovering this morning after being hit by a van at the scene of a crash. it happened last night in virginia. 495 and route 50. the trooper was responding to a two-car crash when that van swerved to avoid hitting a car and hit him instead. he was taken to fairfax nova hospital and is expected to be okay. in the district, you won't get a ticket immediately if you don't shovel your sidewalk. we told you of a new law about ticketing people for unshoveled sidewalks. "news4" learns no tickets will be written for this storm. warnings will be handed out instead. tickets haven't been printed yet. when it goes into effect, homeowners will get a $25 ticket, businesses will get $150

tickets. everyone braces if the blizzard that's about to hit us. we're keeping track how they're dealing with it right now. d.c. says it has 20 extra plows plus all of the volunteers. d.c. schools are closing early tomorrow. others will make that call tomorrow morning. several counties told us they're prepared to salt and plow. loudoun county schools have rescheduled some weekend events to today to get ready. breaking news on the roads. this is probably the worst area. as you're headed across the woodrow wilson bridge, it is a six-mile backup. inner loop there, there's a five-mile backup. it is just jammed. avoid it if you possibly can. work from home if you can. that would be a good idea. roadway closed as crews try and

treat pavement there. also southbound 16th at east-west highway, all lanes blocked there. southbound lanes. inner loop still has a problem and outer loop, we're starting to get a little slow as you're headed down south. the icy conditions remain at the bottom of the beltway and north. also starting to get a little bit yucky here this morning. so if you can avoid the bottom of the beltway, please do it today. you're just going to be sitting in a bunch of gridlock. chuck? >> thanks, melissa. outside today it is ice cold and ice is the operative world. that blrt clipper left an inch to an inch and a half of snoechlt it froze down and left a sheet of ice. use extreme caution on your way out the door early today. if you can wait until after the sun is up, things will improve quickly. it's been almost six years.

snowmaggedon, february 2008. it was 17.6. we may exceed that. here over the state of missouri, it's going to dive down through the carolina coastline and make the important left-hand turn and come up to the mouth of the bay. how close it is to the coast will determine how much snow you'll get. the closer the low is to us the lower the snow totals because there will be more warm air and rain mixing in. off the delaware coast is the maximum spot for us. we'll see how it plays out. everyone is going to get snow, that's for sure. temperatures in the 20s. blizzard watches are out. those awill be upgraded. by 5:00 tomorrow, first inch of snow in the metro before 5:00 p.m. and then adding up very quickly. by 8:00, 3 to 5 inches of snow.

by 11:00 tomorrow night. a solid 4 to 8 inches already on the ground. here's what we're watching for. notice the yellows and the pinging down here. that's the warm air. over a foot at national. over six inches in southern maryland and the exact low will determine how low we'll get especially into southern maryland. snowfall amounts will be extreme from i-95 westbound. the american model is cranking out 35 inches of snow in leesburg and our forecast is every bit that aggressive. it looks like 18 to 24 or more snow drifts of 3 to 5 feet will be likely. travel will be impossible saturday and sunday at the least. it will be a long slow climb out from there. seven-day forecast coming up in a few more minutes. >> all right. chuck, thank you. it's 6:24. slick conditions across our area this morning. charlie gischlar joins us now

from the maryland highway administration. charlie, can you hear us? >> i'm right here, yep. >> let me ask you. we've been sort of wanting to roads all night long and heard the forecast. people seem to be concerned, bothered by the fact that it seems the roads weren't treated ahead of the storm yesterday schl that the reality? >> what happened here is we have these conference calls and contract out to a third party and they said, yeah, there's going to be a storm coming. we did keep people in during the overnight hours into the rush hour but it wasn't supposed to be anything to the magnitude that occurred. so once the crews and our operations people started seeing that the clipper system survived over the mountain, we called people in. what happened is we got stuck in the same trachk as a lot of other people and that creates a domino effect. so the snow is piling up ahead if somebody spins out or there's

a crash or something and then we're playing catchup and playing defect. >> at what point did you realize it was time to send out the crew'cre crews? >> we had people out all night long. we were totally aware of it. as soon as they started seeing the snowfall really complicated things, that's when our operations people pretty much called the complement of people in and prince george's and montgomery county and parts of maryland. >> we know now you have hundreds of crews to do the salting. we appreciate your time on the road this morning. >> it's getting better. we're all in this together. let's keep our heads together. >> absolutely. >> good luck. >> yep. thank you. breaking news on the roads right now. a six-mile backup. bottom part of it. it's jammed. jammed on the inner loop as well. crashes all over the place. the best thing you can do is

stay home. we'll have details coming up. drivers aren't the only ones dealing with major problems. we'll show you the impact it's having on flights at our major airports. stay with us.

whether you're on the inner state or side streets you need to prepare. >> seeing your way to work if you have to today safely. we're also watching all of the closings and delays in our area. if you're a federal employee, agencies are open and operating on time today. not the same case for schools though. several school districts are closed in this area. take a look at the screen here. >> we star with fairfax, arlington, prince william and charles counties closed today. so are schools in alexandria. >> schools in d.c., prince george's and montgomery county are opening two hours late. >> in maryland, calvert, st. mary's, howard, and anne arundel

all on two-hour delays. in virginia, spotsylvania, stafford, and king george county schools are opening two hours late. >> fed ricks burg, falls church, manassas city and manassas city park schools are on a two-hour delay. breaking news at connecticut avenue southbound. chopper 4 just got over the scene here. right now we're shut down. connecticut avenue at weller road. take a look here. easy to show you what happened. i'm sure this person slid into the back of this bus. it's very slick. the pavement might look dry. it is not. southbound connecticut and weller closed. woodrow will sob bridge, outer loop of the beltway coming across the belt, six-mile backup. inner loop, five-mile backup. take a look at 595. we're jammed northbound and southbound between 32 and 50 going just five miles an hour in

some sections of the roadway there. sligo creek parkway shut down as they treat the pavement. 270 at montrose looking a heck of a lot better than it did. i saw 19 cars that were abandoned along the side of the road. some of them crunched up pretty good. chuck in. >> four things you need to know about your thursday. today is preparation day. you've got at least 24 hours to get everything you need to ride out the storm. the snow starts tomorrow afternoon, tomorrow evening time frame. still working out exactly when we think it's going to start. probably around 3:00 or 4:00 in the metro. saturday, whiteout. sunday, digging out. believe me, it's going to take a long time to recover. here's the best news i can give you. for today, temperatures will be above freezing. that will get rid of all the iciness we're dealing with this morning. the road impacts, friday afternoon into saturday and

sunday will be complete lay impassabl impassable. keep that in mind. saturday, you will not be able to move around. in all likelihood they'll declare snow emergencies. that means only emergency vehicles will be out on the roads. you'll like by be ticketed. this happened back in 2003 with the big storm in maryland. keep in mind, today's the day to get it done. we'll talk snow amounts coming up in a few more minutes. >> thank you, chuck. over night snow continues to fall in maryland. take a look here where a six-mile backup remains on the outer loop. molette green is live for us near the woodrow wilson bridge. molette, how are things going now? >> very slow. i'm able to give you a perspective from this van tant point. let me get out of the way. avoid the area if at all possible. inner loop traffic very slow

going at the bridge. this is traffic from maryland into virginia and, osks, look at the outer loop traffic, tractor trailers. it's just a parking lot. hearing about the icing close to st. barnabas, painful backups, no relief in sight. there is a plow truck. i'm not sure if my photographer can get a good shot of it working there. it's on that side of the roadway. there are de-icing efforts under way but as you can see, it's just bad all the way around. no relief in sight. avoid the area if at all possible and it's quite possible that a lot of these traveler, especially the tractor trailer drivers have been on these roads sitting in this traffic for hours. than is the latest live from near the wilson bridge. back to you. >> all right.

mollet. thank you. we'll let you know, manassas cities are closed. i believe that's a change. ily was a delay before now. they're closed. this here is a live look at reagan national airport. we're tracking conditions in all of our area airports for you. did i say this here? i love my southern roots. most flights are on schedule for you this morning. the morning departures are on time but three arrivals have been canceled. at dulles, no cancellations. there's one arrival at b.w./marshall. flights could change. you know the rules, check with your airlines. >> that's right. >> joo developing right now, a homicide investigation in montgomery county after a fire overnight. county police responded to a tent on fire. this is at a homeless encampment in rockville. the man was trapped inside and died. randolph road was closed there. we're working to find out if

it's reopened and exactly what happened here. 6:35. wssc says it is ready. colder weather and old pipes may mine there are more water main breaks. preparations are under way in montgomery and prince george's as the big snowstorm heads toward our region. it's an update. they're testing mobile equipment. they have salt and snow removal at kilo indications. you can help out by reporting any water main breaks as soon as possible. whether it's the beltway or anywhere, we're seeing the problems. melissa mollet tracking all the top trouble spots you want to avoid. >> no snow right now but we're still watching for the snowstorm set to hit our area. "storm team 4" cluck bell is watching the track and how it will impact your kids on the way to and from school with our team to and from school with our team coverage of this weath

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6:40, your time right now. the weather alert day. some of you have been sharing your stories or night mairs. this picture a viewer sent around eisenhower avenue and the beltway, 495 near the wilson bridge. >> look at all those brake lights. >> the person who cents this apparently drives into calvert county. takes normally a half hour. >> i showed my trip. half hour trip took 2 1/2 hours. too many cars on the road, snow falling, crews on the scene. share your pictures with us. >> it took him six hours when it normally takes him an hour and a half. melissa mollet following breaking news on the roads now. what have you got? >> another new problem. every time you come to me, i have a something new for you and that's not a good thing.

this is 355 here just above the beltway, so rockville pike at extract more, we're not sure if this is northbound. southbound i'm now hearing in my ear. the worst way for that to be. woodrow wilson bridge, we're still jammed. still have a six-mile backup. take a look here. going just four miles an hour there. another slow spot. northbound and southbound for some reason. b.w. parkway must be slick and slow. it's nasty. >> top of the beltway, over to 270, taking you 26 minutes. 66 into tourn just fine. 95 northbound looking good. aaron and eun? >> thank you. let's check in with "storm team 4" meteorologist chuck t. bell. tracking the storms. looking ahead to the monster blizzard. >> just in case you were wondering, if less than an inch of snow can do that to the

commute, last night into the morning, imagine what 18 inches or more can do friday night into saturday. this is going to be a long duration event and an even longer duration recovery. it's going to take several days to dig out of the mess that's coming. this morning temperatures are way down into the teens and 20s. if you see anything that looks like moisture on the road, in all likelihood it's ice. be careful. a lot of schools are ruie runni delays. slippery conditions. snierngs above freezing. that's welcome news. blizzard watches are posted. these will be upgraded as we get into tomorrow and tomorrow night. snowfall amounts. here whe here's what the european says. i'm tweaking the fine-tuned details on my snow forecast.

i'll share that with you at 6:51. >> all right. watching all those different models. thank you, chuck. while much of our attention has been on the problem ostown beltway, you're going to find it rough on the side streets as well. those are just wet. the slick conditions you're finding. >> a lot of you talking on social media, venting your frustration. what some of you had to say about your evening

er. he's sliding, he's sliding, he's sliding. >> do you hear all that? >> you've been in that before. you know it's agonizing to deal with that. it's been an incredibly stressful 12 hours or so, and unfortunately these troubles are not behind us just yet. >> we're feeling your pain. we've been out there with you, seen a lot of problems out on the roads. crews are around the region tracking conditions when you start today. >> we want to check in with melissa mollet. melissa, what do you have?

>> we still have this breaking news across the beltway to the wilson bridge. we're still jammed with a six-mile backup outer loop. five-mile backup inner loop. niis is leftover from last t. it is nasty here this morning. another issue as we take a big look at things. top of the beltway starting to get slow. chuck? >> thanks, melissa. in addition to the fact we're going to get an enormous amount of snow. blizzard watches because winds could be extreme. winds could be closer to 60 miles an hour on saturday. that could cause big problems with the power grid. have your generators ready to go. updated forecast now in five minutes. developing in beltsville, a pedestrian dies by a snow plow overnight. we're working to find the pedestrian's name. a truck hit the man at round 1.

we're learning to find out more as the police clear the scene. we've been showing you problems all morning lorne but as you head out the door, a lot of snow covers your streets. molette green is live along dunnel lane. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: it's a grab bag of conditions. it depends what road you take. behind me, this is connecticut avenue. you can see they have treated the road. here's a truck coming by. it doesn't look like they're putting any salt down. i saw salt trucks go be by and they're treating the road. here on dunnel, you're not seeing any pavement and in the center where traffic has been driving over it this morning we now have a very sliply snow

pack. very, very tough to break on. you're going to slip and slide if you break too quickly. that's what many of the neighborhood streets look like this morning. they have not been treated, not been plowed. there's not enough snow. it's 23 degrees. very treacherous. back to you guys. >> be careful, be careful. >> it's very slippery. once you start downhill, that i all slide. >> there's no way through. >> just some dangerous conditions out there. scary roads, too, as snow hit frozen roads last night. big problems on the road that were not treated, and many of you told us about your frustrations on twitter. one person tweeting a 30-minute car ride home turned into seven hours because of the lack of preparedness by mdot. our jason pugh tweeted it might

be quicker to walk home. that might be the case in many situations. it took pat lawson muse from our studio six hours to get home. >> back roads, alternate routes, i tried everything, and every direction was blocked. i finally had to go back to indiana highway and i sat for hours and hours and hours without moving. i got home at 3:00 this morning. >> poor pat. glad she made it home safely. please tweet us your pictures and your stories so we can share them on the n b bc washington p. especially if you're trying to get out and facing problems on the roads. all right, so the snow impacted metro service this morning. metrobus is running on a moderate snow plan. that means some routes will have detours based on road conditions and some have been sus spended.

if you plan to take the train. one line is still behind schedule. no longer is ingle tracking but delays in both directions. plan ahead. right now we're on blizzard watch. we're told all of us will get at least a foot of snow. d.c. mayor muriel bowser is going to release more details about the city's snow plan. so far we know the city has 20 new plows in its fleet this year. she's asked for nag alt guard fleet as well and more if it's needed. a reminder to you. if a snow emergency is declared in d.c., do not park on those snow emergency routes. you'll get a fine and probably get towed too. breaking news on the roads for you right now. i'm breaking it down for you like this. as far as your top four trouble spots right now, right now, bottom of the beltway is still a mess we have a six-mile backup on the bottom of the beltway, outer loop and a five-mile

backup on the inner loop. indian head high wairks if you ear approaching or passing the beltway, b.w. parkway, both directions, very slow. 95 northbound and southbound, near 32. live look at the woodrow wilson bridge right now. you can see we're jammed there. it's not changed much since the last night. chopper 4 over 270. a crash in the main lanes really slowing things. all of sligo parkway slowing down. crews are trying to treat that pavement. 6 a 66 and 95. somehow they're behaving themselves. again, prince george's county, overall no major problems until you look at inbound indian head highway. chuck, tell us something better. >> as a snow lover, i've got something better. i've forecasted a little change. i've moved the totals up. now 18 to 28 inches or more

mainly to take into account parts of the shenandoah valley and panhandle of west virginia could get walloped quite a bit. i've also lowered parts of southern maryland to 8 to 18 inches we had 12. there's a chance there could be a little bit of rain mixing in. we'll show you this on the model. nonetheless, a high impact event coming. the temperatures this morning way below freezing. if it looks wet, it's ice this morning. be careful on sidewalks and driving. we'll be above freezing with sunshine today. that's excellent news. today's the day to get it done. winter storm watches and blizzard watches are posted. the storm itself is getting organized. the track will take it down to the coast and eventually how close the storm is to the mouth of the bay and the delaware shore, that will impact snow amounts in southern maryland particularly. here's future weather. here comes the snow. heavy low by late friday night into early saturday. here's the question mark. how much warm air and how much

in does it come? it's actually trying to generate a dry slot and rain/snow mix into tomorrow. that never happens in the shenandoah valley. all snow will maximum the snow amount. this will eclipse the 1992 knickerbocker storm. it starts in the afternoon. things go downhill fast on friday into friday night. saturday, 2 to 3 inches of snow an hour. could even have thundersnow. big impact coming. we'll be right with you. >> thank you, chuck. we're still seeing slick conditions in the district this morning. a lot of people were angry over the conditions overnight. let's check in with the city administrator rashaad young. good morning. thank you for joining us. there were a lot of people who were upset the roads were

untreated and they were stuck in the mess. what do you have to say about what happened yesterday? >> sure. good morning. we deployed our assets and resources around 4:00, 4:30 p.m. based upon what our advice was from the national weather service about what this storm would be. we were expecting a half an inch of snow during a two-hour period of time. it ended up being 1.7 inches during a six-hour period of time and instantly freezing on the road. so people, what they experienced in d.c., they unfortunately experienced all across the region. we're frustrated, too, because we want our residents to go in and out with much more ease during their commute than they experienced. >> deployed our resources which means you actually had your trucks spreading salt? >> we actually had trucks spreading salt for this event.

we had a number of crews based on what we thought was half an inch of snow over a two-hour period. most of the people in the region were prepared for a much less intense storm all across the region. we actually had pretreated our roads in advance of this event anyway, preparing for the friday event. >> the national weather service put out that winter weather advisory at 11:00. was there a reason it was 4:30 or 4:00 as you said before the crews went out on the road? >> yes. the reason was we were advised there would be a half an inch to an inch an hour. it was based upon that forecast represented. >> all right. rashaad young, d.c. administrator. we appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions. >> absolutely, thanks. >> melissa, a quick update. >> a quick update, bottom of the

beltway, woodrow wilson bridge, that's a nasty backup. on the inner loop we have a five-mile backup. avoid it if you possibly can. >> all right. thank you, melissa. >> whew. >> that is the broadcast. we'll keep the school closings and delays on our screen and website. >> at least one of us is happy about the website. >> it's going to be stickworthy, i'm telling you. >> the "today" show is next. be sure to stay with us online and on social media. we'll keep you updated on the storm coming. >> make it a great thursday, everybody.

good morning. snow-m-g. the nation's capital gets ready for what could be one of its worst storms ever. this as an inch in washington last night brings the city to a stop. commuters stuck for hours. even the president delayed. how will they deal with the two feet that could be coming? another day, another drop. the dow plunged again, losing 550 points. will it rebound today? taking no prisoners. donald trump unloads on his rivals, from fellow republican ted cruz. >> he's two-faced. >> and bernie sanders. >> he's a wacko. he's beating hillary clinton. >> palin piles on. is the one-two punch helping