universitys are also closing at this time. every major school district in our area has already reported most are closed today. be sure to check the nbc washington app because of a few offices open and there are some students who are dismissing early today. >> and many of your downties and cities will also be under snow emergencies today. the idea is to keep the snow routes clear for the plows. d.c.'s snow emergency will start at 9:30 this morning. maryland's will go into effect across the state at noon. several cities in virginia have declared snow emergencies, too, including manassas starting at 8:00 a.m. and falls church at 8:00 a.m. the state is responsible for clearing the roads. some crews have already been out pretreating streets to prepare for the storm. in montgomery county, they're asking for everyone to help out by staying off the roads. >> the county is going to be ready. we want the residents to help

us. they can help us by making certain they're off the roads starting friday afternoon and possibly all the way through sunday. 4,000 trucks and plows are hitting the streets today. d.c. says it will send out 411 pieces of equipment and maryland plans to have 2,700 pieces of equipmenten the road. >> 4:31. chuck has four things to nobody this forecast. hey, chuck. >> good morning, everyone. we've tried to boil it all down into a simple format. get things done fast. if you have to do it, get it done before noon today. all bets are off in the afternoon as far as accumulating snow. snowing in almost every spot of the metro area by sunset tonight. it might start lateal before there, depending how far west and south you live. shelter in place. snow will be other by the time the sun comes up on sunday morning. you're not going to want to do

anything but shovel. here's how you plan on your day, cold, cold, cold drive. teens into the 20s. cloudy by noon. it should be dry. but shortly thereafter, it will be moving in. most will see snowflakes at around 4:00 this afternoon and it will get heavy after 8:00 tonight. we should have between 12 and 18 inches on the ground before you get out the door tomorrow morning to start shoveling. by noon tomorrow, 15 to 25. 4:00 tomorrow, 18 to 30. and by the time things are wrapping up, as much as 20 to 36 inches of snow, an absolutely historic amount of snow. again, here's the timing. by noon today snowflakes could be in frederick and culpeper by noon. by 4:00, everyone's getting snow and thereafter it's just going to go from bad to worse. be ready, everybody. it's going to be a long slow

recovery process. here's melissa. >> good morning. you're making me nervous here, chuck. don't get nervous, don't get nervous. look at the beltway and into and out of town, nice and green. we know that is not going to last. if you can stay home, stay home. if you don't have a reason to be out like to be at work to inform everybody, please stay home and stay safe. all southbound lanes here are closed because of a crash. there's a water main brachlk remember all lanes are block and north mason drive at north henderson road, all lanes blocked there because of a crash. as far as m.a.r.c. and vre, we're on an "s" schedule. no word yet on sunday. 4:33. you won't be able to take the metro to get around this

weekend. it will close tonight. metrobus services will stop at 5:00 p.m. and finish their last routes after that. they'll be off the roads after that. metro access will stop at 6:00 tonight. the entire metro system, everything metro, will be closed on saturday and sunday. metro general manager paul wiedefeld said trying to keep underground stations open would actually put a strain on resources. >> high winds and power loss and we would not want to have a loss in the understood ground tunnels. we're using all resources and other medical emergency resources if power is lost. >> wiedefeld said sheltering the railcars will help get them up and running quicker when metro service resumes. we're already seeing the storm have a major impact on travel flights. united airlines says no flights will be leaving the baltimore/d.c. area after noon.

delta, jetblue, american, and southwest will also be canceling flights today. be sure to check your schedule. it's now 4:356789 amtrak might be your only way out of the area now. as of now a few are still scheduled to run. amtrak says to keep a close eye on the website if you have tickets for saturday and sunday because there could be some changes. the auto train that runs between florida and virginia has already been canceled. good morning, everyone. i'm erika gonzalez from the live desk. the same system that'sen to land a blizzard on us brought tornado-like conditions to parts of mississippi. look at this. severe weather in portions of the central state wiping out

homes. the weather also topped lots of trees, blocking a lot of the first responders app efforts. it all left a trail of destruction. they'll be working to clean all of that up today. eun, back to you. >> erika, thank you. we want to get to -- we've got the maryland state highway on the phone right now. is it scott peterson? >> yeah, but it's the county, not the state highway commission. >> all right, scott. tell us what you're going to be doing in the next few hours. >> like everyone in the region, we've been preparing for this all week. this is an effort that isn't just the efforts of our first responders and emergency management, but, you know, the entire county government operations. our services that have been checking on the senior centers and making sure we're doubling

up on our meal deliveries and really preparing on every different aspect we can possibly think of being ready for this storm to come. it's been years since this area has been expecting this much snow, so we want to make sure our residents are all aware and that they're going to the website and keeping ahead and aware of all the different changes that might be happening in prince george's county. >> and, scott, you were talking about trying to help neighbors and help people who may not have access to these meals and some of the things they need, but with a storm like that's go doing be crippling to the region, how are you going to prioritize your resources to help the people most in need? >> you'd like to hope there's no end to the resources. that's what the government is here for, you know, at both the local, state, and federal

levels. we're all going to work this together and get through this storm. we've done it in the past, and we're going to do it this time. we just need to make sure all residents are, you know, adhering to what we're saying, especially to once this storm starts, to stay in and stay off the roads. that is by far the most important message we can get out there. this is not the storm to be messing with. as well as when they're inside their house, that they don't lose power. we're going to be monitoring where pow ler be on and off throughout the county. i think that is always one of our top concerns when we do lose power, you know, what the residents are doing. so we want to make sure we hope everyone is prepared with a preparedness kit, batteries, and anything they can think of, what they will do if they lose power

in their house. we know they're getting a lot of snow. we just don't know what type of snow we're getting right now. >> all right scott peterson with prince george's county. we appreciate your time. >> surely will. 4:39. a blizzard in our area goes into effect. we're

good morning, everybody. i'm "storm team 4" meteorologist chuck bell. the snow will be coming in and pilling up fast. how much snow, we'll find out. could get as much as 8 inches on the ground as early as 7:00. most of the metro area, 2 to 4 inches of rain. you should plan on accumulating snow before 7:00 p.m. tomorrow. it could be as early as 4:00 this afternoon. could be as much as a foot by wakeup time and then by saturday night, could have some places with more than 24 inches of snow on the ground. so friday evening, several inches already on the ground. conditions going down very, very quickly. travel becomes hazardous toshlts and impossible tomorrow unless, of course, you've got a snowmobi snowmobile.

what is the snowmobile report, melissa? >> that is totally clear. you can go anywhere you wants a lodge as there's snow on the ground. right now queens chapel road, all west lanes are blocked down because of a fire response. molette green on her way to that problem right now. 66 and 95, we haven't talked about that yet. nothing going on. of course, i would let you know. i wanted to let you know we're okay on 66 and 95. not seeing anything. 270 at montrose, nice and clear northbound and southbound. guys? >> melissa, thank you. in just a few hours, airports will come to a halt. >> we want to prepare you on what you can expect

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welcome back at 4:46. the clock is ticking now to get everything done before a blizzard hits our area. chuck says hurry up. you now have less than 12 hours before things really start picking up outside, and chuck bell will have the latest on these blizzard warnings as well as what we will face in the week ahead. that's at 4:51. take a look at the roads here through the lens of vdot's traffic camera. it is vdot who's responsible for clearing roads. extra fire and medical personnel and police officers are on standby right now. a central operation center is going to open up at noon to help out the storm. the county board chairwoman says they're looking to prevejt what happened earlier this week. >> caught off guard. maybe preparations for the larger event. >> it's not just county officials getting ready, but the

people of fairfax have clear off the shelves of local hardware stores. look there. they're hoping to receive a new supply before the storm hits today. since the metro is shutting down, expect to pay a lot more for a taxi ride. the snow emergency fair goes into effect at 9:30 this morning. that means you have to add an additional $15 to the meter fair. the additional charge will stay in place for 12 hours unless the snow emergency is extended, that's based on the conditions out there. virginia's commuter trains m.a.r.c. and vre is running on an "s" service. both are expecting a rush in the middle of the day and they're telling passengers trains will be crowded. there are lots of ways you'll be able to follow the snow fall and crashes and cleanup in your neighborhood. we'll have news crews on the street. for everything else you can check out the areas.

we're going to put a link to these maps on the nbc washington app. d.c. has where it's snow and what's been plowed and salted. vdot shows too. maryland's didn't of transportation lists all the road closures, broken down cars, and speeds. virginia does as well. a lot of flfgs be available to you online as you ride out the storm. >> road crews have their work cut out for them. let's check in with charlie gischlar for the maryland state highway department. charlie, are you there? >> good morning. >> we know it's going to be a whopper of a storm. i'm sure it ooh going to be all hands on deck. >> that's an understatement. yes, all hands on deck. we've already pretreated the highways. we'll load up our trucks and contractors' trucks and wait for the first snow and then it will be a plowing operation until we

see the light of day again. >> i'm curious. charlie, as the snow is falling, we think, for 36 hours straight, are you out there in the blizzard conditions trying to move the snow as it's falling? >> we are, but there are times -- i go back to the back-to-back storms we had in 2010. there were times when it was whiteout conditions where it was too dangerous for our crews to be on the roads where we pulled them off and threat resumed again. >> we know it's tough to tell until all the snow has fallen, but when do you think the major highways will be cleared? >> it's tough to call. our main goal during a blizzard of this type is to keep at least one interstate lane open. you to have real less tick expectations when you have 3 inches falling an hour. you're going to have snow covered highways.

we try to keep at least one lane open swrechl new technology and we show case it every year at our conferences. we have a tow plow. we have a tow truck behind a zarnd dump truck so it can clean two lanes at a time and a claude truck that can carry more fuel and salt. so we have more technology since 2010. it's hard to put a time frame on it. we'll do our best and won't stop until everything is clear. >> that's what we like to hear. charlie gischlar with the maryland state highway commission. stay safe. >> stay safe. you've got it. all right. "storm team 4" meteorologist chuck bell. we're getting closer and closer. i think the clock is ticking. >> i know. 's like the 12 day of snow instead of the 12 days of christmas. >> except you're putting it all on one day. >> it will be stickworthy.

pat collins put it out the other day. you can win one too. >> is it going to be long enough? >> this is a yardstick, so 36 inches. there will be places where there might not be enough. hard to believe. we could have more than 36 inches in some location. we'll see. outside, here's how much snow we're forecasting. two feet? see, look at you guys. you were all over it. two feet of snow. we've taken a little bit of the fun side of this for a minute during the course of the snow. if you're making any fun snow cultures, please send me a picture to chuck bell on my instagram. we can have at least a little bit of fun with it at times. here's the way the snow forecast is going go. we've upped our totals just a smigs for most of our areas to between 20 and 30 inches of snow with a plus there. there could be 36 inches or more

for the high spots of loudoun county, out along the ridge lines to the shenandoah valley. so that will be the place. high spots, loudoun county, northern montgomery county. there could be spots with more than 30 inches of snow. slightly lower amounts with still a solid foot even down into parts of southern maryland. it's bone chilling cold this morning. we learned the hard way even the day before yesterday the ground is clearly frozen. every inch will stick. full overcast by noon and snow moving in very quickly. everyone will be seeing snow before 5:00. blizzard warnings posted for all of the metro area, leading edge of the moderate snow south and west, that could put it in here between noon and 2:00 this afternoon. have everything done you need to have done before noon today. travel, all flights out of our three airports grounded to a halt by 4:00 today.

trouble down across parts of florida and georgia just like the blizzard of '96 and also 2003. at 2:00, here comes the snow, everybody. by 5:00, even should have white conditions across the region. heaviest snow moves in about 10:00 tonight. here's that little possibility of rain mixing in across far southern maryland. that could actually make things work from a power outage standpoint. higher winds could really snarl problems along the bay into southern maryland. so the snow moves in today. blizzard conditions all day tomorrow. snow ends just before the sun comes up on sunday. sunday will be breezy and chilly, but temperatures around freezing. chance for raindrops on tuesday. one thing about this storm compared to other, we won't be down to zero when this thing comes to an end. let's check in with melissa mollet who's checking out the roads.

>> checking out the roads, the main routes into and out of town. 9 right now we're looking quite good this morning. all the main roads at least. behave a couple of different problems. and chillum avenue is blocked because of a fire response and molette green is on her way to that. right here, water main break. all lanes in that direction are shut down right now. north mason drive at north henderson road, southbound lanes are blocked. and we did get rid of one thing there. all lanes are open. we'll see you in a few minutes with a new crash we're hearing about in gainesville. >> take a look at "storm team 4" radar as well as a live look into the district this morning. there's a trace of snow on the ground right now, but just wait until this time tomorrow. >> chuck bell will look

a blizzard strikes our area. you see all that green, blue, and yellow to the south on "storm team 4" radar? it's headed our way. we've been talking about it all week. and it's going to pummel our region. "storm team 4" meteorologist chuck bell will have more of what you need to know in a few minutes. >> just in to our newsroom a few

minutes ago. they're reporting that authorities are investigating otoe frederick warn bee yeah who has entered with links to the government. we're told his family has been notified. if you remember earlier this month cnn reported that another u.s. citizen was detained as well on suspicion of spying. as soon as we get more information on it, we'll bring it to you here to the live desk. >> erika, thank you. people say fema may try to take advantage of you. that includes fake contractors who will overcharge and not complete repairs. some will ask for donations to repair homes that don't exist or businesses that don't actually exist. you can also get a call or e-mail with a fake offer for federal aid. all these areas, get some background on the people you're talking to. never give out important bank or

credit card information, and do not pay up front or with cash. fairfa fairfax county famil thank a police officer for saving their life. >> got out of my car, realized the 9-year-old wasn't respomgd very well. he was wet from head to toe. >> this officer told us the boy was nearly unconscious yesterday after he fell into a frozen creek. he was on his way to work in the mt. vernon area when a group of children called him over. he called for help and put warm clothes on the boy and turned up the heat in his car. medics took the child to the hospital and say he's going to be just fine. thank goodness those kids found him. >> stay with us. more news at 5:00 a.m.

i'm hoping i can get out on monday. >> milk, bread, firewood, hoping to get ready for the storm. >> if you don't have to be on the road, please don't be on the road. >> we want the residents to help us. they can help by making certain they're off the road starting friday afternoon and possibly all the way through sunday. we're just ten hours away now from the beginning of a blizzard warning, blizzard. >> and it is already having an impact on a lot of you this morning. we're going to get to all of that. first, let's get a start on it with chuck bell. chuck? >> thanks, aaron. the snow moves in shortly after lun lunchtime. in and around the metro, probably 2:00 or 3:00, moving up into northern montgomery county and frederick, maryland, before 5:00 today. the heaviest of the snow will be late tonight through about mid afternoon tomorrow.