that storm team 4 weather alert is in effect this morning as we brace for another day of bitter cold. the temperatures won't rise today.freezing but there's better news for the weekend. we're working tod fint if the breaking news we have been telling you about i t relatedo the weather. a house caught fire in thtomac. is the latest of a rash of fires in homes the last few days. we'll have this and the traffic trouble it is causing in a moment. several districts are still delayinglasses because of the cold and possibly icy

conditioning. they keepoming in this morning. shenandoah county schools are now closed. in maryland, allegany schools are two hours late. in loudon, fairfax and park city will open two hours later. >> alle opening two hours l today. >> we have all that information on the bottom of your screen and asin the nbcngton app. now, we want to check on the forecast and the commute. >> jack taylor has some warning on t roads. let's start with chuck, though. >> i like snow. ,i think this is good neust fyi. snow is in the forecast for today. not everyone will get an inch of snow. saturday, there's the good ane. not cold. sunday and monday, looking somewhere between super and not

too bad. temperatures this morning are in the teens to 20. we're below freezing and will stay below freezing all day. everything that fallsl be snow. it's not a question of a rain/snow combination, all-snow all the time, for whatever comes down. leading edge from morgantown and frostburg, heading into parts of loudon county, aswell. ep in mind that it will start to snow here in the next couple of hours. winter weather advisory for the northern half of the area. snowfall amounts, generally enough to whiten the ground and maybe two inches around the city. 2 to inches, northern maryland. 3 to 6, out in the mountains of wevirginia. more about the weekend warm-up coming up. jack gtaylor,d morning. >> potomac, with the overnight structure fire, it was along river road chapel road. it iced up river road. and salt and sand trucks have to get out there. just plan ahead, this is a

normal path of travel for you. >> we got our issues an lou county. that's been closedce s yesterday. utility crews are on-scene, waiting for the morning rush hour. they may have this roadway reopened. that's the hope. 17th and "d" street, no idea when that will reopen. thedw r was compromised. traffic is alternating between "c" stree and new york avenue. you've been dealing with it for many days. back, now, to our team coverage on the polar vortex that has been felt, not just in our area, but around the country. more than 230 million americans are facing extreather. in chicago, it hit 23 below zero. there's children out in this weather. people who went outside had to cover every inchf o skein. lake michigan and the chicago river are frozen. the good news, temperatures will

be on the rise over the weekend. we've seen a lot of school delays and closings this week, aswell. >> students at falls church will be back in warm class this morning, after starting the day yesterday with no power. it was 15 drees when classes started yesterday. and studentith said it was pretty unpleasant sitting in the frigid rooms. >> i saw people come to schoole with blaand really big coats. yeah. >> a lot of people were saying, it's tooo ridiculous be here. they want to text their parents and go home. >> falls church chose to continue classes because they didn want to dismiss students into the they were monitoring the temperatures. the power came back around midday. back to the breaking news in montgomery county. dozens of firefighters bated this house fire in potomac the other night. the fire has been contained. home is cials say the on chapel road off of river road. neighbors tell fire officials they don't think anyone was in side of the home.

there's no word on what may have sparked that fire. megan mcgrait wicgrat will be o scene at 5:00. this is video of a fire at a home in herndon. he ee people were inside home. they were able to escape and are okay. there's another big fire on falls church on collins springs road. a few hrs later. eight people had to be rescued from balconies. all of them are okay. about 50 people are now without a home. no word on what tse c hod se rs to have started from a space heater. investigators say a speater had been left running, causing an electrical fire in germantown. montgomery county fire officials say it is t importantgive space heaters space. >> space heaters heat a room. give space heaters space.

give a three-footer er ithree-. turn it off at nighttime. >> this is video from a he in glen burnie.te firefi are working to find out what caused this deadly fire. the man convicted in the d.c. mansion murders is being rontenced. federalcutors were asking a judge to send daron wint away for four lifesentences. the prosecution said wint's greed drove him to kill the family back in 2015. meagan fitzgerald will be in the courtroom later today. two men were shot to death in a car and teens are in jail. the two men wern a car that crashed into several parked cars

in montgomery coty. w, investigators believe their deaths were part of a drug deal gone wrong. police say hunt and barnette me of the men and were trying to buy marijuana. hunt is charged with two counts of murder and barnett isin f a drug charge. now, to the other top a teacher is on leave for stories. allegedly coaching a student. jarvis massenburg teaches language arts. he was arrested and charged with child cruelty.rv sullance video shows him with the student. he is going to make his first court appearance today. the clock is ticking for a bipartisan group of lawmakers to come up with alan to avoid a government shutdown. the deaine is two weeks from today. president trump insists any plan must include funding to build a wall along t u.s./mexico border. house speaker nancy pelosi says there will be no funding for a wall. coming up, we'll talk to blaine alexander about the meetingn

betwntelligence chiefs and president trump. by now, every furloughed federal worker should have received their back pay. a lot of people wked around the clock to process payroll in record time. everyone received pay for the 35 yeys the government was shut down. erday was a regular payday for members of the coast guard. next week, it will be a regular payday for other federal workers. coming up, commercial changes. super bowl sunday ads will have a new look this year. the trends in companies you'll be seeing during the big game. that's still ahead. first, if r you're upht now, you probably want more sleep. sleep. in're workg for you, looking

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doctors say adults need seven to nine hourst. each ni when is the last time you had nine hours of sleep? children nee even more. we are working for you to reveal how your cell phone can help you track your >> reporter: tossing and turning at night? you've got a lot of company outr 60 million americans suffer from insomnia. the secret to a good night's sleep could be right on your phone. that includes smart phone apps, like sleep better, which tracks everything from light sleep to deep sleep and how much time you spend moving around restltrsly ng to go to sleep. sleep time is another popular app. with a tap of a button, it creates xwr s graphs to help yo analyze your behavior. it features white noise to help you fall asleep faster. and at can double an alarm clock, too. another piece of advice, take

notes. >> they say you can lose weight if you keep a food diary, because you write everything down. just to keep a sleep diary. >> reporter: and the other things you can do starting tonight, to help you sleep better and longer, tonight at 5:00. >> good morning, everybody. storm team 4eather alert, a chance of accumulating snow on your friday. i'm optimistic all of your weekend plans will not be interrupted by anything that mother nature will decide to throw at us. radar and how much snow to expect today, coming right up. reynold's kitchens™ has eliminated plastic wrap

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it's 4:45. we're in weatherod alert as you wake up on this friday. we made it. you will need to bundle up again today. temperatures will not get above freezing. come on. >> you may see some snow as you start youmute this morning. chuck will fill us in on the full forecast in a fewminutes. we have school delays and closings. you can find that on the bottom of your screen and in the nbc washington app. for local water workers, the frigid temperatures mean one thing, water main breaks. >> many of us know how they can affect homes and commutes. road trcrews have been repairin mains. the small cracks are not apparent. even a small breakan turn int a big problem. why the potomac river has so much to do with how many water

main breaks the area sees. >> that river temperature season, w low for the we know a few days later, we're going to see an increase in water main breaks. the colder than normal water is moving through our pipes. in a manner ofspeaking, it shocks them. g e the water company a call immediately if you see water running down your street. you may remember this fire at the senior center in southeast d.c. last september. yesterday, the displad residents there were presented a $10,000 check to g them winter coats and other ideaitems. this donation is a part of partnership with united health care and a wider circle. in the ice-cold weather, members of the intelligence community met with presi tnt trump a white house. >> after blasting the spy community's assessment of global threats facing the u.s., the president now says he's on the samepage.

blaine alexander describes what led to change. >> reporter: good morning to you. president trump is hoping that a picture i worth 1,000 words. that's what he tweeted out, a picture of him in the oval office, meeting with his intelligence chiefs, essentially trying to show they are on the same page. this comes after earlier in the week, we watched what was a rather stunning briefing on capitol hill, where the heads of the intelligence agencies essentially broke from president trumonadicting him on a number of issues, ranging from russia to iran, t isis and north korea. president trump, late inhe oval office yesterday, essentially said, that he beliefs they were d.misquo heat they were saying was taken out of context and were not, in fact, contradicting him. what we heard from capitol hill was their testimony as they weri it to congress. back to you. >> blayne alexander live for us this morning. the maryland senate prident say he is having good days and bad days as he

continues chemotherapy for stage 4 prostate cancer. the cancer has detametastasized his spine and pell vvic area. he says he is t getti best treatment in the world at johns hopkins. the democrat is entering his 33rd year aes senate ent. a unique percentage leave program is shrinking. theill and melinda gates foundation, used to give moms and dls a f year of full paid leave. now, that policy is changing to six giving employees a year has caused disruptions in daily operations. but included in the leave, the foundation will give a $20,000 stipened for new parents returning to work for child carn and famids. if you were hoping for casinos in virginia, you may have to wait a while. a committee has changed a bill to allow areas to vote on cas o casinos as early as november.

well, by next year, you could be placing super bowl bets in the district. if the caps and wizards owner has his way, capital one arena will be open for betting in april. >>heeporter: the owner of t wizards and the capitals pointed to april for when sports bete willing available inside his capital one arena. >> my expectation is that there will be built a very, very high-end, world-class restaurant called the sports book. there will be showing games from all over the world. atd that people will be able to come in and games and dine and bet. in a is something that happens all over the worl >> reporter: leonsis plans to open up the arena to place bets on your lunch break or over dinner, not just when there's a game going o at the venue. >> it will drive traffic throughout the day. i don't think it will be 24/7.

but we would be likeo be able to utilize where we're located in the chey. i'm sureats are looking at something similar. >> reporter: in the district, mark seagraves, news 4. >> coming up on nday, is the super bowl. >> it's the most expensive day for advertisers. a 30-second spot sells for $5.2 million. that price has doubled in the last ten years. >> cbs says it expects more than 100 million people to tune in for the game on sunday night. some of the usual brands will be back. anheuser-busch got 6 1/2 minutes of ad time. >> do the math there. you'll see someone famous in most ads. celebrities is a major trend for this year's commercials. one new theme you will see, ads targeting and featuring women. olay makeup andumble is on

this. >> michael bubles in this bubbly water. now, i need to try thi water. if you're not into football, there is something for you on sunday. >> like puppy bowl 15. one dog from alexandria will be taking the field. pirate is a 19-week-old english springer spaniel. the puppy bowl is at 3:00 sunday planet.on on animal there's a viewing party at wag and brew in alex dandria from 20 to 5:00. >> that's a ioth. >>s that for real? >> surely the sloth is the ump. >> of course. hoare they going to get anything done with these cute babies? >> they're puppies. >> i know. they're so cute. at this is a morning show. cut away from th video. >> there are be a halftime show performed by cats, apparently.

that's what it says, really. >> i was going to say, memories, that kind ohing. by the time we get to super bowl sunday, all of the snow we have coming, gone. most of next week looks warmer than average. temperatures are in the teens for most of us. 20 degrees at national airport, is onef the few spots at or above 20 degrees. down into southern maryland. 23, quantico. everywhere west of i-95 is in the teens thisg.morn and your forecast for today, staying below freezing. a chance of getting snow today, 80%, up to about two inches for most. the d.c.a aobably will be 1 to 1 1/2 or 2. there's the leading edge of the snow, leading into maryland. seen a few flurries in and around the city. if you get a picture, send it to

me on twitter. here's futureweather's handling of it all. pay no attention to the green. it will be all snow with temperatures below freezing. but notice the steadier precipitation today will be north of i-66 and route 50 there. it's the northern half of our area that will see the high evident chance of snow. the advisory does include prince george's county, montgomer county arlington, fairfax, and everywhere north and west of that. snowfall amount enough to whiten the ground across most of the area, maybe as much as two inches in a few spots. better channels for accumulating snow north. ve all ofhe latest forecast info on our nbc washington app. below freezing today, back to the 40s and 50s for sunday and

monday. an a shot or t at 60 degrees, nearing the middle of next week. >> let's go to jack taylor. the e have some of structure fires and they're fighting them with water when wind hits the ground. river road betwe norton and falls road. salt and sand trucks have been on scene. 66 eastbooud. ae problems before route 50. we had a vehicle slam into the hejersey wall to left side, sitting on the shoulder, left. but as box truck i broken down in the same area, blocking the right lane. northbound i-295, a work zone i, pl causing an early delay. not used to seeing a red line at this hour a bu left lane getting by that should be in the clearing pretty back to you. >> jack, thank you. starting today, the boy scouts of america becomes coed.

girls can participate in the same programs as the boys and earn the highest rank of eagle scout. theoy scoutsf america is change its name to scouts a. and all this does not come without controversy. the girl scouts sued the boy scouts over trademark . infringeme that legal battle is still going. an award-winning movie is heading back totheaters. disney has announced a comeback. it will play at 250 amc theaters for free starting today. this includes several inur area. you can learn more about getting tickets on the nbc app. everybody saw it last year. >> i've seen it three times and i want to see it again. >> we -- we vote in t s.a.g. i have the dvd.

happening today, t capitals are back on the ice to half of thecond season. justi >> the team has a lot of work to do after losing seven in a row before the all-star break. alex ovechkin was on thefo ice re practice. night, t be playing though. he decided to sit out of the all-star game last weekend. so, ovi has to sit out tonight. he is not one to sit on couch with his time off, of course. we showed you this video earlr. that's the great 8 swimming with dolphins, having a great time. >> why not? e game against the calgary flames starts tonight at 7:00. just now, days away now, super bowl sunday is this weekend. >> we're taking you live to atlanta for a look athe preparations already under wapl us, a wild scene overnight.om a locale goes up in flames. and firefighters battle the fire and thements to make sure everyone is safe. news 4 today will be right back.

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news 4 begins with a storm wam 4 weather alert. begin this morning as we have nearly every morning this week, with a livan look outside a warning about the cold. but unlike the rest ofeek,

we have good news this morning. relief may be in sight. >> deep breaths >> it's 5:00 a.m. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> i'm eun yang. more reasonable temperatures may be around the corner. at this point, 30 seems reasonable. but how dangerously these temperatures are telling us. >> shenandoah valley. in maryland, legany schools will be two hours late. warren, arlington and manassas park will be two hours late same for prince william, manassas city,on lo milwaukfauq. let's start with chuck bell and a look at the weather for today. >> good morning, aaronnd eun. finally, friday is here. your friday planner includes chance