transition to a wintry mix of sleet mixing in with snow. the latest check of your current conditions right now across the heart of virginia. temperatures are holding steady in the 20s. 22 in lynchburg. 27 in danville. you see the wintry mix of 22 in roanoke. 26 in brookneal. 21 in blacksburg. also seeing snow reported in hot springs. we will see sleet transitioning to freezing rain. a winter storm warning still in effect for our entire viewing area until 12:00 p.m. tomorrow. we want to take you live outside right now will stafford is live. what you seen? snow. we're finally starting to see the transition to sleet. now. when i left last night, we had about a half inch of snow on the ground. we have added about 5 inches. pretty pottery snow. it is very easy to move around. as we advance farther into the afternoon with sleet and

affect the road conditions, we're talking about that momentarily. about 5 and a half inches right now outside. we're seeing the transition from snow to icy mix that we will see the rest of the afternoon. >> noreen: mona kosar abdi is driving around. what you finding out there? >> reporter: we are driving down word road, which is an example of a primary roads that lynchburg public works has been working all morning. it is in need of a good plow. the road is barely visible. it is hard to tell which lane you're driving in. right now, we're going about 22 miles per hour on a road that is typically a 35 mile an hour road. the crews have been coming down and plowing roads.

snowfall, they have not been able to make a dent. in the last hour, we caught up with the lynchburg public works director who told us the plow truck drivers are working on a two-part system. first, they clear the roads and then they add salt for traction. she also tells us that right now we are getting a self-sleet mix and that is making the road slushy. she tells us that is not always a bad thing. >> we are thinking if we leave a little slush on the street that that might be better when it starts. if we get freezing rain, it will get people a little bit of a grip. >> reporter: they will be working around the clock on primary roads and then they will get to secondary roads. she said that typically what

snow as we did today they will start plowing residential streets, but that is not a priority right now. she said to be patient and they will eventually get to those. if you don't have to be on the roads, don't. they are pretty gross. we are going to be pulling over to make space for the snowplows. i will send it back to you. >> noreen: folks on the south side did not get as much snow as we did in lynchburg. valerie bragg 's life. how are the roads looking there? >> reporter: you can see the roads are visible by the stop light. that is main street. right beside it is gross street. that is a connector street. obviously, the roads are very visible. what you can't see is the slush on the road. that is tricking drivers out there. the slush is making it hard for a lot of drivers to stop. danville public works have

slush up. crews have been sending the roads and bridges all morning. that will help with traction. city leaders tell me crews are getting ready to move into the secondary roads and then they will hit the residential areas. with the possibility of freezing rain later on, the city will have crews working overnight as well. >> we monitor the bridges and the roads and determine what we need to do with them, put salt or sand, or whatever we need to do. we play it by ear and see how things go. >> reporter: i went by the public works building earlier today and there was not a single truck in the parking lot.all of the trucks are out doing the best they can to get the snow up as soon as

i also checked in with danville police and they tell me no injuries have been reported from the accident that they had earlier today. live in danville, valerie bragg, abc 13 news. >> noreen: annie anderson continues team coverage in roanoke. >> reporter: the snow is starting to taper off and we are getting the wintry mix. thankfully, we're not seeing any of the freezing rain yet. as for the roads, here's 581 through roanoke. vdot has crews working nonstop. even with that, the snow is coming down faster than they can plow. right now, they are focusing on main roads. those are the ones numbered one through 599. the intersection of orange avenue has been plowed, but there is a lot of snow on the ground.have you ever seen it this empty? that means a lot of people are staying off the roads. i just talked to appalachian

right now, there's about 400 households without power in polasky. they're not having any major problems, but they have crews on a in case conditions get worse. >> noreen: we are getting reports from dominion power. more than 800 outages in south boston. as of 11:00 this morning, state police report there have been 55 traffic crashes across the state. troopers are responding to 23 disabled vehicles. police responded to a fatal crash. in frederick county, a portion of i-81 is closed. they're working to corral loose cattle that escaped from a tractor-trailer. the driver suffered minor injuries. we're not the only ones dealing with this. rain, snow, and ice are concerns for 20 states, from georgia to maine. elizabeth hur has the story. >> reporter: this morning, the nation's capital under a winter

6 inches of snow. overnight, more snow fell in chicago after a weekend of blinding white out conditions leaving highways and roadways littered with wreckage. from indiana to pennsylvania, multiple pileups killing three and sending dozens to the hospital. some incredible images emerging from the record breaking cold. firefighters battling the blaze in philadelphia leaving this car completely frozen in ice. in boston, subzero temperatures shattering a six-year-old record. in new york, it was the coldest valentine's day in 100 years. finally, in new hampshire, the wicked cold led to dramatic rescues at a ski resort. people trapped hanging more than 40 feet off the ground. >> it swung hard and swung back. we do there was a problem. >> reporter: this after two

eventually, everyone was rescued safely after three hours. looking ahead, there is some relief from the dangerous cold. a storm moving from the south and up the coast will bring warmer temperatures by midweek. york. >> noreen: glory, hallelujah for that. still ahead, what will happen with the supreme court.

news. award-winning coverage of lynchburg, danville, bedford, roanoke, and the new river valley. president obama said he has every intention of choosing

antonin scalia. that is despite republican vows to delay or block out the nominee. it won't happen this week to the u.s. senate, which must approve the nominee, is in recess until next monday. the white house says president obama will announce his selection when they return. you can tune in for a town hall tomorrow night at wset.com called your voice -your future, millennials and politics. wsyx hosting this peer the town hall set to tackle issues like which presidential candidate can best solve the challenges young people face today. it will be streamed live on our website, wset.com. until 8:00. bedford county fire marshal still working to determine what caused an explosion that injured two people saturday night. fire and ems responded to a

rexford drive in good view around 7:20 p.m. that night. there was some kind of an explosion and two people taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. police say speed was a factor in saturday's triple fatal wreck in campbell county. we had just reported on the man involved in the wreck friday when lynchburg police charged 36-year-old david chris johnson and another man in connection to a marijuana distribution operation. johnson was released on bond friday night. police say the next day he drove into a mailbox and a nearby embankment near waterbrook and leesville. johnson, his girlfriend, and his one-year-old son died at the scene. we spoke with johnson's 18-year-old daughter. >> i think he would want to be remembered as the person who was always there for his family even with some of the decisions he made. they were not always the best. he did it for his family.

>> noreen: johnson said she feels it's her responsibility to take care of aerial arrangements, but her father did not have insurance. there is a gofundme page to offset the funeral cost. a henry county deputy listed in serious condition this noon after crashing his cruiser while responding to a call over the weekend. according to the sheriff's office, just after midnight saturday night into sunday morning, smith was responding to a call about a man threatening to jump up a bridge on greensboro road, but ran off the road as he was heading there.

memorial hospital. here is a look at a few of

newsroom all morning long. both pictures have come in from russ berg. george flickinger came in for team coverage. i'm hearing it started to cross over now. now why? >> george: it is changing over from snow to sleep, so most of the measurable snow is ending. this is a look near liberty university.most of the major roads we have been showing you have been plowed. they are drivable if you're cautious, but neighborhoods are different story. in danville, 1 to 2 inches of snow on the ground. you are looking live at central boulevard. not too many people out at lunch time. some of the heaviest snow in bedford county. bedford county getting reports of eight inch snow troubles

we will check on those shortly. we have temperatures below freezing in the 20s. 23 in lynchburg. farmville at 28. we are starting to see some of the snow changing to sleep. with more on why it's changing, here is will stafford. >> will: we were both dealing with all snow and that is why we had cold air from the surface all the way up to the cloud. now, we're starting to see warm air sink into the area. later on on the way for tomorrow into tuesday, we will be seeing warm air from the ground up to the cloud. we will be looking at all rain. let's go back inside to melissa. >> melissa: we have seen significant snowfall totals. let's get a look at some of those right now and put a few

they have been impressive. 9.3 inches in blacksburg. 8 inches for our viewers in polasky.seven in rocky mount. over 6 inches for the russ berg area. 5.4 at our abc 13 studio. we are going to continue to add to that. how much more will we see? >> george: we will show you a map of some of the totals. you will notice we're not going to see that much more measurable snow because this is the sleep. we're seeing all the precipitation changing over to sleep. we are going to get brakes this afternoon. you can see this area of dry weather across the south side. tonight and into tomorrow, we're going to have more sleet and rain. right now, about 5 inches. 2 to 6 is where most of us are going to end. 4 to 9 inches in roanoke. this means we're not going to get very much if any more additional snow as the precipitation is changing over

this means that for the rest of the afternoon you can expect occasional sleep. as temperatures warm up, we're going to get rain. we will see freezing rain. by tomorrow morning at lunch time, the precept will be ending. the cold temperatures in the 20s will slowly rise into the upper 20s through lower 30s for your afternoon. when you wake up in the morning, we will have temps in the mid-30s. warming to 46 tomorrow. wednesday, drier weather for the remainder of the week. >> noreen: what you think of this latest round of snow? you can like our facebook fan page and take the poll and join the conversation. still to come, why you're still paying extra for some services. i'm stacy johnson. years ago when gas prices were superhigh, the shippers like ups and fedex started adding

now prices to you by audiology hearing aid associates and heritage funeral service and crematory when oil prices spiked, airlines and transportation company started adding fuel surcharges. with gas prices going down, why aren't those surcharges gone? stacy johnson checks it out. >> stacy: what's one of the biggest expenses of moving packages from a to b? it's fuel. fast forward to today. gas, diesel, jet fuel has tanked. there have the price as they were a year ago.

lately, you know fuel surcharges are still alive and well. here is a bill on the ups package i shipped last month. i asked why surcharges remain despite low fuel prices. they sent me a statement. they said the cost of the fuel is passed to customers. when it goes down, the lower cost is passed to customers. in other words, based on fuel prices, the surcharge goes up and down, but never completely disappears. what ups and fedex have done is with airlines and hotels have done. they have unbundled their prices by charging for things like fuel that used to be included in the price. way, it gets worse. even though fuel surcharges are now dropping, both ups and fedex recently raised their base prices. one explanation for increases is the online stores like amazon are sending small packages that don't way much,

shippers have responded by charging five package size as well as weight increasing the cost. >> stacy: thanks to the explosion of online ordering, shipping companies are a big demand. big demand often means higher prices. that doesn't mean you can't beat the high prices. go to moneytalksnews.com and do a search for shipping. for money talks news, i'm stacy johnson. want to pay less taxes?

mastering my we are receiving reports of racks all across the viewing area. you do need to be careful. we have sleet coming in now. that can make things a lot worse. >> george: we are going to be

sleep. let's take a look at the graphics. changing to sleep means a lot of the roads, especially the neighborhoods and county roads are going to be more slippery. this is going to be ice pellets on top of the snow. that is going to make the road that much slicker. we're going to see precipitation changing to