all night with temperatures generally in the upper 20s to low 30s. winds will pick up after midnight and temps will fall a little bit after midnight. the snow will become a little bit dryer as the storm intensifies in the wee hours of the morning. we're also going to watch the area to the south. we could see rain. that is it for our special coverage. we're continuing our live team coverage of the superstorm. and live news now at 11:00 starts right now. . welcome to a special one hour edition of 9news now at 11:00. >> we have been tracking the storm all day. tonight our team covers most of the region throughout the dc area. we're going to go back to topper in a moment but we do have live looks of what's happening in the region. we also want to point out several hospitals are asking for

4 wheel drive vehicles and drivers to get people in critical emergency personnel in and out of the hospitals. you will see them across the bottom of your screen and a full list on wusa9.com. and here is a quick update on the superstorm. it is becoming more dangerous now by the hour. right now metro has stopped running the above ground trains sh and that's probably not going to come back on tomorrow. that will be done for the weekend or at least until sunday. the trains will keep running underground until 3:00 a.m. but, again, when the system opens tomorrow morning, no above ground service at all. and, in fact, the buses won't be running either. as for the out ijs acknowledges outages, pepco is giving totals. according to the national weather service, about 70% of winter storm related deaths occur in vehicle accidents. the rest are heart attacks and

overexertion from shoveling snow. and deaths from hyperthermia are people over the age of 60. 20% of them actually occur inside the home. so be careful. >> absolutely. our chief meteorologist topper shutt has been with us all day long, and this is exactly what you've predicted. the worst coming in overnight. >> it's picking up. we don't see any signs of this letting up until 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning. the storm is intensifying. it hasn't begun to peak yet so get ready. let's start with live doppler 9000. everybody is getting snow. don't get me wrong. let's go up to 70 because the purple lish color, that is the heavy snow. the darker the blue, the heavier snow. but when you get into this color, it's heavier snow. so up to 70, clarksburg, germantown, sugar loaf mountain,

this is where the heaviest snow can be found. it's drifting ever so slowly up to the north. almost not drifting at all down towards germantown. that is one things that can happen. the bands can set up and sit. and when that happens, you rack up incredible snowfall amounts. because if it sets up for an hour, you have 2-4 inches. we've had a lot of activity in the last three hours. this is pretty impressive know fall rates. down 301. that is heavy, heavy snow. and, again, this is not going to abate any time soon. it's going to continue all night. it will slowly taper off tomorrow. and i do mean gradually. don't look for it to shut off early tomorrow or quickly tomorrow. lefts go to the computer and -- let's go to the computer and we have new totals in. i want to thank everybody for sending them in. chantilly checked in at nine inches. bowie is at seven.

annapolis is at seven. dunkirk, maryland is at eight inches now. we're past 10:00. st. mary's county and charles county are all under blizzard warnings until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. even if you're not under a blizzard warning, we said this before, don't go out. really. blizzard conditions overnight. turning colder after midnight. the snow will taper off between about 4:00 and 8:00 on saturday. and i had to give about a four-hour range because you folks out in winchester will see it shut off much before the folks in southern maryland. about 4-8. not to say it couldn't flour re all night. but in -- flurry all night. but in terms of the heavy snow it will taper off tomorrow afternoon and evening. look at this storm, it is a classic nor'easter. the storm tracked around right along and went through mobile bay and tracked into southeastern sections of georgia. it's going to slowly work its way up the coast. it's going to get up to the

parallel of norfolk and then drift eastward. that's why it's going to take awhile for the snow to drift off as opposed to going past us to the north. another reason we don't think new york and boston will get slammed. they're not going to get the meat of the storm. that looks like that's saved for us. it's a mid atlantic storm this time. thunderstorms, big thunderstorms right along patterns right now. whenever you see thunderstorms and heavy rain and heavy snow, that is a classic nor'easter and a very, very intense storm. because of that, though, we're going to watch this area of mixed precipitation of sleet and some rain. it's going to move a little further to the north now. wouldn't surprise me if it moves right up to the bay. moves up to baltimore before colder air gets wrapped in around the system. tonight heavy snow. 12-20 inches. near blizzard conditions. low temperatures 28-32. and the winds will begin to pick up after midnight as the storm deep yenz or intensifies at

15-25 miles an hour or rather gusty. okay. don't forget to check on the elderly. bring in the pets. shovel in shifts. we've been talking a lot about that. and have flashlights ready in case you do lose power. check out how heavy snow is. if you have a driveway say 45 feet by ten feet with just two inches of snow, you're moving over two tons of snow every time you shovel it. so as anita said, you don't want to go from a sedentary coach potato position to trying to -- couch potato position to trying to shovel snow off the driveway. tomorrow 2-4 inches additional. an additional 1-2 inches in the afternoon. high temps are going to whoever right around 30 degrees tomorrow. next seven days looking at 30 tomorrow and we're looking at 31 on sunday. nice on monday. and then we could have a little

insult toll injury. a weak -- insult to injury. a week system moving towards us. near blizzard conditions through tonight. i don't care if you're not in a business ard warning, do not go out -- blizzard warning, do not go out. we're going to follow our coverage with peggy fox. she has been off international drive. peg, we have seen the weather completely change all around you, getting worse. the driving conditions, people come and going outside that diner there. how are you doing? >> reporter: we're hanging in there, anita. we really are. topper talks about the bands of snow. we're feeling sheets. sheets of snow just kind of big clumps coming down. you can kind of see them. it reminds me of my mother. she grew up in wisconsin and she used to show us the pictures of their big snowstorms when they would build snow men higher than their rooftops. i expect we'll be able to do that. i am not holding a ski.

this is part of a bumper. and there have been about 2300 accidents across virginia today and about -- no. 2300 incidents where police had to respond and about 1,000 accidents, traffic accidents. so i guess it's a good thing people have stayed home. otherwise there would be more than that. and it looks like we have about five inches of snow right here in the parking lot of the silver diner. it's very heavy and this little bit is heavy. out in about, there are very few people, except for those of us who have to work. this man is out tonight because he has to work the morning shift. >> i have to be in in the morning so i'm staying here. >> reporter: steve cox is expecting a long and difficult night ahead. he and another plow truckdriver are headed to a local subdivision whose homeowners association has paid them to plow snow. >> it's coming down pretty

quick. not real heavy. just coming down real quick. i expect it to probably get a little bit more heavy after 12:00. you're really going to see some of the worst snowfall probably in this area. >> reporter: are you a little nervous? >> no. no. i'm a confident guy. i know what i'm doing. we're going to get out there and get it done. >> reporter: do you think it's going to be hard to keep up? >> it's already hard to keep up. i wouldn't -- like i said, i wouldn't recommend motorist coming out because that makes it worse. >> reporter: route seven through tyson is a strange and rare sight. there are almost no cars. most of the people you see out are plows and plow truck drivers are really happy for all this work. >> i think it's a mess. >> reporter: but you have work? >> yes , we've got work. and plenty of it too. >> reporter: you have a smile on your face. >>. [ laughing ] >>. >> reporter: why is that? >> oh, it's just a good day to be alive. >> reporter: good sense. great day to be

alive. this is a historic snowstorm and we're out here witnessing it. isn't that great? i also want to let you know the truck operators, they are entitled now to a discount, the same discount that police and firefighters get at the silver diner. the owner calls me and says we want to give the plow truck drivers a little something, so tell them to come on by and we'll give them the discount. we have one truck coming by. that's not a plow truck. we've seen plow trucks. but they are coming by here on international. they are really out working tonight, guys. >> all right. peggy fox live. thank you. we appreciate it. stay warm as you can, anyway, with the sheets of snow, as you describe it. well, from virginia now to maryland, people have been trying to actually top off their gas tanks at stations all day long. and that is where we find 9news now surae chinn in gaithersburg where, wow, you look like you really are seeing sheets of snow. >> reporter: i have to be honest, i feel like a wet mop. i can't brush the snow off fast

enough. anyway, you talk about the gas station. the gas tation is closed. not because -- station is closed. not because they ran out of gas. last night they did. they closed early in hoping that tomorrow they'll get a new shipment. they have about a thousand gallons left. across the street, that is still open. and i want to show you 355 right here. the plows have actually gone through and you can see it's snow packed and they're probably going to have to come through here a few more times and hopefully it will look a little better. it is passable. the good thing here it's kind of desserted. you see some snowplows coming through right now. and we've got some kids behind us playing in the snow. so people are actually kind of taking it safe here tonight. and they'll be back out here tomorrow. the snow keeps falling and that is pretty much the latest here in gaithersburg, maryland. derek. >> all right, thank you, surae. our superstorm coverage will continue right after the break.

welcome back. as is the case, prince george's county are working around the clock keeping track of the winter storm and how well they're doing out on the road. >> dave owens joins us live in

forestville. dave. >> reporter: derek and anita, just a few moments ago i was outside and i've just come back inside. and right behind me the district -- the county, i should say, they're having a meeting right now what's going on. the different regional directors are phoning in their progress right now. and what they're giving to this board right now is, hey, where are our roads. what is going on out there right now? what additional resources do we need? that's a meeting that's going on as we speak right now. right behind me, and this has been going on all day as well, this is just an example of one of the workers that has been here throughout the day. and they have been collecting all kinds of data. what's the temperature of the pavement out there. right now about 25 degrees is the temperature of that pavement. when we started this process, oh, about 6:00 and we started to see some of the first flurries, it was about 29 degrees. so obviously going down. obviously it's cold out there. obviously that snow is starting

to stick. obviously that wet snow is turning to ice right now. and as you look over my shoulder, up there on the snow command board, we have got access to 45 cameras. we're also monitoring 1800 miles of road here in prince george's county all over the different areas tonight. so obviously it's been a long day for these folks here and it's wrapping up with a meeting right behind me. again, the county is kind of taking a report from the different regional supervisors as they call in going through a teleconference right now talking about what the roads are looking like. what kind of resources do they need. and this is going to go on around the clock tonight. 12-hour shifts for the workers out here. they're working into the morning and all the way through saturday as well. so it's a continuous process for those folks out there thinking about getting out on the road. remember, primary roads first. secondary roads won't be

touched. that's the word coming from prince george's county right now. back to you guys in the studio. >> all right. dave owens live where the action is still going, even though it's getting very late. topper, we just saw a shot there near the beltway. it looks like almost whiteout conditions in some areas. >> it is. and this is what we're worried about is visibility under a quarter mile. and, again, i've said this before and it sounds kind of weird and maybe counterintuitive. but in some of the big midwestern blizzards, people will actually be within a mile of their house and not know where they are. they get disoriented. things don't look the same when you have a foot of snow on the ground and it's snowing to beat the band. it can be a little frightening. let's start with live doppler. and we see, again, the heaviest band. this is one heck of a band. there is a bigger band going

through baltimore. this is extremely heavy out towards boyds and clarksburg and even towards poolesville. that's a little heavy band. we've had reports of lightning and thunder. a couple of independent reports around the bethesda area. also just got a call from someone out in charles town out in west virginia. and he said he has a gas powered snow blower and he was able to move the snow but just barely. it's almost like two or three feet of snow. so he said what we've been saying in your teens or maybe 20s, you don't have a gas-powered equipment to move it. he says he recommends not moving it and i agree. even a little bit of snow moves tons if you're moving two inches over average size of driveway. we'll go down to the south and we're seeing very heavy bands down in here and almost to fredericksburg. we're also seeing the rain. and it's going to get into -- we

talked about this -- into southern st. mary's county. that's why your snowfall totals are less than ours, and that's why we did that. you'll go back to snow tomorrow. you'll end in snow tomorrow. don't worry about that. you'll get pretty of snow. but you're going to have a little bit of a mix tonight. let's go to the computer. we have new totals. thanks everybody for sending them in. ashburn is up to nine. starved is six. smiths burg is seven. germantown is seven. dangerous storm. 6-12 until midnight. i just saw some new guidance in the weather office. i could be a thrill low for the morning. we could -- little low for the morning. we could be 3-6. not crazy snow but significant snow. and then 1-2 in the afternoon. blizzard conditions through tonight. no doubt about that. and the winds really won't pick up, though, until after midnight. so the visibility will be down and satisfying one of the criteria. but you need winds too. they haven't picked up yet. they will. here is a look at the satellite

picture, radar combined. we see the rain working its way up the bay. and we see also some rain back into charleston, west virginia. this thing is really going to explode. and when it does, we'll probably see the heaviest bands of snow between midnight and 4:00 a.m. it's snowing pretty good now. just wait. these are the blizzard warnings. it includes pretty much everybody east of i95. winter storm warnings continue everywhere. the blizzard doesn't stop on the he county line. heavy snow overnight. 28-32 and winds northeasterly at 15-25 and gusty. again, they're not there yet but they will get there as we get after midnight into the wee hours of the morning. remember, we do have some power outages so go to pepco.com. this is exclusive. go to the powercast and you can

help a friend out if a friend is out of power, you can access this and find out when they're going to be restored. dangerous storm if you lose power, generators have to be ventilated. you have to keep space heaters away from furniture and curtains and don't let the kids or pets knock them over. you should never leave them unattended. tomorrow morning windy or cold. more snow. 2-4 inches. temperatures 28-32 and tomorrow afternoon snow tapers off. an additional 1-2 inches is still possible. high temperatures around 30. winds northerly at 15-25. next seven days, 30 tomorrow. snow tapers off. and then low 30s on sunday. probably won't make the freezing mark on sunday. and then we're hooking at low to mid 30s on -- looking at low to mid 30s on monday. again another storm we've been watching, it's not a huge storm. it can give us snow, rain/snow. >> can you imagine how happy we're going to be when spring

rolls around? >> i'm actually thinking about that. we're going to be crazy. >> i think we'll be appreciative. >> maybe we'll get an early spring. >> let's not go crazy. >> our superstorm coverage will continue after the break. thanks for staying with us on this friday night.

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you would never know this, but the snowstorm has been our big story today. >> oh, really. >> but there is one other big story. the caps. >> absolutely. and the fans came out, yes? >> they did. and don't you think this is kind of a bright spot in our dreary snowy ugly mess of a town right now. >> they could have played that game out on constitution avenue. >> in fact they may have to tomorrow, because i don't think anybody is going to be able to get back to the arena. if a hockey game got played but nobody was able to come to see it, would it really happen? that's what many thought. that's how captivated this town

has become by their caps and the win streak. the house tonight totally packed. 18,000 there to see number 13 straight if they can get it. in goal the kid just out of his melon. ovechkin 39th of the year. ties the game at one. and then in the third, brook slides in and slides it over to alex. that's a textbook execution of a two on one. caps win. the streak is to 13 and counting. >> you guys don't realize how hard it is to win. it's difficult to stay at a pace when every team that you're playing in all different teams are coming at you in waves because they're the ones that want to end it. >> penguins are going to be the ones that want to end it on sunday. another free agent signing today. the 11-year pro hit 289 with 11

homers for the a's. remember back in 2003, he was the mvp. if we told you the wizards had blown a 21-point lead, you would probably believe it. but what you believe if we told you the wizards were down 21 and came back to win in orlando tonight facing dwight howard and the magic. and this was part a of the game which was ugly for the wizards. 20 and 18 for dwight. wizards trailed by 21. but here is part b. floyd coming off the screen. hits the three. he had 21. the wizards trail by one. four seconds left in the game, there is karon butler. and that is stone cold at the end of the game. 31 for karon. wizards win 92-91. biggest come back of the year. in college park tonight, the lady terps braving the snow. that's a back breaker for

maryland. they fall 61-60 and drop to 3-5 in the acc. all right. by now you know the main story lines for the superbowl sunday. drew breeze is really good. peyton manning is even better. all right. see you at kickoff. if only the whole thing was that simple. we still have 40 some odd more hours of hype and pre game minutia to get through. >> in regards to dwight freeney, he's trending in the right direction. he's getting better. but we'll see. it's still day-to-day situation. we'll see how i is at the end of the day. >> i think this is the end of the day. don't forget you can see the game right here. we'll have snow coverage right up until 2:00 and then the kickoff at 6:25 and a special of edition of sports plus. finally tonight, this is a pre game shoot around before a game

against portland. >> those guys are really fast. >> they are. they're all shooting half court shots and they all missed. you always try to shoot half court shots before the game. but look at this, this is the two announcers doing the game. that is steve bardo and that is terry gannon. even though all of the players couldn't do it. gannon used to play. don't sleep on the tv announcers. >> they might have some game. >> not they. >> we. >> all right. >> give me a little of that. >> we're going to stay with you for the duration of this snowstorm. and that means we will be preempting cbs coverage of the wisconsin michigan basketball game at 4:00 tomorrow. but you can still see it on our digital channel 9.2. if you have comcast, it's channel 203. if you watch us on cox, channel 805. and on fios, the game will be broadcast on channel 461. but first let's take you halfway across the world. time for a bit of a panda party.

the national zoo panda tai shan not at the national zoo anymore. he arrived in china. folks at the airport held a big welcoming celebration. the panda will join the chinese panda breeding program. >> kind of like national heroes on four legs. the peak of the superstorm is on us. topper has been checking the latest track of the storm and we'll bring that to you right after this.

that's right. we are not done yet thanks for joining us for this one hour special edition. we are at the peak of this superstorm right now. >> we'll talk to topper shutt who shaz been saying this thing has even started yet. >> the pressure is going to fall like crazy and it's going to intensify. >> okay. >> and it's unbelievable to think we're going to be able to sustain this type of heavy snow through the night. but we are. and we're going to see bands of even heavier snow push through. and i think the real height of the storm will be between about 9:00 and 6:00 a.m.

get ready. we'll get through it. we got through it before. we'll get through it. let's start with live doppler because i want to talk about and show you really where the heaviest bands are. all right. here is the deal. we changed the color table a little bit today. and darker blue the heavier the snow. okay. but then when you get into this color, this is the heaviest snow, except for the yellow. all right. and that's even heavier snow. 2, 3, 4 inches an hour. and we're going to watch these bands work their way from time to time essentially up 95. so, again, it's snowing like crazy now. it's going to continue to snow right on through the nighttime hours. and we need you to take it seriously. don't horse around and don't drive. if you have to drive, you better have a four by four and doing something for a hospital. lett go to the computer. here -- let's go to the computer. here is the deal. latest amounts round hill ten

inches. falls church 7.5. bowie is up to nine and wheaton up to ten. huntington up to eight. our heaviest snow will be overnight. it will turn windy shortly after midnight. it will get colder after midnight and the snow will taper off from about 4:00-8:00 p.m. on saturday. that's a big range. because the storm is going to slowly pull out to sea. and also we're looking at places like winchester. it may stop between 4:00 and 5:00. places like annapolis may not stop until 8:00. it could flurry everywhere until midnight. blizzard conditions, over a 12-128-hour period, visibility has to be a quarter mile or less for three hours or longer and you have to have winds sustained at 35 miles an hour or higher or at least frequent gusts of 35-mile an hour winds or higher. we're not going to get the winds until after midnight. nonetheless, we are looking at