Have an overturned van, so they are beginning to clear that accident scene, but if youre coming on the outer loop heading toward brookshire boulevard and down toward pineville, you are going to find that inner lane closed because of that accident scene. Again, that is oakdale on the outer loop of 485. Volume light, not seeing any significant delays, well keep our eye on that accident. Looking at the overall charlotte commute, 485, primarily looks good, 77, 85, no significant problems, down to our south we have an accident on i77 southbound at anderson road, that is highway 21, most of the delays that were seeing are there along anderson road. That is a check of the morning commute, christine, over to you. Christine department of transportation crews spending the weekend treating the roads across the charlotte region in advance of the Winter Weather. This morning they continue to monitor conditions as things will worsen later. Kristen hampton live in have you since seen crews out while youve been out overnight . Reporter we have, christine, they are parked along the roads getting ready for whatever might happen this morning and in the afternoon. I can tell you right now, i can almost count the tiny snow flakes falling, so few and so light i doubt you can see them on the tv, im seeing a little bit of snow right now, certainly not anything i would expect to accumulate, but as you said, crews out last night, they were out all over the weekend hoping to get as many roads covered with a brine solution before this weather moves in. Now rush hour again could be messy if this system decides to drop any icy precipitation, that is why crews have been out working in the night trying to keep the streets safe. Remember, that brine solution will keep the roads from freezing up down to about 25 degrees. So that could be some good news here, the roads a few degrees warmer than the air temperature surrounding them but again the will freeze first, certainly something to keep in mind. Right now live in charlotte, Kristen Hampton, wbtv on your side. Christine the charlotte area Transit System will operate on normal weekday schedule but Officials Say weather conditions will be closely monitored on all routes and all park and ride locations. Check for schedule changes at ridetransit. Org, and we posted a link to that website at wbtv. Com. Under web extras. John now lets look at king street in boone courtesy of resortcams. Com. Snow and sleet falling for several hours, there could be very serious conditions up there as far as driving goes. A success u, by theasu not having classes until noon, Watauga County schools are closed because of the dicey situation up there. Our coverage continues with Ashton Pellom, braving the cold us what youre seeing that way. Reporter good morning, john, braving the cold and elements out here this morning. It is right now there are pelts of snow and freezing rain coming down if you look up in the lights you can see that right now. Right over my shoulder dot crews have been working overnight, the roads have improved vastly since i first arrived out here in boone. Still some of the roads here, this is river street, still covered with a little bit of snow and ice, a little bit of that sleet still on the road. You see the sheen on the top which can potentially freeze over for the most part the loads are looking better. But the roads are looking much better than when i first arrived. Take to you video i first shot when i got out here, you can see d. O. T. Crews working again overnight to plow that road there on river street. They have been working around the clock to get the roads clear. I came up here from highway 321 and let me tell you from lenoir up to boone, those roads started further north, that is when the roads started getting worse. I started sliding a little bit in my car, if you have to be out here, driving in this condition this morning, slow down, dont slam on your brakes, if you slam worse. Let go of the gas if you start to slide and turn in the direction you want to go. That is what i learn at drivers ed school, driving four years in West Virginia in the school. Asu classes are canceled until noon, take your time driving in the snow. Reporting live in boone, Ashton Pellom, wbtv on your side. John thanks, ashton. It is six after 6 00, get over to Brody Oconnell. Christine following more Winter Weather in other parts of the country. Brody were not alone, all up and down the east coast, seeing some form of Winter Weather. This is a look out of baltimore right here and they expect some Winter Weather up there, no doubt but the temperatures were the big headlines up toward the maryland area. Their temperatures down in the Single Digits over the weekend, trying to shake off the snow. I wanted to look around the country see what the impact is and seeing no surprise flight delays around the country, looking up at boston for example, seeing two cancellations right now, delay as well, clicking down to new york city, same idea there, in fact seeing a total of three delays and three cancellations out of there. It just spreads as you move west out toward detroit and south down to miami. That is a flight being affected because the plane cant get out of new york city this morning. How about this cool picture out of roxboro near the Virginia State line, wral tweet had out. I figured i would share that with you. Share your photos, snowbtv, john and christine, back to you. Christine wherever you are during the Winter Weather have the free wbtv weather app on your smart phone. You can check temperatures and moving. Christine breaking overnight, firefighters responding to several house fires in the area first on old elizabeth lane in monroe. Fire started in the garage and spread to the attic. Ems evaluated one child at the scene. Firefighters were monitoring hot spots there. Another fire in Catawba County destroyed a house, happened at 10 30 on 21st street in longview. No word if anyone was hurt in that fire. Our Team Coverage of the Winter Weather is just Getting Started in this hour. John a live look from inside Charlotte International airport, where officials are expecting a lot of delays and cancellations, already a lot of cancellations, well head out there to see how airlines are preparing. But lets get a quick check of the first alert weather here, and as you can see from the live power doppler radar, there is a lot of stuff moving through the area, here is a live look at 485, this is at mile marker 17, there has been an incident there creating issues. Chris larson will have more on that in a moment because youre away from weather and traffic on the new caramel macchiato from dunkin donuts. Let handcrafted layers of espresso, milk, and a caramelflavored swirl uplift your mood. Indulge in a hot or iced macchiato today. America runs on dunkin. Youre planning your day with wbtv news this morning. John 11 after 6 00, wbtv continues live Team Coverage of the Winter Weather expected to bring a wintery mix to the charlotte region. Christine it is having an impact at Charlotte DouglasInternational Airport. Mark davenport has been monitoring the monitors at the airport. How have officials been preparing for the wintery weather . Reporter officials told me they have deicing machins on the runway, they were looking at later on in the morning and afternoon they have the deicing machines ready to go in case we have problems on the big board i want to show you, bring new closer back here, there is a lot of flights cancelled arrivals and departures, first the arrivals, a lot of them are cancelled. People not getting here to the airport. You have departures, red there as well. I talk to a bunch of people a lot of moans and groans, they realized the flights are cancelled. People told me they had their flights cancelled from overnight. They were here last night trying to get on a flight to virginia where they are getting snow right now, they got those flights cancelled, rebooked tonight at 6 00, they dont know whether or not they will be able to get on a plane, a lot of people in a bad situation i found a group of people, four or five didnt know each other before hand but hacking hanging out together trying to make the best out of a bad situation. Wbtv on your side. Christine youre never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. Wondering what is going on where you live . Re is meteorologist al conklin th the details you need to know. Al you can see the snow falling if you look closely in the boone area under the streetlights, from resortcams. Com, temperatures are in the teens, anything falling is going to be snow up there, ashton has been doing an excellent job giving us the birds eye view of what is happening. You can see the haves and havenots, snow is falling in the mountains, south to the foothill, little bit of enhancement, alexander county, lenoir, hudson, saw mills, between hickory and lenoir, 321 watch out there. South of there the air is so dry, precipitation wants to be channeled north of us, so if youre in charlotte and in the metro area it is basically dry here and probably stays that way until we get this to fill in, which wont be until later this morning. Precipitation is trying to break out now, so we do have warnings snow that runs until midnight tonight, Winter Weather advisory for much of the metro area, freezing rain advisory until 7 00. For charlotte, we look for temperatures to hold mostly in the 20s this morning getting back to 32 this afternoon. Best opportunity for little precipitation lunch time and watch this afternoon, the afternoon commute could be a lot worse than the morning commute. Seven day forecast coming up in a couple minutes. Right now first alert traffic. Chris i485 outer loop at oakdale, accident in the clearing stages. Overturned van, tow truck on the scene now but they still have the inside lane blocked off as the tow truck works to upright that van and get it on the back of the tow truck. So again, if youre heading outer loop toward brookshire or pineville area, we are seeing coming in from concord or kannapolis, 18 minute commute, lake norman southbound at 15 minutes and 6 miles an hour. Most of the major highways are continuing to run in the green this morning, but we do have a new accident this is old dowd at Josh Birmingham parkway over at Charlotte DouglasInternational Airport if youre heading to the airport, you might find a few slowdowns on the Josh Birmingham parkway. John, over to you. John 6 15, this morning learning that Supreme CourtJustice Antonin Scalia died of Natural Causes. The 79yearold found dead in his room at a resort ranch in west texas saturday morning. His body flown home to virginia last night. His death is sending shock waves through the capital. The president will nominate a replacement in due time. Republican leaders are pushing for the president to leave that task to his successor. John the latest on the popes visit later on cbs this morning at 7 00. Christine next here, history made at daytona 500 qualifying, well tell you who became the youngest driver to grab the pole. First, charlottemecklenburg schools are closed today along with a long list of other schools. So many changes have come in in the last 15, 20 minutes. Go to the full list at john 20 minutes after 6 00. A live look at charlotte skyline from our hd tower cam, we have seen a little misty light stuff, specifically in charlotte this morning but nothing significant right now. The roads are clear, but charlottemecklenburg schools reminder as are many other schools. Get over to Brody Oconnell who is live in the alert center with details on a deadly fire that weather played a role in. Brody thats right, john, temperatures so slow in some parts of the country near negative 20 in the boston, massachusetts area with windchill, unfortunately that contributed according to officials to a fatal house fire. One person was found dead in the third story of the home. Cold temperatures hampered efforts because the tanks kept freezing up on them. Also one firefighter had to one firefighter tripped and fell on the ice. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. John and christine, back to you. Christine brody, thank you. Now to sports news, the unc tarheels hosting the pittsburgh panthers in chapel hill, Brice Johnson would lead the way for the heels with 19 points to go with 7 boards. Unc cruises to victory, 8564, next up, a trip to duke wednesday night. Series back on the track in daytona, history made in qualifying for the 500. 20yearold Chase Elliott replacing jeff gordon in the no. 24 car, that sounds strange, he would grab the pole for the Great American race becoming the youngest driver ever to do so. Matt kenseth will start second rest. Field set thursday in the canam duals. I love race car season. Christine so we are waking up to some people with snow, some people not. Al if youre in the metro area youre going where is the snow . Up north, and we have such dry air in place right now, this system is having a very difficult time overcoming that. It will, but by then i think we may be starting to head out of the window of opportunity for too many problems. Having said that only takes that much ice, so we want to use a lot of caution here during the Daylight Hours today. Im more confident it is plain rain tonight than this morning. Five sweeps of power doppler radar, the focus has been up across the mountains. Here in the metro area, very little happening right now, there may be a sprinkle or little flurry or sleet pellet, but very little. The focal point is right here out of tennessee up in virginia and so our mountain reason counties are in it. Were waiting for the dry air to moisten up but the air is so dry, the atmosphere is having a hard time moistening up from the top down the moment were dry, there is super cold, snow in the mountains, we will get in precipitation, i think all across the viewing area, having said that, it looks to me like this will be mainly a mountain and perhaps northern foothills snow event, rest of us any snow and sleet very spotty and very very light. Doesnt take much but it wont be a snow storm for charlotte. 28, north breeze, cold, there is the dew point at 8. So dry that the atmosphere having a hard time. Lake, 23 belmont, 29 indian trail, weddington, 23 harrisburg. Boone, 15, 22 morganton, 19 wilkesboro, 22 statesville, 28 lancaster and monroe. For today, notice the percentage chance of precipitation, fairly light until we get late in the afternoon hours. Very spotty, but we only get back to freezing by 4 00. Lets look at futurecast. At noon we pick up, going in 4 00, notice how much of the area, so the afternoon commute may wind up being worse than the morning, as we go through the day and then here comes the plain rain. Up to i85 by 8 00, that overtakes the area some of the rain heavy at times, overnight tonight and tomorrow morning before this clears out. Lots of sunshine tomorrow afternoon, then watch the back edge of this system come through, could bring a couple showers tomorrow night, temperatures well above freezing, just that, showers. Beyond this, we warm up big time. Talking about temperatures going the 50s and then 60s as we head toward the upcoming weekend, so again if you want warm weather, stick around. On this president s day, not too warm, 20 chance of precipitation this morning, 70 this afternoon in tonight. Just the opposite tomorrow. 57 tomorrow, mostly sunny, 58 wednesday, little cooler thursday but then we ramp back up, clouds over the weekend but look at the temperature, well in the 60s. Youre never more than seven minutes away from weather and traffic on wbtv news this morning. Here is chris. Chris al, thank you, rst alert traffic is sponsored by toyota of north charlotte. Weve been watching this accident out on the 485 outer loop, that has now cleared, we had an overturned van it was over on the side of the roadway, now all lanes have reopened so traffic once again heading down toward pineville running smoothly there. So we cleared that accident scene, now on the outer loop of 485. Checking drive times, if youre coming in from matthews, 15 minutes, 41milesperhour. 17 minute commute from the providence road arboretum area kannapolis, 18 minutes at 67 miles an hour. Most of our major highways are continuing to run in the green this morning. We do have a few slow downs, albermarle over toward wt harris, and an accident over near the airport, that is old dowd at Josh Birmingham, Josh Birmingham parkway, that main route in the terminal there, expect you might find a few delays. That is a check of traffic, christine, back over to you. Christine continuing live Team Coverage of the Winter Weather. John live up to boone where the snow has been coming down for several hours this morning. And there is d. O. T. Truck scraping the roads up there. Right after the break, Ashton Pellom will join us live with a check of conditions. Christine we are live at the Charlotte Department of transportation yard where crews have spent the weekend and these Early Morning hours getting the roads ready well head out there live to Kristen Hampton with the latest. John youre watching wbtv and well be right back. The new caramel macchiato from dunkin donuts. Let handcrafted layers of espresso, milk, and a caramelflavored s