back. he spent quite a while digging out after getting stuck. >> stay tuned for "news4 at 5":00. it's coming up. stay with us. say it ain't snow, once again. moth they are nature dousing our area with another round of winter weather. we have live team coverage of the snowstorm, how long it will last, now bad it will get and how all this is affecting the roads in your neighborhood. >>ood morning. i'm joe krebs on this wednesday, the 10th of february, 2010. and here is the latest at this hour for you. another storm will mean that you're going to have another snow day for most of you. all local schools are once again closed. the federal government is also closed for a third straight day. the d.c. o government is closed as well. if you plan to take metro today, it is running only underground. there will be no metro bus or metro access service today. also all flights in and out of ronald reagan, washington, dulles, bwi, marshall, have been canceled for the entire day today. >> let's look at what the storm is doing right now. meteorologist tom kierein is in the storm center tracking it all. >> it started with light snow yesterday afternoon and overnight last night. it changed to a brief period of sleet and freezing rain throughout much of the region. in the last several hours it's gone right back to snow. you can see looking at the radar over the last three hours, it has now filled in with snow across much of virginia and maryland and the district of columbia. local view of the radar over the last hour showing to snow coming in out of the south and southeast. the moisture coming in off the atlantic. that will feed more moisture into the storm and we'll see the snowfall rates increase. right now wherever you see the green, right now in montgomery county, they are getting an area of moderate to heavy snow right now in central montgomery county. that batch of green right there showing it's snowing pretty hard from near ulney through gaithersburg and rockville to potomac and now coming into bethesda, another patch of green there in ar ling tongue, snowing pretty hard there. where you see the dark blues, that is where we're getting the moderate snow. the light blue is just light snow that continues around the region. now, the snowfall totals overnight, we had generally about three to five inches, higher amounts in the panhandle of west virginia. more on the way. and the temperatures are in the 20s to near 30 degrees. now 31 in washington. so what's falling is sticking. blizzard warning in effect across much of the region just to the north and east of washington, as well as in the potomac highlands of west virginia. blizzard warning means we'll have winds over 35 miles per hour causing considerable blowing and drifting snow. that warning extends to new jersey, southeastern pennsylvania and long island. for us snow totals by 7:00 today. eight to 12 incheses today. northeastern maryland, 12 to 16 inches in the northern eastern shore as well. the rest of virginia around four to eight inches. 45-mile-per-hour gusts causing considerable blowing and drifting of the snow. sun returns tomorrow. should be sunny on friday and saturday as well. jerry, how is the traffic? >> tom, the pictures really speak volumes this morning. let's take a live look around parts of the capital area as we check out the beltway just above the american legion bridge, making the trip over in silver spring. this is capital belt way,oute 29 colesville road. aspen hill road at georgia avenue. again, the story is very, very slick obviously. into northern virginia along interstate 66 at the route 28 interchange, same story there. virtually underpassable, particularly the secondary roadways. we'll keep you updated. hopefully we won't have any accidents because hopefully everybody will stay home. >> thanks very much, jerry. >> when will we see you again? you tell fenty to plow the streets? >> even president obama is getting questions about when washington streets will finally get plowed. street crews have been working around the clock after the blizzard. that task is about to get tougher with this storm dumping several more inches on the region. let's find out how the roads are looking in d.c. tracee wilkins is standing by ve in the columbia heights neighborhood. tracee, good morning. >> let's go to virginia where many side streets are yesterday to be cleared. news4's kimberly suiters is standing by. >> reporter: we're here on west maple in veienna. here people have worked so hard to dig out their sidewalks, clear it for customers, clear it to get into your house, now another layer of fresh powder coming down here. also, you can see in the distance some lights, blinking lights and also some road signs there. someone is talking to tracee, but you're talking to me. hold on one second. these are road signs here, there's a small water main break up the street. that's another thing that people dread. you don't want to lose water pressure. of course, the crews that are having to deal wit. what a nightmare for them. we drove in on route 66. it was just about empty. the only car i saw was a pickup truck that had slid off into the embankment there. other than that, it was absolutely clear. west maple getting a little bit of traffic. i'd say about 50% of it, maybe 60% work crews. otherwise it's people getting out and about, mostly in suvs. i did see a post office truck. i know a lot of people are happy to be getting their mail in these storms. people seeming to get around okay, especially with four-wheel drives. i drove in on an suv and didn't have to use the four-wheel drive. right now it's not terrible. the snow coming down a little bit like rain. it's not that driving side ways, hard snow that we had just a few days ago. here comes the cavalry down west maple street. as you can see, not plowing the street, but forming tracks in the street so people are able to get by that way. one last thing before you head out, if you were dutiful and cleared off your car last night, a layer of freezing rain will greet you this morning. so there will be a bit of scraping to deal with. live in vienna, kimberly suiters, news4. back to you. >> let's go back to tracee wilkins in northwest washington with a look at how the roads are there. tracee, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, eun. i was saying what a difference a ha hour makes. we have definitely had an inch of snow here in northwest washington since i first spoke with you. taking a look down at the sidewalk. this is mor than a covering now. this is becoming measurable. in fact, it's also becoming visible. take a look over here outside the cvs, we have workers out here already shoveling the snow in front of the cvs, taking care of some of the snow that was left over from the previous storm. with that walkway being covered, they were taking care of that snow as well. yes, we have digable, measurable snow in northwest. let's take a look out here at the roads. now, i've been seeing plows come back and forth on these roads since we've been out here this morning. i'm going to get out here so you can see what i'm talking about here. with the plows coming back and forth all morning long, still we're looking at very slushy roads here, very slushy roads. i'm sure, eun, you saw this earlier that we had the tractor coming through this way. they've been picking up the snow and slush and putting it on the side of the road, but still -- this is the kind of stuff that can definitely cause you to spin out. i've been seeing conditions change since we've been here. the snow is coming down so quickly, so fast, so hard here in this area that we're already seeing a covering on the roads. you look down there, straight down irving street. straight down irving street we're seeing to road is covered. it didn't look like that when we first got here. that's how quickly the accumulations are happening here. we are here at columbia heights metro station. a reminder to folks that they're looking at only underground service for metro. no above-ground service today, that includes buses and above-ground metro stations won't be operating. columbia heights should be fine when metro opens unless they decide to shut metro down. that's poosability. i'm tracee wilkins live this morning in northwest. back to you in the studio. >> thanks very much, tracee. our coverage of winter storm round two will continue right after these brief messages. looking at a live picture of ronald reagan washington national airport where the temperature is 30 degrees. good morning. time for weather and traffic at 5:11. 31 degrees in washington. we have snow falling all ak skros much of virginia, much of maryland and into pennsylvania. after a brief respite overnight of sleet and freezing rain. now it is back to all snow all around the region. here is the radar over the last hour. you can see the snowfall. as we look at the more detailed view of the radar, the colored areas in dark blue and green, where snow is coming down harder, snowing pretty hard in montgomery county and into loudoun county and panhandle of west virginia. light to moderate snow. here are some of the totals so faur. three inches in washington. nearby suburbs three to five inches. some higher amounts in the rural parts of virginia. beginning to pile up with temperatures in the 20s to near 30 degrees. a blizzard warning to the north and east of washington as well as the highlands of west virginia and up into new jersey and new york city. eight to 12 inches by the time it ends later throughout much of the metro area. now, jerry, somehow the traffic? >> offes go for a sam bling in landover. one area we watch carefully is the beltway around route 202. the pictures certainly do tell the story. out in the suburbs, not any better, river road at bradley lane making a drive on the melt way above the american legion bridge. one more stop in maryland, 270 at route 109, hyattstown. this picture of wisconsin avenue as you make the trip not too far from western avenue, big old flakes coming down at this hour. here we go again. eun and joe. >> thanks very much. stay with us. our continuing coverage of the winter storm round two inext. 5:15 is our time right now. 30 degrees out there at ronald reagan, washington national airport. you can see by the haze on your screen it is snowing heavily out there. a lot of work going on at this hour. plow trucks are on the runways trying to scrape them clear of the snow. as of this moment, all airlines have canceled their flights at ronald reagan washington national as well as all of the other airports. but in the dimness, you can see the flashing lights of the work trucks working hard trying to get the runways open. >> there are nearly 4,000 homes in our area without power this morning. that number could get highers the storm gets worse. pepco is reporting around 2800 outages, mostly in montgomery county. do min yeah, virginia is reporting 491 outages. bg&e has 500 without power. novak has 280 and smet co-and allegheny are not reporting any problems so far. let's see what the main state highways look like. we have highway administrator neal peterson. good morning. >> good morning, joe. >> what can y tell us is the state of the major roadways in suburban maryland, prince george's county, montgomery county sns. >> we've put down samt and have been plowing to snow coming down. it's been a mix across the region in terms of amounts of snow versus sleet and rain. we will be out all day ng. we are expecting the snow to be picking up. the challenge we'll have is many of the roads have highidges of snow from the weekend storm. we don't have anyplace to put a lot of the snow. >> are you running into trouble spots where the snow piled frup the previous storm and the cws haven't had time to clear that and now there's another batch of snow on top of that? >> we're expecting as the snow picks up that certainly wl be a problem. yes may not be able to get all the lanes open that we had been able to get open after last week's storm. >> what is your situation with supplies? i heard there are several jurisdictions that are running out of salt and chemicals to put down on the roadways. how is maryland doing? >> after the queek r wev weeken storm we had been running low. we actually spent the day yesterday and the day before moving salt around to make sure that we had enough to cover the state highways in maryland. of course, we're also trying to work cooperatively with the local jurisdictions because all of us right now are very concerned about our salt supplies. >> and how about the equipment and your people? how are they holding up? >> well, obviously we've been working our people very hard over the last five days. they're very tired. we actually had to mandate people going home to get a night's sleep night before last night, knowing they would be out all night last night and all day today. >> we certainly are very grateful for the hard work that they do and that the entire maryland state highway adminiration does. thanks so much for joining us. good luck through the rest of the storm. >> thank you. let's check in with megan mcgrath in buoy, maryland, to get a look at what the roads are looking like that. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. overnight we got slushy stuff that came down. it was actually sleeting, and it looked like this. when you grout o this morning you'll find out underneath what powder is on your car, a layer of ice that you'll have to scrape off. around 4:00 in the morning you can see we started getting the snow. it's changing back and forth. it started out as big fluffy flakes, looked lik feathers. you can see we got a little bit of that mixed in with finer snow. it's been coming down steadily ever since it switched over at 4:00. you can take a look behind me. this is route 3. we have an suv making its way down the roadway there. road conditions not the greatest. now, the highway itself, they obviously have been hitting it hard out there with the plows and the chemicals and t salt because it's basically clear of the mounds of snow that we have seen since the storm last weekend. but basically what's happening now is since the sleet came down, since the change over to snow, we're seeing a fresh coating on what was probably a road that was in pretty good shape a couple hours ago. we're starting to see quite a bit of traffic out here. we're in buoy. we're at the exxon next to the mcdonald's. the mcdonald's is open for business. they're hoping that folks will make their way in here, folks who are out clearing the roads. they've got coffee for those people. here is the real problem. this is where people are going to have a difficult time. the neighborhood streets are still in terrible condition. this access road behind me is covered in inches and inches of slush. it is very, very slick, very, very slippery. unless you've got an suv, you'll have probably pushing that stuff aside. keep that in mind. you won't want to go out and drive around if you can avoid it. let these crews get handle on things. back to you all in the studio. >> i hope that's a hat, otherwise your hair is a mess. >> a small fuzzy animal has climbed on my head. i'm going to let him stay. >> that's a great had. >> i'm going to let him stay. >> i would indeed. many trees have fallen on train tracks forcing local transit agencies to shut down. there will be no marc trains running on any line today. vre has also canceled all service for today. amtrak is running limited service on ak sell la express. all northeast regional trains below wash-are canceled. 5:21. time for a check of traffic and weather. >> looks like the snow is coming down in all parts of our region, tom. >> after a respite of sleet and freezing rain for a fewhours, it has gone back to all snow. it is snowing across all of virginia now, into west virginia, much of maryland and into pennsylvania. local radar is showing this snow continuing across northern virginia, out of the south and east and heading to the north and west. and the more higher resolution view of the radar and the color is showing where it's snowing hardest, right now in this dark blue zone and into this zone where you have little bits of green, that's where it's coming down fairly hard. just heard from bob in arlington, snowing heavily now. he halls about three to four inches on the ground there. we continue to see the snow falling light to moderately across central shenandoah valley, much of maryland at this hour. now, some of the tote alsz that have come in since last evening, about three to five inches generally around the region. we'll just add on to those totals as the day goes on. right now the upper 20s to near 30. what is falling certainly sticking on the untreated surfaces. blizzard counties all these counties of red, north central maryland, east earn shore with stronger winds as the area of low pressure develops later today. that is also extended into new jersey and southern long island. all this snow coming in, we're beginning to see an area of low pressure here over the ohio valley. that's going to be tracking right over virginia, hiting to coast, explosively developing low pressure and moving up the coast. that will give us very strong winds coming out of the north and east. right now around the region, we have the toted als by 7:00 p.m., we'll get eight to 12 inches around the metro area, more north and east. south and west not as much. jerry, somehow the trachx? >> let's head out and take a live look. want to take you over to massachusetts avenue and goldsboro road. i drove that thing yesterday because a couple folks told me how bad it is. you're right. it's awful. look at the big flakes coming down once again. the trip over in landover this morning, again, lots of snow. the crews are out doing what they can. here is interstate 270 as you make the trip south through rockville. let's head over and see how we're doing elsewhere this morning, headed for downtown, a big icicle on the camera at the 14th street bridge. bw parkway again today, like the last couple days, multiple accidents around 197 and laurel. an accident branch avenue and ser rats road. cars are sliding off the roadway into trees and ditches. it's very touch out there. so don't, don't, don't. >> thanks very much, jerry. we are continuing our complete coverage of the winter storm round two. we'll have the latest on all the weather and the information you should know. federal government is closed today, all local school jurisdictions are closed. >> metro is running only underground and no bus service above ground. we'll be right back. 5:26 is our time right now. 30 degrees. live picture of irving street in northwest washington in the columbia hitsz area. you can look at the snow coming down august most diagonally right now. it is blowing and coming down harder than it was little while ago. one guy is over there with a snowplow on the sidewalk trying to clear a path. some vehicles out and about. it's rough going this morning. be careful if you do dare to head out. >> well, one member of the first family has been found frolicking in the snow. the first family's dog, beau has been playing in the snow-covered rose garden. he seems to be enjoying the snow just fine. >> maybe he's a portuguese snow dog. >> he'll have to be after this. let's go to tom kierein in storm center 4 to find out about the on coming -- sorry, not going to him right now. we'll be back with tom kierein and the traffic right after this. stay with us. hey, ricky, i don't know if you know this, but there are creatures from outer space right re in aruba, and they look just like real people. oh, really, i didn't know this. they're always smiling, relaxed, unnaturally friendly. and they'll do anything to lull you into feeling at home. it's inhuman, it's a trick, ricky. don't fall for it, i've seen it in the movies. let me get you a dri