noalse alarm here, a winter storm is bearing down on our area, this isooking to be the biggest sto so far this winter. and a warning as we look live at v-dot cameras, many o the highways and se streets are snow covered. it is a wild weather morning, we have a lot toell you about. conditions deteriorated so fast this morning, thapp.r.t.c. bus system said that will ben an emergenc plan. d andrews air for base is opening two hours lateoday. meteorologist tom kierein tracking the latest for us >>ight there at reagan national, sleetg with rain mixing in fartr north and west, where you see the white area, it is snow in northern virginia and maryland. a closer view, showing the snow, and prince gege's county, and loudouncounty, and panhandle of west virginia points north, it is still snow that continues to fall. that are of snow is going to be passing to the northnd it will change over to rain. the pink zo, sleet with rain. rther to the south. southern prince george's unty, andrince williamnd charles county, all ra. that wl continue to advance to the north, the rain coming up our way, from timeo time, here throughout morning hours and into the afternoon hour temperatures right now are near the freezing mark. we have wintertorm warnings for montgomery, loudoun and points west andnorth, into tonight for the heaviest acmulating snow. to the mountains, it is near the freezing mark, around the bay and the eastern shore, it is near 40 we have mild air to the south. a lot of ts will change over to rain. weave warnings up thetlantic sea board, to the new yorkity area. rain through noon light snow, theneavy snow between 6:00 and midnight, five to ten inches west to north. >> sampling aroundhe area. now that temperatus have risen a bit, we are seeing wet roadways, was covering the roadway, as you head out, plan accordingly. the idge, between alexanda and oxford hill, northeast washington, be careful out there. thank you so much. >> of cour, we talk about the snow falling overnight. we learned many of the streets and highways he n been pretreated. >> tracy is live inockville with conditis there. >> good morning. we aren the parking lot off 270. we have gotten an ih of snow here it is a pdery light snow. because of the tempetures are above freezing on the ground. we are notxperiences sck conditionshere, more like wet conditns when you step on the ow. that is good news. and wh it is looking like on 270. explain t situation here, about an hour ago, when we we driving, the roads were completely covered in snow. we have auarter o an inch of snow. maryland st out crews at 3:0 a.m., to start working on the ghways and the mor routes throughout the state. then, starting get more traffic. what you will experience on the majorroadways, basically, wet roads with snow on the edges of the road. whatou are lking at right now, the shot of what is ppening in d.c. that i a good example of what e secondary roads are looking like, with streets covered, and again, as traffic picks up, because weo have road temperatures ave freezing, you should bexperiencing slick roads ashe -- more wet roads as the commute wears on right no know what we are dealing with is snow on the ground. use mmon sense when you are out there driving. give yourself era time. we hav huge flakes dropping, coming down quickly. that wilaffect your visibility. and again, because the road temperatur are above freezing that is good news. we still have this othe grou. it could be slick in some areas. bridges and overpasses, t areas that get colder and slicker faer than roadways. give yourself extra time this morning. be careful. hopefully, we will make i through this portion othe weather qukly, it theurn t rain and wash it away. we mentioned the lack of prreatment. that is because they thought they were going to he rain. rain washes the chemical away that is y roads weren't etreated. they are definitely catching up to the storm now. back toou in the studio. >> stay with us, we will check on the road conditions in virginia in just a few moments. >> the parents o a virginia tech student, the parts are asking for your help to solve their daughter's murder. police fnd the by of harrington outside of charlottesville. she was last seen a a concert, the parents visited the area ere the body was found. >> an el man or men here who killed by daughter. we want them found and taken t out. we don't want any other family to go throughhis. >> the killer rained and abducted a woman in 2005. dna idence linked the two cases. $1,000 from the harrington family and $50,000 from the band metallic reward is offered. >> and partisanship,he mn focus remaed on the economy, with the president reporting if i have-yea freeze. live now wit more on the sta of the union. tracy. >> gd morning from capitol hill, presidentbama really laid out hisriorities for the coming year. debt and spendg was a bigart of this speech,e began and focused on innovation. >> thisoment will be determinedot by whether onot we can sit togher tonight, but if we can work together tomorr. >> speeding up america's recovery wl require investing in the american dream. >> we need to out educate, out build the rest of the world. >> energy and education. >> replace no child left behind wi a law that focuses on what isest for our kids. >> tax codes. >> simplify the system, get rid of the loop holes, level the playing fid. >> challenng lawmakersot to start over. >> instead of reghting the battlefrom the last two years, fix what needs fixing and move forward. >> the nation's massive debt. the president proposed a five-year as he put painful spending freeze. >> i am willing to eminate what we can honestly afford to do wiout. let's make sure we are not dng it on the backs of the most vulnerle tizens. >> budt chair paul ryan called so of the words reassuri, but insist ed- endless borrowing is not a strategy. spending cuts have to come first. >> what cuts an how much. thats where they disagree. >> today, on the road, the president heads to a pet company in wisconsin, to talk more about the economy and moving forward. e seat remained empty inside the house chamber in honor of congresswoman gabrielle giffords. president obama recognized her strength and colleagues stood and applauded showing strength for the representative. gabrielle giffords' condition move friday sious to good. and they plan to move hero a rehabilitation hospital later today. >> coming up, see why v.ot id this will save lives. >> kate middleton has a new title, unployed. >> looking at eastern avenue at kennilworth. tom and jerry with the latest on i am meteorologist tom kiein, here is the seen in westin, virginia. half an inch o snow on the ground. sleet, rain there right now. d it did accumulate on the roads and streets, the main roads, the road mperatures, ove freezing with the action of the traffic, wn you see the blue on the radar, it i still snowing, northern prince geor's county and howard, udoun, panhandle of west virginia. rain mixinin in washington, and southern prince george's county and chles, down toward southern maryland it is all rn further south. and temperatures are at o above freezing, most of the accumulating snowill be coming in later this afternoon and this evening. near the freezing mark, or low, it is above freezing to the south. we will have the changes over t rain, from timeo time, through early afternoon. it the change back to snow this afternoon, and moderate to heavy until midnight, thaishat it will loob like, the transion back to sleet and snow then all snowntil mnight then it will quickly move away. leaving five to ten inches of snow in the blue zone, much of virginia and maryland. ghter amounts further west. we will take a lk at the weekend in ten minutes. >> for the most part, doing well. a lot of road spr that is all it is right now. don'see much in the wayf snow covered roadways, gd news, over the last hour, things have settl down, with the intensity o snowticking to the roads. college park and silver springs, moving alo well. eastern avenue, moving along very, very well. >> it is 4:44, we are on top of theirst major snowstorm of the winter. >> live to northern virnia when we come bk to seeow the road conditions are. this is western virginia,ou can see t snow has3q while there are someome disasters you can't avoid, there is one you can. septic system breakdowns fect 1.2 million homes in t us each year. septic backups can cost about six thousand dollars in expense, and countless hours of repair. rid-x costs only six dollars, and the advanced natural bacter generate perful enmes, which accelerate the waste digestion. use rid-x on a month, and help save yourself fr disaster. >> i you are just waking up this morning, it is probably snowg or raining, it may lk pretty, it won be a pretty commute for you. melia is checkg on roads in virginia. what is going on? >> reporter: i have to tell you, a prettyood job here today. take a look at the roads behind me. yocan see, it looks like we had a heavy rain stm. in the pt 24 hours, can you see on the grass, we do have heavy, w snow dow low. if you look behind me, guys, you can see parking lots a going to be a mess. we are expecting to see plows in parking lots, re, half an inch to an inch of snow out here. v. dot told me they did pretreat, 100 trucks on the roads, a couple gog by and plowing. 66, 95, 495. and then they went on the problem spots like fairfax county parkway, put down the salt, 1,700 trucks out here in northern virgia. beingrepared on the side of the road. i have to tell you, i came down from montgomery county, it got nasty into the district as we were headi out here, n so bad. not falling as hard as you might see. we willeep an eye on this out here >> we will check back with you. >> the tal of michael jackson's ctor is scheduled to begin in march. chances ar you will be ableo watch it all on tv. dr. conrad murray plead not guilty to voluntary manslauger. prosecutors say he gave jackson a lethal dose of a powerful sedative. the defenseinted he may have given himself the lethal dose >> lking forward to telling his side of the story. we have only two months to get ready for this. >> sloppy,eckless and caused michael's death. he has a tough road to hoe, based o the preliminy hearing had. >> if convicd, he could face a maximum of four years in prison. >> brand new information this morng on the condition of congresswoman gabrielle giffords. doctors have upgradeder condition fromerious to go. she is ready to move to a reb habbilition hospital. they plan to have gabrile giffords undergo o mor test before she isransferred to begin the rehabilitation procs. >> right now, transitioning over to rain in whington and points south. we look now at the radar over the last several hours, we have seen this moisture, one band coming up our way, and it is starting off with wet sw across much of the gion, the district and maryland. most of the roads are above freezi. it wil be melting there. it is changing over to rain. you see the areaf green and bl on the screen, and the closer view of the radar is showing that transition, in washington and fairfax county, prince george's county and the radar updated, showing it is changing over to rain, t blue and green zone in southeastern prince george's countyntoical vert and st. mary's county, it is rain in fredericksbg and south. sleet mixing in. stil snow falling in loudoun county, the northern snandoah valley, southern montgomery county, the set mixing in with rain. it is transitioning there. we willave it all chae over to rain as the morning does progress. we haveinter storm warnings t. areas in pink, including montgomery, loudoun, howard, fredri fredrick. this is the zone that will get the heaviest snows, and the blue zone,he lightes snow, we have temperatures at or below freeng in loudoun, the snow that is falling is begning to stick a bit. it will stay on t ground probably for a couple of hours of the rain willash it out. higher cations, above freezing in southern virgin, rain all night, ove the last 12 hours, developing area of low pssure will connue to deepen. as it does, east o the delaware ba it will draw more air, that will change it back to heaviest snow tonight. watching and warngs from virginia to new england. this srm will affect this entire region today into tonight. we will see the transition through noon time, thenack to snow from midafternoon, light at first, heavy snow late afternoon, it wl stick, aroun freezing, a wet snow, heavy until midnight, then, we will see it taper off and end after that that is what it will be looking like, 6:00 this eving, ansitioning back to snow. then, we will see that area switching over to snow as well. then it will rapidly exit. leaving five to ten inches on the groun all of that happening in a five to six hour period, that area west of washington, int the shenandoahvalley. lighter amounts south and east. friday and satuay, temperatur back into the 30s ch day, with morning ls in the 2s. into next week. maybe flurries. jerry,ow is traffic? >> volume now. and a lot of road spr to deal with.dñ it is jus wet it. can cause problems, up to fair faux count parkway, the 395 lanes are open. pide of the captol beltway, around new hampshire avenue, road spray will be the mont ra f the day. >> we learn tld i one school closing to tell you about this morning. >> loudoun county schools in virginia are closed due to the snow. make sure you sy with us ase get more delays and school closings into the newsroom. >> toyota announced another reca over defect that could use fuel leaks. recalls 1.7 vehicles, is and gs lexus models and a dozen mods in europe a pan. toyota said there hav n been an accidentseported with regard to the defects. helping to kee drivers from speeding, virginia transportion officials painted zigzag lines back in 2009. they are designed to make drivers slow down. more concerned that people would get used to the lines. they are stilletting drivers to hit the brakes, no to steady theffects on pedestrian safety for the next three years. >> 55 is your time. the race for chicago's next mayor, another twt. ra emanuel's name will stay on the ballot at least for now. the supreme court made decision to keep his name on the baot until it makes a fmal ruling. a lowerourt ruled he didn't meet the requirement to getn the ballot. at issue is that candidatesive the city for a year. supporters say he has a linois driver'license and pay taxes. he rented out his house whi living in wasngton say opponents. >> she will still have plenty of work to do for the upcoming dding, the invitation haven't gone out yet there. are reports that many have received save the dat cards. they plan to get married at westminster abbey. >> who will win? i have my pks. >> a few predictions. hello everybody, goo morning. >> the academy awards cou produce, not when it comes to best actor. >> colin firth "t king's speech." >> he is someone that seems unpeatable at this point. >> firth has wonust about evy major award as the stammering monarch. christianale just as minant as a crack addictn "the fighter." >> i don't see how he loses. >> surprises cld happen. >> possibly 14 year-old hailey seinfield with supporting tress for "true grit . >> she stands at a best shot for air win for that movie. >> the best actrs race tightening, with anet benning for "the kids are all right." and fewer for natalie portman in "black swan." the social network, with the king speech with 12 nominatis, dark horses are emerging. >> "fighter" you can't count out and "true grit" it is a tighter race than people may have thought. >> the finish line, four weeks away. more school closing. >> montgomery and howard counties in maryland. >> loudoun and fairfax in alarm clock buzzing, indistinct conrsations ] [ female announcer ] important even can sneak up on you. oh, i am not ready. can i have a cole weeks? female announcer but with yoplait light's two week tune up, you 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