Transcripts For WTTG 20091219 : vimarsana.com

fox 5 all over a developing story. the know is already falling. this is a live picture outside the capitol. the flakes are coming down so hard, you can t even see it. make no mistake, this is just the beginning. a monster snowstorm is now marching through our region and you can expect some serious snowfall. road crews are hitting the streets and have been now for hours. they re getting ready for a long messy weekend. and grocery and hardware stores packed all day long. a lot of you stocking up on food and supplies to be on the safe side. thank you for joiningous a busy news night. i m will thomas. i m shawn yancy. d.c. s mayor declared a snow emergency and the state of virginia has declared a snow emergency. we have the latest on conditions and keep an eye on the top of your screen for upto date up to date cancellations and closures. reporter: this is getting started very fast. because it s so incredibly cold out w d.c. already down to 28 degrees, what we are finding is this snow is sticking immediately and becoming slippery immediately. so all paveed surfaces are getting covered. we know earlier when this started in southwestern virginia, there were hundreds of car accidents as it began. so you ve got to let the crews do their thing because this is going to pile up in a big hurry. you saw some of the pictures outside now. take a look also at trueview. while i show you this snow on trueview, let me also tell you that in all down where charlottesville is, we have reports of 5 to 8 and a half inches of snow already. almost everywhere we ve seen a coating of snow. fairfax county has a trace. in fauquier county already an inch on the ground. in highland county, three and a half inches on the ground. over two inches in madison county. so obviously it s not growing to take till dawn till we have a very serious accumulation probably surpassing all of last winter s snow just by morning. the real action is tomorrow. where is our storm system now? it is beginning to deepen. we ve been seeing lots of thunder and lightning off the coast of the carolinas where this storm will deepen and become incredibly intense for the heaviest snow to come for us tomorrow afternoon. the entire region is under a winter storm warning. you can see all of that. but we are talking about some incredible snow totals. i m going to send it down to gary mcgrady in the weather center. we re thinking of snow coming in bands that could be intense especially during the day tomorrow. we re going to have a lot of snow when we wake up tomorrow morning. the main storm system will not even have been developed yet off the coast of north carolina. and it still has to ride up the coast and ing us even more snow. so this is almost like bonus snow out ahead of the actual nor easter as this storm system center is still way down south coming off the georgia coastline now. in terms of what is happening out there right now, we want to show you max hd radar. we have it in snow mode. basically here, the darker grays are the heaviest snow and this has been moving up from the south. sue just mentioned down around charlottesville already places with five to six, six and a half inches of snow and all of this is moving in our direction. now, we can colorize this even further over to the heavy snow mode. and when you begin to see the reds there and that s just crossing across fredricksburg, so i suppose fredricksburg, you are in the moderate snow now. and embedded in some of that is some avier snow totals as well. let me show you what we re thinking now with this weekend storm as we continue to look at this moving in our direction. we have a lot of snow overnight tonight. we re expecting the snow will accumulate quickly. the roads of course becoming very slippery out there. four to seven inches of accumulation overnight tonight. and the heaviest of the snow waits to come in tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening. speaking of that, i know you want to know. snow totals, how much are we thinking and this has changed a little bit since 6:00. we re back up to sue pal take so we come sue palka so they can show you. basically we now think it s going to be a one to two-foot owstorm for most of the area. we re not going to be shy about chasing these numbers because we ll be getting new information in even within this hour. i want you to see that that band has shifted too, a little more to the east. 8 to 12 inches as you get over on the delmarva. the beaches could get four to six inches as the new model information comes in throughout this hour, we re going to let you know exactly what we re seeing and coming upin a little while, we ll talk about where this stacks up in terms of the historic d.c. storms. it s probably going to shatter any record we ve seen in december. wow. we ll keep it tuned into you guys so we know the very latest. let s take it outside where the snow as you saw is already falling. we re going to head to virginia where matt ackland continues our team coverage live in tysons corner where the flakes have been falling for two hours now. is virginia ready for the storm? reporter: well, shawn, they better be because the snow is coming down. sue and gary really called this one right. the snow started to fall right around 8:00. about a half-hour later then it started sticking to the ground. tonight virginia officials are really concerned about two things: traffic and power. lferd they re experience already they re experiencing many traffic accidents towards the southern part of the state and they fear that could happen right here. also, so much snow is expected to come down, it could be very heavy bringing down power lines leaving people in the cold. the first snow flakes were spotted in tysons corner right around 8:15. but the work to prepare for this winter blast began much earlier. vdot snowplows were filled with a salt mixture and dispatched into areas across northern virginia. officials say the plan of action: do some pretreatment but hit the roads hard around midnight. you can only see about 3 or 5 feet in front of you. reporter: we spotted this car at drive-thru covered with snow. the people inside told us they left richmond around 6:00 tonight and were doing their best to stay ahead of the storm. we re trying to stay ahead of the storm. we re going to cleveland, ohio so we re trying stay ahead of it. reporter: george is also trying to outrun the storm. he s headed towards harper s ferry, west virginia. he s not worried about the drive. it s the physical labor tomorrow. are you a little bit concerned about the weather tonight? absolutely. i ve got a long driveway so it s going to be nice shoveling that tomorrow. reporter: as most locals brace for a huge mess this weekend, some are actually feeling pretty laid back about it. this guy from syracuse, new york says this amount of snow is nothing. going home with my family and doing some christmas shopping and relaxing just like it s any other day. reporter: back out live now, you re looking at route 7. right out in front of the tysons corner mall. obviously a lot of people leaving the mall and having to deal with these conditions. by the way, virginia governor tim kaine declared a state of emergency earlier today. that means state officials and the national guard are on standby, shawn. matt ackland reporting live. get inside. snow patrol also fanned out in d.c. tonight. mayor adrian fenty declared a snow emergency just a few hours ago. so what does that mean and itself message from the city officials about being prepared d staying safe in all of this? fox 5 s roz plater is live in northeast with the dc angle tonight. reporter: will, it s coming down fast and furious here and a word of warning to our viewers who live in d.c. i want you to think right now about where you parked your car. if it s along these snow emergency routes like this one just behind me on south dakota avenue, you have just a few hours left tomove your car. by 7:00 in the morning oral you could ace fines of $400. way before even the sightings of the first flake, d.c. launched a preemptive strike. effective at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, saturday, the 19th, the district s snow emergency plan will be in effect. reporter: that means as of 7:00 in the morning, you cannot park your car along any of the more than 100 snow emergency routes in the city. if you do, your wallet could take quite a hit. a $250 ticket, another $150 for towing. oh, yeah, yeah. we re familiar with that one, yeah. i m hoping my neighbors don t park out there because they will get towed. reporter: by 8:00 tonight the city s snow crews hit the streets. 750 workers pulling 12-hour shifts through monday morning operating some 330 trucks to keep the roads clear, both main roads and side streets in the neighborhoods. gone is the practice of the past where we would only get the commercial routes first. then come into the residential neighborhoods. there will be some 88 or so trucks completely dedicated to residential neighborhoods. reporter: d.c. fire has activated its operations center gearing up by adding six fire engines and six ambulances for the storm. also things like chains for the fire apparatus. all of that has been taken care of today. we re ready for what is expected to be a rugged three or four days. reporter: now the city is urging its residents to get ready too. stay home if you can but if you have to go out, be prepared. filling up the tank. the tires are all straight, wipers, everything is good. i m just putting new tires on my wife s car. i m ready. let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. reporter: and snow it is. now, those snow emergency routes like this one should be marked with those red and white signs. most of them are major rush hour traffic arteries. if you are not certain of which ones are the snow emergency routes, you can find a list of them on ddot s website. z plater live in northeast tonight. thank you for that. now to the snow patrol in maryland. fox 5 s wisdom martin is live in bethesda with the latest on conditions there. wisdom, looks like the snow is coming down on top of you as well. reporter: definitely. it s been a very busy night, especially for people at grocery stores and hardware stores. customers have been bombarding those places trying to get their last-minute supplies in anticipation of this big storm. one customer we talked to called it panic shopping. before one drop of snow hit the ground in the dmv, the frenzy had already started. as word spread of the big snowstorm that was on the way, customers crowded the home depot in hyattsville. we go with the crowd and everything. we already went grocery shopping. now we re just last minute trying to get everything up. reporter: they sold out early this morning and as soon as the last 54 bags in the building were unloaded, customers scrambled to scoop them right up. in about five minutes they were all gone. reggie and lisa thomas got the last one. this customer was about 30 seconds too late. i ve been to three stores and they re all out. reporter: she shopped earlier, got everything else and came here just to get a bag i hope no one slips on my sidewalk. that s all. reporter: over here the last three snow blowers. ten minutes after we saw them, they were all sold. we would show you the snow shovels but they were all gone. and so was just about everything else in the store that was snow related. batteries, just some emergency equipment, water, batteries, things like that. reporter: this hyattsville home depot had the largest amount of snow supplies than ever any other stores in the area but the haste to prepare for the snow was enough to sell ouall the winter supplies. we get it in and it s gone right away. reporter: now, a lot of these stores that ran out of supplies early were able to get in another shipment before the day was out. but then they ran out of those supplies. they do tell me that over the weekend they will be getting more shovels, more salt, more things like that. so when people do come back to the stores to prepare for the next big wave, they wll be ready. you can see right now behind me here at the giant store, there are still a couple of people going in and out of the store trying to pick up some grocery supplies probably because they re going to stay in all weekend long and wait out this storm. sounds like a fun idea to me. fire up the fireplace and cuddle up and get warm. wisdom martin, thank you. metime this storm is threatening flights nationwide during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. fox 5 s bob barnard is live at reagan national airport tonight with the latest there. bob? reporter: shawn, the airlines have already made their decisions and if you are are traveling by air this weekend, it s not what you wanted to hear. it s a very snowy reagan national airport. i m bob barnard. that story is oming up. you can depend on fox 5 for complete coverage of this storm. tune in tomorrow for a special edition of fox 5 morning news from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. plus fox 5 news at ak and of course we will at 5:00 and of course we will bring you hourly updates online and on tv. fox 5 news is on top of other big stories including a historic day in d.c. politics. that is coming up next.  here you go. have a great day. thanks. come into dunkin donuts for the perfect holiday gift a full pound of america s favorite coffee. the great taste of dunkin at the perfect price. america runs on dunkin . welcome back, everyone. the fox 5 snow patrol is keeping a close eye on the storm that is already coming down on the region. a live look at tysons corner, virginia tonight where you can see the snow is sticking to the roads and itself grass and the sidewalks. take it easy out there. our live coverage continues right here on fox 5. and all that snow that s headed our way means big travel trouble the weekend before christmas. one airline has already canceled all of its flights into our three airports tomorrow. fox 5 s bob barnard live at reagan national with the travel details tonight. bob? reporter: will, our airports are all still open. planes are still flying but probably not for much longer. we ll take a look here off to the left there. you can see some of the regional jets. they are fired up. they re coming and going. visibility not only with the darkness but this steady snowfall is limited. as we pan off to the right here, you ll see three larger u.s. airways jets. the one in the milling has just in the middle has just arrived. the other two on either side look ke they re not going anywhere. this snowfall is about to bring air travel in this region to a grinding halt. among the travelers, 30 middle schoolers from at ran take atlanta well aware of the taft. they forecast. they said it was going to be 20 feet of snow? reporter: 20 feet? i mean 20 inches. reporter: delta airlines isn t waiting for the first flakes to fall canceling all flights into washington saturday hoping to resume service sometime sunday. united says it, too, is canceling flights to the region. other airlines expected to do the same. i do have some colleagues who are flying out tomorrow morning and i m a little bit worried about whether they ll be able to make it out. it s also complicated by the fact it s christmas season. reporter: some passengers are trying to change their flights to get out ahead of the snow. like to go to detroit and amsterdam and then to paris. it s my if my first flight is canceled, i don t know what to do. reporter: others are waiting to pick up relatives flying in for the holiday. my brother already called and said they re on the airplane and the flight will arrive on time and here we are. we better get home before the snow comes. reporter: for now only a few minor delays, most flights getting off the ground as the storm approaches. i think we re going to beat it because it s coming late tonight. reporter: an airport spokesman says they ll try to keep the runways open. we have a full snow recall crew at dulles and at national that will be spending the night tonight. they re going to basically be on duty until the storm is over and the runways are completely clear and dry. reporter: in the meantime officials say check with your airline before you head to the airport. i checked online a few times today. and saw that i should be okay as long as i got out before 9:00. reporter: while the airlines may be grounded saturday, airport businesses say they ll be open for travelers stuck here during the storm. and there is late word tonight that northwest airlines and air tran have now canceled flights into and out of washington tomorrow. it is going to be a lost day for people who have to cover large distances, will, on this last weekend before christmas. a lot of passengers negotiating with airlines i m sure as we speak. thank you. metro is going to try to make it a little easier to get around. it is planning on sticking to its saturday schedule for both buses and rails. it s already working with 2200 tons of salt and nearly a thousand pounds of deicer to clear bus stop, parking lot, sidewalks and platforms. stay on the rails now. amtrak is also preparing for this storm. they re adding crews just in case. the company says trains do pretty well in the snow unlike cars and planes. they re also outfitting some of their trains with snowplows in case they need them. you can stay on top of the latest weather troubles on our website. look for hourly changes and road closures and more. send us pictures of the snow. you can find it all on myfoxdc.com. a d.c. mother convicted of killing her four daughters and then living with their decomposing bodies has been sentenced to prison. banita jacks received 120 years in prison. her daughters bodies were discovered in january 2008 when u.s. marshals went to the house to serve an eviction notice. the judge who handed down that sentence says the evidence that came out in this case will probably haunt him for the rest of his life, just that disturbing. a man wrongly convicted of a 1981 rape and murder in d.c. has been formally exonerated. donald gates walked out of prison this week after spending 28 long years behind bars for the crime he did not commit. there he is. he was cleared by new d.n.a. evidence. it s nearly official. d.c. mayor adrian fenty signed a civil marriage equality act into law today allowing same- sex couples to legally marry in the city but opponents say the fight is not over. fox 5 s john henrehan has the latest this ongoing debate. reporter: about 200 people gathered at all souls unitarian church in d.c. to celebrate the mayor s official signing of legislation that will legalize marriage in the city for same- sex couples. this is a historic and extraordinary moment in the nation s capital of the united states of america. i couldn t be more proud to be mayor of a city that is standing up against an issue that tramples the basic rights and civil liberties of our neighbors, of our families, and of our friends. reporter: two members of the d.c. council are openly gay. thank god that i was able to live to see this day. reporter: independent council member david catana pushed hard for the legislation. i feel a little awkward being the center of attention because this victory had many, many parents over decades and they continue with everyone in this room. reporter: using a series of pens to sign gay marriage into law, mayor fenty gave the first of the writing implements to councilman catania. we will both be able to [ indiscernible ] we ll be able to have legal rights to in our wills. very, very important practical things. reporter: one protester, the reverend rob shanks stood outside the unitarian church politely trying to dissuade gay couples from tying the snot and opponents tying the knot and opponents say they will continue their efforts to repeal the law. we ll get it on the ballot and two, when it goes on the ballot, we will win. reporter: opponents of gay marriage have not given up on a referendum. they re going to court on that issue in early january. then there is the congressional veto although that s doubtful. you ve got to get a majority in both houses of congress and president obama would have to sign the bill. likely not going to happen. odds are gay marriage will be legal in d.c. sometime in january. john henrehan, fox 5 news. the clock is ticking on capitol hill. can congress meet the deadline on health care reform? plus, arrested for being naked in his own home. but dewant to seen by passersby did he want to be seen by passersby? the ruling from the judge ahead. believe it or not, this is a live look at the capitol dome and the snow is coming down so hard out there, you can t even make it out. we re going to stay on top of the winter storm now coming through i should say storming through our region right now. sue palka and gary mcgrady working hard for you. we ll have the latest when we come back. get ready for pizzeria-style pizza. from your own oven. it s new red baron fire baked crust pizza. fire baked for a crispy crust. new red baron fire baked crust pizza. bring home that pizzeria taste. we re keeping an eye on the skies and the ground tonight as the first snow flakes start to fall across our area. here s a look at some folks having a little fun in old town alexandria. the snow really starting to stick. you can see from this ground shot here, the snow is still falling, cars creeping along. an update from our storm force just minutes away. more delays in the battle over health care. house members are gone to the holidays but the senate is pulling all nighters right now trying to meet next week s deadline. they ve ordered pizzas and cots to go all night. g.o.p. leaders accuse democrats of trying to ram the health care bill through with dozens of changes. they re threatening to have a read-a-thon of all the amendments. they are prepared to spend all day tomorrow just reading the bill. fox 5 continuing our snow patrol coverage. the storm is threatening to shut down more than just our area. up next, we re going to take you up and down the east coast as people prepare and try to get some last-minute shopping done. we re back in three minutes. 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( sighs ) wasting money stinks. stop wasting money. use. hefty! hefty! hefty! with unscented odorblock technology. it neutralizes garbage odors, and can save you money. i love this bag. hefty! hefty! hefty! wasting bags stinks. get hefty with unscented odorblock technology. hefty. stop the stinks. it s time for holiday bargain hunting. which requires a razor sharp eye and blazing speed. especially if you re shopping for a chevy. can we speed this up? not only do they come with the best deals of the year, they come with the best coverage in america. you snooze you lose. hey! i ll take it! let the chevy red tag event begin. now during the chevy red tag event, get 0 percent apr for 72 months on most 09 models including chevy silverado. see red and save green. now at your local chevy dealer. our coverage of the winter storm continues right now. here s a live look at tysons corner, virginia, where you can see the snow is coming down fast and furious we re told all over the region, sticking to the roads, sticking to the sidewalks. be careful out there tonight. let s ge to sue palka in let s go to sue palka in the weather center. it s sticking fast. i realized a few minutes ago i left my boots in my car. we ll be slipping and sliding to the parking lot a little bit later. you mentioned about this potentially being a historic storm. we have had very few big december snows. the last really big one- ironically was on december 18 and 19 in 1932 when we got probably 12 inches. we ll probably see this storm become the biggest december snow ever. if we get over 14 inches, it will make our top ten storms in d.c. this is rapidly accumulating because it s so cold and a pretty moderate to heavy snowstorm occurring all around the region where we ve already had 6 to 8-inch totals and that s before our area of low pressure which is just now getting over to the geora coast arts to really get strong. over to our max weather system. i want to show you that by tomorrow morning that storm that is currently just getting off the georgia coast will get really strong off the hatteras coast. watch what happens as it comes up thcoast. we believe it will get stronger and stronger and spreading those heavy snows all along the i-95 corridor. as you know we talked about this being a 12 to 24-inch snowstorm. the worst of it could easily be tomorrow afternoon and evening around here where we could get snow at a rate of 2 inches per hour if this scenario is correct with the models. we re going with it now, folks because we feel this is exactly what s happening. so the washington, d.c. area and all the i-95 corridor but really for d.c. we re in the bull s eye for this snowstorm. tomorrow will be the worst of it. we ll have maybe four to seven inches on the ground by morning. it is a big deal. be safe. bring your pets in and check on your elderly neighbors. we ll have a complete look at our five-day forecast coming up. sue, we ll see you in a few minutes. this weekend s snowstorm is bringing back memories of the blizzard of 96, a nor easter that paralyzed the east coast over a three-day period in january of that year. people were digging out for days. dulles international got more than 24 inches of snow. reagan national had 17 and bwi about 22 and a half inches. this monster storm isn t just affecting us. from the carolinas up to new jersey people are getting ready, preparing for up to 24 inches in some places. it could very well paralyze much of the east coast. fox s fox continues our coverage. reporter: people up and down the east coast are bracing for a blast of wter weather. stocking up on salt, shovels and food to make it through a major storm expected to bring a whole lot of snow. in virginia governor tim kaine already declaring a state of emergency putting the national guard on standby and the nation s capital could be crippled if it gets the 12 to 24 inches that s forecasted. and to the north in maryland public crews in baltimore are bracing for the worst but trying to keep optimistic. now remember not all these forecasts come true. however, it does appear that we are definitely going to get something and we hope it is a lot less thanhe potential that has been talked about. reporter: from pennsylvania to the big apple and all the way into new england, residents are being warned of poteial power outages that could last for days. the timing couldn t be worse. it s the last weekend before christmas, typically a lucrative few days for stores but will mother nature keep them at bay? the head of toys r us thinks not. the snow will put everyone in the christmas spirit. as soon as it s over, they come out shopping with great glee. reporter: the airline industry will likely be brought to its knees just as millions of travelers head home for the holidays. in new york, i m meteorologist rick [ indiscernible ] , fox news. send us your photos. we have live radar and hundreds of real time traffic cameras. in other news now, his story made national headlines. police arrested him for being naked in his own house. so was he indecent or innocent? his bizarre story coming up. you have heard this one? a guy fired for playing fantasy football at work. we re hearing from him for the very first time as fox 5 news at 10:00 rolls on. hi, i m tisha thomas. i would like to wish any daughter alexandria a happy merry christmas and to my extended friends and family there, the halls, and the rest of everybody in woodbridge, stafford and fredricksburg, merry christmas, i love you and i miss you. ysimt aid re you go. have a great day. thanks. come into dunkin donuts for the perfect holiday gift a full pound of america s favorite coffee. the great taste of dunkin at the perfect price. america runs on dunkin . it s so hard to choose one. you know, during the sign then drive event, you can get a cc, tiguan or fuel efficient jetta for practically just your signature. you can get scheduled maintenance at no cost. there s got to be mo to it than that. i ll never doubt you again. maybe all the know is keeping senators busy debating health care reform. that believe it or not is the u.s. capitol. you can just barely make out the outline of the dome there. thflags flying in the wind. sue and gary are tag teaming tonight. they ve got an update coming your way in just a few minutes. he was busted for indecent exposure for walking around naked sign hid own fairfax inside his own fairfax home. today a judge found him guilty of breaking the law. he is upset over the verdict and wants his conviction overturned. beth parker reports. reporter: eric william says he thought he was having an early morning cup of coffee in the buff. he got more than coffee. today he got a criminal conviction. quite stressed. reporter: a fairfax county mom says with himson made eye con williamson made eye contact with her and intentionally exposed himself while she was walking her son to school one october. she testified she and her son were walking along the path and first saw williamson over there at the door by the carport. then she said when they came down the sidewalk, she saw him again in the front window. you re not moving around as if it s martha stewart s kitchen that s 20 by 30 with a 50-foot ceiling and viking stoves. it s a small kitchen. reporter: all witnesses testified that williamson never stepped outside his home and made no gestures. however, a judge said since he was seen by more than one person over the course of several hours, the judge considered the behavior indecent. most people have done it or do it on a daily basis. i think it s a common thing to be naked in your home. reporter: it may have been foolish not to close the curtain, his lawyer acknowledged. the judge responded i don t fine people for being stupid. we d all be in jail. i feel the exact feeling that they re [ indiscernible ] i m the victim. they re looking in my home. i m in a fish bowl. everyone is looking inside my house now. that s okay. reporter: williamson says he will appeal based on principle. in fairfax county, beth parker, fox 5 news. up next, a look at mad dash as you and most of your neighbors get ready to really hunker down this weekend. sue, instead of long christmas lines, people buying sweaters, things like that the grocery and hardware stores are getting the big crowds. get some bird feed because when this snow piles up, we re going to need to help these critters out. boy, do i have some new snow totals. how about ten inches already on the ground northeast of charlottesville. charlottesville itself has 9 inches. fairfax county approaching an inch. we re headed for the record books, folks. full forecast is next. ( music: the boy least likely to / be gentle (with me) plays ) if you ve had a coke in the last forty years, you ve played a part in one of the largest. beverage recycling efforts in the world. we were just saying in parts of charlottesville in about four hours nine inches of snow and this is really not the heaviest snowfall we re going to see. i think the heaviest snowfall for this region is going to be tomorrow afternoon and evening. it s kind of alarming. two inches an hour. just about two inches an hour. this is not the worst of it so wow, tomorrow could be a mess. what this tells us as you look live at old town alexandria, we re going to have bands of snow. you know when a hurricane throws in its bands, i think that s what we re going to see. clearly there was a heavy band down there. what i want to call your attention to, look how covered the streets are. that s because it s been so cold for so long and the pavement is already cold enough to let this snow pile up. so the roads are going to go downhill very quickly. that is for sure. want to show you again the winter storm warning is up. i almost feel this is from the duh department now. we know the weekend snowstorm is upon us and it will wrap itself up tomorrow night. but between now and then, the snow is going to accumulate quickly. we are talking about roads going ownhill very fast. four to seven inches likely overnight. you already know? places have that already but i m talking metro d.c. and the heaviest snow will arrive saturday afternoon. let s take a look at radar now with gary mcgrady. he s down in the weather center. boy, i m glad we re double teaming this one. we may need three people by tomorrow. i m thinking. the whole team is coming in tomorrow. there s still a lot of dry air in place over the metro area so the snow that is coming up from chaottesville that produced nine inches down there in short order, four five hours, it is encountering the drier air so we re not getting the snow rates up here in the metro that perhaps they were getting down in southwestern sections of virginia. but that is going to change because eventually it s going to overtake the drier air. trueview will show you quite explicitly what is going o. not he has just begun to fall to the north of us along the mason- dixon line e way down to the southwest. let me show you this. we ll just take you down to the southwest a little bit. we have several more hours of snow in our direction. and really this storm system is off of the coast of georgia right now. and it hasn t even become a nor easter. so it s going to start transferring its energy overnight tonight and during the morning hours and set up shop off shore of north carolina. it s just going to continue to snow and snow and snow. and i m going to send it back up to sue palka and she s going to tell you how much snow we re going to end up getting by tomorrow afternoon. it could definitely be one of our historic snow storms. i wanted to touch on that briefly and we ve got all of this information on myfoxdc.com which will be a great resource for you over the next few days. use it and send us your pictures. our four biggest snows in d.c. history, the biggest one of all happens to be the nicker balker snow. the only one that ever produced over 24 inches in d.c. we got 28 out of it. it s nick it goes way back to 19226789 we had a big one in 1999 of 20 inches. also a legendary storm, the february 1979 which inspired a lot of people to get into the weather business. 19 inches then. of course the blizzard of 96 is in fourth place with 17 inches. we may challenge that one. not sure we ll get to that point but the top ten is doable with this storm that is for sure and especially because our rare and very, very surprisingly cold december air has stayed in place. gaithersburg 25. washington 28. baltimore 28 degrees. up to our north this is what we ll be resupplying that big nor easter as it gets even closer. that s why it is expected to explosively deepen during the daylight hours. winter storm warning us for. it will snow all night with 4 to 7 inches expected by dawn. during the day the heavy snow will continue and really be pounding us tomorrow afternoon where we could even in fact see some thunder and lightning, especially off to our east in band, almost those intense bands you might see with a hurricane. there could be a little bit of that going o. if you get that, you ll get two, maybe three inches of snow per hour. 30 degrees for us. that will be the best we can do. notice we re not calling it a blizzard. to get a blizzard you have to have winds sustained over 35. we don t expect that. that s a nice blessing. 4 to 7 inches at 8:00 a.m. 28 degrees. by noon we should see our temperature at 30 degrees and it will be snowing moderately. by 5:00 the heavy snow burst is on, 29 degrees. if you don t have to go out tomorrow, you probably won t be able to go out tomorrow. stay put because we re going to get this thing out of here. check on your neighbors. bring the pets in. and watch this storm as it evolves and we ll be here for you at fox 5. watch the heavy snow at 5:00. give you a little hope. by sunday at midnight, it s starting to look a little less intense. we might see some sunshine on sunday. you may be able to get out and start shoveling some of this. yes, it s going to abwhite christmas, to be a white christmas, maryland, virginia and d.c. on sunday looks like it will be 33 degrees. a little bit of a breeze kicks in then. then temperatures moderate a little bit monday, tuesday and wednesday. we are in mid up toker 30s. so mid- to upper 30s. we re going to be here all day tomorrow keeping myfoxdc.com up to date too and some amazing snow totals in our future. i can t wait till next wednesday. i m waiting for the sun on sunday. that will be great. i think i ll be right there with you. stay safe. our cameras caught the mad dash to grab those last-minute snow supplies today. shoppers packed the hardware stores picking up generators, salt and shovels. many of them headed over to the grocery stores for even more supplies. fox 5 s sherri ly reports. reporter: people left this home depot in alexandria arms full and shopping carts, too. they began arriving when the doors opened at 6:00 a.m. gary adams stocked up on shovels, ice breakers, logs for the fire and ice melt with possible snow totals growing. last night is the first time i heard them say up to 12 inches. 12 inches and 4 inches are a pretty big difference. reporter: across the region hardware stores geared up for the mad dash filling shelves with everything you need to dig out. people loaded up on salt and sand. then headed home to hunker down. what are you going to do tomorrow? probably stay in bed. sounds good to me. reporter: grocery stores the other place to go if you ll be snowed in. this giant store has shelves full of bread and toilet paper to get everyone through. many people started shopping early in the morning. the shelves are emptying before the store can restock and many people are afraid by the end of the day, this will be gone. i have four kids all in school right now until noon so i m trying to do it as fast as i can. reporter: are you afraid things will be gone later? probably. reporter: some shopping for holiday get togethers this weekend fretted whether the snow would ruin the best made plans. sandy has friends coming for dinner saturday. if they can t get there, she s stuck with the food. i ll have to hope there s room in my freezer to put everything in. reporter: adams is from new england. he can handle the snow. he s just not sure everyone else can. a lot of folks don t know how to drive and navigate. so we ve just got to kind of be prepared for the other people. reporter: with the impending snowstorm, forget holida shopping at the mall. the hardware and grocery store are the place to shop. in alexandria, sherri ly, fox 5 news. we re changing our news programming tomorrow with a special edition of fox 5 morning news from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. then ain at 5:00 p.m. we ll also bring you the latest updates on the storm and of course you can go to myfoxdc.com for any changes to the forecast 24/7. time now for the fox 5 end of game of the week. this week the seneca valley eaglesook on the wheaton knights. the matchup grabbed 53% of the vote. lindsay murphy is here now with the highlights from the hard court. reporter: the last two times seneca valley and wheaton met on the basketball caught, wheaton found themselves on the losing end. but tonight was much improsmd. she were improved. they were looking for sweet revenge. the wheaton knights performed at half time. let s check out the game highlights. 1st quarter, senn came valley in seen cea valley in seneca valley in green. they missed the jump start. then wheaton out in front. later more committeeton. later more wheaton. with time winding down in the 1st half, seneca valley takes it the distance. the screaming eagles down at the half 34-22. 2nd half action, seneca would rally. the deficit is cut to just four points. then more from mike. wee drain back-to-back three pointers tying the game 55-55. in the end the home team would come through. this is charles woods tough inside. gets the basket and the foul and then the explanation. good defense for wheaton. wheaton defeats seneca valley 74-62. after a few years of struggle wheaton is on the upswing. we dealt with a little adversity. that s always a good thing. we re trying to get better, trying to progress. it s a long season. we won our fourth game. we re going to continue to play good basketball. this is wheaton. reporter: got to love the good spirits. game of the week will take a break for the holidays and will return after the new year. make sure you log on to myfoxdc.com so you know when to start voting for the next one. will? lindsay, thank you. we have breaking ns, this one coming from the fox 5 weather center. what do you have? will, just a few minutes ago when i was doing the weather i mentioned we weren t calling this a blizzard because winds have to be over 35 miles an hour. guess what? parts of the area are going to see that and a blizzard warning is going to be issued in the morning for the following counties, actually be in effect in the morning for st. mary s, calvert, charles, anne arundel and prince george s county, not that that changes your snow totals but it means your winds could blow at 35 to 40 miles an hour and a lot of blowing and drifting. 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. the blizzard warning will be in effect. fox 5 news at 10:00 will be right back. syo dd a texas man fired for organizing a fanty football league at work is speaking out. he worked at fidelity investments in fort worth, texas. he was fired for gambling after his boss found an instant message on his work computer about fantasy football. what they called me was an organizer of gambling activities by their definition. that s why i was fired. no gambling in the workplace. that makes sense. the problem is this isn t gambling. fidelity released a statement saying participation in any form of gambling through the use of company equipment is prohibited. however, the federal government concluded that playing fantasy sports is not gambling. the