Month prison term. Just a little more than an hour ago. Abc 7 Northern Virginia bureau chief Jeff Goldberg was in the courtroom when it happened. He joins us live from richmond with reaction. Jeff . This was an unexpected verdict based on the day began. They recommended guidelines of 10 to 12 years. Earlier today, the judge knocking that down to 6 1 2 to eight years as the guidelines based on questions about perjury and bribery. Before the judge finally committed to a decision of a sentence of two years in prison for former governor Bob Mcdonnell. Here is footage of the former governor walking into court this morning. He did not make a comment. During the hearing today, defense calling 11 character witnesses speaking very highly of the former governor including former Virginia Governor doug wilder who seemed to be very affected. Defense attorneys said so and thought so. He actually called out star witness for the prosecution Johnny Williams for having no punishment at all. That drew a big applause from the courtroom. Judge James Spencer spoke before issuing his sentence and seemed to be very moved by the nearly 450 letters written on behalf of governor mcdonnell and giving a lot of credit to the former governors military service. Its clear that he was a thoughtful and decent man. The judge disparaged Johnny Williams calling him a snake and serpent. After the decision today governor mcdonnell thanking the judge for showing mercy. I have failed at times in some of the judgments that i have made during the course of my governorship that have hurt myself my family and for my beloved people of virginia. For that im deeply, deeply sorry. Heres now, two quotes from court today. Judge spencer before issuing his decision saying the entire case has been tragic from beginning to end and Bob Mcdonnell stood before the judge before the decision was issued saying i stand before you as a humble and heart broken man. Maureen mcdonnell was in court today and addressing judge spencer, Bob Mcdonnell says he hopes the judge shows mercy on his wife. The prosecution seemed a little bit miffed after the decision was made today. However, they did comment saying they were want going to give any opinion about the actual sentencing only saying that any punishment in this situation is good for trying to discourage other politicians from going down a similar route. The appeals process has already begun and the paperwork has filed. To wrap it up, governor Bob Mcdonnell, two years in prison. Far less of what many expected going into today. Well have more on the situation as its developing quickly. Join us again at 5 00 and 6 00. Until then, live in richmond Jeff Goldberg. Thank you very much. Back to our other top story of the day. Because there was lots of anger this morning after six local School Systems decided to open on time. D. C. As well as anne arundel, prince william, loudoun, fairfax and arlington counties all asked students to report on time. In fact in arlington, trash collection was suspended but kids still went to school. Late this morning, the School System issued a statement that read in part we apologize for the problems this mornings weather caused our community. Members of our staff were monitoring the situation very early this morning. And the decision to open was made with the best information we had at that time. However, weather conditions change during the Morning Hours and there was a greater accumulation of snow than had been forecast. Fairfax county issued a similar sentiment and diane cho is live there with some of the outrage tonight. Diane . Well, alison a lot of parents we talked to today say they were just upset about what happened and part of the problem had to do with the fact that the conditions out here were much worse than they expected. Some parts of the county received as much as four inches of snow here on the ground today. Because of the weather the district did end up cancelling all afternoon activities today but many parents were left scrambling this morning trying to figure out how to get their kids to school on time today. A lot of people went on social media sites to voice their frustrations making closefcps one of the top trending topics in the world at one point. We talked to a teacher stuck in traffic andened up being two hours late. One mother said her daughter got on the bus at 6 30 and didnt even make it to school until 10 45. I sent mine to the neighbor with the four wheel drive and even that school is very close to us it took them 45 minutes in a four wheel drive vehicle. Now, the School System sent out a second letter and message to parents today apologizing for what happened. It also goes on to say that students who missed classes will be excused today. In Fairfax County, diane cho, abc 7 news. Ok diane thank you very much. Meanwhile, Loudoun County schools also caused a stir by opening on time. County School Spokesperson says the decision was made about 4 30 a. M. After the director of transportation and 18 other Staff Members drove around various parts of the county to survey the roads. Once the kids were at school it was the safest place for them to stay. More from Loudoun County coming up at 5 00 p. M. Those decisions, of course sent students and their parents straight to, you guessed it social media this morning. At 10 15, six of the top 10 twitter trends in d. C. Dealt with the weather. Yeah, and you can see that included the call to close Fairfax County schools and the Public Information service in Loudoun County talked about that as well. Joesy at our live desk right now talking about how you sounded off today. The answer is loudly. The twittersphere sounded off today. One local School District took heavy fire eventually trending across the country. We want to show you closefcps had thousands of tweets today. We have to show you what some of the people had to say. This is one my favorites. Days end up with a lot of spare time. Someone had time to cross stitch closefcps. They had a lot of free time. Parents, free angry about this. Check it out. My kids are at school today. Have to get them home safe where they should have been. For shame fcps. Teacher still in a ditch. Other handling classes, apology not accepted. People did not care that the district came back and we saw lots of pictures of the conditions. This one is a school bus in an area in Fairfax County. This one pointing out snow and ice covered roads in annandale but schools still opened today. Parents very upset about this. Because of social media they took it out on this man. Hes actually a member of the school board. He doesnt make the call about the snow closing but people went crazy on this guy. Have to feel bad for him. Given the decision not to close the schools today is terrible. Clearly, we screwed up. Im sorry about the hardship brought on by so many. He is firing back at some of the critics even though hes not to blame, social media as we know, though, gives everybody a voice when they are angry and they certainly had a lot to say today. At the live desk joesy sturman, abc 7 news. Our question of the day is asking about the decisions by our local School Systems concerning todays snow. Go to our wjla Facebook Page and share your thoughts there and well share some of them a little bit later in this newscast. Scott . Abc 7 Stormwatch Team predicted, the lions share of the snow came right in time for the morning rush and that made it difficult for snow plows to do their work. This is what traffic looked like at 7 30 this morning. And all of that red represents gridlock just about everywhere. Maryland bureau chief brad bell was out tracking the mess all day long and hes now live in Silver Spring. Brad . Yeah commuters were seeing red today, scott. Just about everywhere they looked. This is one of the worst morning commutes, weatherrelated morning commutes a lot of people can remember. Tonight, a little bit better. This is New Hampshire avenue. You can see its going beautifully in both directions. Wet pavement, no slippery issues. Here in Silver Spring, you can see the snow fell to about three inches in depth. Not a whole lot but boy, did we take a look at the pictures of that morning commute, you can see the mess that it made. The issue was timing. There was the forecast for snow. State Highway Administration tells us when we asked them why it was so bad that they got out, they got things pretreated but the rush hour happens at exactly the wrong time with the snow falling. And the truck was stuck in the same traffic everybody else was. The end result, as we talked to the commuters, a lot of anger. Nothing was plowed. Nothing was plowed at all so not much on the road so thats all it takes. Started out this morning, i started driving to work from arlington and my car slid into a curb and i said nope. As far as people are driving slow, everything is fine. Been a lot of people driving very erratically and not doing well. Well were certainly still asking questions about what happened this morning and coming up at 5 00 youll hear directly from the state Highway Administration engineer responsible for this area. What he says about why things went so bad this morning. In Silver Spring, brad bell abc 7 news. What a mess. Thank you, brad. Between 5 00 and 10 45 a. M. Virginia state police tells abc 7 news that officers responded to almost 100 crashes in prince william, fairfax, loudoun and arlington counties as well as in the city of alexandria. That included this jackknifed tractortrailer on i66 in Fairfax County parkway. Westbound lanes were closed for an hour and a half. Rather, halfhour. While crews cleaned up that mess. The Virginia Department of transportation says it has more than 850 salt trucks as well as plows working in Northern Virginia and they will be working throughout the night to fend off any refreeze. We will have continuing coverage of this mornings storm throughout this afternoon. At 4 15 were going to have a look at the flight delays. Then at 4 17 well take you to baltimore. Well have a look at the snowfall there. At 4 24, some people taking advantage of the day off to have fun in the snow. Then at 4 30 7 is on your side trying to get residents to turn their heat back on before we hit the deep freeze. At 4 45 a look at the chill as it spread across the nation. Find out about any closings or delays tomorrow morning on our website at wjla. Com. Coming up on abc 7 news at 4 00, the 114th congress is now in session. A little later, Montgomery County moves forward in the debate over when to start school. If you live in d. C. Youre supposed to have one of these to clear your walks. We talk a walk with mayor Muriel Bowser today as she talked about how t right now, we want to check on flight delays due to todays weather and we just checked flight aware and flights at Reagan National airport are delayed by an average of hour and nine minutes. B. W. I. Marshall airport seeing delays on average of about 40 minutes. There are no delays at Dulles International right now. All right. Todays snow was the first big test for mayor Muriel Bowsers new administration. And d. C. Bureau chief sam ford is live in the capitol hill neighborhood that the mayor toured today and sam, we understand you talked to her about the citys new snow shovelling law that youre putting into action right there . This is actually my block and the law in d. C. Is that you have to shovel your block. And in fact they passed a new law last year saying they would fine you if you did not shovel in your block. So i as you can see, ive got a lot of block to shovel because im kind of the only house in this section of the street here on capitol hill. But we talked to the mayor about this and a number of other things today. And she had her first day of dealing with the snow as mayor. So all of our people right now are out clearing the streets. Theyre not out writing tickets. That was mayor Muriel Bowser talking about the snow. For d. C. The first snow meant Power Outages in some 6100 customers in northwest after an underground cable blew. And the citys reid center lost power forcing the mayor to move her News Conference to a facility in southeast. Officials told reporters that the snow came earlier and heavier than anticipated and they had more than 200 trucks out. Mayor bowser then walked around the capitol hill neighborhood here in this area where she asked people how the city dealt with the snow. So thats a situation from here. Back to you. Keep shovelling there, sam. Take it easy. All right, time for a check on the traffic situation with bob in the wtop Traffic Center with details. What a day. What a day. What a morning. Afternoon is much quieter with very little delay out there. We have a few spots where it is slow on 95 and a crash before on route 17 on the shoulder now and southeastsouthwest freeway quite slow. Outer loop heading south in the sun, a little bit of volume. Inner loop through bethesda and Silver Spring as well not too bad out there for the most part. We have some areas that will get quite slippery as the temperature continues to drop into the evening hours. One of the few places that youll see the delays this afternoon. Rush hour is lighter here at the beltway on connecticut avenue with traffic running pretty much at speed. Im bob emler for wtop radio. Thank you very much bob. The weather is also causing problems across the country including to our north in baltimore. Our meteorologist emily gracie in baltimore maryland where we have been dealing with snow this morning. Amounts arent that high. Our temperatures have been right around 20 degrees throughout much of the day. So we get this light fluffy snow thats very hard to get off the roadways. Take a look at it. The roads are covered in snow and ice. Folks are moving along very, very slowly on their way into work today. And its going to be that case throughout much of the morning and even into the afternoon as temperatures do not rise above freezing. This snow is a very light fluffy snow. Where were talking about totals about one to three inches so what is that light and that fluffy . Good for snowballs and good for staying inside and looking. In baltimore, maryland im meteorologist emily gracie. Well, around here we had a messy morning. You know . Yeah we had a messy morning. I was watching steve rudin at 11 00 and he was saying they were talking about two to three or whatever. But it is going to be horrible in the morning because the timing. When it started. And it was beyond horrible. It was awful. Rush hour will be a little bit better. Concern for tonight is the ice. Any slush or mush or water will freeze because were at below freezing now. Take a look at the scene from our camera. This in centreville, virginia Cardinal Ridge elementary school. This typifies most of the area today. We started with snow when you woke up this morning. Pretty to see. Through the day, snow would be falling and the snow moved out and the snow crews back to work. Melted the roadways and now we have clear skies and temperatures will drop quickly after sunset here. A quick look at some of the snow totals, middleburg wins the prize, mostly five inches. Father south and east you go, lesser amounts and as you go far enough south like in hagerstown only an inch. The impact and timing was exactly what we feared and you saw the results this morning. 2 1 2 hour drive for me which normally takes about 40 minutes. I think the rush home will be a little better. Watch the temperatures falling from the 20s into the teens tonight. 14 to 23 degrees. By morning, it will be cold and then through the day tomorrow the next even strong winds that will be developing around the area. Take a look at the futurecast. Wind disturbance move to the north and that will coming in on the backside. Very strong, gusty winds. Snow showers and snow squalls in the mountains and maybe some flurries for us. Wind chills will be a factor. In fact this is a look at future wind chills through the night and day tomorrow. Wind chill, single numbers and the teens. As we get through tomorrow night, it will get even colder. Wind chills will be down and low single numbers and entire period for tomorrow, tomorrow night into thursday brutally cold wind chills and get a little bit of a break from the wind but not from the cold. Look at thursdays high and warm up greatly on friday. Turn colder again on saturday. Warm up a little bit sunday monday and tuesday. With that they are still a bit below average. So my word is that winter has finally arrived. You think . Yeah. Not so subtly. All right. Thank you. Well, todays weather as were talking about it could take a toll as well on the Virginia House of delegates. Well explain how coming up. And then a little bit later, the head of sony i check this out, the ice and snow festival is under way in northwest chinas city. Its claimed to be the largest snow themed park in the world and the crystal land includes ice, snow and visitors can also enjoy more than 100 games and winter activities such as a giant ice slide. Well this was a really messy morning all around our area. And we want to check in with our crews who have been out in it today. Yeah, jay has been tracking the traffic on the roads in mobile track 7 right now. What do you see out there . Hey, guys. Right now, the main roads are great. Were right off old keene mill in West Springfield and well take a right on to keene and we saw this moments ago. We wanted to stop the car and you can see on the right side of the road a little faster here but this road is a little slick. This is the issue with the side road. Very, very slick right now. You can see this mercedes off the road. Its probably been there for quite a while. And this is the problem with the side road. The plow and the salt truck and all that kind of stuff getting back immediately. And you can see this road with the sky road connects is slick and nasty. There were just between 5 30 and 11 30, Fairfax County authority, guys, almost 250 crashes just in Fairfax County alone. Since then conditions have improved. But these side roads, thats the real dicey problem. Well stay out here for the next hour, couple of hours, well see if theres anymore problems and well get back to you. Tell ron to drive safely. All right. This mornings snow made for an ugly commute, as we know, but it was certainly beautiful as it fell. True. That meant for some fun for kids that didnt have to go to school. Montgomery county reporter kevin lewis picked up that kind of Winter Weather alert from rockville tonight. Kevin . Hey there, scott and alison. This snowfall came too late for the holiday season. Alas, it is here and its on the ground. Yes, countless headaches on the roadways this morning but really did bring a significant amount of joy and cheer. Most notably to children all across the metropolitan area. Now, if you live in rockville, youre probably familiar with the sledding hill at Civic Center Park right next to rockville high school. Thats where we found a group of kids and adults flying down the hillside at speeds of 25 miles an hour. One father he has the sledding routine down so well he bought a portable propane heater to stay warm and a rope to help back up that steep and snowy embankment. Across town we ran into 6yearold twins, mom woke up this morning and broke the news that school was canceled. Needless to say they werent too disapointed. You get to jump and make snow angels and make snowmans and then you can throw snowballs throw snow at your brother feel the wind and like the snow in your face and its really fun. Sledding. Why sledding . You can only do this two times of the year. And if you are still at home looking for a way to fill the rest of your day, you can come down here to Rockville Town Center and hit the ice. It costs around 10 to skate and theres still plenty of time. No hurry. This ice skating rink open until 10 00 tonight. Were live in rockville, im kevin lewis, abc 7 news. All right. Thank you kevin. Montgomery county students may have missed school today but its the future thats on the minds of the board of education. Still ahead on abc 7 news at 4 00, the step theyre taking when it comes to changing the start of school time. Plus members of Congress Kick off the 114th session on capitol hill. Got a look at some of the issues theyll be dealing with this year. Horace holmes and with all this snow and freezing temperatures, people in this southeast is there an elk in your bed . With sleep number, now theres an adjustment for that. You can only find sleep number at a sleep number store. Right now find the lowest prices of the season, with the c3 Queen Mattress set only 1199. 98. Know better sleep with sleep number. All right. Well, first it was all that snow. Now, the cold. Olutely. Chief meteorologist doug hill with this Winter Weather alert. Its going to be a cold week. Thats going to start arriving and into the day on thursday. 29 outside of the weather center. Show you other temperatures now with clear skies. 27 in gaithersburg. 28 near Andrews Air Force base. 27 degrees in annapolis and by tomorrow morning the air temperatures in the teens to low 20s and through the day tomorrow, the wind will become the big story. In fact an upper level disturbance passing to the north will bring in very gusty winds to 40 miles per hour. And also some streamers of snow showers and flurries from the great lakes much dont be surprised to see flurries tomorrow with highs in the upper 20s and then it will get colder by tomorrow night and for the day on thursday. Heres our forecast for wednesday. Sunny, becoming blustery onedwindy, highs holding in the 20s. With strong wind it will feel colder. Any warm days in our seven day . Hang around in a couple of minutes and ill let you know alison. See you then. Thank you. People living in one local Apartment Building are hoping that management can come to their rescue before that bitter cold really sets in. They havent had heat since november, if you can believe that. Trouble shooter Horace Holmes live outside the building in southeast now with more. Horace . Alison actually just inside the foyer here and let me tell you the temperatures inside this building arent much warmer than they are out here. As you said the residents here claim that the heat has been off in this building since november. We met earlier today 80yearold Gladys Spencer who lives on the second floor of this building. Shes never seen anything like this, shes lived here since 198 1981. She and her granddaughter live here to stay warm over these months shes very, very concerned. Her granddaughter is concerned over miss spencers health. Not only is the heat out but so the hot water. Dont have central air or central heating so it is powered by these which are ice cold. Coming up tonight at 5 00 we talked with d. C. Housing. Inspectors are coming here. Well give you the latest on whats going on with the heat situation and how the people are going to make it through this cold snap. Thats coming over therse of this week. Reporting live in southeast, Horace Holmes, abc 7 news. Such a difficult situation horace. Thank you. Todays weather could have an impact on the special election to fill a seat in the Virginia House of delegates. Voters in parts of loudoun and fairfax counties are voting to fill the 34th district seats. That is the seat that is held or had been held by Barbara Comstock before she was elected last fall. Polls are open in that special election until 7 00 p. M. Barbara comstock is one of the incoming freshmen in the 114th congress. Shes hoping republicans are in full control for the first time in eight years. A new era of divided government begins today in washington. Mr. Mcconnell of kentucky. Republicans now control the house and senate. Setting up inevitable showdowns with president obama. John boehner was once again elected house speake but not without drama. A dozen of his fellow republicans revolted backing other candidates. Boehner now controls the largest republican majority in more than 80 years but faces significant challenges from some conservatives. Still going to have to assuage a lot of the party members. We recognize the enormity of the task before us and we know a lot of hard work awaits. And he has an aggressive agenda. Approving the controversial keystone x. L. Pipeline tax reform and reversing president obamas executive actions on immigration. Mitch mcconnell wants to start hitting some singles and doubles and hes doing a pretty savvy thing in saying if the American People are putting us on probation and giving us a tryout here, we have to deliver. White house said today that president obama recognizes an opportunity for democrats and republicans to work together. The key to doing that is not the frequency of the conversations, but more the willingness from people on both sides to try to find common ground. There will of course, be meetings. President obama invited top congressional leaders to the white house next week to begin working on a shared agenda. Reporting from northwest, karen traverse abc 7 news. We know one lawmaker not on capitol hill today. Were talking about senates top democrat harry reid who is recovering his d. C. Apartment per doctors orders. Senator reid was hospitalized last week after suffering broken ribs and facial bones during a workout at his home in nevada. The 75yearold also suffered a concussion. Reid will assume the role of minority leader when he returns. Hundreds of mourners including former president bill clinton gathered to pay their respects and say a final farewell to new york governor mario cuomo. Cuomos funeral took place this morning at st. Ignacious church in manhattan. He died last thursday of Natural Causes due to heart failure. It happened hours after his son, Governor Andrew Cuomo was inaugurated for a second term. Mario cuomo was 82 years old. New at 4 00 the Montgomery County board of education is moving forward in considering adjusting the start and end times for students. The board will begin hearing public input next week on several proposals to allow students to sleep in. Depending on the plan the change could cost nothing or it could cost up to 6 million. Superintendent Kenneth Starr recommended against the changes over the summer because of those potential costs. Two of the top catholic universities are joining up to offer students an education experience right at the heart of the catholic church. The Catholic University of america and australian Catholic University are creating a new joint rome center. The satellite campus will be located a mile from the vatican and set to open in the fall. Beautiful place. No kidding. Coming up at 4 00 a prominent lawyer goes to court to try to clear his name in a brewing underaged sex scandal. Then a little bit later, friends remember two budding u. S. Athletes killed in an avalanche overseas. But first, the head of sony is talking about the hack attack on the company for the first time. What he has to say about it coming up next. There are new developments surrounding the sony cyber hack. Sonys c. E. O. Is speaking out publicly for the First Time Since hackers broke into the Computer Systems at his hollywood studio. I think that Sony Pictures entertainment, former employees and certainly current employees, they were, unfortunately, the victims of one of the most vicious and malicious Cyber Attacks that weve known certainly in recent history. He addressed the controversy at the annual Consumer Electronics show out in las vegas. Sony initially canceled the Christmas Day release of the interview after major theater chains pulled out and the hackers threatened violence. Sony then of course reversed course releasing the film in just a few hundred theaters and through paid tv services. Final pretrial conference for the murder case of former new england patriot Aaron Hernandez is now over. Jury selection is set to begin on friday in fall river, massachusetts. Hes pleaded not guilty to murdering the semiprofessional Football Player in 2013. In a separate case, hernandez also pleaded not guilty in the 2012 killings of two men in boston. Meanwhile, jury selection continues today in the trial of the bombing suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev. He watched yesterday as the first of 1200 perspective jurors filled out questionnaires and answered questions. He faces 30 federal charges connected to that bombing. More than 260 others were wounded. The government is seeking death penalty. That trial will begin in three weeks. Prominent American Lawyer alan alan durshwitz is fighting back against allegations that he had sex with underaged girls. She claims that the selfmade billionaire forced her to sex slavery to please his wealthy and powerful friends including dershwitz and britains prince andrew. Both dershwitz and Buckingham Palace have denied these allegations. The clock is ticking to find the black boxes from airasia flight 8501. Still to come, we have a look at the progress crews were able to make today. A look at the want to knowow hard it can be. To breathe with copd . It can feel like this. Copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Spiriva is a oncedaily inhaled. Copd maintenance treatment. That helps open my airways for a full 24 hours. You know, spiriva helps me breathe easier. Spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace rescue inhalers for sudden symptoms. Tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. These may worsen with spiriva. Discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. Stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens your throat or tongue swells,. You can get hives, vision changes or eye pain or problems passing urine. Other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. Nothing can reverse copd. Spiriva helps me breathe better. Sfx blowing sound. Does breathing with copd. Were back now with a look at a Pretty Amazing sight here on lake superior. This is called sea smoke. And it comes off the lake when the weather gets extremely cold. It happens when that air is colder than the water. And that creates some steam just above the surface. Lake superior is averaging about 36 degrees right now with air temperature in the teens below zero. Look at that. Beautiful from afar. From a camera afar right . Exactly. The taste of the arctic cold is tightening its grip on much of the country. And you know what . Were next in line for the chill. Marcy gonzalez live in new york city with more. Marcy . Alison and scott we are feeling it here in central park. And as we brace for even more cold tomorrow, some are making it the most of this Winter Weather. If only we could just focus on how much fun a snow day can be. This giant panda at the Smithsonian National zoo in washington, d. C. Revelling in her first winter play day. The rest of the country, not loving it quite so much. Snow wreaking havoc on roads from the midwest to the east coast. Sending school buses in the Nations Capital sliding off roads. As many as 20 cars piling up on this minnesota highway in iowa and indiana, crash after crash. Simply driving too fast. People think because they can see the pavement theyre ok to drive 50 60 miles an hour. The weight of the snow in north idaho tipping houseboats. Ran out the door in her pajamas and said were getting out of here. They were saying the same along the coast in atlantic city, new jersey from the beach to the brutal lake effect conditions in new york where theyre digging out from more than two feet of snow. While in chicago, some Flight Cancellations and delays but no major complaints. Yet. Pretty windy and wet. Pretty powdery snow. Not so bad today. Tomorrow yeah. Tomorrow, i might stay home from work. Thats because tomorrow, the temperatures are expected to drop even more. The push of arctic air bringing dangerous cold to the Northern Plains and western great lakes where wind chill readings in some areas could drop to 50 degrees below zero. Its not just there tomorrow. 2 3 of the country will see a few drop in temperatures. Even parts of florida will be well below freezing. Marcy gonzalez, abc 7 news. Ok marcy. Thank you. And of course, the snow is the big topic of conversation on social media today. Our question of the day is asking what you thought about how the region responded. Sylvia posted about the schools asking why place people and personnel in danger. What do you think fairfax would have done . And one writes. No reason to close. A delay would have been enough. Diane knows that parents have to use their own common sense. If the weather is that bad, nobody should have to tell you to keep your kids home. You can join the conversation on our wjla Facebook Page. And doug you know, last night at 11 clock 0011 00, we knew that the morning rush would be a big mess. Thats exactly what happened. The timing temperatures as cold as they were before we had much traffic got the initial coating down and it was off to the races, you know and all the problems got worse from there. Couple more inches in spots, but the impact was awful and now this evening, we have a separate kind of issue and that would be icy spots and tomorrow, the winds become more. This is a live look from rooftop camera and the sun sets today at 5 01. Daylight hours getting a little longer. Mostly clear skies and again, the concern is the slush and mush and standing water on the ground that will refreeze quickly after the sun goes down and many areas still just slightly, though below freezing. Much below freezing late tonight. Just a quick look at a few accumulations. Reagan national airport, 2. 4 inches. So that officially goes in the book for the snowfall for washington, d. C. 4. 2 at dulles 2. 3 at b. W. I. And thurgood marshall. Instead of one to two we got three closer to four to the north. What a mess from a small amount of snow mainly because of the time of day it began. 31 at Reagan National now. 28 at winchester. 27 in baltimore. And early tomorrow morning, its going to be clear. But it is going to be really cold. Mid teens with icy spots galore and eventually in the day the winds will develop out of the northwest and its going to be blustery. Call for a fair amount of sunshine early but through the afternoon, small winds developing and a few snow flurries through the day. How strong of winds . Were talking northwesterly winds at 20 to 25 miles an hour gusting to 30 to 35. With these temperatures, that will drive the wind chills into the Single Digits during the day tomorrow. Any warmth ahead . Not on thursday. As we only climb to the upper teens to low 20s. Friday, well get back in the upper 30s. Turned colder saturday with sunshine. Bit warmer on sunday. Then the next system comes in and we put the mix of rain and snow with the 30 probability for monday where we have several days to iron out those details and see what might happen. Short term cold icy spots tonight and tomorrow. Strong winds and flurry tomorrow during the day. Thank you. Ok. Time now for a check on the traffic situation. Lets get to bob emler in the wtop Traffic Center with details. How are we doing out there . Scott, its were talking about as the temperature drops and sun goes down, icy spots will be a problem overnight and into tomorrow morning as we didnt get a lot of drying out on some of the interstates. Very little of that. So its going to be icy out there tomorrow morning. So certainly, going to have to give yourself some extra time to go in. 95 in virginia great pace. Beyond, that pace is pretty good and beltway traffic on the outer loop of tysons creek, were slow with the sun setting, starting to ease up now. 270, northerly, each running well and in fact traffic on 395 come south and headed south at the pentagon and traffic is running at speed. Im bob emler for 103. 5 wtop radio. Thank you, bob. Coming up at 4 00 well have reaction to the deaths of two the bodies of two more victims of the airasia crash have been recovered near indonesia. That brings the total to 39. 162 people were on board when that plane went down in the java sea december 28th. Search crews located seven large objects on the ocean floor. But the weather and the strong current continued to pose real problems and has forced crews to expand their search area. The batteries in the pingers in the flight data recorders will likely go dead in about 20 days. It was a sad day on the slopes. The u. S. Ski team is mourning two members killed in an avalanche yesterday. This rea of shook up the entire sport. The young men were top prospects, training with their team in the austrian alps near where they were about to compete. Heres more now as friends and family remember the young athletes. The u. S. Flag flew at half staff at the world cup slalom event in croatia today. Ronnie berlack and bryce astle were rising stars in u. S. Skiing. They were remembered with a moment of silence after they were overtaken by a sudden avalanche in the austrian alps. The rescue crews were on the scene immediately with multiple helicopters and other rescue crew. They were able to extricate the two skiers but unfortunately, it was too late. Avalanches can whip down mountain mountainsides of speeds of 80 miles an hour. My name is bryce astle. Im an alpine ski racer out of sandy, utah and im 19 years old. For bryce astle, seen here in a you tube clip, skiing in the hope of olympic glory propelled him. Whether it was ski racing or free skiing. Skiing was in ronnie berlacks blood. His parents are both ski instructors in New Hampshire. Always had a big smile on his face. Always real happy to see him and the type of kid that would come in and say hi and look at you and smile. Their coach says that u. S. Skiing is pulling together in competition today, they wore black arm bands to remember their fallen teammates. In new york lona zack, abc 7 news. Its ridiculous that it just happened. Outrage as a winter storm brings a real commuter disaster. About a half dozen School Systems refused to cancel or even delay classes. How those districts are responding tonight. I have never, ever betrayed my sacred oath of office. What the former Virginia Governor headed to prison Bob Mcdonnells somber reaction to the sentence handed down for his public corruption conviction. Plus a little bit of a slip for House Speaker john boehner right there as congress returns. The battle lines already being drawn as the white house and the g. O. P. Takes control of congress. Well, we begin, though with that Winter Weather alert, that caused so many problems throughout the area. The abc 7 storm team is on the clock tonight showing you not only what has happened but what to expect as the sun begins to set. For more on that and the impact of blast of frigid air will have on tomorrow morning, well begin with chief meteorologist doug hill. Doug . Scott, sunset two minutes from now and temperatures below freezing. Most areas even more so as the night goes on and that will be an issue. Check out temperatures now across the area. 25 in gaithersburg. 25 in hagerstown. 30 in manassas. 27 in annapolis and talk a good 10 degrees off those temperatures late tonight and overnight. See temperatures continue to slide into the lower 20s. Breezes will pick up a bit. Maybe in some spots, that might dry off a few roadway surfaces interstates and the beltway especially but icy patches will be a real concern in most spots as temperatures drop to between 14 and 22 degrees by tomorrow morning under mostly clear skies and through the day tomorrow, big surge of arctic air will start. Temperatures will be a bit deceiving. Well be in the upper 20s. It wont be arctic chill but the winds gusting to 35 and possibly 45 miles an hour will drive the wind chills into the single numbers tomorrow. There may be flurries and it will be even colder here for the day on thursday. Whats up with that . Whats down the road few more days . Well cover that in full detail with the seven day outlook coming up in a few minutes. Well see you then. Thank you so much. Several area School Districts are taking heat for their decision not to close or even delay classes this morning. Among them one of the biggest districts in the area. Fairfax county public schools. Tonight, Horror Stories are emerging of parents attempts to get their kids to class. Diane cho live in falls church with what the parents are saying and the School Systems response as well. Diane . Well alison the School System say