we begin with another bitter cold day in the region. temperatures caused a meltdown on metro. that story in a moment. first, adam caskey has a look at the forecast. very cold start to the day. widespread teens earlier this morning. we had a low of 17 at reagan national. had we dropped one more degree it would ve been the coldest morning since february 2010. instead it was the coldest morning since last january. 24 in oxon hill right now. bristow, 19. helen, 25. this is below freezing everywhere on the weatherbug network. highs will get to about freezing and then drop a few more degrees. upper level energy moving into town. increasing clouds, gray skies. a few snow flurries this evening and tonight. more on that coming up. the bitter cold made for a rough commute on metro this morning. the weather caused multiple cracks along the rail lines. yellow and blue line commuters experienced big delays after a crack between pentagon city and l enfant plaza. that forced trains to
written off iowa, won by a nose with the recently surging rick santorum right on his tail and iowa may have claimed a political casualty. rick perry, following a fifth place finish, he says he is reassessing his campaign. here are the numbers. a record 122,255 straw poll ballots were cast last night. in a truly amazing finish, mitt romney beat rick santorum by just eight votes. ron paul finished third, followed by newt gingrich. susan mcginnis is in des moines with more on this race. some people were surprised at rick santorum. reporter: yes, absolutely. that was unexpected really. this was quite a nail-biter and really something to watch throughout the night. the closest vote, like you said, in iowa caucus history. in the end, mitt romney wins to be the challenger to president obama, at least so far, and he has won by the slimmest margin ever. mitt romney barely squeezed out a win in iowa, with rick santorum trailing just eight votes behind. we are going to change the wh
frederick counties schools are closed. clark schools opening two hours late. in west virginia, hampshire, hardy, pendleton schools all closed. you can find details on our website, nbcwashington.com. and tom kierein is here to tell us about our forecast. it is really cold here. temperatures just plummeted. the bottom fell out. it s all the way down to 10 degrees throughout much of the region this morning. and those potent, vigorous snow showers were like little mini blizzards. they were a little stronger farther to our west. that s why we got the snow closings there because the snow stuck to the roads and caused a lot of accidents and things are slick. right now at reagan national temperature under a clear sky 17 degrees. the coldest morning since last february. the dewpoints zero. it s very, very dry. we are moisture starved. you ll need the skin lotion all day long. look at winchester s temperature. it s only 7 above zero. montgomery county, fairfax county, the low teens
captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a wednesday morning. i m matt lauer. and i m ann curry. oh, what a night and oh, what a story. these results mark the closest in the history of the iowa caucus and as a measure of interest, participants turned out in record numbers. so tight the results weren t announced until the early morning hours. mitt romney s 30,015 to 30,007, that s just eight votes. it s been a remarkable surge for rick santorum, considering he was posing in single digits a few weeks ago. ron paul finished in third. 21%, newt gingrich, rick perry and michele bachmann founding out the field. let us begin with savannah guthrie. good morning. reporter: good morning to you, ann. the first votes cast at this 2012 race, iowa voters provided a photo finish reflecting a divided republican electriorele. romney and rick santorum at one point were within four votes of each ear. an afterthought as one week ago
time rival take back the white house. it s time for barack obama to go back home. and for someone who understands our economy to lead this country. polls show him with a double- digit lead. nutenewt gingrich also has a lot riding on the new hampshire primary. today, he launched this full paper ad, attacking romney. he said voters have a choice, between himself, a reagan conservative and romney. john huntsman, who skipped iowa, has already held 150 events here. you have to be on the ground, shaking hands and have ideas to represent the future of this country. reporter: michele bachmann is no longer in the race. i have decided to stand aside. reporter: she quit after a poor performance in iowa. but rick perry says it s not over for him. we re going to go into places where they have actual primaries. and they re going to be real republicans voting. reporter: perry is focusing on south carolina to reenergize his campaign. in manchester randall pinkston, wjz ey