NBC4 meteorologist Chuck Bell is raising expectations for a prolonged shutdown across the region as a major winter storm bears down on the DC area, saying he does not believe a single school district in the DMV will be open for even one day next week. The post has been shared over 35,000 times in 20 hours.
Bell’s blunt assessment comes as the National Weather Service (NWS) keeps a Winter Storm Warning in effect from 11pm tonight through 4am Monday, with forecasters warning of a high impact event that combines heavy snow, sleet, freezing rain, and dangerously cold temperatures. Snow and sleet totals are expected to range between 7 and 14 inches, with the highest amounts focused in the far northern and western suburbs of Washington and Baltimore. Ice accumulations between one and two tenths of an inch are also forecast, particularly closer to the urban corridor.
NWS forecasters say snow will overspread the region tonight and become heavy at times, with snowfall rates of one to two inches per hour possible. Conditions are expected to deteriorate further Sunday as sleet and freezing rain mix in, especially south of Highway 50. Visibility could drop to a quarter mile or less during periods of heavier precipitation…