TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. In our National Lead, this winter's nasty weather just goes on and on, starting with floods that unleashed rivers of mud in California last week. The storm stretched east over the weekend bringing freezing temperatures across the Midwest. Four deaths in this hour and several inches of snow in D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia today. Here in Washington, D.C., the federal government shut down and votes in Congress were postponed. CNN's Erin McPike is on the National Mall with more. Hi, Erin. How is it looking out there right now? I've got to drive home.</s>ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it's very slippery. It's really icy. I want you to look at some of this down here and that is the reason why Reagan National Airport saw 80 percent of its flights canceled today. It's been a big problem throughout the whole country. There have been 3,700 or so flight delayed across the country and about 2,800 cancellations. The bulk of those have been in Washington and Baltimore and Philadelphia. But obviously, a lot of eastern traffic in the United States goes through those three airports. So that's why we see such a problem there. Obviously this system has socked the whole country to give you a sense of how bad it is, temperatures in Dallas dropped in 24 hours from 81 degrees to 17 degrees. We've seen temperatures in the plain states go 30 to 40 degrees below. Obviously closed schools all over the country have been shut down today and we're not seeing an end in sight. Our CNN weather team tells us that we are going to see two more pushes of cold air this week -- Jake.</s>TAPPER: Brutal. Erin McPike, always with the good news. Thank you so much. That's it for THE LEAD. I am Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer. He is in "THE SITUATION ROOM." Mr. Blitzer, take it away.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN SITUATION ROOM HOST: Jake, thanks very much.
D.C., Baltimore And Philadelphia Blasted With Snow