now at 11:00, two wild bay area pursuits, a man scaling fences and hiding in sheds, another fleeing a fast food heist that came to a crashing end. our helicopter crew was almost as busy as the cops. and a storm moving in bringing a whole lot of snow to the sierra. plus how some south bay residents are trying to prevent a repeat of this disastrous flooding. can you believe some people waited an hour in line for this? >> i smell sweaty feet. >> like sweaty socks, sweaty gym clothes.

from kpix, this is the late news with sara donchey on cbs news bay area. >> hello. i'm sara donchey. rain is getting closer to us here in the bay area. that is nothing compared to what they are about to see in the mountains. paul, this could be an epic snowstorm in the sierra, right? >> yeah. we're talking about the potential of setting 24 hour snowfall records at the central sierra snowfall lab, which is a place that has some pretty high standards for those snowfall records. it's that level of storm. let's get to the details. this is a rain event for the bay area. we want to start by talking about the big picture setup of what's going to happen. two different factors at play, moisture surging towards us from the southwest, a low end atmospheric river even if qualifies as that, right on the threshold, but a lot of cold air diving in from the northwest. those two factors will send rain showers across the bay area, cold rain showers. it's really going to maximize the snow potential in the sierra with the air trying

to run uphill, gets squeezed out and the snow levels will so be far down, about 1,000, 2,500 feet or so that as you go up in elevation, we'll really add up a ton of snow. if you were determined to hit the roads, do not do that. we'll say that over and over again. here's what you'll be looking at from colfax at 2,400 feet, a few inches of snow, up to blue canyon about one mile up 4 to 6 feet of snow and donner summit, 9 to 12 feet of snow accumulating from the start of the system tomorrow through sunday when the blizzard warning is going to expire, 10:00 a.m. sunday. if you're going on highway 50, do not do, that but this what is you would run into, 1 to 3 feet around pollock pines up to echo summit 5 to 8 feet of snowfall and gusting winds at 60 to 100 miles an hour, whiteout conditions. that's the big concern here and the snowfall rates friday, friday night and saturday as soon as road crews try to plow things off and

clear the roads, the snow will fall so heavily it will cover the roads in minutes. around the bay area the rain won't be heavy enough to lead to any significant flooding threat, but it's going to be showery beginning tomorrow, light to moderate rainfall, increasingly chilly rain through the weekend. we'll talk more about that coming up in a few minutes. >> i hope people heed the warnings, paul. tonight time is running out for people already in the sierra to stock up and hunker down. we sent kelsi thorud to truckee where just about everyone is out while they still can be. >> reporter: with the season's first major storm just hours away people living in the higher elevations of the sierra are making sure they have everything they need to safely ride it out. >> we're chopping firewood, making sure we have shovels, making sure we have all the food we need. we're all set. >> what they said is this is

the biggest dump since 2020. i remember as soon as i shoveled the deck, i go back inside, look out and there was another foot, two feet. it just accumulated so fast. we'll see. >> reporter: local hardware stores saw a steady stream of customers coming in grabbing last minute essentials. >> will stay open as long as the town of truckee or chp doesn't ask us to close. >> reporter: employees say they don't expect to have to close during this coming storm, but are cautioning people to prepare for the worst. >> we don't know what the power is going to be like, whether we'll run out of power. so definitely with having that extra storage of canned goods that don't go bad as well as having a way to keep the items cold in the fridge so that if you have a power outage, you aren't losing your food. >> reporter: most people are taking this storm seriously, preparing for anything while also getting excited for the

sight of fresh snow. >> it's going to be a good one. you can tell. hopefully everyone is safe and just stays inside and has power. if not, shovel and have fun. >> reporter: most of the people we spoke with told us they feel prepared going into this storm. they bought all the supplies they can think of. now it's just time to hunker down and wait and see what comes. whenever a big storm rolls in, people who spent years living near coyote creek in san jose are service nervous something like this could happen. 14,000 people had to evacuate, some rescued by boat, this flood causing $100 million in damage. >> it freaked out a lot of people, okay? there's a lot of people here with multiple families in these homes. they didn't know where to go. i think it was like 12:00 at

night they started telling people get out of their homes and people started grabbing their stuff and leaving. >> luckily robert's home was spared, but the flood caught a lot of people off guard. now there is a plan to prevent something like that from happening again. the valley water district is building a steel barrier along the creek. nine miles of walls are going up between montague expressway and tully road. the walls will be 15 feet high. we've learned the people accused of robbing the lafayette taco bell before crashing their getaway car are suspected in more armed robberies in solano and marin counties earlier today. 24-year-old oakland man and 39-year-old sacramento woman had a 7-year-old boy in their car at the time. that was just one of two chases happening in the bay area today at about the same time and andrea nakano shows us the other one technically isn't over yet.

>> reporter: at first glance this looks like a man parking his gray pickup truck in east oakland. he casually gets out and slowly walks up the street until two motorcycle officers from the oakland police department show up. the suspect takes off running, jumping into a backyard. he jumps fence after fence at times stopping to take off his sweatshirt and take a break, but he doesn't give up. he keeps going from one backyard to another. at one point he jumps into a yard with two dogs. police say he's wanted for driving a stolen car. eventually he hid himself in a backyard shed and somehow managed to give police the slip before they moved in. around the same time a pair of suspected thieves were on the run in contra costa county after a robbery at this taco bell in lafayette. >> first he tried to buy food, but he just had like three bucks. so we just gave him a glass of water and then he was drinking. he was sitting right

here and then after that he tried to get money from us. >> reporter: hosue is the general manager. he said a man came in while a woman stayed back in the getaway car. he said the man wore a face mark and hoodie and was possibly armed with a gun. >> he was just trying to show us that he had a gun, but we don't really know if he had a gun or not. >> reporter: whether he did or didn't, he didn't hurt anyone at the restaurant. a different story when the fleeing suspects crashed into an oncoming car halfway between orinda and el sobrante. the other driver went to the hospital as a precaution. the child is apparently okay. so are the suspects who are wanted on multiple warrants. in oakland when the four new candidates for police chief meet the public tomorrow, the mayor won't be there to hear what her constituents think of them. she has opted not to participate in the police commission's public forum, calling it counterproductive. the city has been shopping for

a new chief since mayor sheng thao fired leronne armstrong a year ago. she also rejected the commission's first list of candidates which included armstrong. a fire blazing through the texas panhandle has exploded so much you could fit it into a whole other state as far as the burn scar. if you rolled down a cliff and got stuck there for two days, you might not think you're lucky. this guy really was and so were the deer he missed. and people are so excited to see this pungent flower in the bay area they're lining up for an hour and rearranging their schedules just to get a glimpse and a whiff. >> i was able to move some meetings around and make it out. >> why a flower known for smelling like rotten meat is drawing such a big crowd. and it would be pretty cool to explore willy wonka's candy paradise, but people who went to an immersive experience to do that found something very, very different.

i launched our campaign at this union hall. let's go win this thing! then we hit the road and never stopped. you shared with me your frustration at working harder to barely get by and afford a place to live. your fears for our democracy and freedoms and your dreams for yourself, your family, and the future. it is not too late to realize those dreams. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message because together we can still get big things done.

you're not going to believe how lucky the drive of this wrecked car was. he was plucked off this cliff near big sur yesterday after chp was called to look for him. apparently he'd never made it home from work on sunday night. to give you some perspective, this is how steep the cliffside is from a bird's eye view. there's no way anyone would have seen him from the road above. the driver said he ran

off the road when he swerved to miss a deer, a couple deer, and then he flew right out of the sun roof as the car fell 400 feet down the cliff. despite all that and even though he'd been down there for two days, we're told his injuries were only moderate. wow. the massive wildfires blazing across the texas panhandle now cover an area more than 1,300 square miles, bigger than the entire state of rhode island. the governor declared a disaster for 60 counties. dry conditions and 50-mile-per-hour winds allowed that fire to spread pretty much unchecked, but firefighters have a chance to gain some ground tomorrow when the wind is expected to calm down. in the meantime cattle ranchers have been releasing their livestock to give the animals a chance to outrun the flames. this is something that we are very familiar with in california. wildfire smoke blowing in from the panhandle is choking the air in el paso hundreds of miles to the southwest. here at home you may have

felt some shaking this evening in the east bay. a magnitude 3.5 quake hit around 6:20 this evening. it was centered smack dab in the middle of discovery bay. according to usgs, people felt shaking from stockton to san leandro and from fremont to fairfield. i know paul posted about it on twitter. we're here in san francisco obviously. i did not feel anything. i don't think you did either, paul. >> i did not feel a thing. i got the little alert on my phone notifying me there had been an earthquake, so i put it on twitter saying anybody feel that? a few people said they felt a sharp jolt. the next few days we'll feel a sharp drop in temperatures as this storm system gets closer and closer to us. it's going to deliver the cold air and moisture and the orientation of the winds will run pretty much perpendicular to the sierra, making a perfect t. that maximizes the snow potential there. we'll see plenty of rain around here. it won't be that torrential rainfall we had last week, picking up almost an

inch of rain in downtown san francisco in 60 minutes. this is going to be light to moderate rain beginning with a few showers early morning hours. i don't think it will be a really slow morning commute, but the rain will become more light to moderate through the midday and afternoon hours. the afternoon commute could be more affected by the rain. the fact there will be breaks in between waves of light to moderate rain and that we're going to avoid the torrential rainfall rates that we had with really the past few systems, that's all going to combine to really limit our potential for significant flooding concerns. we'll keep an eye out for localized flooding potential friday and friday night continuing into saturday, but there will be gaps in between. as we switch forecast models and look farther down the line, rain chances are going to be pretty good through the duration of the seven-day forecast, a little lull, some lingering showers possible monday. i think we'll sneak in one dry day, it would be tuesday, but another wave of rain will move

in by wednesday. just adding up the rain through the weekend, here's the latest estimate how much rain we expect as we head through sunday and the amounts are fairly modest, about an inch or so in san jose, just over 1 1/2 inches for los gatos, between 1 to 1 1/2 inches inland in the east bay, rain shadowed spots picking up about an inch of rain. if you're talking about rain falling over three or four days, 72 to 84 hours, you would have to double these numbers to really elevate the flooding threat across the bay area because we've had over a week now of mostly dry weather across the region. the ground can absorb this. we'll keep an eye out for concerns. another piece of good news, it doesn't look like the wind energy won't be off the charts. our wind gusts from 1:00 friday through 1:00 saturday, yeah, it's going to be breezy, but the strongest gusts are in the 30 to 40-mile-an-hour range, maybe a few gusts up to 45

miles an hour. you really need widespread gusts over 50 miles an hour to put a significant amount of stress in the power grid. it does not look like the most likely scenario at this point. we'll keep an eye on it. in the sierra they'll really feel the brunt of this one. blizzard warning goes into effect at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow. the snow really picks up tomorrow night with the heaviest snow falling friday, friday night and saturday. 3 to 5 inches of snow per hour, add it all up above 3,000 feet, 1 to 4 feet of total snowfall, above 5,000 feet anywhere from 5 to 10 feet plus of snow. the donner summit picking up potentially 12 plus feet of total snow and the winds will be 60 to 100 miles an hour, whiteout conditions, impossible travel through the sierra the next several days. let's talk about our forecast, the seven-day outlook, and we'll be bold and put one dry day in the forecast tuesday. i'm going to leave a question mark after the words mostly dry. it's a wet

stretch of weather as we finish february tomorrow and leap day heading into early march. the showers on sunday will be few and far between, a chance of showers monday, our maybe dry day tuesday giving way to another round of rainfall wednesday next week. temperatures will run below normal through the duration of the seven-day forecast, especially friday night and saturday. snow levels in the bay area down to around 2,000 feet or so. maybe we'll see a frosting of snow on the bay area's peaks as we head through the weekend. >> is it too much to ask to time this for a monday, tuesday? >> those are the dryest days in the forecast, yeah. murphy's law. >> thank you, paul. vern glenn's been in a lot of locker rooms over the years and i assure you no pair of dirty socks comes close to the scent coming out of this flower in san francisco right now. >> you would be right about that. straight ahead in sports, it's the eve of the warriors off broadway performance at the knicks and a playoff finish

tonight yo "overflowing with ideas and energy." that's the san francisco chronicle

endorsing democrat katie porter for senate over all other options. porter is "easily the most impressive candidate." "known for her grilling of corporate executives." with "deep policy knowledge." katie porter's housing plan has "bipartisan-friendly ideas to bring homebuilding costs down." and the chronicle praises "her ideas to end soft corruption in politics." let's shake up the senate. with democrat katie porter. i'm katie porter and i approve this message. what do i see in peter dixon? with democrat katie porter. i see my husband... the father of our girls. i see a public servant. a man who served under secretary clinton in the state department... where he took on the epidemic of violence against women in the congo. i see a fighter, a tenacious problem-solver... who will go to congress and protect abortion rights and our democracy. because he sees a better future for all of us. i'm peter dixon and i approved this message.

nba up top, no dress

rehearsal in new york for the warriors, they take madison square garden stage tomorrow night for a run at the knicks, six-game road win streak on the line. coming off the bench, they need to get it done with klay thompson. showed out last night at the washington wizards with 25 points, including six of 11 from deep. did you know the bench accounted for nearly half of the dubs' 123 points? now with two hall of famers in the second unit, thompson and chris paul, you bet steve kerr likes what he sees. >> what a luxury to come off the bench with chris paul and klay thompson. i mean that's crazy. kind of found a nice combination of starting group that we've been able to count on for the last month and a second unit that's been good all year, but adding klay to that only makes it better. cactus league baseball action because, well, we made

you wait long enough. got this one out in a hurry in the giants, a 7-4 win. san francisco remains winless in spring training. let's go to college men's hoops, mark mattison and cal on the road in california, pac-12 test. this can't happen, stolen inbounds pass turning into an easy three. colorado won the game 88-78. cal now 13-16 ended a three-game win streak. you got to see this. de la salle, open division norcal first rounder with modesto christian, alec blair injured knee got a shot off to end the third, left the game with spartans up three. so how did this end? well, tied in the last seconds and wild scramble,

desperation, gavin sykes for the win. modesto pulled off a shocker in concord, 51-49 and move on to play the top seed this saturday. wow. hey, this kid sykes, he scored 20 points, 18 in the second half. i know your dad, the old coach, he would be proud of that. he'll never pay for a meal again in modesto. >> i know you like to call my dad a coach. he loves to hear it. he is just a point guard, though, not just. >> he's a coach to me. wendy's got raked over the coals online for its new menu pricing policy, but the company says - [narrator] at kpix, we're taking weather to the next level. - we can show not just what's happening at ground level, but we can show what's happening in the upper levels of the atmosphere. let's lift the clouds off of ground level and talk... - it really spotlights how unique the geography is here. - it's dynamic. it's different. as i lift this, you can actually see it in real-time. this is shaking it up for me as an meteorologist.

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tonight wendy's is clarifying its plan for

flexible menu pricing. we told you about this last night because the fast food chain was getting char-broiled on social media. wendy's said today it never said it was implementing so-called surge pricing and doesn't plan to. during an investor call earlier this month, the ceo said the chain will begin experimenting with "dynamic pricing" starting next year. the company said today what he meant by that is that wendy's new digital menu boards could be used to offer specials when sales are slow. so at the end of the day you'd still be paying the most when the place is busiest. from fresh never frozen beef to a flower that smells like rotten meat, people have been waiting up to an hour to get a whiff of a rare corpse flower bloom. the plant at the cal academy of sciences in san francisco blooms one to three days every seven to ten years and when it does, it releases a powerful smell that's like rotting food or sweaty socks. i've seen someone describe the

smell as porta-potty-like. i could think of other ways to achieve this. the bloom is so rare some people are actually rearranging their schedules to see it. >> i was able to move some meetings around and make it out to try to get a smell of the corpse flower before it kind of faded back away. i definitely picked up on the like sweaty socks, sweaty gym clothes, but probably luckily not like full on rotting meat, but still definitely a smellier plant than average. >> i smell the sweaty feet sort of sweet pungent kind of like your shinguard after soccer. >> oh, ever smelled a hockey bag? that's not good. well, the plant isn't just smelly. it's hot. >> the tall part of the plant heats up close to body temperature nearly 100 degrees and that will actually help to disseminate the smell over long distances. >> so a hockey bag dragged

around a sweaty sauna. the flower is named mirage. this was its first bloom after it came to cal academy in 2017. willy wonka promises a world of pure imagination and so did an immersive event geared towards families with kids, what they saw when they showed up definitely requiring some imagination, too much even. is it possible to count on my internet

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my personal opinion and maybe you'll agree is that one of the fun parts of being a parent is finding cool things to do with your kids. >> sure. >> kind of like reliving your childhood in a way, seeing them having fun. >> absolutely. >> honestly, when you're competing with screens, it can be really hard to keep them entertained. if you heard there

was this massive immersive willy wonka chocolate experience, sounds like it could be cool for the kids. i know this is not the vibe for an adult saturday night, but it seems like it would be fun for the kids, right? >> that's chocolate. >> that's chocolate, a choco river. >> it's mixing my chocolate. it's actually churning my chocolate. >> either you loved that movie or it traumatized you, but something like this is probably what kids were expecting at the willy wonka immersive experience. one problem, when everyone showed up, this is what they got. >> oh, no. >> a warehouse with the saddest little props you've ever seen in your life. >> oh. >> that was the best part of it. >> oh, no. wow. >> yeah. one dad said his kids got two jelly beans each and a quarter cup of lemonade. does it look like they've been going through some things? >> wow. >> the ad said the event would

have optical marvels and extraordinary props, extraordinary all right. >> it didn't. >> yeah. that's what they got. the event was supposed to go all weekend, but it got cut short after a day. everybody is getting refunds for their not so golden ticket. >> who thought this was a good idea? >> that is the most elaborate part, where it says factory. come, children, to the factory. >> i want to be in the moment at the time somebody said this is going to be a great idea. this will be huge. >> when they finished putting it together and hadn't opened it to the public yet, they should have said boy, nailed it. >> >> we follow the breaking news, and we have a big one today. senator mitch mcconnell says he is going to step down from his post as senate republican leader in november. [cheering] >> and now, exclusive footage of mitch mcconnell stepping down. ♪ ♪