this is the evening edition. if you're lucky enough to step outside, it was definitely feeling a lot like summer as we head into the weekend. >> good evening. i'm ryan yamamoto. >> can't wait for it to get started. i'm elizabeth cook. temperatures once again in the 90s today in parts of the north and east bay. >> cap and gown probably not the ideal clothing for this heat, but that wasn't going to put a damper on the celebration for the new graduates at cal state east bay today in hayward. >> i actually brought a fan, a portable electric fan, and i also brought an umbrella. i don't do very well in extreme heat. graduating in the summer is what it is. if you want to participate, you'll show up prepared. i'm prepared, just hope that the ceremony doesn't go long. >> here's a live look at conditions outside right now. we did get a little relief along the coast, but inland it was toasty. >> let's check in with first alert chief meteorologist paul heggen. at least for us in the city, no complaints.

>> yeah. hard to complain about pleasant temperatures once again, but it has been an up and down day. we started off with fog streaming through the golden gate, a very compressed marine layer, didn't take long to dissipate, gone by 9:00 and then temperatures warmed up briefly. as the onshore wind kicked in, our temperatures dropped off quickly. now temperatures around the bay and most locations along the coast are cooler than 24 hours ago. farther inland temperatures are 5 degrees warmer for fairfield, concord and livermore, 90 in fairfield, upper 80s concord and livermore, mid-80s in santa rosa and san jose while around the bay temperatures are around 70 degrees. it's just near 60 degrees for half moon bay. temperatures tomorrow are still going to be a little above average around the bay, 60s and 70s, still substantially above average inland, 80s and low 90s, but then a drop as we head into the second half of the weekend. we'll look at the full weekend and seven-day forecast coming up in a few minutes. santa clara county has a

new tunnel, not for cars or people, but for water. it could prevent flooding in the future. as our len ramirez reports, it's part of a huge project to rebuild anderson reservoir. >> reporter: despite all the rain that we've had this year, the anderson reservoir levels have had to be kept artificially low because the dam itself is not earthquake safe, but this new tunnel, this outlet tunnel that they're building right underneath my feet, is the first major milestone in the retrofit of the dam which will meet the water needs of santa clara county for many years to come. ryan mccartter is walking through a tunnel bored deep into the side of a mountain at anderson reservoir. >> we're basically touching a reservoir with this tunnel. we're below water. >> reporter: the tunnel is almost half a mile long and 200 feet below the anderson floor. it's part of a $2.3 billion project to retrofit santa clara

county's largest reservoir to prevent flooding during went years and survive a major earthquake. >> so this is a spray-applied concrete they shoot in. we've got about eight inches of concrete behind here plus these steel ribs every three to five feet. >> reporter: this is the original outlet built in 1950 at the base of the dam. the new tunnel will discharge 15 times more water. it's all designed to prevent the dam from spilling over. in 2017 torrents of water gushed over the spillway and led to major flooding in coyote creek in downtown san jose. >> if this project had been in place in 2017, he would not have seen the flooding we did there. this project is so important and so big it reaches all the way into al viso. >> reporter: the tunnel will also allow the santa clara water district to better manage water resources for wildlife habitat and drought prevention. ryan says completing the project in a year and a half is

part of a major milestone. >> really pass fascinating to me to see something on paper we've planned and designed for so long and seeing it built. >> reporter: but the completion of the entire project which includes rebuilding of the dam itself is still some eight years away. a vehicle fire on eastbound highway 24 is causing major delays on the evening commute. it was reported just west of the caldecott tunnel. only one lane is getting by. that's why you see all the red there. our traffic map shows the backup. we'll stay on top of this breaking news for you. two people from this senior living facility in san francisco's japantown had to be taken to the hospital following a fire this afternoon. this 51-unit facility is on fillmore street a block away from the japantown peace plaza nearly the border with lower pack heights, fire officials saying nearly all of

the people home at the time needed some kind of assistance getting out, four of which were checked out at the scene and two transported to a nearby hospital. >> when there are elderly in any type of residential care facility or this is a senior housing, it is difficult for them to move quickly. we know that time is of the essence and the firefighters need to move extra quickly to help them get out of the building. >> crews managed to capable the fire on the third and fourth floors. they're still investigating the cause. president biden now leaving for seattle for moffett field a few hours ago wrapping up his brief fundraising trip to the bay area. earlier today we caught him leaving marina green on marine one after an overnight stay at the fairmount hotel in san francisco. he traveled by helicopter to the peninsula to reduce traffic issues and avoid potential protesters shutting down his routes, but he was greeted by

protesters when he arrived in portola, lining the route to his fundraising event at the home of billionaire tech venture capitalist, demonstrators hoping to send a clear message to the president how he handles the war in gaza will be critical for his reelection hopes in november. >> actions speak louder than words. our government could have easily changed course a long time ago and instead he's collecting billions of dollars from tech billionaires in the bay. >> very much support biden's attempts to return the hostages. we are not our government. we oppose what netanyahu is doing. however, we are israelis and we're proud and we want our people back. >> he was greeted by even more pro palestinian demonstrators outside his second fundraising event in palo alto at the home of former yahoo ceo marissa mayer before heading back to moffitt bound for the pacific northwest. meanwhile the u.n. says they only have three days

worth of food left after israel took control and shut down the border crossing in rafah. this is the same area where 1.3 million palestinians have sought refuge and there is no fear of a full scale invasion where 1.3 million palestinians have sought refuge. president biden has said he won't supply the weapons used for any military action in rafah, but israeli military officials say they already have what they need to move forward. on friday the u.n. general assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution that would effectively recognize a palestinian state. the u.s. and israel abstained from the vote and later while standing before the general assembly, israel's ambassador shredded the u.n. charter. governor newsom just unveiled an updated budget proposal calling for deep cuts, just over $27 billion. earlier this year state leaders had already cut out billions of dollars from the budget as they

try to deal with a shrinking tax base. to fill the gap the governor's proposal would cut down on state operations and slash 10,000 vacant positions. cuts would also land on programs related to education, child care, mental health, and more. >> these are programs. these are propositions that i've long advanced, many of them. these are things i've supported, things we've worked closely with the legislature to advance. >> responding to the governor, california's republican party says democrats are responsible for the deficit in a statement accusing newsom of reckless spending that does not solve the state's affordability or homelessness crisis. lung cancer is blamed for more than 100,000 deaths in the u.s. every and a growing number of asian american women are being diagnosed with that disease. >> living with stage 4 cancer means you have a bomb strapped to your chest and it could go off at anytime. >> coming up at 5:30, we'll

meet the doctors and patients working to unravel this medical mystery. b.a.r.t. service in the east bay is back to normal after being shut down through the morning commute because of an equipment issue. this started around 5:00 this morning on b.a.r.t.'s red line between richmond and oakland's macarthur station. this caused major delays for people trying to get to work. >> this is the closest b.a.r.t. station to my house. so this is definitely inconvenient. seeing as i might need to head to macarthur or take a shuttle or work remote today. >> service was fully restored just after 11:00 this morning, no word what caused the problem. still ahead, they're the nation's elite firefighters. >> said before and i'll say it over and over again. i think this is the best job in the world. >> we'll take you along as the smoke jumpers prepare to put their lives on the line to keep us safe. within the last few hours we've learned whether at&t will be allowed to end landline service here in california,

potentially cutting off thousands of bay area residents. can impact our cell phones, potentially our power grid? >> all of those things are possible. >> we'll chat with an astronomer from uc berkeley about tonight's solar storm and ask how it might impact your electronics and whether we might be able to see the northern lights here in the bay area.

seve a sigh of relief for tens of thousands of californians at risk for losing their phone service. this afternoon there will be a vote to reject at&t's request to end landline service statewide. >> the company currently serves as the so-called carrier of last resort. at&t made the request several months ago saying it no longer makes financial sense to continue to operate landlines. a solar storm could disrupt communications, the power grid and satellite operations tonight.

>> yeah. this amazing storm is created by explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun's corona. people as far south as alabama could get a glimpse of the northern lights during this powerful storm. >> i had a chance to speak to dr. brian mendez about this rare phenomenon. he's an astronomer and planetarium director of uc berkeley's lawrence hall of science. dr. mendez, what exactly is a solar storm? what makes this particular storm so unique? >> so the sun has magnetic fields that come through its surface. they create sun spots and those magnetic fields that make those sun spots are very strong and very dynamic. the sun is this broiling, rolling, hot ionized gas that's always in motion and it kind of twists those magnetic fields up and there's a lot of energy that

gets stored in them as they twist and then when they quickly move and unravel, they move matter around. we call that generally solar storm. the one that we're seeing right now is kind of special. it's coming from an enormous sun spot group, one that kind of is the largest we've seen in a long time, perhaps decades, and has produced a lot of these solar flares and coronal mass ejections which were aimed at earth. lots of times these things blast off, they don't come toward earth, but this one happened to be kind of pointed right at us when it went off and so we have this like sequence of different expanding shells of solar material that are impacting earth's magnetic field. >> as that hits earth, how can that impact communications? can it impact our cell phones,

potentially our power grid? >> all those things are possible. first the magnetic field will start to move and shake as a response to that impact and then that in turn has influences on earth's own atmosphere and even the surface. the most visible thing of that is that we can see auroras. >> you touched on the positive side and that, of course, is the aurora and those northern lights. mostly you can see them up north, but will we be able to actually see them here in california? >> right now the predictions are that it's a strong maybe i'll say. the aurora oval is pretty dynamic and we don't know how strong a storm is until we're in it. your chances are better if you're out in the countryside with not a lot of city lights. >> head up north and find a dark spot. thank you very much for joining us. >> absolutely fascinating. it's so beautiful to see those

northern lights. i know a lot of folks are hoping maybe they can catch a glimpse. maybe it's worth the drive up north with less light pollution. >> right. that's going to be the big thing for the bay area. our skies will be mostly clear except along the coast there will be some fog. mostly clear skies, that sounds good. >> we never get that this time of year. >> except the city light pollution will probably only secure your view. we'll be on the fringy part of the map where they may not be visible in the first place, but let's talk about it because it's exciting when it happens. the official forecast from noaa in terms of the northern lights visibility does show the greatest potential for those lights to be visible to our north. so the red line on the map divides where it's most likely you'll see them and most likely where you're not going to. that line runs through southern oregon. this is a strong event, g-5 on the 1 to 5 scale and another index called the k index and it's towards the top of that as well. how are these northern lights produced? it comes from that coronal mass ejection from

the solar storm interacting with the earth's magnetic field. the particles emitted by that solar storm are carried by the solar wind and as it approaches earth, it interacts with our magnetic field and the particles follow the path of the earth's magnetic field and enter our atmosphere where the magnetic atmosphere is the weakest, the north pole and south pole. as the particles enter the atmosphere, they interact with what our atmosphere is made of, mostly oxygen and nitrogen. as those particles are excited by those collisions, you get the red aurora produced by oxygen collisions in the upper atmosphere, blue from nitrogen collisions farther up and lower in the atmosphere you get the green color and pink as again those same particles are interacting with oxygen and nitrogen molecules a little lower in the earth's atmosphere. they're more densely packed together. it's a spectacular show, but it's again not tremendously likely we'll be able to see it in this part of california, but go north. get away from the city lights and hope for the best. one more day of inland heat for

the bay area while along the coast and around the bay temperatures are a couple degrees above average. then things shift a bit the second half of the weekend, a stronger onshore breeze bringing temperatures bayside and coastal locations back down to near average while a few degrees above normal farther inland. clear skies now, 68 degrees in san francisco and a couple degrees warmer in oakland to almost 90 degrees in concord and livermore, mid-80s in san jose and santa rosa. if you're heading out to the giants game this evening, it's going to be comfortable but cool, upper 60s now, about where we'll stay as folks are gathering. first pitch at 7:15, likely mid-60s, cooling down to the upper 50s by the end of the game. layer up appropriately. that fog will push towards the coast and a little inside the bay by early tomorrow morning. even a little intrusion of the fog through some of the gaps in the terrain into the inland valleys of the north bay and dissipate quickly. we'll see plenty of sunshine saturday afternoon. temperatures start off mostly in the 50s, the

coolest locations in the 40s. then we warm up again, inland parts of the bay area reaching the mid- to upper 80s, 87 degrees in san jose, about 10 to 15 degrees above normal, upper 80s and low 90s inland in the east bay, mid-80s fremont and redwood city and half moon bay and on the coast, mid-60s, and back to around 60 degrees sunday. san francisco into the upper 60s, a few degrees above average and the north bay temperatures mostly reaching the mid- to upper 80s range, but everybody cools down as we head into the extended forecast. let's look at the seven-day forecast first for inland parts of the bay area where temperatures retreat, but still running above normal, mostly low 80s. the coolest day monday is in the upper 70s, 3 to 5 degrees above normal. temperatures around the bay retreat to almost exactly average levels the second half of the weekend and most of next week. there's a baby warm-up tuesday and wednesday with temperatures hovering around 70 degrees by thursday and friday

and along the coast the fog is going to be more prevalent as we hit sunday and monday and more sunshine breaking through with slightly warmer temperatures the latter half of next week. we do have to mention there's no rain in the forecast this weekend. how's that for a change? >> so nice. thank you, paul. up next, you'll meet the most exclusive team of firefighters in the nation as they parachute into danger. >> the theory behind it is that if we can get out to fires quick enough, that we can stop them small. plus we'll meet the doctors trying to figure out what's behind a surge in lung

we're in the middle of... livin' large! and having a big day! in the middle of being the fun uncle!

in the middle of being a kid again! beep! beep! there's something for everyone in illinois. the middle of everything! >anc3 mic>but today's inland heat is a r today inland heat is a reminder we're not far from

peak fire season. >> we calfire still boosting staffing and training for the warmer season and that includes an elite team when a wildfire is just too dangerous to reach, these guys skydive right into the fire lines. >> our itay hod shows us what it takes to be a smoke jumper. >> reporter: each spring everyone who is anyone in the world of aerial firefighting converges on an open field just outside redding, california. >> they'll make a low pass. >> reporter: for one of the biggest drills of the year. the event which comes complete with fire retardant airplanes and helicopters equipped with water buckets includes dozens of crews from both state and federal agencies, but perhaps the most intriguing unit is one you've probably never heard of.

>> check my canopy. >> reporter: cole skinner is what's known as a smoke jumper, an elite group of highly trained firefighters who parachute into the wilderness from 3,000 feet to put out blazes no one else can reach. >> said it before and i'll say it over and over again. i think this is the best job in the world. >> reporter: he was a regular firefighter when he read a book about smoke jumping and decided to take a leap of faith. >> i wanted to be a smoke jumper. those guys at that time seemed like they were the biggest bad -- >> reporter: they fly hundreds of miles to get to their destination, exit the plane, pull the rip cord. once they land they use chainsaws and hand tools to create a buffer zone where the fire has less fuel to burn. >> look, reach, pull. we do have physical performance standards in order to be a jumper. we have a pt test we

have to pass every year. you can't be too weak if you're carrying that much weight that many miles. you will put your boot heels typically in these little stirrups down here. >> reporter: to truly understand how heavy their equipment is, try doing a single pullup in full gear. >> the theory behind it is that if we can get out to fires quick enough, that we can stop them small. >> reporter: matthew weston is a redding-based manager and a smoke jumper for 22 years. he says missions can last a few hours to a couple weeks with little time off during peak season. >> physically the job is tough, but you can always make yourself stronger. not being at home with your family, that's the toughest part of the job. >> reporter: for today's drill cole and his fellow smoke jumpers are dropping into a simulated fire, but first they'll have to hit their mark. one of their colleagues on the ground finds a nearby spot where they can land

safely. then it's go time. cole and his buddies take the plunge and sure enough, land right on the tarp. >> oh, yeah, baby! that was pretty cool. it doesn't happen every jump. >> reporter: at the end of the day cole heads back to the base stoked after another day of firefighting. >> as you can imagine, the job is extremely demanding physically and my heart skipped a beat when he jumped out of that plane. >> i know. >> they jump with 120 pounds on their backs. >> i would be stoked just to be alive still. dear lord. this unit is so specialized you need experience on the front lines fighting fires even to just apply along with being able to jump out of a plane. >> glad they're there and they're so well trained. >> yes, they are. up next, lung cancer is the second deadliest form of the disease here in the u.s. doctors are reporting a spike among asian american women, the

researchers and patients teaming up to figure out why. >> the word cancer comes out of the doctor's mouth. so that's kind of not good. and the federal government will begin paying farmers to help stop the spread of avian flu, what experts are saying about the potential impact on humans. i think it's amazing to see arts and music being celebrated. >> san

right now at 5:30, bay area researchers unraveling a medical mystery, lung cancer is the second most common cancer in both men and women in the u.s. >> that disease is now impacting more and more asian american women and doctors aren't sure why. a new bay area study found that 80% of asian american women with lung cancer never smoked and they're also 1 1/2 to two times more likely to be diagnosed than any other racial group. >> i got a chance to speak with the researchers and patients who are working to figure out what is going on. vicki ni doesn't take walks like there for granted. each step has a purpose. she's rarely by herself. if you happen to pass them, you might think these are just two friends catching