>>yeah. it's very personal. for me. seen the effects. of these fires really impact people i care about >>we have seen several of them in the past few >>weeks >>and wildfire season is just getting started >>a light light, flashy fuel that grass just burns. so readily. >>asking >>about >>outlook this season. >>change if we have extended heat waves the beer heat wave. >>the >>new >>pooled their day >>launching vehicles in the air. tonight the winds start to subside. the temperatures go down the humidity goes up. cbs news bay area. thank you so much for joining us today will fire danger is top of mind this afternoon as parts of the bay area are under a heat advisory dry hillsides can as you know, turn into a tinderbox and just

a matter of minutes we've seen it time and time again, but experts say plants could provide some protection, at least for now. today we're talking about the conditions and the threat of wildfires and the new technology meant to help firefighters day and night. now this conversation comes on a 1st alert weather day with inland areas on the verge of triple digits, meteorologist darren peck is in our virtual studio tracking our temperatures. darren >>liz. some of those numbers are like 3 degrees shy of 100 at this for our inland valleys. but if you are in the immediate bay, look what we're getting a little bit of the marine layer little bit of help, but look how low that is. you could almost visualize here. the high pressure pushing down and squashing that marine layer so it's not terribly high. and it's not able to get inland and as a result, there are huge differences in daytime highs if you are inland, and you're not getting any help from this really nice onshore breeze. you are 3 degrees shy 100 in santa rosa livermore. you've already made it to 99. san jose was 91

concord, 97. now looking the bay. it's a warm day in san francisco at 73, but you're getting that help here. this is the view from sutra tower that's live looking over the golden gate bridge, and you can see that beautiful veneer there. of the stratus. the fog now in the marine layer, getting pushed right across the deck of the bridge. it's a foggy drive going over the bridge right now. where for the last several weeks when we have had the marine layer, it's has been really elevated. high enough that it was able to get far enough inland. so let's talk about that heat advisory that liz had mentioned. this is the reason why we are under 1st alert status today. those numbers we just showed you obviously are the reason and this shows you where the greater areas of concern are, and it pretty much covers what we just looked at. it's the inland valleys that are included in this heat advisory. take a look at the city peninsula east bay shore. you're not in it, and if we visualize this a slightly different way, this is the heat risk map, which is messaging where the greater areas of concern would be if you fall into any of the orange on here.

you fall under the moderate category, that's about as high as we're seeing. for a lot of the inland valleys would be concerned about those are the locations if you're in orange diablo valley, tri valley, santa clara valley and the north bay valleys yeah. you got to really take into consideration going easy on yourself. checking on vulnerable populations. the elderly anybody in your neighborhood out there who you know, maybe doesn't have air conditioning. maybe a good day to stop by. and also if you got to work outside, go easy on yourself interesting way this is playing out today. if we visualize this a different way a 3rd way. where the temperatures in relation to average we're well above average in the central valley. but if you look at the view for the bay, particularly coast and immediate inland of the bay, there's blue on here showing you temperatures actually, in some places along the coast today, a little bit below average and what's driving? this is the fact that even though we've got this heat wave happening now, there is this nice pool of notably colder than average. sea surface

temperatures right off the coast and look at the streamlines are doing. you've got the wind blowing over this patch of cool air and then still getting pulled into the golden gate. this brings us back to the 1st image we were looking at. little bit of the marine layer coming onshore little bit of air conditioning, and this is not 1 of those heat waves that stretches across the entire bay as a whole you're getting some help along the coast. these are tomorrow's numbers. so tomorrow we're all going to get relief instead of being well into the upper 90s for inland valleys. tomorrow, we're bringing everybody down like 10 degrees. yeah. bigger influence from that onshore breeze and this is a 1 day spike in heat. we're right at the peak of it here this this time of day, 3:00. 3:00 4:00. this is peak heat. so those numbers we were looking at were pretty much the official daytime highs today, but they might go a little higher than that. all right, let's get into the 70 forecast. we'll start out with our inland microclimate 1st. and this is the 1 that matters most on a day like this, because this is where we're seeing that increase in heat and you can see the numbers come down.

we're not going to be quite this warm, even going into the weekend. there is a little bit of a warmup as we approach saturday and sunday, but it will not be to the degree. that we're seeing today and the numbers for the bay also follow that same trend. all right, lizzie, really important topic topic that you are covering today and this community newscast so back to you for more on wildfire season, >>we'll get to that in just a moment but 1st, let's look at our headlines. thank you, darren a man accused of shooting and killing another man during a brawl at lake berryessa is under arrest. the napa county sheriff's department says 25 year old gabriel chavez was 1 of several people who were stabbed during a large fight between 2 groups. on saturday. he's been in the hospital since then. chavez is charged with murder. some residents living in rvs by san francisco's lake merced blocked out the street to protest the recent installation of parking meters long winston drive housing advocates say the meters were designed to displaced families living there they're hoping city leaders

will step in with a long term solution. president joe biden's son hunter. biden is now a convicted felon, a federal jury found hunter guilty on all 3 felony federal felony gun charges he faced. they concluded that he violated laws meant to prevent drug addicts from owning firearms he faces up to 25 years in prison. santa clara valley medical center, is opening a new fentanyl detox program for teens. the program will help patients through the toughest part of fentanyl withdrawal and get them started on the recovery process since 2020 officials say a record number of teens have died from fentanyl overdoses and santa clara county. next week. san francisco transit officials will push for approval to shift center running bike lanes. two side running bike lanes. along valencia street. this change follows backlash from merchants and mixed reviews from cyclists. if approved, the transition will take about 7

months. google is considering a housing development in downtown san jose. it's eyeing at the site of the demolished retail center project would include office buildings, shops and restaurants. the city council approved a development agreement with google back in 2021. today. san francisco supervisors are discussing mayor london breed plan to bring pandas back to the city breed is seeking a waiver just solicit donations for the pandas. new 25 0. 0 enclosure. the move is facing some pushback as the city faces a massive budget deficit over the next 2 years. and a huge shakeup in the world of competitive eating. san jose, joey chester has been banned from this year's 4th of july. hot dog eating contest has comes after he struck a deal with a rival brand impossible foods, which sells plant based top dogs just done has been competing in the contest since 2005. and he hasn't lost in 9

years. all right, let's get back to fire danger. we know it comes hand in hand with the hotter months here in the bay area and right now everyone is watching the conditions. hoping things just don't get out of hand or wilson walker asked a wildfire expert what we should expect this fire season. >>what is the cure? time of the grass. when we they be susceptible? to ignition? so that's something that every all the agencies and even the utilities and the research community are watching right now. watching the bay area hills turned from a faded green to a light, brown, craig clements, director of the wildfire research center at san jose he says the past few days have been a reminder >>that >>even a good winter has legs when it comes to keeping fire risk down. the brawl. fires was a big fire, but it was a grass fire and grass fires are very common. this time of year is the 1st type of fires that we

really get. we call it a light, flashy fuel that grass just burns so readily. grasses are usually cured by early june, so fires are now likely. to the next question becomes the larger fuel that is often ignited by a grass fire. live what we call live fuels living plans. those living plants have a lot of soil moisture right now because of the wet winter, so they're doing okay in terms of their fuel moisture >>content >>tent, the amount of water inside the plant as we get approach fall. those plants become critically dry, and if it's a wet winter or a dry winter, those plans are still going to respond similarly, uh, in the late summer early fall to healthy winters do continue to pay dividends because of the moisture. the current outlook for large fires is considered below normal this year. however. that could change if we have >>extended >>heat waves severe heat waves, and that causes further drying

faster drying of the fuels. payoff from the rain is variable, depending on what the fall and summer deliver the hope is that another year of good moisture trained late to another year. >>fewer >>larger fires. so hopefully it stays like that. hopefully, we can remain, um i'm not a lot of big fires. >>and dr clements will join us live coming up to talk about what's different from fire seasons past and how technology is being used to help fight these wildfires. one of those tools comes with the help of nasa engineers are using drones to assist firefighters on the ground.

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a live picture of all those brown hills. there. was a threat of war. ramps. up across the bay area, nasa researchers are developing new drone technology to help keep our communities safe when those fires spark up our mary lee got a look at what it does and how it could help. >>it's very personal for me. i i i grew up in california. and in my lifetime. i've seen the effects of these fires really

impact people i care about. catherine chapman, intense wildfires are very real thing. lots of family members have to evacuate. or sometimes had to pack up the car and get ready to head out myself. because that the fire was moving closer experience. motivates her work at nasa helping firefighters battle monster wildfires using drones taking you over to the mobile kit that's used to visualize airspace. this was developed in a previous nasa aims project. and we're using it today to look at the airspace with the range safety officer that we are clear, too. flying this area. and you're good, good. launching vehicles in the air. the us forest service is currently using drones to identify monitor and capture thermal images of wildfires in real time, but soon katherine's work will help

1st responders use drones for so much more kasha. warning while we're doing operations we have audible signaled in case some aircraft coming. too close advanced capabilities for emergency response operations or acero. create. aired traffic control software for 1st responders in their wildfire coordination in operations, improving communication and situational awareness for both drones and aircraft. in emergency year space with the goal. to fight wildfires with actual drone firehawk style helicopters, 24 7 at night and in heavy smoke. where it was once unsafe for aircraft to fly before. ultimately, it's incredibly important to me to be involved with projects like this that are having a real a real influence on things that are close to me and close to where i live. catherine her

work is extremely rewarding. knowing her research will 1 day soon save our homes. and lives. ocean. >>joining me live now is dr craig clements. director of the wild into inter interdisciplinary research center at san jose state. greg, thanks so much for being with us. thanks for having me. all right, you know, it doesn't seem like that long ago that we're talking about how we were doing so well, we've got so much rain this year had such a wet winter and spring and now we're talking about fire danger, it might confuse here and that i thought we were doing so well. are you surprised that the fire dangers is happening so soon? well, no, because we're in june are fuels are cured. having grass fires around the bay area in northern california. this is really normal for this time of season, so i'm not shocked. i you know the crowd fire that happened last weekend. that was a big

acre fire, but it was also associated with a lot of wind. so it just makes sense that we're going to get these big grass fires. year it feels like fire season gets more and more intense. what does this year look like? and what makes it different? from maybe years past. well, according to the national interagency fire center, who does long term prediction for outlook of large wildfire potential. california isn't a good place for june and july, we're going to be below normal and most of the state it does not mean that we're going to not have wildfires, but very large wildfires. the risk is lower. that changes in august becomes more normal. and then in september we have some critical areas that are predicted to be at risk. in september and october. so how have firefighting efforts had to evolve and just the past 5 or 10 years as the conditions, you know, climate change causes the conditions to either get worse or change. well, there's

been a lot of technology in terms of modeling and in the predictive capability of fire agencies, so some of those models are developed here at san jose state. some of them are developed with the us forest service and nasa and those models are getting better and better at predicting not only the risk but also where the fire is going to go at any given 2nd. and so those new tools are being used by cal fire and the forest service and that's really helping firefighters manage fire risk. so what's going to be done in the next 5 or 10 years in terms of mitigating the risk of wildfires each year? we know we're going to have to deal with this in california. how is the technology improving? and maybe houses science improving? that that's a complicated question. but basically, i would say that in the next 5 years we're going to see a lot more technology being flown over fires. currently, cal fire

has dedicated aircraft this year that will be mapping fire at a very high resolution that they weren't able to do previously. and so that really changes the game on the fire line. we're gonna be able to see where hot spots are developing, where ember. members are landing and so that will be able to increase firefighter a situational awareness. and the next decade, the models even be better and faster. so things are changing really quickly and it's exciting time to be in wildfire science right now. all right, dr. craig clements with san jose state. thank you so much. thanks for having me all right when it comes to wildfires, it's a different battle once the sun goes down, coming up, we look at cal fire's latest tools for the fight at night. ♪ hey, come on, come on ♪ ♪ do what you want ♪ get into an audi and go your own way. find your way to

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well fighting wildfires in daylight can be hard enough. nighttime. brings a whole new set of challenges like in 2017 when the tubs fire burned thousands of homes and buildings in the north bay now is lauren toms shows us cal fire has some new tools to fight fires after sundown. >>soaring hundreds of feet above flames. firefighters are

gearing up with tactical equipment like these night vision goggles, learning how to battle fires well into the night. the operation has been carefully crafted by chief brian renner, whose paired his passion for flying with his skill of fighting fires to create the largest scale aerial exercise at night that cal fire has conducted today. helicopter background, you know, just feel that the job that i have and role that we play is helicopter operations really makes a difference and help support the folks on the ground. cal fire acquired a fleet of helicopters, including chinook helicopters, that will be deployed this summer to keep firefights going under the moonlight we're just at the start of fire season, but the agency says they've already seen over 40,000 acres burned this year. the winds start to subside. the temperatures go down, the humidity goes up, and when the ground firefighters are still actively engaged in the fire, and they have water dropping helicopters were there

to help support them and their structure, defense and perimeter control when the sun goes down at a cal fire base, just north of sacramento. that's when these crews deploy. they use lights on hillsides as mark fire perimeters, renner says, when a real blaze sparks up this training will help air teams learn how to fly together and work well with ground crews. and it really allows everybody to get on the same page. we trained for 1 standard that way when we get out incident that the expectations are bound with communication. standard that can only come from someone with his level of knowledge from the ground and from the air. being a helicopter guy we really love being able to support the focus on the ground. gets were saying it's very challenging and it's something that, um i'm really passionate about and i like to see us make a difference out there and they know that we do problem from a different perspective. gaining ground and air to fight fires. from above. >>cal fire tells us some of

those aerial crews will be at the ready on alma base in loss. cotto's we'll be right back. this is picks plus more of what you want. more often. in the morning and the prime time edition. end. nine pm news devon feely elizabeth cook, juliette goodrich and sara donchey groundbreaking original storytelling from the kpx newsroom plus bear politics project earth and weather like you've never seen the prime time edition. tonight o

>>coming up tonight on the cbs evening news. hunter biden found guilty on 3 charges. in the federal gun. trial. could he face prison sentencing just days before the election. the president's reaction plus we speak to a juror from the case that more headlines tonight, right here on the cbs evening news. >>yeah. there has been pushed. as more autonomous vehicle. hit

the roads coming up tonight at 51. bay area county is embracing it and even pushing for more. well, thanks so much for joining us for today's conversation on the outlook for fire season and how crews around the state are getting ready for that fight. cbs evening news is next year on kpi ex local news continues on our streaming service, cbs news bay area will see you at 5:00. >> norah: guilty on all counts. hunter biden is convicted on federal gun charges. tonight, we are hearing from one of the jurors about how they reached a verdict. >> after you went through all of the evidence, there was no question? >> there was no question. >> norah: plus, president biden arrives in wilmington to support his only surviving son come after first lady holding hands with hunter after