is hitting the bay area right now on this december 11th. thursday, at 4:29. thanks for joining us. i'm kristin. >> i'm eric thomas. leila monitoring traffic. you wondered if it was going to be extremely breezy at higher elevations even crossing the bridges this morning. that was kind of fun. east/west bridges running perpendicular to the the lower the car is to the ground, the easier to control. here is the leading edge of the wet weather, right here, sfo all the way over to san leandro. that is light to moderate rain. the heavy rain, you can see it. it is all the way up in the north bay, santa rosa, roaner park, specifically right there. it was just light to moderate a few seconds ago. now, it is becoming moderate to heavy. that gives you an idea of the waves of moderate to heavy rain that's going to roll through. you can see roaner park right

there. we are also looking at pod rat rain and as you head down towards petaluma. the lower left-hand side of your screen, more moderate to heavy rain coming your way. you can't show this shot enough. winds gusting 40, 45 miles per hour. your day planner, in the low to mid-60s right nour. we are going to be the upper 50s by noon. mid-50s this afternoon as we transition from the widespread rain to scattered showers and thunderstorms locally heavy rain and locally breezy conditions. after about 2:00, the widespread nature of the storm will be over and it will become more localized. it will still be out there for you. it will touch most of our lives even during the afternoon and early evening hours.

>> that is coming up. kristen sze and eric. >> we have crews across the pay area on storm watch. our reporter, amy hollyfield, is in santa rosa. it has been raining pretty good. amy? it is raining pretty good.

but the storm has quite a personality. first, intense. then it calms. now it is ramping up. you can see it coming down. the lights in the parking lot downtown give you a good visual of the rain. we also want to show you the trees so you can get a sense of the wind we are dealing with it it is shaking us. the rain is coming down straight. a minute ago i saw it going sideways. the wind is not consistent, with bursts here and there. nothing knowing -- knocking us over. it is a good soaking. not blinding. not sheets of rain. i checked with the sheriff and nothing major to report in sonoma county. they watching carefully. we are waiting, bracing, but nothing major to report. a good soaking. you want to stay in, if you can,

or grab all your rain gear if you are headed out this morning. thanks, amy. people are watching the waves and wind in addition to the rain. nick has the report. you are experiencing this, right, nick? >> absolutely. the rain was coming sideways for a minute. now it has died up. the wind has not stopped. you can see gusts here at miles per hour. the waves strong and we want to see how strong and how much they are crashing. some people have been here all morning on the pier. david has been here, one of the guys was hour at 2:30 this morning. you have been here and done this before. why are you here? what have you seen?

>> how exciting is this, it is hard to slope. we wanted to check the storm. we her it would be big. we have not been let down. >> we come here because the people enjoy seeing it. you have done this before. how does it compare to others? >> by far the biggest so far. i have done this ten times and it is good. the rain is coming and the waves are just pounding. >> as strong as the wind is, i am big, you are a big guy, you can feel it blowing. >> i am 350-plus pounds and it is holding me up. >> i am wearing goggles. >> i had a cap on and it went flying so it is north right now near amy hollyfield so if she sees my cap, just great we will send you pictures of the stuff we are seeing.

now, look at this: it is jumping and moving. i will send it back to you in the studio. >> we see an extra cap we will let you know. the winds from the storm are expected to keep driving conditions very dangerous on all east-west bridges in the bay area. we are at the richmond-san rafael bridge. what is going on? >> the wind is whipping around and you can seasideway rain is not going in one direction but all over the place. it is windy. it is cold. it is wet. the traffic is light on the richmond san rafael bridge but the wind will pick up. caltrain and c.h.p. will watch the wind gusts and on the conditions of all bay area bridges, the richmond-san rafael bridge is known to have problems so if it is too dangerous is a possibility it could close

until the winds die down. that is something they will keep a close cry on and make the call if it needs to be made. c.h.p. best to drive slow and leave plenty of space. >> thank you. ferry service could be iffy with a spokesman saying that the wind and rain will likely shut down service. if that happens, look for a fallout on other transit especially bart. many commuters who use the ferry do not have a car and need to get into the city for work. officials will issue a service update at the top of the hour. >> another san francisco attraction, the cable cars, could be shut down if the rain pours. the line was closed early this month during another storm. ridership is down during a storm anyway and with the cars using

an older braking system, shutting down the line could be the best course of action. >> right now, sand bags are in high demand with sites in napa county packed. oakland handed out 21,000 bags, and daly city ran out and san francisco had to restock. there is a list of locations to pick up sandbags on our website at abc7news.com. can you track the storm by downloading the use weather app on apple's app store or google play. we have more information at abc7news.com/apps. >> now the latest on where the rain is falling. is it in your neighborhood? >> good question. it is ahead of the national heavy line we have the light to moderate showers. right now, we are seeing gusts at 31 miles per hour in oakland and 26 in san jose and sfo is 23

and 20 at napa and santa rosa and 20 if concord and livermore and where nick is, they are gusting up to 40 miles per hour so that is what we are dealing with. on the bridges, the bridges are east-west but the golden gate bridge is running parallel and doing okay. everyone else will be sideswiped by the fast winds and you can be driving along and suddenly, whoa, you shift over and i was moving back both way on the bay bridge coming across. i was in a minivan so that could be the issue. san leandro to the north and 580, dublin, to danville and north you can see light are rain. we have accountered light shower cross the south bay. in the north bay we have the heavier rain. near san rafael and san quentin, light-to-moderate rain moving in, gusts to fly miles per hour and the good news is 37 is

light-to-moderate and you can see the yellows on the left side of the screen headed to this area and we will get another wave of heavy rain moving into the north bay and it is along 101 climbing over the mountains into the napa valley. we are in the low-to-mid 60's. it is very mile. heavy rain in the north by much the rest of us have scattered showers before the strong storm line moves into the rest of the bay in three hours. >> traffic is affected. c.h.p. has high wind advisory for all bay bridges and flooding in the north bay. we have a new accident. northbound highway 101, to the north of santa rosa you will find one lane blocked. to the south we have flooding reported at rohnert park expressway, so be kill. we have plenty of standing

water. make sure you drive safely and carefully, slowly headed into the mar areas. you never know how deep the water is. you can get stuck and hydroplane. it is risky. this is the tree i have been telling you about, eastbound 80 at pinole valley it toppled on a big rig. three lanes are blocked. craws are trying for cut up the tree and get the debris off the freeway. there are delays in the area. >> we turn now to breaking news in oakland. >> fires are battling a huge fire at a large commercial building on international boulevard that started an hour ago with engines deployed to battle the flames. we will bring you nervous as -- information as we receive it. >> keeps hit by devastating fire bring new danger with the big storm.

>> live doppler hd is tracking the rain and wind with just a massive enormous size of the storm. we are keeping weather and traffic were throughout the entire commercial break. these are live pictures of the toll plaza where the volume has picked up. we will keep you in the know as you begin the day with the you begin the day with the latest on the

covering san rafael, south bay, pleasanton and all the bay area, this is abc7 news. >> we are tracking the storm moving in. a look at live doppler hd shows high wind warning in affect for the bay area as the half rains drench us. meteorologist mike nicco will have the latest on the watches and warnings. >> also power outages: right now, pg&e is reporting 3,400 outages in the east bay. the peninsula has 3,000

customers without power. in the north bay, 1,000, in the south bay, 230 customers. in san francisco, 35 pg&e customers do not have powers and crews have been sent out. if you have to drive today, c.h.p. is offering important tips: avoid driving outside lane of the freeway. that is where the water collects. never drive into standing water. you do not know how deep it is. replace windshield wipers now. when the wipers are on, your headlights should be on. it is the law. >> it could be too late on the wipers but residents in the sierra are bracing for possible mudslides near king fire burn area. this is the first major storm since thousands of acres of land burned near yosemite in september. crews say there will likely be debris flows and falling trees and rock falls.

>> sierra is nervous but excited for the shear amount of precipitation. >> the ski runs should be good. we will talk about the snow but, first, we will talk about us. the visibility is unlimited with the wind but in the moderate to heavy rain you can see the visibility is four miles in santa rosa and petaluma. that will shrink when the heavy rain comes down. an hour's worth of heavy rain is moving into the north bay now with scout showers ahead of it. the cold front is back to the west. although the rain is an hour ahead of where we thought it would be as far as the southward movement, the heavy rain will be through the morning commute in the north bay. to the end of commute it will

come down heavier. it will not be steady and moderate-to-heavy rain. the moderate rain in san rafael, it was raining so heavy our signal could not get through the rain. it was too thick. this picture was frozen. it has let up enough to see it. we were watch that. you will see ponding vetoing on 101 around san rafael. you can still see a last of yellows and oranges from 4:00 to 8:00 and here is the cold front where we going to find the concentration of heaviest rain in the short of the amount of time with the fastest wind. that is when we could see instant damage or even flash flooding so instant flooding. we will have residual flooding in creeks and poor drainage areas because of the amount of moisture. this is where we would see the greatest damage in a short amount of time.

moving interest san francisco, and right along 80 from oakland up to vallejo you can see moderate showers ahead of it but as we head to noon it only takes three or four hours to move across the bay when the cold front gets the momentum. behind it you are thinking, we can get a breather...sort of. we will still have light-to-moderate waves of rain, showers and possibility of the potential thunderstorms with locally heavy rain under those with local gusts causing highly localized flooding and damage. they stay around through 11 o'clock this evening until 3:00 tomorrow morning so it could be noisy in some areas if we get the claps of thunder. tomorrow, you can see the energy rotating off toward the east and we have a cooler and dry flow coming in tomorrow but, still, unstable because of the warm and

moist ground and sunshine and ear face in the atmosphere and widely scattered thunderstorm tomorrow and by tomorrow night it is out of here. saturday morning we have sunshine and possibly fog. as far as rainfall totals we are looking at 2-4" in lower elevations and 6" in santa cruz mountains. up to 10" in the north bay mountain the area most likely to see mud and rock slide. at 7:00, 35 to 45 and 70 per hour wind at point reyes. hurricane rains are 74 miles per hour. by 10:00, notice the front is moving down and the winds are from the southwest. that is when you know the front has come through. southwest winds. the winds will still be fast at 15- to 25-miles per hour through the afternoon and into the evening hours. the fattest winds will be with the front moving through. by tomorrow, you can see we are

around 10 or 15 miles per hour wind. in the seven-day forecast, the greatest amount of storms today to a lesser extent tomorrow and we get a dry weekend before we get more rain, sunday night, way up in the north bay and monday for the rest of us and shows lingering through tuesday and wednesday. a lot going on. >> indeed. indeed. we have robust winds causing traffic problems cross the bay area. i want to take you to woodside where we have this second overturned and blocking one lane northbound 280 as you make the drive to highway 84 you are going to find it. there was slowing behind it. traffic is ening -- flowing. this picture shows eastbound 80 at pinole valley road. a tree fell on the road on top of a tractor trailer carrying

7,000 pounds of wastewater moving into pinole. we have at least three lanes blocked. it is getting wrapped up and should be cleared soon. you can see where there is a closure so traffic is diverted off and getting back on to i-80. however, they will re-open things shortly. the macarthur maze shows if the travels take you to 580 and berkeley and emeryville we have light rain and wind reported through oakland. well let you know how that is affecting the commute south of the maze. it is 4:june with -- live doppler hd shows the storm hitting the bay area and the spire area is going to feel half rain and the powerful wind. >> outside, this is the embarcardero in san francisco with streets wet with rain and

the wind is the big story in san francisco. we will keep weather and traffic up during the entire commercial up during the entire commercial break.

>> all the concern of the rain, one appeal is not worried. they live in warren creek, and the seven-member family is going about their business swimmingly. the beavers stabilized the creek banks, decrease the risk of flooding by postering the growth of natural vegetation. they are cute to look at, as well. we want to see your weather photos and video at ureport@kgo-tv.com or post them on facebook or share them with us on twitter, twitter@abc7newsbayarea.

mike? live doppler hd shows the heaviest rain is over the north bay where an urban and small stream flood advisory is issued for marin, napa and sonoma until 11:30 so excessive run off will cause ponding on the water in urban areas and highway passes and low-lying areas and small creeks and streams could flood quickly possibly covering roads and low areas. that is marin, napa, and sonoma until at least 11:30. you can see the waves of heavy rain that is centered on the north bay for the next hour. the rest of us under the flood watch as we can see the same conditions developing occur right now in marin and napa and sonoma through the evening hours. we still have the winds gutting through 10:00 and power outages are possible and we have seen gusts up to 60 miles per hour at the cost and some of our higher

elevations. at least 20' waves and some could jump up to 25'. if you are headed to the sierra, blizzard conditions from this morning. >> this is not the garden variety construction crew, with flashing lights pushing traffic to the right-hand side because the drug configuration is changing because of the high wind. we have c.h.p. issued high wind advisory for the bay bridges and especially the golden gate bridge. three lanes are going south and two lanes moving north and a single lane in the middle as a buffer. there is going to be reduced lane traveling in the northbound direction. keep that in mind. it looks like traffic so far is knowing nicely and it is damp from marin. to the north and the west, green hill road, this is where we have downed power lines. it is a problem. we have downed trees and power

lines coming down because of the gusts. we have the great highway shut down for sand that blows on the roadways. further to the south tracking weather and traffic together, the area is shaded in green and we have more rain show up, northbound side we have an overturned vehicle blocking one lane. thank you. 4:57. our storm watch coverage continues. live doppler hd is tracking the rain and the wind hitting us right now. >> as we head to break we leave you looking live at the macarthur maze with traffic fine and for heavy rain but it is very windy with the half is very windy with the half rain, of course, still to come.

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at raley's, we're really into craft, so we enjoy and are excited about carrying those products in the store. ♪ share your ideas, tell us on facebook. live from the kgo-tv broadcast center this is abc7 news, at 5:00 a.m. on this stormy thursday morning. this is a live picture of the richmond-san rafael toll plaza. the remark is light. but the roads are slippery. more is coming our way. we have meteorologist mike nicco and leyla gulen. we were awakened by the sound of the wind. >> you could hear it whistling with the leaves and the branches making a lot of noise. that is what most people are dealing with right now. in the north bay you can see right around muir beach headed to