like jack's one-of-a-kind breakfast pockets for $2 each. three of jack's famous tacos and a small drink for $3! or a classic bonus jack combo for $5! it's like i tell jack jr., it's all about big values, jr. prices. 4:30 a.m. live doppler 7 lit up in green as the strongest storm of the season so far hits the bay area. this is a 3 on our storm impact scale. >> and that means get ready for a commute like we haven't seen in a while. looking live at interstate 80 from our emeryville camera, you can barely see what's happening

because it is so rainy outside. good morning on this monday, january 8th. glad you're with us. >> alexis is off today. mike nicco, you told us about it and it's here. we're on an accuweather alert because this is a 3 on our storm impact scale. this will be a stronger 3 than the one we had in november with rain becoming heavy at times. winds getting gusty after the lunch hour and the flooding concerns over the burn scars that will increase today. some of our best radar returns if you're heading to the golden gate bridge, south on 101, south of san rafael, look for some ponding there. moderate showers moved through emeryville, piedmont and oakland. as i broaden this out what you're going to see are more waves of rain, moderate to heavy at times all throughout the day. in fact, you just can't escape it. temperatures will be in the 50s today. there's the possibility of thunderstorms as we head through the evening. more on that coming up. sue looking at early accidents.

>> all right, yeah. we have a lot of spinning water, standing water, i should say, and we're going back to the east shore freeway where this accident is westbound at gilman. you can see the emergency lights at the top of your screen. the cars are starting to stack up. it is in the two left lanes, the fast lane and the second from the left. the green means it is raining where you are. now they have all lanes blocked here with a solo spinout temporarily blocked. we're seeing some slowing as you approach it. also right there at the scene of the accident. and this earlier problem, here it is with gilman, westbound 580, the backup to the 580 merge onto 80. a sig alert in santa rosa involving a big rig that happily has just been cleared. >> sue, thank you. with the first significant winter storm, the north bay certainly gearing up. >> there's concern for flash flooding in areas devastated by the wildfires. amy hollyfield is live for us in

santa rosa this morning. amy? >> reporter: hi, good morning, reggie. we're not there quite yet. we're on highway 101 going through novato and we're getting a good soaking. it's raining pretty good and has been throughout our drive. we saw a lot of rain on 880 in the berkeley/richmond area. a pretty good soaker. we are headed to santa rosa to check in and see how the storm will impact that community. they are worried about there flooding. they're worried about mud slides in the burned out area. they're concerned about what could happen. we did talk to a man who lived in the fountaingrove area. he lost his home and has now sold his lot. he is worried about his neighbors who still live there. >> there are some lots sloping to the street where the vegetation, the shrubs are all gone. the strong storm comes in, some of that will wash into the streets. >> reporter: the fire department is using social media to get the word out sending out a tweet, a

potent storm will develop tonight and will intensify. they're trying to get the word out. they say they are not wanting to evacuate people. they do not want that to be an option that they have to turn to. but they do want people to be prepared, be ready for that option just in case. amy hollyfield, abc 7 news. >> amy, thank you. storm preps are under way in the south bay. abc 7 news was in santa clara where they are providing 200 more beds for the homeless as the rain arrives. some of the beds are here and they are scheduled to be available for the next three nights. rain also in the forecast for southern california, santa barbara county telling people to evacuate. >> up to 6 inches could fall where the thomas fire burned more than 440 square miles. they have cleared creeks in

areas charred by the wildfires. >> these are thousands of acres that are prone to mud slides. >> it can help determine if water is moving properly through underground storm drains. >> you can keep track of the storm where you live with the abc 7 news app and take a look at the intense green that we're seeing right now on live doppler 7. check it before you head out the door. get hour-by-hour local forecasts. happening today the man acquitted of murdering native kate steinle is scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court. >> on friday a judge sentenced jose ines garcia zarate to three years in prison for gun possession. zarate was released for credit on time served. federal authorities charged him with being a convicted felon and an illegal immigrant in an illegal immigrant in possession of a firearm.

developing news, a search continues for the suspects who shot two people in fremont. the people shot were trying to stop a car burglary. >> officers and k- teams searched for four people early yesterday morning. detectives believe the two victims were shot after they confronted two men and women who had broken into a car. >> shocking because it's a quiet neighborhood. we've never seen this happen here. it's a nice, peaceful neighborhood. we've been living here for a long time. >> both shooting victims are expected to survive. >> abc 7 news informs san jose after a woman died in this traffic crash. investigators believe her car collided with a car that was turning at silver creek valley road just after 6:00 last night. the woman's toyota overturned. she was ejected from her suv. police tell us the other driver is cooperating with drivers and they don't believe drugs or alcohol were factors. hollywood and in reaction t

winfrey's powerful speech. >> she was the recipient of the award that recognizes outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment and in her speech oprah spoke to future generations of women saying a new day is on the horizon because of the time's up movement. hundreds of women banded together to advocate for gender parity and provide legal defense aid for victims. >> fighting hard to make sure they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, me too, again. thank you. >> oprah was in full oprah last night. i missed it. it was amazing to see her that way. she is the first african-american woman to win that award and be honored with that distinction.

she looked great, didn't she? oprah's speech was the talk of the town and on social media, of course. several celebrities sent out tweets following her big moment on the stage, and i want to show you some of those. ava duvernay, director and producer, said, let me tell you that room is still vibrating like electricity from that speech. comedian mindy kaling saying congratulations, oprah, on your cecil demille award at the golden globes. you are amazing. love, your friend on maternity leave. kirstie alley, oprah, amazing speech. congratulations for your superb honor. that's only three tweets. there's a lot more. top trending in the last 24 hours. reggie, back to you. one of the next big awards shows, the oscars. you can only see them on abc 7. here are some dates to write down. nominations january 23rd. we'll have live coverage here on abc 7 mornings.

and then on sunday, march 4th, jimmy kimmel hosts the 90th oscars. abc 7 once again the only place where you can watch them. the storm watch is over because the storm is here and that's why we're on the accuweather alert. i wanted to take you to the north bay. a look at san rafael where we have light rain falling now. it is the north bay we're most concerned with, the flding today over the burn scars. the biggest concern or the time frame for the greatest concerns starts at noon today, goes all the way until 6:00 tomorrow morning. so that is quite a time frame, about 18 hours where we could have some debris flows off those burn scars. you can see the yellows out there. they're few and far between now but they will pick up. right now just a lot of rain and light rain across the north bay. and as we head into the deeper parts of the day, that will increase and so will the temperatures starting in the upper 40s this morning and all the way into the mid-50s by the tie we get to 8:00.

that warmer air that comes in that increases the intensity of the rain and brings us the energy we need for thunderstorms this evening. east bay valleys starting off at 50 with rain. rain just continues all day into the upper 50s by 8:00 this evening. and on the peninsula rain all day today. and the temperature also increases from 50 this morning to 57 by 6:00 and 8:00 with the heavier rain falling during the evening commute. we'll talk more about that coming up. so far a lot of issues this morning. let's get right to sue. >> thank you. we do. hydroplaning is the biggest culprit. back to the east shore freeway. if you look closely there's the emergency crews off to the left-hand side of your screen. they just reopened all lanes. they had temporarily blocked to. so it is thick. it is heavy traffic wise and you can barely see because of the rain coming down as well. hydroplaning a big issue this morning. let's go back to oakland where we had temporarily all lanes blocked. westbound 580 to get a car out

of the lanes there at lake shore. that's been reopened and cleared. another overturned vehicle on its roof, southbound 280 before 380. that is slowing things back to westboro. heads-up there. mountain view, southbound 101 before highway 85. again, lanes are blocked here. two to three lanes as you make the transition from 101 to highway 85. caution out there. that green means a lot of rain. >> yes, it does. relief could be coming sooner than expected for commuters. >> according to the marin ij the third lane of the eastbound side could open two months earlier than projected. transportation officials say if testing goes well, the lane will be available from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m. every day. caltrans spending millions to open the lane. a college student who vanished in southern california. the items he left at his home that has his parents so alarmed. mercedes-benz stadium ready

for the college championship game. the special guest who has it bracing for protests. you can see the live traffic conditions and also live doppler 7 on your screen throughout the commercial break so you can it's just my eczema again,t.

but it's fine. yeah, it's fine. you ok? eczema. it's fine. hey! hi! aren't you hot? eczema again? it's fine. i saw something the other day. eczema exposed. your eczema could be something called atopic dermatitis, which can be caused by inflammation under your skin. maybe you should ask your doctor? go to eczemaexposed.com to learn more.

you need to be prepared no matter where you travel today for wet weather and turning over

to snow as we head up into the sierras. it's not done that yet because the snow levels are so high but they'll drop down to 7500 feet by 7:00. that's when the passes become snow covered. now we're getting 6 to 11 inches here, 4 inches at lake level. 2 feet possible along the crest. we're going to have a lot of rain here. hi, everyone. breaking news from new york city. a live picture of trump tower. there is a small fire right now on the roof. abc news is reporting it was caused by an electrical box on the roof or something close to it. as you see those crews are working on getting everything squared away, getting the fire out, making sure everything is fine with the building.

i'm working on getting additional information from our crews. it's 4:46 now. a frantic search under way in california for a college student missing for almost a week. >> 19-year-old blaze bernstein was home on school break. he was last seen on tuesday night at a park in orange county. he left home without telling his parents and what's even more alarming to them is what he did not take with him. >> he left our house that night with no wallet, no money, no identification, no credit cards, no keys, no eyeglasses. this is someone who needs to wear eyeglasses. >> he ran off into the dark. at first he thought it was a joke. the teen never came back to the car. they have searched the park and found no sign of him.

>> protests are planned tonight in atlanta, georgia, where president trump is expected to attend. >> groups are urging people to hold anti-trump signs. demonstrators plan to take a knee before the game. the group dissed atlanta. mike nicco is tracking this mike nicco is tracking this storm. >> thank you, sue, showing how much water has accumulated on our heavier travel arteries this morning. maybe you want to call them low lights. the rain will be heavy. this is just the beginning. this is the appetizer. this will weight us down and make the evening commute even

more lethargic than the morning commute. howers during the afternoon, evening, and the storm will drop from a 3 down to a 1. that's where we've had the rain. pockets of yellow. right along the richmond/san right along the richmond/san rafael bridge out highway 24. concord and all that's heading up to the north so it will be going right up interstate 80. hydro planing and trees toppling. moderate concerns with flooding on the burn scars and power outages by those trees toppling. let me jump to the accuweather seven-day forecast and i'll show you how this is going to play out from a 3, strong, to a 1, light, to absolutely nothing wednesday through sunday and temperatures warming back up above average.

take an hour by hour look next. here's sue. hoe droe planing is a big issue for the traffic this morning. you can see the rain coming down here pooling and standing water a big problem. right now traffic is fairly light on the span itself. the green on the map does show it is raining. we have a vehicle on its roof. they are doing a traffic break from westboro down to mountain view. an accident that's also due to hydroplaning. that's a map that shouldn't be there. we'll check back with more because we had an earlier sig alert in santa rosa. an afternoon in church changes a woman's life. >> the largest faulty air bag recall just got bigger.

how you can find out if your car is involved. plus, a big restriction at coachella music festival has some crying buzz kill. first this morning's "tech bytes." in today's "tech bytes" a mystery shrouded mission. >> spacex delivered a spacecraft into orbit. very few details were given about the launch. the commentary stopped five minutes into flight. it's not clear which arm of the government funded the launch. >> spacex once again guided the first stage rocket booster back to earth to be reused. and a samsung tv is getting early buzz. >> it's called the wall because it's 146 inches. samsung says it will be available this year. no price as yet. and two major apple investors say the iphone is toxic for children. they want apple to help parents control how much their kids use their iphones. >> and they want to study the impact of the overuse of smart phones on

let's start with the rainfall. look at this already by noon. we're looking at a third of an inch in the south bay. that crescendos to more than an inch in the areas in green including the for the bay. spreading overnight through tomorrow morning's commute which could be the hardest with the most amount of ponding. an hour by hour look coming up next.

>> this is the latest recall involving the air bags defective inflators can shoot sh rap knell. 20 people have been killed worldwide. 180 hurt. takata has identified gm, toyota, honda, bmw and tesla. 7 on your side has been reporting on issues since 2014. recreational pot won't be allowed at coachella this year. >> the festival website says all marijuana products are banned this year and beyond because the home city does not allow selling, cultrating or using marijuana. it starts on april 20th, basically the unofficial holiday for pot. the lineup features headliners beyonce, the weekend and eminem.

>> you can see at 7:00 the yellows and oranges more of the moderate rain rolling in. look how it increases from the south bay right up into the heart of the bay and moves up into the north bay and by noon we'll still have pockets out there. the biggest, strongest, and the most likely area of flooding rains will come in after 7:00. we could havethunder and lightning. by tomorrow while the rain tapered a lot of puddles to deal with. here is sue. >> we have a lot of that right now. let's check in with the bay bridge. it's raining here. no metering lights yet at the toll plaza. folks are back to school, back to work this morning. the cash paying lanes are starting to pick up.

we have an overturn. the green on your map represents that it is raining in the entire bay area for your commute. before 85, two lanes of traffic there and further south we have a solo spinout blocking the left lane, north 101 just after 680. extra caution this morning. >> the national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline has gone up 3 cents. the current price $2.54, 16 cents more than where it was this year or this time last year. higher crowd oil costs is contributing to those prices. a gallon of regular gas in san francisco is at $3.27 in oakland. $3.15. in san jose $3.14. >> we win. >> we're always the highest. a mom who needed a new set of wheels just got her prayer answered. >> abc 7 news is inside the church at antioch when diana

learned she was selected from a pool of people nominated to get a car from her congregation. she couldn't afford to replace a car she lost in a recent accident. >> i am able to work on so much more than i could have without a car. having my car totaled took everything from me. >> it's like christmas all over again to see the reaction to someone receive such a gift. >> antioch mayor wright helped escort her to her new set of wheels, a ford explorer. it was part of the third anniversary celebration. next at 5:00 a.m., more team coverage of the strong storm moving throughout the bay area. >> passengers want answers after they went through the bomb cyclone. why a captain went full speed ahead. plus, i'm still watching breaking news out of new york city. a small fire on the top of trump tower. you see firefighters there. i'll have the newest information next. and a smart train just made the morning commute easier.

it's just my eczema again,t. but it's fine. yeah, it's fine. you ok? eczema. it's fine. hey! hi! aren't you hot? eczema again? it's fine. i saw something the other day. eczema exposed. your eczema could be something called atopic dermatitis, which can be caused by inflammation under your skin. maybe you should ask your doctor? go to eczemaexposed.com to learn more.

the strongest storm of the season hitting the bay area as we speak. a 3 on our storm impact scale and that means a messy commute. >> the timing of this rocked many of us going back to work today, going become to school today. and this is what's greeting us on this monday, january 8th. alexis is off. good morning, natasha, reggie, hi, everybody. just going to have to grin and bear it. it's touching all of our lives. a 3 means heavy rains.