drivers in the middle lane driving carefully. >> this was the scene at drumm and sacramento streets, almost everyone had their umbrella as they walked. >> the mt. tam camera on the right, and the emeryville camera, boy, those clouds don't look good. >> the scariest weather has ended, but there's some scary pockets remaining. you can see through the central part of the area, it's calm, but we have patches of light rain. let me show you how much rain we have had so far from this storm. 2 urges in napa and 2 1/2 inches in los gatos, only 1/3 inch into early tomorrow morning, look for light to moderate rain,

possibly an isolated thunderstorm or two. the wind will be gusty up to about 45 miles an hour at times. here's our forecast animation, starting about 5:00 this afternoon, at that point, we'll be in the evening commute already, and most locations will be experiencing relatively quiet weather conditions. but rather quickly, between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m., notice how waves start to develop in the north bay again, the yellow and orange indicate moderate to heavy bands of rainfall. and snow is going to fall in the higher terrain of northern sonoma county and we're going to have that mixed precipitation, that freezing precipitation continuing in our higher elevations overnight. the full forecast coming up shortly. in the north bay, rain and wind really got the attention of people all day long, including those who are rebuilding homes in sonoma county, where fire debris still poses a significant threat to backing up storm

drains. >> cornel is live with a look at today's weather challenges. >> reporter: the wind is definitely picking up today, and storm clouds, well, they are moving back in. check it out, the afternoon commute looking a whole lot better than the morning drive when things got messy. up in santa rosa, erosion control measures in the fire zones appear to be holding today. a soggy drive down highway 101. rain fell overnight and lasted well past the morning commute. >> reporter: there was street flooding in san rafael, and a few downed trees like this one in novato. a power line snapped in the storm preventing some people from leaving their homes for several hours until it was repaired. tree crews were busy in santa rosa, clearing downed trees out of the creek that could flood.

>> that's more dying and dead debris that can cause flooding. >> the waddles designed to keep the debris out of storm drains appears to have done the trick. >> it shows what we have done at a city level over the last four months has been paying off. >> reporter: the storm didn't matter much to dan and nancy crosby, we found them drinking champagne outside of their home in crosby park. their new home could break down any day. >> this has been a moving target and things kept changing around. so we got to the point where we signed the contract and we're ready to go on the new home here. >> reporter: and check this out, back with a shot of this green hillside, which was turning brown since this rain turned things out.

pg&e said that there were power outages this morning, and now most of the power is back on, there are still 200 customers affected. there's a wide array of challenges caused by the rain, including power outages and crashes. the rain is even making things difficult for firefighters. matt keller has that part of the story. >> reporter: it could have been worse. you could be the driver of this accura suv. she said she started hydroplaining around 4:30 this morning, spun out before coming to rest on a hillside in front of an apartment complex. a pick-up truck was also involved. amazingly no one was hurt. but on the roads, hazards were everywhere, including flooding on the connector ramp from northbound 280 to northbound 7 in san jose, it wasn't just the water that was causing problems, power outages were causing issues, power was out in san jose, making this stoplight a

four-way stop. but more often than not, people blew right through the intersection, in fact it happened twice during my live report this morning. it's obviously dangerous because it's raining and because people are not paying attention out here. someone paying attention spotted a fire in this vacant building on west julian street and stockton avenue and called 911. firefighters say it's possible someone was trying to keep warm early this morning. the firefighters and the building's concrete walls kept the flames in place. you would also think the rain would help firefighters but -- >> it makes our jobs a little bit more difficult just because things are wet and heavy. >> reporter: developers were planning on demolishing that building and putting up apartments so the loss is minimal. firefighters are still looking for what caused the fire to start. and check out this image

from the observatory on top of mt. 45hamilton today. a lot of rain on the camera lens, not the rain we saw earlier this week. take a look at this video from north star resort, a blizzard warning remains in effect in the lake tahoe area, they're expecting as much as 5 feet of snow in the upper elevations. and a live look right now at heavenly ski resort. and the chairs are still running, they're still going this afternoon. want to go up and do some skiing. >> just remember to take some chains if you go up. and our abc7 news app is upgraded to you can customize the forecast for wherever you are. no word on whether the weather played a role in this crash in front of a beach blanket babylon theater in north

beach, san francisco. the pick-up truck and the garbage truck collided in front of the theater. no damage to the theater so the show will go on as scheduled. this fire was at the wood creek terrace at 2:15 this afternoon. at this time no word of any injuries or how the fire may have started. the man accused of sending white powder to one of donald trump's sons is accused of doing the same thing to a stanford law professor. >> authorities believe daniel fracello is responsible for at least five cases across the country, mailing letters from boston to new york, westlake village and palo alto. chris is live with the details. >> reporter: and we learned today from federal authorities

that the man suspected of sending these letters made two separate attempts to contact that stanford professor, first by sending a glitter bomb and then following it up with the white powder. today in boston, a joint terrorism task force announced the arrest of this man, 47-year-old daniel frisiello, he's accused of sending white powder to multiple figures in the country, including donald trump jr. and michelle dauber. >> in the home, among other things agents found a computer printout that appeared to contain portions of a chart with descriptions of people that matched people who had received the mailings with the white powder. >> reporter: federal authorities believe dauber was argued for her role in leading the effort to recall judge aron persky, the man behind the brock turner sexual assault case. >> i'm a victim of a crime like

the other individuals and i'm relieved that there's been an arrest and at this point it's very important that the criminal process go forward. >> turner a former stanford swimmer was found guilty of sexual assaulting a woman behind a dumperstster on campus in 201 but the judge sentenced him to three years in jail and probation. >> our campaign is not going to be intimidated, we're going to continue to go forward and stand with survivors of sexual assault. >> reporter: the fbi sending a strong message with today's arrest. >> there are plenty of appropriate lawful ways to express your opinion and voice your displeasure, but inducing panic and sending what is believed to be a weapon of mass destruction through the mail is not one of them. >> reporter: and we have also learned that in all of the cases the powder turned out to be harmless. but the fbi says the suspect now faces 10 counts related to mail

fraud and false information. san jose police say they will increase their visibility on school campuses after a threatening tweet. the person who tweeted the threat said he or she wanted to shoot up all the schools in the alam rock school district. police do not believe that threat is credible, but the department is taking no chances. >> we do have officers that are going to be responding to some of these calls to make contact with students and with staff. >> across the country and here in the bay area, similar threats have been made against schools and school districts since that deadly shooting in parkland, florida, federal officials say they usually see an up tick in threats after high profile incidents. the hunt is back ononononon no, this is not your usual launch, the satellite that could actually make a difference in

your daily life. it's like reality imitating art, or at least advertising. the damage that steph curry left in a hotel room and what he says really happened. >> pretty funny actually. at 4:11, a live check of the afternoon commute, this is highway 87, guadalupe park way, it's not raining so that's good news. this is a new picture, by the way, we have the camera set up here, right lanes are southbound just past the shark

a small group of demonstrators was out in san francisco today protesting against i.c.e. >> this as san francisco's mayor says he's willing to get arrested if that's what it takes

to defend sanctuary city policies. >> and san francisco also announced additional funding for legal services to defend those detained by i.c.e. >> reporter: as i.c.e. prepares to conduct more raids in southern california, i.c.e. says there will be an army of -- $7.6 million for legal defense services but now the city will spend an additional 3.5 milli$3n a year, $2.5 million will legal defense organizations and $1 million to go to -- $7 million in state funding for every immigrant currently detained in northern california. >> our goal in this funding is to make sure that here in northern california and the court is in san francisco physically, every single immigrant that comes before the

court that the trump administration tries to deport has legal representation. >> reporter: legal services had been strengthened even before trump took office. >> in the past year, we have expanded the rapid response network to be a 24 hour, seven day a week 365 day a year multilingual hot line. >> reporter: without a lawyer, many undocumented immigrants get deported quickly. emma had an attorney and won her case, that allowed her to stay. she says that gave her the opportunity to study at city college and she is now a certified therapist working with children with autism. last year california approved $45 million in it's budget to also expand legal services for immigrants throughout the state. >> any undocumented immigrant arrested as far north as eureka

is brought to san francisco for a detention hearing. community leaders took part in a ground breaking ceremony for new affordable housing units for families and homeless veterans, 140 units will be built on south street. the building will be named for the late mayor. linebacker ruben foster has put the team in a tough situation. shanahan addressed foster's recent address for the first time today saying, quote, i want to help ruben out, just like i want to help any of our players out, but it's a two-way street and the players has to meet us there, he was arrested by los gatos police on domestic violence and suspicion of assault. he was also arrested in january on a marijuana possession charge. a nursing student accused of sexual battery of a nursing home patient.

29-year-old cody baca turned himself in to authorities last week. baca faces two felony counts of sexual battery on an institutionalized victim and first-degree burglary. he's now on a leave from san francisco medical center. you don't swing a golf club indoors. steph posted a picture of the broken glass, when you're on the pga tour and you got to practice swings in your hotel room, idiot. i don't know if he had a ball and hit it -- who knows what happened there. could be a coffee table. the warrior s spent last night n washington, d.c. with the wizards. steph has broken stuff on tv, but only on tv. he and serena williams trashed a

room during an intense ping-pong match. but what steph posted today was not scripted. he can afford it. he'll take care of it. >> who wins that match, steph or serena? >> i think serena wins that match. >> the sun tends to be winning right now, but it does depend on where you are, in some spots right now there's some sun burning through, in san francisco it was really hard to find some sun burning through as we had pretty widespread rain. now we're having scattered light rain for the most part. we're not out of the woods on this storm yet. this is the view from sutro tower, it's 55 degrees in san francisco, upper 50s in mountain view and san jose, 55 in half moon bay. check out this view of the western sky from emeryville. hard to believe it was a stormy day with this camera view.

51 degrees at an a rosa, 54 in napa, novato 55. take a look at our surface wind right now, still gusty, 25 to 35-mile-per-hour gusts in many locations, 33-mile-per-hour gusts in fairfield. so still pretty breezy but the stronger gusts are in the higher elevations as you might expect and we have a wind advisory in the higher elevations. there's a possibility of downed trees and power lines. i'm going to go and give you this camera view again, these are our forecast features, we'll see mixed precipitation the next two days which means high elevation snow, down at sea level, scattered showers, blizzard conditions prevail in the lake tahoe area. i've shown you what's left of today's storm going into tonight. it ranks 1 on the storm impact scale.

our next storm for tomorrow and saturday, also ranks 1 on the storm impact scale. there's a chance of thundershowers tomorrow and snow levels will be down between 1,500 and 3,000 feet. forecast animation starting at 11:00 tonight. notice that there will be a line of rather steady and sometimes heavy rain pushing through the south bay at that time. followed during the overnight hours by cold air, which could produce some high elevation wintry mixed precipitation. but there won't be widespread rainfall at the beginning of the morning commute tomorrow. however it will be cold. later in the day, we'll see more showers coming through, you see in the yellows there, little periods of moderate to heavy rain, and of course snow in the higher terrain up in the north bay, that trend will continue tomorrow night and in fact into saturday. so we still have some stormy, wintry weather coming our way. overnight lows will be mainly in the mid 30s in the inland varies, low 40ss

and so we have a winter storm warn in the sierra, we may see an additional 2 to 3 feet of snow on top of what's accumul e accumulated already. travel is not suggested in the sierra tomorrow. wind gusts over the ridges over 100-mile-per-hour over in the greater tahoe area. here's our accuweather 7-day forecast, after the storms the next two days ranking 1 on the storm impact scale, we have calm and dry conditions on sunday, oscar sunday, milder going into next week, but tuesday, wednesday and thursday of next week, each of those days we have a chance of rain. >> but tuesday's looking dryer. >> drier than it looked before, but there's still a chance of rain late. >> when weather happens where you live, be sure and snap a video when it's safe to do so, we have some great photos from

our viewers, post your pictures with the #abc7now. a week of women and food, a preview of the special ♪ your heart doesn't only belong to you. bye grandpa. and if you have heart failure, entrusting your heart to entresto may help. entresto is a heart failure medicine that helps improve your heart's ability to pump blood to the body. in the largest heart failure study ever, entresto was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital compared to a leading heart failure medicine. don't take entresto if pregnant. it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. don't take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren. if you've had angioedema while taking an ace or arb medicine, don't take entresto. the most serious side effects are angioedema,

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this award season has been dominated around abuse of power, sexual misconduct and gender equality. >> the oscars may continue the trend. abc news reporter donnie bacus spoke to the creator of the me too movement. >> reporter: long before there was a movement by some of the biggest names in hollywood. >> i wanted it to be a household name for survivors. >> there was tarana burke. >> it was born out of necessity, a need to do something and give these girls something. >> reporter: her work with

survivors of sexual assault started nearly a decade ago. she started me too as part of her work with just be inc. inc.. but it was actress melissa milano that set fire to the movement. >> is this like, wait a minute, this is not what i intended? >> i thought, wait a minute, this is something that will get lost, the origin of it. >> reporter: in the wake of allegations against movie mogul mar i have winestein, the #metoo went viral on social media, and tarana was recognized as the creator. but in regards to what will happen at the oscars sunday. >> i don't know if there's going to be a big surprise, and if there was, i couldn't tell you anyway. >> reporter: she's focused on continuing to be an advocate for

survivors and moving the conversation around sexual assault forward. >> we want to set up a place both online and offline for survivors to come, for advocates to come for the resources need to go on a healing journey. >> the oscars begin on sunday at 1:30 in the afternoon, and at 3:30 we have the opening preshow. the host again this year, jimmy kimmel. and dion lind spectacular gown. >> have you seen it? >> i have seen it. she sent me a picture. you can catch her live reports beginning tomorrow right here on abc7 news at 4:00 p.m. san francisco's commemorating international women's day next week with several special events dedicated to food. the week of women in food showcases the talents of women who have turned their culinary

skills into food businesses. this chef is one of those women. she went through a food incubator program and opened a catering company that specializes in western indian cuisine, she's among nine emerging chefs that will create meals a the city's top restaurants. >> what i do, this is my livelihood, i put my heart into it. a just like the other women around me. >> a week of women and food begins on monday. check out our food section on abc7news.com. this is going to be an ongoing process and something we don't expect to happen overnight. >> not everybody's on board with this, what some lawmakers want to see first. and a texas coach who once played for the giants, now looking for a new job. the comments that got him fired.

here are the stories making headlines at 4:30, the rain has been off and on and it's causing

all sorts of problems across the bay area today. there have been crashes and roadway flooding, you can certainly see all the splashing there, as well as downed power lines. a wind advisory is in effect for much of the bay area tonight. the rain was complicated by a sink hole also today, jared huffman talked about school safety. and in the meantime, the white house is preparing to reveal trump's plan for sweeping changes to the nation's gun laws. kenneth is live in washington with the new developments. >> trump has big plans to try to protect schools from gun violence, but the proposals are already being met with harsh realities on capitol hill. >> reporter: president trump's

top school priorities, arming trained teachers, improving the background check system, raising the gun purchase age to 21. >> this isn't something we expect to happen overnight but something we're going to continue to be engaged in. >> reporter: the president also wants to help with legislation aimed at helping -- how to take guns away from someone who's a possible threat. >> i like taking the guns early. take the gun first, go through due process second. >> reporter: the nra responded on fox news. >> due process must be protected and it must be respected. >> reporter: trump also seems to be joining the republicans push to expand background checks. not having background checks at gun shows is like checking id and liquor stores but not bars. >> he's got to get a few republicans to support

background checks and protective orders and if he does, we can get it passed. >> i am certainly going to make sure we respond and respond in ways that will save lives. >> reporter: this morning president trump met with more officials related to school safety at the white house. he heard from families and police impacted by mass school shootings, including the most recent one that happened in parkland, florida. supermarket giant kroger is following the lead of walmart and dick's sporting goods when it comes to gun purchases, it's raising the age to buy guns at it's fred myers store. starting now, customers must be 21 or older to buy a gun or ammunition. stocks closed down after sinking sharply following president trump's announcement on tariffs on imported steel and alumin aluminum. he's planning on penalties of

25% on steel, 10% on aluminum. the president of the european commission says the plant puts thousands of european jobs at risk and the eu would take retaliatory action if those tariffs are imposed. russian president vladimir putin says his country has tested to new nuclear weapons that would be immune to ballistic intercept. he claims the michael hssile ha unlimited training and is capable of penetrating any missile defense while the can reach u.s. cities. patrick >> he was using this speech to -- so important to hiss appeal here. but inside the hall, they applauded him.

>> putin also warned that any attack on russian allies would constitute an attack on russia itself. jury selection is now under way in the federal trial of the widow of the pulse nightclub gunman. east bay native person responsible for the pulse nightclub attack. federal officials arrested salman in rodeo last year, charged with providing support with a foreign terrorist organization and obstructing justice. a texas college baseball coach who once played for the giants has been fired after he rejected a recruit who lives in colorado because of the state's cannabis laws. mike jeffcoat was let go today by texas weslyan university. he was reported by a high school student named gavin bell who said that he was not recruiting

players from colorado because they can't pass a drug test. he said you can thank your local officials. that email went viral after it was posted on twitter. >> that email wasn't intended to get anyone fired, it was just me talking to my coaches and my loved ones about what do i do about this. >> the university announced that jeffcoat has been fired. he also says he plans to reach out to gavin and see if he wants to explore playing at the university. the new technology making it easier than ever to predict the weather, and the bay area scientists who are behind it. plus the blast hitting europe hard and the warning for some residents there. we are looking at calm conditions right now in this location, looking at the western sky from emeryville, we still have more stormy weather on the way and i'll have the forecast coming up. a look at traffic on 680,

winter is certainly making its mark in europe, dropping snow on parts of the continent causing unusual and at times dangerous conditions. >> abc news molly hunter has the details. >> reporter: it's the beast from the east, they're calling it a siberian weather blast that's been hitting all of europe. more than two dozen people have died and the rest of the continent is digging out.

in rome, the coliseum blanketed in white and fountains frozen solid. in venice, seen here from above, a dusting of snow on the city's famous sights. and on the french riviera, near white house conditions. people were stick on the roads today. >> someone's got to keep the world running. >> reporter: and many sought, well, other modes of transportation, sledding here in london, running in short shorts and up in ireland, brave souls even taking a swim. now scientists are actually warning that this wacky european weather means that it is much warmer in the arctic region and colder air is penetrating further south than ever before. here in london it's well below freezing and authorities are telling people to get off the roads and get inside. things are relatively calm here compared with what we saw

this morning, here's live doppler 7, we have some batches of rain moving through the north bay right now, in the south bay, conditions are very calm. it's certainly going to be wet at times tonight and overnight we'll see colder air coming in with lower temperatures dropping down to howho 40s inland. we could see some wintry mixed precipitation in the higher elevations. we'll see more possibilities of showers, cold showers moving through the bay area, wintry precipitation could fall in the higher elevations tomorrow. 50 at the coast, and low low low 5 5 50s everywhere else. a winter storm in tahoe until 10:00 saturday night, travel is not advised there until sunday.

speaking of sunday, that will be our next dry day here in the bay area, oscar sunday will be partly cloudy to mostly sunny and dry, getting milder on monday and tuesday, but chances of rain return tuesday, wednesday and thursday. the countdown to the oscars is on. get the scoop on host jimmy kimmel and where you can party right here i have type 2 diabetes. i'm trying to manage my a1c, and then i learn type 2 diabetes puts me at greater risk for heart attack or stroke. can one medicine help treat both blood sugar and cardiovascular risk? i asked my doctor. he told me about non-insulin victoza®. victoza® is not only proven to lower a1c and blood sugar, but for people with type 2 diabetes treating their cardiovascular disease, victoza® is also approved to lower the risk of major cv events such as heart attack, stroke, or death.

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at home.ld generate your own energy, or to save energy, unplug unused appliances. do your thing, with energy upgrade california. well, we're only a few days away from hollywood's big night. oscar host jimmy kimmel is letting us in on what to expect during the broadcast. >> there will be a big unscripted surprise in the show. that's basically all i can tell you. >> will it take a lot of time? >> i hope so. i'm going to try to make this the longest oscar show ever. >> reporter: jimmy kimmel says we're in store for several surprises during the show. >> does the academy have any

veto power of any joke you might want to tell? >> they're very good about that kind of thing. they really don't mess with my jokes, as far as like a big comedy bit, yes, they're involved is, they want to know how it's going to work, et cetera, but as far as jokes go, it's pretty much up to me. >> reporter: jimmy has already had several nominees on his late night talk show and when it comes to what he and others might talk about on oscar's stage. >> there will be some tense moments and if someone feels very strongly, very passionately about a subject, they should take 30 seconds and talk about it. >> reporter: last year the world was talking about the best picture faux pas, involving the wrong envelope handed dunnaway and warren beatty. >> what did you learn last year that you're going to do this

year? >> i think we should have one set of envelopes. >> reporter: jimmy said he'll know within 30 seconds of taking the stage whether he's in trouble or whether it's going to be a great night. >> well, facebook is out with it's oscar favorites based on which nominees were the most talked about on social network. according to reporting by entertainment weekly, the shape of water topped the conversation among best picture nominees. the acting category had a couple f surprises. denzel washington is the favorite among facebook users in his performance of roman j. esquire, and meryl streep takes the best actress nominee for her role in the post, neither streep nor washington are considered contenders by critics, though. we have complete coverage on abc7news.com, and a complete list of all the nominees and some of the bay area people nominated for the oscars. and there's even a little quiz

to test your oscar knowledge. our coverage kicks off tomorrow right here on abc7 news at 4:00 p.m. consumer news now, southwest airlines doing something it has not done in ten years and it's going to cost you. and "7 on your side's" michael finney is here. >> $63 million more lost this s year, 2017 over 216. americans really got taken for a ride. con men took us for $900,000. the consumer reports released it's list of top fraud for 2017, debt collection and identity theft and impostor fraud. here's what caught me by surprise, more 20 to 29-year-old were ripped off than those older than 70. isn't that unique? however those over 70 were weree

ripped over more money. southwest airlines has been charging $5 for mixed mixed mixd "7 on your side" an airline spokesperson said they changed it to maintain our diverse drink options while continuing to enhance our drink lineup. exercise company class pass is changing up its business model, the subscription service. lets users find and book fitness classes. it will start selling members credits instead of a set number of credits per month. unused credits can actually roll over to the

class pass doesn't limit the number of times you can attend during a month. you can reach me through my facebook page and through abc7news.com. >> enhancing the drink pricing options is what they're really up to. >> they're cheap still. >> i'm just saying. we have been talking a lot about the oscars this week, and if you're looking for a way to celebrate the big night with some new friends, we have got you covered. >> here's reggie keith from abc7 mornings with some viewing suggestions from hoodline. >> you can get dressed up to the nines while watching the oscars at a food truck. at the high end, there's cad -- this is the 38th annual event that benefits hiv/aids organizations, if that's a little high, you can check out

the free celebration, there's no rain in the forecast but they have heat lamps and 24-hour bottomless mimosas. if you have ever partied on mission street, you have certainly seen doc's clock, it opened in the 50s, and it's sign became iconic, that's when the lights went out last year and d doc's literally monthed their sign. after a lot of hurdles, it's finally going to replace that temporary sign. >> we're doing it not just for us because we want our sign back, but for everybody in this neighborhood that we're losing too much. everything's changing and it's really nice to have one little beacon that will stand out that will be the name. and finally this weekend, another fund-raiser, this time for the oakland museum of california, it's the white elephant sale, billed as

california's biggest rummage sale. that happens saturday and sunday. for directions and hours and all that jazz, go to abc7news.com we'll link you up with hoodline. a baby chimpanzee is sky high after being rescued from poachers in the african republic of congo. this is mousa being flown out of trouble recently. how cute is mousa, he sat on the pilot's lap, took a nap, even helped throttle up the plane at one point. we're told mousa is doing very well at his new home. i don't think i would want him as my substitute pilot at this point. a new weather satellite blasts off. >> three, two, one. >> the bay area connection to the new satellite and how it will improve weather forecasting right here in the west. new at 5:00, frustrating over flower mart, the plan to

move it for three years has some vendors upset and worried about the wilting of their financial futures. that means entry coded that means they didn't use it to go in. >> b.a.r.t. goes after passengers who have not paid to ride. payment goes high-tech. plus the aircraft that went through a roof nearly landing on a woman laying in bed.

tonight on abc7 at 8:00, it's "grey's anatomy," followed by scandal and how to get away with murder followd by abc7 news at 11:00. the launch today of a new weather satellite is not only going to enhance their ability to forecast storms, but also pinpoint wildfires even before the first 911 call has even been made. abc7 news reporter david louie looks at these new capabilities,

much of them developed in silicon valley. >> liftoff of the >> reporter: the payload afford the new go technology has the capability to improve storm forecasting and also lightning strikes that could start wildfires. the lab in palo alto created the glm, from 22,300 feet i,300 feet it will focus on lightning. >> you can track the energy buildup of a storm by tracking the lightning and the rate of lightning gets a lot faster right before some severe weather like a tornado, also flash flooding or hail. >> reporter: the lightning mapper will also help commercial airliners. imagine being on a cross country flight and you're going over

oklahoma, this technology would allow the pilot to avoid all these lightning strikes. >> huge economic benefits if we can allow planes to come in and have a better idea of when we can declare an airport ready for operations again. >> the satellite will undergo six months of tests. it's high resolution output will help make weather forecasts more accurate. that's going to give us high resolution data that will feed into our computer models and the better data we can feed in, the better and more accurate those forecasts are going to be and the more you can rely on them. >> and the new satellite also has the ability to spot wildfires even before people on the ground are aware of them and david will have more on that coming up on abc7 "news at 6:00." that's going to do it for now, thank you for joining us. abc7 news at 5:00 starts right

now. it may not be quite the march miracle, but today's rain is taking down power lines and trees and another wave of this storm is on the way. but in the sierra, this storm is packing quite a punch, near whiteout conditions. a man sent a threatening letter to a bay area professor, what she is saying tonight about being targeted. also here, students hanging on to every word, a local congressman on the lessons of guns and violence. victim is getting bad, we're getting periods of complete whiteout out here right now. >> the highway patrol getting the word out, the sierra is snowplows are getting behind and driving is difficult. the roadway was shut down for hours because of whiteout conditions there.

right now only trucks are restricted. and near tahoe city, a tractor trailer went over an embankment. look at that picture, we're told it was not chained up. we're told there was a sudden whiteout and the driver just couldn't see outside of his truck. conditions are rough for skiers as well. we just got word that kirkwood has shut down all of its chairs for the day, it is late, but because of increasing avalanche hazards as well. >> it sounded like glass breaking, i didn't see any cars get hit, but yeah. >> and a real mess in the oakland hills, power lines and power poles are brought down by a fallen pine tree. a dozen customers have been without electricity for the entire day, so a real hassle for them. and right now this live picture in emeryville, both gray skies and a little bit of