all eyes are on the storm at this hour in the bay area. it's shaping up to be the strongest of the season. you're looking live across the bay area from wul nut creek to the bay bridge to the san mateo bridge. all wet right now. we have you covered with the worst of it yet to come. thanks for joining us. p. i'm kristen sze. this is a special edition of abc 7 news. closed right now because of flooding. we have a crew on the way for more details. we'll have a full weather crew bourquing for you right now. let's start with sandhya patel and spencer christian.

>> we haven't seen a storm like this in some time. you can see how widespread the storm is. there's just a blanket of rain across the entire bay area. the wind is picking up. wind gusts up 53 miles per hour. 25 to 30 mile per hour gusts right now. that's just at the surface. in the higher elevations, gusts of up to 51 miles per hour. 40 at mt. tam. 39 miles per hour at altamont. sandhya, why don't you show us locally. >> slightly. spencer, we'll track this storm. you'll notice how heavy the rain is. as we get you to street level, park more avenue, heading into willow glen, we're seeing rainfall rates of .7 to an inch per hour. really starting to ramp up here. we're going to continue to see bands of heavy rain pushing across. we're going from the santa cruz

mountains heading towards campbell at 310, morgan hill adding into that time period. we pan around the bay area, towards discovery bay, brentw d brentwood, down to street level, heavy rainfall. that rain causing problems in yountville, oak more avenue. spencer show us the largest perspective with this intense storm. >> this is the live radar and sat right composite. you can see the storm is expa expanding as it intensifies. the wind is picking up as well. it's a rank 3 on the storm impact scale. flooding is likely. power outages. here's the forecast animation taking us into the heart of the evening commute. it's going to be a challenging and treacherous, potentially hazardous commute. let's go to drew tuma who has a look at the watches around warnings. >> we're seeing flood watches and warnings in effect. a flood advisory for the north bay. what that means, we have already seen flooding on the small

streams and creeks. that will continue at least through 6:30. later on this evening. this was just issued in the past 60 seconds or so. a flood advisory for the heart of the bay area. this includes san francisco, oakland, hayward, fremont, san mateo, even palo alto. this means with more heavy rain, we're going to see flooding on our roadways. this will likely continue at least through 8:45 this evening. that encompasses the evening commute. the evening commute is going to be a mess. a flash flood watch is in effect for the entire region. we're under that flood threat and seeing flooding right now. we're going to see flooding later on this evening thanks to heavy rain moving through. we could see thunder showers popping up. the threat is there for the rest of the evening with lightning with the forecast. wind is the other component of the storm. we have not seen the strongest winds yet. we do expect the winds to ramp up over the next couple of hours. by 6:00, 7:00, 8:00 in the evening, the winds are screaming out of the south, gusting close

to 50. the winds will take down more trees this evening. when spencer comes back, he's going to take a closer look at the storm and the full forecast in a few minutes, kristen. >> drew, thank you so much. in the east bay, problems are popping up through the contra costa county. officials are keeping a close eye on what's expected to be a more powerful storm to come. anchor eric thomas is live along kites creek. what's going on there, eric? >> reporter: weave seen a couple of fairly strong cells come through in the past two hours. we're experiencing just light rain. as for tice creek. there it is behind me. folks who live here estimate it's 6 to 8 feet deep. on a normal day, it would be 3 to 4 feet deep. this is not a problem yet. but there have been already problems. on withers avenue in lafayette, a 50-foot tall oak tree came

crashing down, missing people and homes, but blocking both lanes of traffic at pleasant hill road. this woman heard the crash. >> sounded like an explosion. the dog went nuts. i thought it was thunder for a minute. i went out and saw that the tree had fallen. >> the roots gave out and with the recent rain, it came down approximately 9:00 a.m. this morning. >> along main street in downtown martinez, sandbags were placed in front of many businesses. mayor rob schroder just moved his business here. it doesn't flood as bad as it used to. but it can be a nuisance if several things happen at the same time. >> high tides come together, the hills being saturated and a lot of rain. we're expecting that today or tonight. hopefully, it won't happen. hopefully it will drain quickly enough. >> now that the downed oak tree has been removed, it's a watching and waiting game for public works. >> we're cleaning catch basins

and flushing out culverts to make sure that the rain has a place to flow. >> reporter: the good part is that contra costa county public works knows where the trouble spots are and they can monitor them. so far, no major problems and no major problems here on tice creek yet. it would probably have to be double what it is to go out over tice valley ride, which is nearby here or the road out there that you may hear traffic going by on. hasn't happened yet. not looking for it to happen. but it is a possibility. live in walnut creek, eric thomas, abc 7 news. >> fingers crossed it doesn't happen. eric, thank you. another commuter update. the san francisco bay ferry service from south san francisco to alameda in oakland will not run its 4:20 and 5:20 and 7:00 p.m. service this evening. they will run a bus bridge. for those at home watching this, you're definitely lucky. it's not a good day to be out

and about. that's what abc 7 news reporter wayne freedman is doing for us. driving on highway 101 in marin county. wayne, it looks like it's already wet out there. >> reporter: it's beginning to pick up, absolutely quite a lot. welcome to mobile 25 on highway 101 heading north in marin county. we're just short of lucky drive. in fact, we're going to switch over and show that you picture right now. what we see is not very bad. not as bad as we thought it might be. it was heavy earlier today. mostly, this has been a day of waiting for people. a lot of people appeared to have stayed home. others have gone preemptive as we learned outside the public works department today. i'm going to hold on and as we come over this ridge here, this is one of the big flood points in marin county. earlier today, it was pretty flooded. i think that at this point, as we come to this point, it may be a little bit better. it's often a splash fest. okay. if you go marin county 101

north, you know this section. this is lucky drive. we don't see a lot of brake lights here. we see traffic moving smoothly. that bodes well for now. let's hope it stays that way. earlier today, we were in novato and we were talking about preemptiveness. here's what we found in terms of sandbags. >> we do five. >> there is a first time for everything. as lynn de la cruz showed up at a sand pile outside of public works, she told us about it. never before had she filled a sandbag. >> i looked online how to do it. where to find it, how to do t so, you know, i hopefully have the right technique. >> it's one of those little stories in the larger one. lynn had company. kayla gold made her first sandbags here, too. she had no choice. >> i have a back door that's the patio is -- that has a deep area there. just want to make sure it doesn't come into the back door. otherwise, i'm not too, too

worried. >> big storms make for fast friends. think of this sandbag pile as you might a campfire. >> what is the secret? >> that cone right there. >> yeah. >> you put it on there, fold it oer and shovel it in and then take the cone off and tie it up and you're done. >> reporter: as we come back live on highway 101 heading north, we're not done quite yet. it's good news that at this point in the day, we're still reporting on people preparing sandbags instead of having to use them. as we come back live, this is where we'll be for the next few hours going up and down this corridor if and when news breaks in the canyons and the hills, anywhere around here. we'll be there. if you drive-by, wave to us. in marin county on highway 101. wayne freedman. glad it's not too bad yet. the storm appears to be too much for surfers. reporter melanie woodrow is live

giving us a look at conditions there. hold on to that hat, melanie. >> reporter: i am tell you, it's going to get worse out here. i want to step out of of the way and you can take a look at what we're seeing. the waves, the sand that's blowing, we heard that great highway is closed southbound from lincoln to vote. sloat. we saw one man doing his best to hold on to his umbrella earlier today. there is a sign out here warning people to stay off the beach due to these dangerous conditions. still, we heard that there was a close call here earlier that a surfer almost needed to be rescued. we spoke with another surfer who stopped by to check out the conditions. >> what surfer would get in this? >> anybody. especially someone that's inexperienced. >> don't know better. >> ocean beach is unforgiving. it's relentless. because of the bay next to us,

we have some of the strongest tidal current anywhere. >> that storm we had a couple weeks ago, that was probably the biggest waves i've seen. there's definitely -- they're definitely nasty looking right now, though. >> reporter: and you can see in some more video that we have here that the sand is blowing, the winds really picking up. earlier today, we started off in sell mow wherewithal of the construction and development, all those new buildings going up, some workers had no choice but to do their jobs in the rain. we're out here at ocean beach and it's expected to get worse before it get better. live it in san francisco, melanie woodrow, abc 7 news. mel nirks thanks so much. you've seen the east bay, north bay and san francisco. let's check in for a look at the south bay and peninsula with our weather team. spencer and sandhya. across the peninsula, it's more widespread. let me give you the broad view

to los altos hills and down south bay to san jose and beyond. you can see it's raining steadily. the darker colors indicate the heavier rainfall. they're along highway 82 down into the intersection of highway 85 near mountain view. you can see yellows showing up, indicating steadier, moderate to heavy downpours. moving along, little bit farther to the south, santa clara, down into san jose and the willow glen area, you can see the intersections of the major highways there. 880, 17. they're experiencing moderate to heavy rainfall. the highways are definitely wet and slippery. there are no doubt areas of pooling and ponding on the roadways. one more reminder, the storm ranks 3 on the storm impact scale. strong intensity with heavy rain, thunderstorms and high winds and damaging -- downed trees and flooding likely from this storm. all that is happening just as we get into the heart of the evening commute. kristen? >> it's coming. spencer, thank you. you can get live doppler 7 weather and traffic conditions

wherever you are. download the abc 7 news app and customize it to where you live. you are watching a special 3:00 edition of abc 7 news. we're following all the latest commuter and weather issues this storm is causing. you're looking at san francisco where we just got word the great highway is closed from lincoln to

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. i'm meteorologist sandhya patel with live doppler 7. i'm going to get you in closer to where it is pouring right now in the south bay. we're seeing heavy rain falling at this hour. you will notice right around benton street into cupertino, saratoga, blossom hill road. some of the rates in this area pretty intense. about a half an inch an hour. you're going to continue to see the rainfall rates on the intense side. i do want to pull out a little bit here and show you where that rain is heading right now across

parts of the east bay into berkeley. we're seeing some heavy rainfall kensington, grizzly peak. let's track this badge for you. it's moderate to heavy. moving towards orinda at 3:22. san francisco, lighter showers. very spot any nature and as we head towards the north bay right now, take you into street level radar, around sears point, black point, seeing some moderate cells right now. the rainfall intensity ispick we'll continue to see the strong gusty winds. we have updates for you. b.a.r.t.'s civic center station is closed right now because of flooding on the platform. the great hey way in san francisco, closed from lincoln to sloat. alameda and oakland will not run. 4:20, 5:30 and 7:00 pj service. they'll run a brus bridge instead. getting home from work will be the story for everyone.

not going to be easy. we're joined by a chp officer to talk about the conditions. good afternoon. thank for joining us. >> good afternoon. thank for having me. >> traffic incidents and accidents, doesn't appear to be too bad right now. can you tell us what's happening and now how you expect that to build as the evening wears on. >> we had a fairly easy, not easy, but fairly light day until the rain came this afternoon. we're expecting more rain. we've been listening to the newscast, of course. we know it's going to get heavy this evening. with more rain, we'll start to see additional collisions. a lot of solo vehicle collision that is could easily be avoided by slowing down and we'll also see some flooding on the roadways. we did have crews out all day clearing drains. we're hoping to alleviate problems. >> hopefully the necessary

preparations were made and it will alleviate the problems. what safety tips can you offer for drivers tonight? >> as i mentioned earlier, the biggest safety tip i can tell you, it's simply to slow down. take your time, especially when the roadway is wet. with even a little bit of water, you can easily lose traction and hydroplane. headlights, wipers of course, make sure those are working well. check now if you can. give yourself plenty of time and understand that it's going to take a little bit longer to slow down your vehicle. maintain that safe following distance please. >> we're giving a quick look at drive time around the bay. you can see san jose, also the oakland area strting to see a lot of red, slowness around 580, the tracy area and of course, the fremont area. 880 all starting to build. what about if you're headed to the mountains. what should you do if you're heading up there? >> i would say that if you're going to be heading to the mountains, check our advisories,

the cal trans advisories as far as roadway conditions, what roads are open and whether chains are required. again, just like any -- just like the rain, just slow down and you take plenty of time. but make sure you do proper planning and see that those roads are actually open to where you need to get to. >> we only have 15 seconds. i want to ask you, which are the worst hours for drivers that you anticipa based on the fact as rain starts to accumulate? >> the evening traffic is certainly going to start picking up right now. i would say around that 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, it's going to get pretty heavy. >> officer williams, thank you so very much for that useful information. of course, the abc 7 news team will be on for you during those worst periods that he talked about on the roadways to help you get through t. in the south bay, the worst is yet to come. the storm is expected to get stronger there this evening as well. abc 7 news reporter david louie talked to the chp and he joins

us live from san jose. hi, david. >> reporter: hi kristen. you talked to the chp about the traffic conditions. you can see them right behind me live between brokaw and the 880 interchange at a crawl right now. somewhat typical of this hour of the day. people are being cautious because of the concern about possible collisions. that's what the chp is watching for right now. we hit the road for almost two hours with chp, san jose area, traffic officer, henrich bailey, a 24-year chp veteran. he sees drivers behave differently when there is heavy rain and high winds. they noll tfollow too closely a drivers should turn on headlights when their wipers are on. >> also make sure that it's not just your auxiliary lights are on. turn on all your lights so your

taillights are on so people can see the taillights. if they pull out from the side street, something like that, they can see your headlights. they might not see your vehicle if your lights aren't on. >> the majority of the crashes during storms are speed-related. people are just going too fast. they hit their brakes. they'll hydroplane and then crash. i've been to two crashes today. going too fast. >> reporter: another important tip from the officer. hands-free mobile phone use is allowed. he suggests that you not make or receive calls in heavy storm conditions. cell phone might be just the diversion that your mind doesn't need as you -- that you need to pay attention to traffic conditions, especially for vehicles that might make sudden stops. now, strong winds also are expected tonight's storm. officer bailey suggests you stay away from high-profile vehicles, especially big rigs.

because those high winds will buffett those vehicles as well, possibly veer them into your lane of traffic and you could end up being swied swiped. live in san jose, david louie. you can find live doppler 7 along with traffic conditions as you try to get home today. it's always available for you on our abc 7 news app. we are just getting started here. so is the storm. let's take you live outside right now. this is our view from the exploratorium camera in san francisco. gray and rainy. the seagull doesn't seem to mind. it's tough on commuters. i'm meteorologist drew tuma. we're getting hit hard by the rain here. but the sierra a

all right. we have this to show you. how heavy and thick is the snow in the sierra right now. heavy enough to tilt a private jet up on its tail. look at the pictures from the

truckee airport. the national weather service says 15 inches of sierra cement. that's their nickname for the snow, fell overnight. that added just enough weight to tilt the cessna jet into the air, at least the nose. the airport is under a blizzard warning until tomorrow morning. drew has more on the sierra and all that snow coming this way. >> this is just the start. live doppler 7, we're sweeping the skies around the sierra and where you see the white shading on your screen, that is the snow, heavy at times and it is just starting right now. we have a winter storm warning in effect. this lasting until friday morning. 2 to 4 feet on average. but the bigger story, a blizzard warning will go into effect at 4:00 today and a blizzard warning is not only heavy snow, it is very strong winds in excess of 70 miles an hour. that will create white-out conditions. so do not think about trying to travel to the sierra tonight or tomorrow. snowfall potential, winter weather levels will love that

feet of fresh powder. when can you travel to the sierra? today, don't think about it. tomorrow, similar story. the blizzard warning is still in effect. likely g. going to have road closures. friday the storm is out of there. but the roads will be slippery. the best bet if you're trying to go to tahoe, saturday. partly sunny skies and dry conditions. kristen, the next 48 hours, they'll get walloped with snow. by the way, want to mention that the civic center b.a.r.t. station in san francisco just reopened. it was closed for a while due to flooding. it is now open for commuters. we're preparing for the storm to get more intense. let's go live back to tahoe. heavenly resort, it's

i'm spencer christian with a look at live doppler 7 once

again. moderate to heavy rain widespread across the bay area. our next wave of rain offshore moving in our direction arriving in the mid of the evening commute. this storm, once again, ranks 3 on the storm impact scale. heavy rain, thunderstorms will accompany this storm. strong damaging gusts up to 60 miles per hour. in fact, the gusts are increasing right now. flooding and downed trees are possible. here's our accuweather seven-day forecast even after today's strong storm, we have another level 2 storm tomorrow, rainy and gusty once again on top of saturated soil. friday, we have scattered showers. finally a break from the rain on saturday. yet another storm comes in on sunday to bring more light to moderate rainfall. finally, we can expect partial clearing on monday which is martin luther king, jr. day. thank you spencer. that does it for this special storm edition of abc 7 news. world news tonight with david muir is coming up next. we'll be back on the air at 4:00. you can always find us online at abc7news.com and on our abc 7

news app where you can get live doppler 7 to track the storm through your neighborhood. we'll leave you with a live look at the bay tonight, four americans killed in syria. the deadly attack. a massive explosion. those four americans, two of them service members. just weeks after president trump claimed isis had been defeated. in this country, the major travel concerns tonight. dangerous driving already. and now, two major storms set to blast the east, bringing heavy snow and freezing rain. ginger zee has the timing of it all tonight. day 26 of the government shutdown. unpaid government workers from the tsa, the irs, the coast guard, all in line for food. and the workers missing morlg and rent payments, trying to get unemployment. the government telling them it will take at least 30 days just to get them an answer. breaking now, the arrest at this hour.