>> right now scattered showers across the buy area. a live look at our interactive radar lit up in yellow and green. not only rain but hail, snow, on some of the bay area peaks g. tuesday morning. good stormy morning. it's 4:30. i'm scott mcgrew. >> i'm peggy bunker in for laura garcia-cannon. waking up to raindrops outside in san francisco, a live look seeing what's going on. then the drive flew the south bay and san jose. we'll watch that commute with this weather. mike has his eye on that. first up meteorologist christina loren, she has been tracking the spring storm. a lot of rain. >> a lot of rain, lightning, and

more thunder on the way as we head throughout the day. good morning to you, peggy, scott, everybody at home. right now the heaviest rainfall is moving over the peninsula. throughout the day today we're going to see showers get pretty active yet again we expect more thunderstorm activity and yesterday was a wild weather day. i want to bring you live to christie smith, she's live in berkeley. what happened out there yesterday? >> reporter: good morning to you. let's get to it. i want to show you what's left of this redwood tree in berkeley. looks like a spear sticking up in the sky behind this one-story home. this is a redwood tree struck by lightning yesterday. witnesses say it sounded like an explosion. it shattered into pieces. there is wood all over the neighborhood. steve can pan over. the roof is under tarp because it landed that way too. also there is a minivan parked in front. that windshield is shattered as well, part of it crushed.

this is a wild scene yesterday. i wanted to show you a google image what if that 80-foot tree looked like before the lightning yesterday rising above this home on holly street in berkeley. 80 feet cut down to 20 feet according to the berkeley fire department. scars from the lightning strike yesterday, windows blown out, tarps over roofs, that branch came down, punched a hole in a minivan. the home on the corner is behind red tape. there is a sign that says unsafe near the front door. we spoke with a neighbor who says around 1:20 in the afternoon he looked out of his window and got the surprise of his life. >> brightest thing i've ever seen, brighter than the sun. then the loudest noise i ever heard in my life. >> reporter: across the bay in sausalito there was another lightning strike, hit a tree. the impact blew out windows in

at least two homes. back here live, i wanted to show you kind of what the street looks like. not that dramatic at first glance. if you consider that a lot of the street looks this way it's just covered in little tiny pieces of redwood. it almost looks like the tree was put in a wood chipper. right now weather is pretty good. it's holding but i did hit a cell coming in this morning of heavy rain and i myself heard one of those loud booms so glad it's calm now. >> christie, thank you so much. what a great in depth report. yeah, you can observe the aftermath around the bay area. going to be to allow time for. i want to show you we don't have a lot of moisture on the radar but that's going to change as we progress throughout the day. i'll tell you when we expect the heaviest rain and when those thunderstorms come back in the picture. we have an active day. stick around. first, let's check on that aftermath with our own mike inouye. what are you working with?

>> we're going to watch for reports of debris like christie talked about. that was a tree, now a road covered with toothpicks. san jose, we have a road covered with water. see that water kicking up. making an issue for the cars behind them. lower the speeds because you'll need to increase that stopping distance. look at the maps, this is san jose 101 at the bottom of the screen. the green highlighted throughout south bay, east bay t oakland hills, areas you have wet roadways. ponding in parts of livermore and things are starting to be in transition as the weather continues to change. here we have the overnight closures for 84. i'm not sure if there is much construction but we registered that from the system and it's reported so we have that there. that will clear up if it's not clear already. eastbound highway 37 at 29 there is a crash there between two vehicles, non-injury, they are

off to the shoulder. this is the same area the last time we had rain there was a crash. it's either the connector that's an issue or the two cars. we'll track the traffic. the freeways are moving smoothly. back to you. >> mike, thank you. live team coverage of the wet weather all morning long and mike will be checking in as well. you can see any time we're not on air head to our website, nbcbayarea.com, we have interactive radar there for you. you can track the rain to your door step on nbcbayarea.com. >> the rain and snow a much-needed relief in the bay area. experts say despite all of the storms, they do expect today's snow survey to be at critically low levels. in the last survey in february the snowpack was 24% of normal. the snowpack considered the largest reservoir for the state, providing a third of the water used by cities and farms. >> rescuers are searching for a man who vanished while

snowboarding. he may have gotten disorient independent the storm while riding in the back country. a friend he was with did make it down the mountain and went to look for help. officials say the man is an experienced rider and has the proper gear to handle the conditions. >> in the sierra foothills the search is on for a man missing in the rugged mountains. robert root disappeared sunday while out for a training run with a group of people. he was last seen running the trail used for the annual western state endurance run. it's near colfax where most are looking. wind and freezing rain hampered the search. root was not dressed for such temperatures. >> in washington state more bodies pulled from debris following that mudslide more than a week ago. the death toll now stands at 24, another 22 people are still missing.

meantime, the tight knit community pulling together. donations are pouring in, volunteers are making sure deliveries are made to survivors who lost their homes. the children got a much-needed distraction. a visit from a super bowl champion. >> to be able to offer a little bit of release or a distraction from what's going on, i mean, that's all you can do. we're trying to help people as much as we can. this is our way. >> washington's governor is calling on the federal government to declare the area a major disaster. >> still no plea from suspended state senator leland yee. his lawyer says he is expected to plead not guilty following a brief court appearance yesterday yee's lawyer questioned the fbi's handling of the investigation. he is asking why it took three years to bring the charges and implied entrapment. he faces corruption, gun trafficking. former san francisco school board president keith jackson

accused of helping yee is expected in court for a hearing this morning. >> also expected in court the man police say was driving drunk when he hit and killed a marine in fremont. 23-year-old alexander yohn could enter a plea today charged with murder, vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run. court documents show he was taking medication for heroin addiction when he allegedly crashed his car into a motorcyclis motorcyclist. the suspect reportedly told police he finished five shots of whiskey before the crash. >> taking a look at the microclimate weather alert as we take you live to palo alto. looking at the 101 you can see not bad at 4:30. >> we'll check with mike but let's check in with christina as well. another busy rainy day. >> another busy day.

typically for rain we're not going to set off the weather alert. but today we have another round of thunderstorms in the forecast. spring storms can be strong. associated with some of these very strong cells we could see dime size hail, winds in excess of 60 miles per hour and heavy downpours which were starting to see in marin county. the peninsula getting a break, throughout the day, though, it's going to be an active one. make sure you're ready for this especially if you work outdoors, sending the kids to school if they are not off for spring break. we have a lot of action coming to the bay area. so basically throughout the next 24-48 hour, we're going to keep this chance of thunderstorms in the mix. the greatest opportunity this afternoon, though, is expected throughout the second half of the day. mostly between about 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. just like yesterday we expect the lightning strikes and over the higher elevations. here is the kicker. it's cold this morning. cold enough for us actually

accumulate some snowfall high atop the peaks of mt. hamilton, so we could get a dusting of snow. it feels like winter. just keep in mind today we have the chance for gusty wind again, 50 miles per hour plus, heavy rain at times and yeah, thunderstorms, some strong later on this afternoon. we're going to give you the timing for the changes in my next report. right now it's slick out there, mike. do we have problems? >> we have the warning for folks, christina. we know after the rain and during the rain but right now we're looking at the aftermath, live look at 101, i want to show you the roadway. look at the bright sign by ikea highlighting one of the puddles. it's getting a break from the rain. on the right side you see the east bay and it's showing a lot more green where our weather systems indicate you have wet roads. drying off as we speak. lower the speeds because it's slick in many spots.

we'll zoom in north of the san mateo bridge. traffic is flowing through pacifica. watch for fog and along the great highway where it's closed because of the sand during windy times, there is flooding reported so keep that in mind. looking to the tri-valley and the castro valley where the green indicates wet transition. the north bay, the rain kicking in. we see puddling and ponding, the blue there, napa, vacaville, watch for that. live at our bay bridge. a smooth flow. our camera is pretty steady but we'll watch for the winds to affect our cameras. >> thank you much. >> still ahead on "today in the bay," a crucial day for the future of controversial google buses. >> why the next phase of construction on apple's new campus not sitting well with drivers in cupertino.

4:44. taking a live look outside as we get the commute under way. of course we've got rain slick roads out there. take it easy this morning. if you work at apple news for you as traffic near the main space age campus are about to get worse. starting next monday a section

of prune ridge avenue will close to drivers permanently. here's why. that's part of prune ridge to connect to the new campus with buildings that it owns on the other side of the road. drivers are dodging orange cones and lane closures because of the project. add a street closure and congestion could get a lot worse. >> obviously there's going to be more traffic, and i'm afraid only going to be crowded all the time. >> if you have drink at any area it can be bad. nearby businesses are concerned that the traffic will get so bad that customers will stop coming by. >> the state of the shuttle buses used by google and other companies will be reviewed. the board will either reject or allow an appeal of the 18-month pilot program. the program was approved for private shuttle buses to stop at bus stops with a fee of $1 per stop. opponents of the shuttle say they are likely to drive up rent

and force people to move out of the city. >> the head of general motors will be in the hot seat on capitol hill. mary barra will testify about the faulty ignition switches blamed for the deaths of more than a dozen people. she's expected to tell congress the company, quote, will do the right thing. gm knew at the time the switches were faulty. barra met with the families of the 13 victims last night and is expected to admit gm still does not know why it took more than a decade to address the problem. it's also apparent regulators failed to take action, too. today we should hear what government regulators knew and when. >> we would like to say for general motors to take a step back and instead of trying to just make this switch better, build the safest possible switch on all of the vehicles they have out there. >> barra's testimony comes as general motors is in the midst

of a new recall announced yesterday. it involves the sudden loss of power steering and brings the total number of gm vehicles recalled to 6 million. recently gm stopped selling a version of the chevy cruze hatch back and this morning the new york times calls the chevy cobalt the biggest lemon of cars on the road. yahoo! continues to buy up smaller companies, this time a video company. let's turn to kayla tausche. >> good morning to you, scott. futures are higher after stocks ended march and the first quarter on a high note. the markets rallied on comments from janet yellen. the fed will do all it can to support the u.s. economy. the markets are relatively flat the past three months t dow snapping its winning streak at four quarters. we get data on manufacturing and construction spending t dow jumping 134 monday to 16,457, the nasdaq rising 43 to 4198.

yahoo! is reportedly in talks to by a video service for a reported $300 million. "the wall street journal" says the deal could further marissa meyer's effort to add revenue that of course would help yahoo! better com beat with youtube. it works with newspapers and online publishers. and just in time for april fool's day a story about a joker that would be apple co-founder steve wozniak who admits he occasionally makes phone calls to fans. he poses as a customer service rep asking questions about how they like their new iphone, ipad or mac. scott, he is the original genius. >> clearly is. >> in fact, for many years he had a dial a joke system here in the bay area. >> a good sense of humor. >> turning things over to christina who is all business on

this april fools' day. no fooling here. we have serious weather to talk about. >> she broke the news that it's april fools day. how is anybody supposed to prank any one. thanks a lot, kayla. we're getting showers in the north bay, 49 degrees in san francisco, 48 in the east bay t south bay at 45. the good news is we thank kayla. now nobody can pull one over on you. believe me, somebody's going to try. i'm going to try to get mike inouye. i'll tell you that right now. we're looking pretty good as far as the showers go. we've got another round of rain on the way, we're tapping into the atmospheric river, two competing air masses. as a result we get fireworks in the sky. you see this cell, when we talk about looking for thunderstorms, typically pretty small. this guy here with the yellow and a little orange in the middle, that's a pop-up thunderstorm. we head throughout the morning

hours, so far a couple lightning strikes but we're expecting more as we head throughout the day today so. the last one i saw was to the south of santa cruz. that was about an hour ago. we'll keep you updated. real time doppler radar gives us an idea of where that lightning is occurring. technology has come a long way. a few showers, count on heavy rain, break out the umbrella, you'll probably use it at least twice with heavy rainfall on the way all the way throughout this afternoon into the evening. so getting in to work and probably as you leave work you need to break out the umbrella. throughout the second half of the day showers will start to lighten up a little bit. then we bring in that chance for thunderstorms. between about 2:00 and 7:00, on and off activity and yeah, some thunder boomers as well. hopefully nothing severe like yesterday. do keep in mind we have the chance. if anything happens of course we'll let you know here on nbc bay area. it's going to be cold out there. 60 along the peninsula, 56

degrees in san francisco. that's it for you a. return to winter for a couple days. the east bay 58 and 58 degrees in the tri-valley with afternoon thunderstorms. we'll talk more about that and what all of this means for the sierra nevada. looking pretty good in terms of snowpack levels but i'll show you where we stand in the long term. you always got to look at the long term. more on that coming up. you know, scott, economics man, it's all about the long term that counts. >> indeed. the return. 4:51. three u.s. marines were stabbed while trying to break up a fight between two baseball fans last night. we look at the chaotic scene on sunday. officers say the brawl started when an l.a. dodgers fan confronted another woman wearing an l.a. angels t-shirt. the marines tried to step in, stop the fight. they were stabbed in the face and neck with broken beer bottles. six people were arrested.

>> australia sending a boeing 737 to act as an air traffic controller in the sky over the indian ocean, this move is to prevent a midair collision due to the large number of manes searching for flight 370. 10 planes and nine ships are scouring a search area the size of ireland. officials say that the search is the most difficult they have been involved in mainly because there is no clear starting point, no clear ending point. several planes reported seeing objects but so far nothing related to the actual plane has been recovered. >> still ahead, a thrilling comeback for the giants on opening night. >> look at that, fremont and down on the bottom left you see the flag flapping. there is a breeze that will turn to wind. a smooth drive so far.

welcome back to you. it's 4:55. a look at o.co coliseum. the a's take on the indians. on that note thousands of7:05. last night, well, the wet weather didn't dampen the crowd that braved the conditions for a soggy nine innings. the green and gold say they are ready for a big season. >> i love that it's the beginning of the season so any new possibilities just possible. >> this is the home and the oakland a's going to win the world series.

>> dedicated fans in the rain. no flooding issues. the bad news, oh, man t a's lost to the indians 2-0. >> i love the fans so excited. really good to see them there. the giants hope to ride the momentum after a thrilling comeback win in arizona. >> despite some poor defense. g-men scored four runs in the seventh, then top of the ninth leave it to the leader buster posey. >> high and deep to left. this baby is out of here! >> you heard it there. he crushed the two-run home run to deep left field. giants hung on to beat the diamondbacks 9-8. >> we'll take it here. westbound 580 we're looking at dublin where you're getting back to the office.

it's damp so be careful. we look to the maps where the camera is, that's where the arrow is. the green, wet there but that's around 680 through san ramon. the construction has been approve forward 84 but not taken place. traffic is flowing. that's the issue. the south bay looking pretty good. the north bay, rain up there farther north of san rafael but not a concern. >> that was april fools from mike. we continue to track spring storm. we'll have live team coverage after the break. >> south bay city on the verge of declaring a water emergency. what it means as we really go to break.

calm before the storm. the bay area cleaning up this morning after the latest rain and some lightning strikes. not out of the woods yet. >> we're looking toward a repeat performance for your tuesday. it could be active. it's also a traffic tuesday.

>> so we're watching for that traffic. the volume is what we're concerned with, also the wet roads. we're tracking that. >> after just a day of jury selection the trial between two smart phone giants gets back under way. what we're going to hear in the san jose courtroom this morning. >> and taking a live look outside as it is straight up 5:00 here on this tuesday, beautiful look there at the bay bridge and nice calm, looking okay. let's get this rolling on "today in the bay." good morning. thank you for joining us. i'm scott mcgrew. >> i'm peggy bunker. laura is off this morning. a live look there you see it looks fairly calm. more thunderstorms are expected to hit later on. in palo alto rain will be falling off and on all throughout the