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 morning.

meteorologist christina loren tracking this storm system so. christina, what should we expect to see? >> this morning we're expecting these hit or miss showers for the most part. nothing really organized except for over marin county. doesn't have lightning associated with it. as we head throughout day and accumulates some of the daytime heating with some breaks of sunshine we are expecting to see more of the thunderstorms. very unstable air mass right over the bay area. and yesterday was a wild weather ride which brings in christie smith. good morning to you, christie. wow, what a sight behind you this morning at berkeley. >> reporter: yeah, good morning to you. neighbors around here say it sounded like an explosion. when you look at what's left of this tree you can see why. lightning struck that redwood tree yesterday. it rained down pieces of wood for more than a block away. it also crashed down a branch on that minivan parked out front of the house near the tree.

what i wanted to show you also is a google image what if this 80-foot redwood looked like in better days right beside a home on holly street in berkeley. lightning cut it down to about 20 feet tall. windows had to be boarded up that were blown out. tarps covering holes in the roof near the tree. neighbors say at about 1:20 in the afternoon we saw a flash of light and heard a loud boom. >> it's so close to our house, i never have seen what lightning can do. >> reporter: across the bay also in sausalito another lightning strike, the impact blew out windows in two homes sending glass flying. in all this, though, no reports of injuries. that's the good news. i did take a closer look at this home this morning, you can see it is behind red tape. there is also a red sign on the front door that says it's unsafe

which you can understand because of the tarp over the roof. you look around the neighborhood it did just rain down wood. we saw huge chunks in the street but also this is what a lot of the street looks like. tiny pieces fast the tree was put into a wood chipper. this is what holly street looks like because of that lightning strike. right now clear skies. back over to you. >> the sheer force of mother nature. thank you. what an excellent report. and you know what, right now we have light scattered shower activity. christie brings up a good point. we don't often get this in the bay area, the very strong thunderstorms. for today what you want to keep in mind is the general rule of thumb, when thunder roars you want to go indoors and get away from windows. if anything does happen we're going to be here covering it. i was here all the way through 5:00, 6:00 last night and so were you, mike inouye. for good reason. dangerous with these conditions. >> potentially. the bay area always listens and

so that's why they slow down when it's wet like in san jose and that's good news. even though the roads are clear, speeds may be slower than you might like but get there safely. 101 north of 680, the water kicking up. not a major concern yooxt the wipers. we'll show you overall the bay looking good. the green sensors and the green highlighting the blotches around the east bay. that's where there are wet roads. vacaville, napa, that area with the blue, puddling might been a issue. you might have water in lanes but no flooding and that's good news. southbound 101, a little slowing from time to time. just starting the morning commute. >> or weather team will track this storm all morning long. any time we're not on the air you can get updates on nbcbayarea.com. >> general motors in the hot

seat. senate and house subcommittees will both hold hearings today as they look into the general motors recall that affected 2.6 million cars nationwide. the issue is ignition switches that can fail causing the engines to stop and the air bags won't activate. gm says it knew about the problem for years and so too did federal regulators. gm was warned by its own parts supplier the ignition switches were faulty. the problem has been linked to at least 13 deaths. coming up at 5:40 we'll go live to capitol hill for a look at who will testify before congress. >> washington's governor is now asking for federal help as the state continues to clean up after that massive deadly mudslide. the governor says financial damages reached $10 million. 24 people have been confirmed dead, not count be the three bodies found dwlaed hayesterdaye yet to be recovered.

>> opening statements are expected today in the newest court battle between apple and samsung. jurors were picked from a pool of south bay residents, some lined up outside the san jose courtroom, among the 10-member panel a plumber, retired school teacher and a police officer. apple is suing samsung over technology used in its newest devices including the galaxy s3. samsung filed a counter suit. >> the mountain view council will street declare a stage 1 water emergency, that would get the city to allow about getting the word bout conservation programs. that includes only giving water to restaurant patrons who ask for water, also banning people from washing cars with a running hose. council members will consider adding a fourth stage plan to the code. the meeting starts at 6:00. >> seems strange to talk water rationing on a day like today. christina loren, we are still

behind on water and snowpack. >> you know what, it's actually the snowpack that makes a much bigger difference than the rain water that fills our reservoirs so. heres the deal. the snowpack, it's responsible for one third of the entire state's water supply, as of yesterday 36% of average, they are going to be out there today for the april 1 survey. it's the most important survey of the entire year. let me tell you why. because usually in april we start to see the snow smolt we accumulate snow until april 1 typically and then it starts to melt. here's what i have to bring to the table. good news. that's the fact that this number could jump from 36 to sfour 0% and this is just because of the recent storm systems over the sierra nevada. as you may recall, in january this was down to about 23% so. 40% is actually a pretty good number for us. we need every drop in the bucket and we're also accumulating

pretty good rainfall totals in the south bay. over an inch yesterday in saratoga, for example, and there is another inch potentially on the way throughout day. that rain is moving into the bay area, as you know it's been raining for most of the night as a result, your highways are nice and slick. so, we want to send it over to mike inouye, no fool on april fools' day yet. i'll get you. >> we're looking over here, 880 through fremont. see how traffic flows. an easy drive. look at the flag at the bottom. it's getting a good movement by the wind there and that will be an issue later on as the wind starts to pick up on bridges. we'll track that. in the south bay the map shows you a smooth drive northbound. the yellow southbound not a major concern. no incidents as far as traffic here in the south bay. but getting over a little slow

toward the summit and northbound also reports of a crash, a solo spin-out that often happens when the roads are wet. no injuries reported but that will be partly blocked coming over from the santa cruz side. a look at the wider shot of the bay area. speeds are nice, traffic starting to pick up out of the altamont pass. not a major concern as we talk about speeds. you're all in the green except for 84 coming through livermore and we're starting the slowdown. it's typical around the surface streets. across the bay coming off the san mateo bridge an easy drive as well. 92 westbound, there is the high rise, that's what we're watching for the effects of the wind and the bay bridge and possibly san rafael bridge as well. yesterday had a wind advisory for the three. expect at least a note from chp on those as well. >> gas prices higher than $4 a gallon in california this morning for the first time in

seven months. experts say the switch to a more expensive summer blend combined with refineries reduction has caused prices to rise. about even with state average. oakland paying an average of 3.95, san francisco t $4.05. >> keeping up with the joneses, the new purchase yahoo! is going to be making. >> stanford head coach david shaw weighs in on the idea of football players unionizing and what stanford players are doing. let's face it,

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welcome back.

5:12 on tuesday. a live look at the weather radar keeping an eye on this storm that is rolling into the bay area. how it will affect you. we'll keep an eye on that. also, what you may need to wear. also what you might find on the roads this morning. >> traffic is moving smoothly so far. we'll be back with an update on weather and traffic. >> may soon become more expensive to use air b and b. the website agreeing to pay the hotel tax by summer. more in line with city laws. the move could add millions to san francisco's coffers. air b and b operating in 32,000 cities. >> facebook second in command cheryl sandberg sold off more than half her stake in the menlo park company. that information was revealed in

facebook's recent filings with the sec. even with the sale she still is one of the company's biggest investors. this latest sale led to rumors sandberg is headed out the door but tech bloggers say her name is not being floated around as the head of any other large company. >> we've also learned facebook ceo mark zuckerberg made $3.3 billion last year when he exercised his stock options, the last ones he has remaining, in total zuckerberg owns 426 million shares of facebook. he got paid a dollar in salary. yahoo! reportedly looking for a new way to chase google. kayla tausche is live at world headquarters with the details. >> good morning. aren't they always looking for a way to chase google. yahoo! reportedly in talks to by

web video service network for $300 million. "the wall street journal" says the deal could further marissa meyers' efforts to boost video content and add revenue to better compete with youtube. it's a video syndication service that works with newspapers and publishers. stocks ended march in the first quarter on a high note. the markets rallied on comments from janet yellen, she said the fed will do all it can to support the u.s. economy. the markets have been relatively flat the past three months. the dow snapping its quarterly winning streak at four, today we have data on manufacturing and construction spending. the dow jumping 134 points monday to 16,457, the nasdaq rising 43 to 4198. that's the latest business news. back to you. >> thank you much. >> we are of course watching this weather situation as we've been telling you. we'll look outside and also watching the roadways, woke up

this morning very, very early and heard a lot of raindrops on the roof which was nice with this drought. >> it is nice but some people are thinking oh, we're going to get out of it because we had so much rain at the end of our rainy season. unfortunately that's not the case. we're trying to climb out of three years of unusually dry weather. and so it's going to take a while. i want to bring your attention to the doppler radar. if you are not around your television might want to check this out. look at mt. hamilton. you see that pink, that's the rain/snow line. you see the white, that's straight snowfall on top of mt. hamilton this morning. and we are expecting to wake up tomorrow and be able to see that dusting of snow. it's going to feel like winter today. with the exception of some thunderstorms, that is what is on the way for the second half of the day. that's what we're concerned about. basically, the entire bay area has a chance for that rolling thunder as we head throughout

the afternoon. keep that in mind. right now, though, conditions are relatively calm and this is basically the calmest it will be as we head throughout day. look at what we expect in tahoe. they picked up two feet over the past 48 hours. we could accumulate one to two feet as we head throughout today. it's the snowpack like i told you before that really matters. let's talk about what we expect in terms of the showers, take to the futurecast and show you the day ahead. we stop the clock at 11:00 a.m. when we meet back for 11:00 a.m. midday broadcast we'll likely track heavy downpours, that's about the time as well we expect thunderstorms to start to develop so. stick around if you want to watch that, we'll show it to you live at 11:00. also at that point we should have the results from the april 1 snow survey. so we'll see you then. 3:00 this afternoon. heavy rain moving into marin county, sonoma county. we'll get heavy downpours rolling to the south bay at about 5:00 p.m. so could lead to a rough commute

home and it was rough yesterday. mike was here tracking several accidents. 11:00 p.m. things lighten up. we're looking pretty good at that point. wake wake-up a few residual showers. overall temps cool. 56 in san francisco, 60 along the peninsula. 59 for the north bay. 58 degrees in the east bay. and the same for the tri-valley. we'll talk more about the snow. here is mike and your traffic tuesday. >> we're looking here, this is the road, 101, watch these cars go by. some of them the sheen, there you go. the big spray, some of the larger tired vehicles see that. we're all tired but i mean vehicles with larger tires. you still use the wipers even if it's not actively raining. we'll look at the map and the northbound route through south bay, pleasant now, farther south, northbound 17 coming up toward redwood. there is that spin-out. slick roads we warn folks about.

that contributed to conditions for a spin-out. another spin-out 280 southbound as that just came in. again second of the morning this out of san francisco. it sounds like there is debris in the road as well. we'll watch for updates when chp arrives. the rest of the bay yore speed looking pretty good. wel zoom in. west 580 out of the altamont pass you see the build. we're seeing slowing and i'll call out the green and the blue, even the upper right-hand corner. you see the ponding for the blue t green is where you have wet roads. slick conditions and that will be the case over to the dublin interchange. careful over there. we want you to focus on the roadway. don't be distracted by anything that could get you in trouble there. looking to the north bay the rain having fallen, areas around that portion of the north bay. we see puddling and ponding there as well. highway 101 moves pretty smoothly out of petaluma.

that's the bulk of the commute as well as west 37 so far moving smoothly out of novato a. look at the speed over the east shore freeway, you're in the green, mass transit not reporting delays. yesterday b.a.r.t. had to slow trains because of the conditions. they slowed them on the track. a live look outside as well. a smooth drive approaching the bay bridge. one crew in the eastbound direction. back to you. >> thank you so much. 5:20. details continue to come out about the minutes before malaysia flight 370 disappeared owier the indian ocean. malaysia's acting minister of transportation released a full transcript of all of the communications between the flight and air traffic control in kuala lumpur. the final transmission from the cockpit was good night malaysian 370. rather than all right good night as was previously thought.

investigators are still trying to figure out if it was a co-pilot that made that final transmission. tomorrow officials will hold a closed door meeting with the families of the people aboard the flight. search crews continue to search for any debris. >> stanford's football coach david shaw weighing in on the right of college players to unionize. he says he is confused why college football players at northwestern would think they need a union. shaw is curious about the motive behind the move telling the "mercury news" quote i think northwestern does a phenomenal job of providing for their kids and it's weird to try to unionize but still compliment northwestern on being taken care of, those things don't seem to go hand in hand. the decision to allow northwestern football players to unionize does not extend to other schools. shaw says his player had preliminary conversations about the issue of union but he would not elaborate further. >> tonight the east palo alto

city council will discuss a new ordinance to protect tenant t imbalance of power. some of the concerns from the largest landlord which has a track report of controversial evictions. the new proposal would give tenants further rights to organize and include protections against discrimination. >> the latest city considering a ban on electronic cigarettes is dublin. they will discuss changing the code to prohibit e-cigarettes and regulate it as a tobacco product. they created a special committee study the effects of e-cigarettes and what the city can do to slow sales. e-cigarette companies say the products help people quit smoking and far less harmful. >> palo alto will hold a meeting to address concerns over plans to build wider sidewalks there. the proposed changes would take place on el camino real which could set buildings farther off.

it would build a better relationship between buildings and streets. but it adds further limitations to their rights. >> a sales man trying to sell jimmy fallon a truck. >> with humor i'm sure. a live look at the weather situation here, this is the radar over the bay area. more spotty showers on the way as well, possible snow. meteorologist christina loren will be along with more details after the break.

welcome back. we take a look at o.co, the indians are back for another try against the a's tonight. should be a little drier. jimmy fallon buying a new pickup truck. when you are a talk show host you do that on television. >> everything on television. a fun competition to choose who

his sales person should be. >> each put one hand on the truck and leave it there for as long as they can. whoever holds it the longest without taking it off i'm going to buy the truck from that person. >> that sounds awful. a live look at the "uss intrepid" on the hudson river. "the tonight show" is live streaming the competition on youtube. you see them these poor people holding their hands on the car. if you would like to show support use the #santa clara on twitter. >> if luke can hold on long enough, perhaps jimmy will come back and buy the truck. >> i bet that's awful. >> 5:26. state senator leland yee waiting for his next step in federal court. what his lawyer is saying.

>> another round of showers and thunderstorms on the way to the bay area coupled with the fact it's going to be pretty chilly. get ready for what could abwild weather ride. we're going to tell you what's coming your way and where we have the best chance for thunderstorms coming up in moments. >> already we have more rain for the north bay sow see the green, wet roads, blue, puddling, close to the south bay and the peninsula, we have two spin-outs. we'll talk about that coming up.

you did not hear the thunder yesterday, chances are you will today. we've got another round of active weather all across the bay area. heavy rain, gusty wind, and those strong thunderstorms. we're going to time out this next round of rain to your doorstep coming up. >> and no boom on the roadway, that's a good thing. i don't want to hear about crashes. slowing west 580 and a couple of crashes, one out of san francisco. i'll tell you about that.

>> a warning for parents in the east bay after a girl is sexually assaulted blocks from her elementary school campus. >> plus, a former san francisco official headed to court today accused of taking part in a murder-for-hire plot. >> a live look outside this morning at the bay bridge. it's the first of april, this is "today in the bay." good morning to you on this april 1st. thank you for joining us. i'm peggy bunker in for laura. >> i'm scott mcgrew. while you were sleeping a lot more rain fell on the bay area. here's what it looked like on 101 near 85 in mountain view. earlier this morning. a live look at san jose as well. the skies relatively clear but not going to stay that way. let's check right in with meteorologist christina loren who is tracking that storm. >> good morning to you scott, peggy, everybody at home.

another wild weather ride. we don't have a lot of organized activity but our grounds are saturated. you can see light activity pushing over the bay bridge. also a little more over the santa cruz mountains so you do want to travel cautiously today. our highways are nice and slick and yeah, take a look at this. a pop-up thunderstorm developed offshore. that's what we expect throughout the day. more pop-up thunderstorms and i have to tell you it's even more unstable today than what we were dealing with yesterday. we tracked hundreds, hundreds of lightning strikes, most offshore. we're in for another wild ride. throughout this afternoon, the best chance is going to come into play as we head throughout this afternoon. mostly between 2:00 and 6:00. we've got a lot of instability. so thunderstorms are even more likely. i want to show you what happened yesterday. i want to bring in christie smith live in berkeley. i don't think a lot of people were expecting what happened yesterday. is that right? >> reporter: yeah, good morning

to you. i have to say i live in the east bay, i heard a boom. it sounded like a car crash but it was thunder and lightning. my dog was freaked out by it. normally during storms we talk about trees falling. what happened in berkeley is much different than that. it was a lightning strike that hit this giant redwood and sent wood flying for blocks around the neighborhood. small pieces, big pieces, big enough some of them to crush the front of the minivan that is parked in front of that tree. neighbors say that it sounded like an explosion yesterday afternoon and left scars around the neighborhood with boarded up windows because they blew out, a tarp covering a hole in the roof near where the redwood was hit. i wanted to show you what the tree looked like in better days before the lightning strike yesterday from a google image. a healthy redwood tree about 80 feet high brought down to 20 feet.

around 1:20 in the afternoon he looked out the window. >> the 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 another lightning strike to a redwood tree, the impact blew out windows in two homes. somehow at least tied to these incidents with the tree there were no injuries. that's the good news. i had a chance to walk around the neighborhood. we talk about the wood raining down i walked about a block away and this is the stuff you see on people's lawns, part of that redwood tree. i understand we're not done. back to you. >> no. in fact, yeah, it's looking more unstable for today so the chance for that is better. the general rule of thumb is if you are close enough to hear the thunder and see the lightning you are close enough to be impacted by the thunder and lightning. when tunder roars you stay

indoors, away from windows. turn on nbc bay area and we're likely covering the storm. we have spotty activity for now, this is going to organize to heavy rainfall. stick around, i'll show you the timing of this system when we're counting on thunderstorms, and it's not our only chance for rain. lots to go over in your full forecast. it's traffic tuesday and it's slick out there. >> yeah, it's not a great combination. we should see less traffic. the tri-valley those may have spring break. the rainfall on the radar, you see the green and here you see the glowing lights, there is moisture in the air and water. you can see it at the truck stop. puddling up there. san rafael is at the bottom of the screen, no va too, st. helena, they are green with wet and blue with puddling as you get closer to 505. keep that in mind for the -- the

southbound 280 a spin-out before you get to 101, may still have debris in the road so be careful. slick conditions around much of the bay. the traffic flow showing an okay route. >> thank you. we'll have live team coverage of the wet weather all morning long. any time we're not on air head to our website, there you see interactive radar. you can track the rain right to your door step. >> parents in oakland on high alert after a 6-year-old girl was sexually assaulted near a school. the man lured the girl from bella vista. the man sexually assaulted her a block from the school. the girl returned to campus and told an adult what happened. she then contacted police. officers describe the man as hispanic, between 20 and 25, about 5'6" and 5'10" with an average build and dark hair wearing a blue and black jacket

and drove a silver suv. >> no plea from suspended senator leland yee. his lawyer says he is expected to plead not guilty following a brief appearance yee's lawyer is asking why it took three years to bring the charges. he implied entrapment. yee faces charges of even gun trafficking. a possible grand jury indictment will likely come on if i. former san francisco school board president keith jackson who is accused of helping yee is expected in court for a detention hearing. jackson who was arrested also faces multiple charges including gun trafficking and a murder-for-hire plot. >> commuters on the peninsula will notice a difference on the way to work. the new caltrans's station is opening up. chase, the first train rolled through a couple of moments ago. >> reporter: it sure did. this is the second train.

it's the first northbound but this is the second train to pull through this brand new cal trains station. we spoke to a woman, for them it's an exciting day because we don't build new stations very often. this train is on elevated tracks so if i had to guess a good 25, 30 feet above the ground. we are a little off the roadway. that was the point here because this was a $155 million project. it took them 3 1/2 years to get to this point where we have a train up on these elevated tracksment they were trying to get trains away from cars and pedestrians because this was such a congested area so every time a train would pull in, traffic would have to stop, that would be a tough thing for your morning rush hour. there wold be three intersections that no longer have to deal with trains.

all three now run under the tracks because of the construction project, we talk with a caltrain spokeswoman earlier about why this project was so important. >> this is a really convoluted crossing for pedestrians and vehicles and in fact at one point was rated as one of the most danger us crossings in the state of california. so it's really exciting to be able to tell people that never again is a train going to be able to hate car in san bruno. >> we also got to ask christine about what this may mean for the future of the tracks. there is a lot of talk about high speed rail. she said this new station, these new tracks, all of that would be ready if they decided to add high speed rail. they are focused on the safety, cars and pedestrians don't have to worry about trains any more. >> let's check back in with meteorologist christina loren.

she watches this commute and the rain. good morning. >> good morning to you. if you're going to be waiting for a train or you take your bike to work, count on very wet weather. i want to show you the south bay. mostly dry. there is this little area getting read the push in. san jose dry for the next couple hours, then the rain moves in. north of the bay bridge, that's where all of the moisture is moving so. a few scattered showers this morning, then look that the, a little thunderstorm in the pacific, we're counting on more of that activity throughout day so keep that in mind. it's going to be another active day across the bay area. we're not just tracking the shower activity. we'll keep the showers in the mix and another round moves in late thursday to friday. today a few thunderstorms, another round of maybe an inch of rain possible like the south bay could accumulate maybe 3/4 inch to an inch. wednesday and thursday the shower chance going. back to you.

>> thank you so much. 5:39. the search continues for a snowboarder who disappeared from a prop you lar ski resort. >> the head of general motors prepares to face congress what she is expected to say about her delays recall involving deadly fault ignition switches.

welcome back to you. 5:42. this tree in the center of your screen fell and about everybody heard it. it got hit by lightning. we'll go live to christie smith in a minute. an absolute explosion of wood out there. the head of general motors is in the hot seat on capitol hill this morning testifying about those faulty ignition switches that ended up killing more than a dozen drivers. tracie potts is live on capitol hill with the questions the ceo will be facing. >> reporter: some of those

questions will include a brand new recall announced yesterday so totalñr now they have 6 milln vehicles recalled. many of them because of the faulty ignition switches, the latest recall was about sudden issues with the power steering, although we now know that the power steering, the power brakes t air bags were all affected by these faulty ignition switches. mary barra the ceo is in the hot seat. she is going to answer questions about the timeline, what was going on inside general motors over the decade that it's now believed they knew about this problem, tried to fix the problem but failed to report the problem to the people driving the cars. also today we will hear from the government agency that oversees these issues. they knew about the air bag but not link them to some of the issues. ntsb will ask some of its own questions as they try to get to the bottom of this.

they could be looking at $35 million in fines for gm on top of what the families may be suing for, on top of the criminal investigation of this by the justice department. >> this seems easy looking back but gm knew, delphi their parts supplier knew, somebody told ntsb. >> nitsa was investigating air bag issues. testimony didn't connect or at least at the time they could not connect to what we now know are faulty ignition switches. at the time they were investigating gm was making a switch and making the cars safer. so they said they started to see the default rates, the injury rates, the crash rates go down and they really didn't have a basis for launching a further investigation. beyond what they had done.

there are a lot of questions about really the timeline on both sides. >> tracie potts in washington, thank you. >> rescuers in the sierra search for 25-year-old man who vanished snowboarding yesterday afternoon. officials say the snowboarder may have gotten disoriented in a snowstorm in the back country. a friend he was with made it down the mountain and went to find help. she an experienced rider and has the proper gear with him to handle the conditions. in the sierra foothills is search for a man missing in the rugged mountains. robert root disappeared while out for a training run with a group. he was last seen running on the trail used for the annual western state endurance run. the small community of michigan bluff near colfax where most of the rescue workers are lookingment wind and rain have hampered their search. root was not dressed for such cold temperatures.

>> more rain expected in the bay area today. that means snow in the sierra. experts say that snow is not going to do much for the snow survey. that snow is expected to remain at critically low levels. this last survey, the one in february you see here shorksed the snowpack at 24% of normal and the snowpack is considered the largest reservoir in the state. it provides a third of the water in fact used by cities and farms. >> that's the big question. you'll hear this all day long. we have this big rainfall. so now we're done with the drought. you're saying that's not the case. >> absolutely not the case. unfortunately, which means we need to concurve, we really need to. the snowpack, we were at 28 percent, now we could see that zwrum 40 percent. currently it's 36%. they have to take their measuring sticks, stick it in

the snow. we're going to have that at 11:00. the april 1 snow survey is critically important. typically in april we stop accumulating snow and it starts to melt and slowly releases all of that water into our reservoirs which come here into the bay area. the reservoir that feeds san francisco is located in yosemite so i can tell that you water come as long way but we have a pristine water source, that's why we have some of the best water in the world here in the bay area. we want to hold onto that. temperatures mostly in the 40s and 50s. 43 in the south bay, 45 along the peninsula. it is an active weather day. you want to make sure you have your umbrella and really stay tuned to the forecast for today. we do have a chance for some of these thunderstorms to get very strong like we saw yesterday. the last three hours, doppler radar indicating some lightning strikes off shore in the santa

rosa area. we're getting that activity this morning. now we have all of this moisture streaming into the south bay. it's starting to get more active. tracking this every 10, maybe five minutes, we want to keep you updated. it could be a rough drive. it's a traffic tuesday and our grounds are saturated. throughout the afternoon, really starting to intensify about lunch time. by 3:00 we get next heavy band of moisture. that presses into the south bay between 3 and 6:00, we could see a rough ride home from work. this is not our only chance for rain. we'll see a little activity that will continue wednesday and late thursday as well. we have another round of rain into friday. we're going to keep this pattern going. we need every drop we wan get. gusty wind today, 50 miles per hour plus possible, heavy rain at times and also the strong thunderstorms for the second half of the day. we'll talk more about this coming up. after all, this is the most severe component of today's

weather. let's check your drive, good morning to mike inouye. >> good morning. we'll show you oakland, 880 past the coliseum, moving pretty smoothly. i want to call out for oakland. reports after tree down. notice the area, it's not affecting -- that's okay but we have a crew to check out. sounds like a 40-foot tree. more reports are going to come in as more head tour the roads. we'll give you a look at dublin, christina talked about traffic tuesday. we have a heavy flow, the heaviest of the week on a tuesday. we're looking at a good drive. remember the tri-valley schools are off so we'll see a little adjustment for the surface streets. we'll get to the map and show you how things are. slows toward the dublin interchange. no appreciable change. the green and the blue, damp and wet and puddling and ponding.

through some parts of come and san ha moan. smooth drive out of the north bay and the carquinez bridges, going to start slowing, toward richmond that build for the morning commute heading to the bay bridge. no big concern but wet roads in the north bay and more damp roads through napa, st. helena. a portion of the north bay, keep that in mind. on the peninsula a smoother drive with spin-outs. that has cleared. there's the south bay with the northbound route. a look at san jose shows you the traffic. back to you. >> thank you, mike. the deadline for the affordable health care act has been extended. again it's because of technical problems. yesterday we told you it was the last day but now californians have until april 15 to sign up

for health care. it was extends because the website crashed yesterday after too many tried to log on. last night officials say more than 7 million likely signed up. from here on out you cannot use the website. you must call in or sign up in person. covered california says the new rules are for meem tried to use the website but could not but they are not going to ask for proof whether you signed up one way or the other. >> the shuttle buses used will be reviewed in san francisco. the board will reject or allow appeal of the 18-month program. it was approved for private shuttles to stop at public bus stops with a fee of $1 per stop. the opponents say it will likely drive up rent and force people to move out. >> 5:51. apple may cause problems in the south bay as well. good morning nelly! woah.

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welcome back. it's 5:54. this is a live look at detroit, michigan this morning. the general motors ceo is in washington, she's going to face very tough questions over what has been a debacle over at gm. traffic near the site of apple's new space age campus about to get worse. starting monday a section of prune ridge avenue will close to drivers permanently. here's why. that part of prune ridge is needed to connect the new apple campus with buildings it owns on the other side of the road. drivers are already damaging orange cones and lane closures

because of the project. add a street closure and congestion could get worse. >> going to be more traffic. i'm afraid that going to be crowded all the time. >> businesses at cupertino square are worried traffic could get so bad customers will stop stopping by. >> from the diamond to the hardwood talking basketball right now. elite 8 action taking place on the farm. stanford women square off against the 4 seed north carolina tar heels. the winner will advance to the final four. exciting game. >> let's check in with christina. lots of rain coming down. >> my gosh, it's not just the rain that we're concerned about. it's also the wind which i want to focus in on for a minute. then we'll talk more about the rain. really, the wind is going to play a factor again, you can see right now we have sustained

speed in oakland at 13 miles per hour. that's strong enough to knock you around with heavier gusts from time to time. as we head throughout day, windiest time frame, right now looks like it's between the hours of about 2:00 and 5:00. so yeah, that could impact your drive home from work. we're starting to see showers intensify at this point. also tracking a little bit of thunderstorm activity which i can't wait to show you. we have real time lightning strikes. i'm going to talk about that, show you where those are and where we expect more as we progress throughout the day. so stick around, lots more to go over. first, though, traffic tuesday, it's slick, good thing is we've got mike inouye to get us through it. >> thank you for that. looking toward the bay bridge and the metering lights t span over the roadway on the right. you see all green. the lights are on but not operational as far as the red green situation. they will be turned on shortly.

we'll track that. the volume is building. the map will somehow how things are shaping up. speeds for the east shore and the approach to the bay bridge in the green, that's really good. wet roads continue around the bay so we're watching for that and nothing unusual. back to you. >> thank you so much. >> we have the latest on the search for the missing malaysian plane, giving you an idea of what was actually said moments before the plane disappeared. >> plus, how a local man could be the one to sell jimmy fallon a truck. >> and let's take a live look outside. thunderstorms as christina mentioned expected along with wind in parts of the bay area. we continue to have team coverage of that incoming storm and how it's going to affect your day. coming up. [ mom ] hi, we're the pearsons, and we love chex cereal.

so we made our own commercial to tell you why. first, chex makes lots of gluten free flavors. which is a huge thing for us. and there's seven to choose from. like cinnamon, honey nut, and chocolate. i tell them "you guys are gonna turn into chocolate chex!" i like cinnamon, greg is a honey nut nut. when you find something this good, you want to spread the word. [ all ] we're the pearsons, and we love chex! >> >> we're tracking real time

lightning strikes off the sonoma coast. there is more in store. i'll tell you when the most active weather time frame comes into the mix and how much longer we're going to be dealing with this wet weather. >> bay area neighborhood struck by a bolt, we'll look at the damage as that spring storm rolls in. >> new this morning a major shift as the search for a missing plane drags on. why the last words spoken from the cockpit are different from what investigators initially reported. >> plus t general motors cover-up a deadly glitch for nearly a decade? the tough questions asked on capitol hill next. >> and traffic starting to build around the bay. i have a new crash involving a big rig that might affect the tri-valley. >> a live look outside at downtown san jose. it's tuesday, april 1st, this is "today in the bay."