strongest storms to hit the area in years and it's not going to let up soon. >> for the first time in memory, many of schools are closed because of flash flood and high wind warnings throughout the area. >> let's get to meteorologist christina loren, who has obviously been very busy the last 48 hours getting ready for the storm. >> hey, 48 hours? i've been watching this storm since last week. i have to tell you, though, it's not disappointing in what it's bringing. you might be that iing, hey, it's not even raining where i am. >> that's one of the components of this system that makes it a slow roller. it going to slow raul utility

opinion but everything happened to the south. there is another forward on the fooels of that one. as a result that's how we're going so get that fierce wind this morning. take a look at this, 38 miles per hour stained throughout the eyer in zbets it willzbrrnl, and the wind is shaking around.

the bridge itself, a relatively dry situation between san francisco and the oakland side. the golden dale fill stare we have eastboundle -- -- eastbound. along that coast as christina said. back to you. >> thank you for keeping track of things. it's not a snow day obviously but a rain day. that means thousands of students have the day off. school districts across the area taking no chances today, cancelling classes for the day. scott mcgrew joining us with details. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. you were saying in recent memory we've not had a rain day. i've been working in the bay area for almost 20 years now.

i can't think of a a single rain day closing. let's start in the north bay, all marin county schools are closed this morning, so are a number in sonoma county. the guerneville school district, the montgomery county and all san francisco unified district schools are closed today as are all san francisco catholic schools, all south san francisco schools, all pacifica district schools as well as jefferson union in daley city are closed. gets a little more tricky here. all redwood city schools k-8, millbrae school district k-8, san mateo prek through 8.

alameda unified, new haven, san lore enzio and west contra costa, you are off as well. in san leandro, you are closed, college of marin closed, san francisco city college closed, san francisco state university will not meet. there are some exception and south bay is it. san jose unified are not cancelling classes today. the district says teaching and learning there will continue, even if there are power outages and the maintenance staff is on hand in case gutters overflow.

also, sam, businesses closed as well and people can e-mail us using their business address, make sure it's in there, let us know about businesses, large businesses, the yahoo!s, the goog ls, let us know about those kinds of things. >> thank you very much, scott. >> we have some new video to show you this morning of work crews trying to fix a damaged transformer in petaluma. a drowned tree blocking part of the road. has much changed, stephanie, since we last saw you? you're still hanging on to your hat. >> that's right. still hanging on to my hat. i just got an update from our producer who says the total in petaluma since 6:00 last night is now 1.4 inches up from 1.07

that was reported an hour ago. it's an area prone to flooding. there have been some impacts to other areas here. it was likely mod -- we'll be seeing more of that all across the bay area. marin's brand new operation center will be put to the test. instead of the usual 14 leading a storm, there are 16 in case of emergency. >> decisions can be made by prn

isn't she lovely because of flooding that had begun the night before. and so far, so goo. you heard christina pchb we'll keep checking in with you. thaej you. >> crews have been preparing all week for this stoch stof stoch, from. people have also been sweeping up leaves and debrises in front their sfrochls but we're told we should be weddy for a slow and

choppy winds purchases you mean f, just two trees down on interstate 80. good morning, bob. >> reporter: good morning to you, laura. this came down about 3:00 this morning. we're on eastbound 80, just beyond sunol valley. you're looking at what's left of this eucalyptus tree. call. >> translator: has been able to krut this down to side so andont that it hard to mr. pb prn apparently, according to cph, the driver was okay. this is chp this morning, their

advice to a parkthey are respecting the early morning tuesday answer. i actually tried to reason, at this has just shut down within the past ten minutes so cal transcan clear his tree. we're looking at the headlights on that diversion so they can get back on to eastbound 80. you'll realize that e imagine is frrnl sfrrnls pchbl and the

e.t.a. was initially two hours pip just talked to the c.h. play of work left. so this could be open of prchl you try to give it lipton. nndon't be surprised if we see other trees coming down already. >> let's check hope there's no injury. thanks so much, bob. >> travel is expected to be slow at best today at the bay area airports. that's if you're one of the lucky pound, inbound and outband

been prp -- the pay o how p how zpla's bizzed to check lonell -- you know what's so interesting, all southwest out of reno were cancelled as well. got i don't know but as you can see, tahoe not really feeling the impact just yet. that is really going to take shape as we head throughout the nest few hours. overnight you may con der, why didn't i get any rain or wind?

isolated event up in the north bay, but they have been getting hammered all night long and there's more rain on the way. marin county getting hit the hardest, starting to see a little break from the heavy stuff now in sonoma county. this entire front is pressing south. it will be here in the south bay as we hit about 9:00 a.m. we'll put this in hide way plus winds. i think we're going to see a lot of do you understand trees. over to you. >> reporter: bob redell was just at the scene there eastbound 80 but it looks like they'll have that tree and the lanes cleared by about 5:00. we're giving them another 20 minutes. let's look at foster city. the bay looking pretty good overall. rain to the north bay. look at the richmond/san rafael

bridge. >> the rain hasn't hit the south bay just yet but the winds are certainly here. we're live as crews try to get a fallen tree out of the road.

welcome back, everyone. it is 4:45. we are tracking the biggest storm to hit the bay area in years. while it hasn't hit the south bay yet, we are already seeing its impact. kris sanchez is live where a tree just came crashing down in the past hour. chris? >> reporter: it might seem like the brunt of the storm has not hit but we can feel the wind and have started to feel sprinkles well. we came upon this leave as we were leaving the parking lot. we'll show you some of the video that my photographer, alan, shot. we don't want to get too close because the tree is compromised and there's a crack in the other half of it that pi may come down. we think that perhaps we will see this tree taken out of the

roadway in just the next couple of minute or so. a city crew also here this morning. and we do know that in about an hour or 15 minutes or so the office of emergency services in san jose and santa clara county will operate in the fire department. once trees are in the roadway, if folks do not see them coming, it could create a deadly chain reaction. my advice from my husband this morning was don't park near a tree if can you avoid it. you can't tell which are compromised. you want to look for any sap coming from the tree, any heaving in the ground, it

indicates the tree may be compromised. the wind is howling. if this isn't the worst of it, we are in for a whopper. >> that's the thing. we're not kidding about it. a lot of people are saying, no, no, we haven't seen it yet but it's coming. >> you're at first street near kimball, right? >> yes. if you take 101 to first street that, will interfere with your commute. >> all right. you be careful yourself. thanks, chris. >> preparations under way where flooding is likely to occur. sarah, thank you for joining us. how do conditions shape up right now? >> good morning. out here in san francisco it really does feel like the calm before the storm because we still haven't seen any heavy rain out here, although we are feeling the wind and also some strieng ls -- soprinkles and

showers we felt this morning. but businesses are setting up, preparing. there are several businesses who have several sandbags outside of the businesses preparing for the storm that's to come and tha because last week there were several damaged in some of these businesses. last week as rain and flooding caused some damage on many businesses in the area of full some street and left a lot of people worried about will sandbags have been set up at the main entrances in rooms where there are indoor drains but they're also ready with pumps so they'll be able to clear out any

water left behind. this morning we did stop by the yard here in san francisco where people were able to go and get sandbags, but we do have to let our viewers know they are out of sandbags but they can be made availablend special circumstances. >> thanks for keeping us updated. >> it is 4:50 right now, keeping us updated on the forecast, it's meteorologist christina loren. >> how are things looking right now? i hate to say it, morning commuters, but you guys are going to have to drive through some of the worst weather that we've had in a while. so i wanted to start with this live picture this morning, golden gate bridge. can you see nice and slick where the showers are just starting

but you can see how this camera is violently getting shaken by that strong wind. i want to bring in anthony slaughter. he's live. how fierce is that wind, my friend? >> it's very slobbery to see the least. the wind here on the bridge this morning that we've seen folks zoom on by. i want to start you off with the reason why it is so windy on the bridges. it's because you don't have any truck shun, legal, it's always windy in the bay area. think with the airplanes, the way that the airplanes get off the ground is by flying into the wind. the faster they go, the easier

it is for them to get picked up by the wind. same deal with your car. however, in your car you don't want to be airborne. think about that, you don't want to give the wind any extra momentum to get off the ground, especially if you drif those aren't immune temperature. bridge. up to 35 miles per hour and that's made it strong enough even to stand here in this spot. remember, that airplane analogy, you don't want to be one of the suckers this morning. back to you. >> really good call to motorists this morning to make sure they're traveling cautiously. another note as this wind is coming up from the south, pushing to the north. as you move from left to east, you are really going to feel the impact as you move over our open water bridges. i can tell you right now i drive a high profile vehicle and so

does mike and jim. you can see the heavy rain still located to the north of the golden gate bridge, but this is moving now. and it going to be. >> they were pretty calm but everything is going to change when this comes to rain. we're starting to see fund wrists -- >> this is "today in the bay." much more coming up.

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welcome back. we've been tracking those roadways very closely this morning. >> oh, yes. we've had trees down on some interstates out there, slick roadways already, especially in the north bay. the high winds are the issues on some of the bridges. mike? >> a report 128 and wood lane. here the golden gate bridge as they move these trucks, they're moving the cones for the morning commute. look how wet it is. i feel sorry for any crews out there and grateful to them for getting home from the golden gate bridge. the brooj smood smoothly. we're showing an easy drive but wet roadways. green means damp roadways.

east 80 has three lane clocked. bop lee go. >> we have wind reported to the south bay. back to you. >> you know another great way to also stay on tom of this when you're on the phone? click on the wnbc weather photo to get to the weather page. you can find live radar and alerts. >> our stom coverage continues. we'll be here with you all blorng long. >> but in a matter of hours, it will be oaf sprchl.

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>> announcer: "today in the bay" begins with a microclimate weather alert. >> we have a live look at the blij this morning. there's a high wind advisory on all bay area bridges. we're hearing the bridge will be open. take it slow. a very good morning to you. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia-cannon. >> and i'm sam brock. >> check out the bottom of your screen with the various lane and road closures. wind speeds up to 50 miles an hour, christina. >> yeah. we're getting rainfall totals impressive, to the tune of 3 inches so far in petaluma. we have to tell you right now the heavy stuff hasn't even impacted the bay area. but everything changes as we head throughout the next couple of hours.