is shaking out there. buckle up. a wild morning out on the roads already. "today in the bay" starts right now. good morning. actually we went on air at 4:00 because of this storm. good morning to you. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus washington. that storm the story of the day. the radar one more time and rob mayeda is standing by keeping track of what's going on. rob, what can we expect throughout the rest of the day? >> probably the worst part of the storm coming in, unfortunately, right on top of your morning commute. the south bay seeing the heaviest downpours right now and you'll have to contend with gusty wind. you can see observing at 21 miles an hour and another difference the temperatures starting off at 50 degrees in oakland. you can see san jose also 50 degrees. wind speeds at 16 miles an hour. a view of mobile doppler radar showing you widespread moderate to heavy rain from your highway 17 commute into san jose. the rain for now starting to ease up a bit. our storm ranger mobile doppler

radar is right there on top of san bruno. that is that red beam you see scanning over observing. moderate rain pushing on through and we will be dealing with rain changing over to scattered showers around lunch time today and a chance of small hail as we head into friday. a busy start to your morning and plenty of signs of that on your morning commute around the bay. you'll need the windshield wipers -- we need them here. this is our camera at 580 with these folks heading into the north bay. so there you go. slick conditions here and on the map, the green highlighted all over the map indicates wet roadways. now starting to clear but telegraph reports minor flooding. no slowing over the last 20 minutes. the blue puddling and ponding likely in patches throughout the area. union city, watch the off ramps

along 280 and to the south bay as rob was talking about the rain. and off 17, what do you have this morning? >> reporter: hi there, mike, the rain has let up as rob mayeda mentioned. we are still seeing very messy conditions. this is some of your traffic cameras. a couple of chp cruisers going side to side leading people. making sure they are going the appropriate speed for these conditions. they are not good. it was really pouring just about a half hour ago. it's led up a little bit. the winds are still a factor and the fog is still looming in this area. now this is just one of the concerns that a lot of folks have as the rains move in. if you drive this area for fun on weekends when you go to santa cruz or whether you live and work or commute between the

santa cruz mountains and the south bay you foe there is a possibility of a mudslide or landslide. we got walloped last year. you remember highway 17 itself was shut down for two weeks when a mudslide came down. sadly a construction worker was killed in those repairs. a lot of folks still remember that. and if you drive in the daytime you would have noticed the rock nets that have gone up along some of the sides of highway 17. we have seen a couple of rocks and pebbles on the roadway that is pretty normal for this roadway. do be careful out there because it is very dark. it's rainy. it's foggy. it's windy. a lot of folks are driving too fast for the conditions. not only watch your speed but give yourself time to stop because you don't know what the person in front of you is doing. kris sanchez, "today in the bay." good advice. thank you very much, kris. at 4:33, the lake tahoe area is under a blizzard warning right now. this storm could dump several

feet of snow onto the sierra and on on the slopes. visitors we talked to say they hope this energizes what's been a sluggish key season. >> me and my family love snow. >> the vibe in the town is excited, stoked, happy. >> hopefully they close the pass so no one else can come in and we get all the fresh powder. >> caltrans says it could shut down the roads if gusty winds and cold temperatures lead to ice and low visibility for drivers. make sure you check ahead. a great way to track the rain and snow, download our free nbc bay area app. you'll get access to our live radar, our data and forecast are more accurate than the standard weather. you want to check it out and take it with you on the go. happening today jury selection begins for the widow of the gunman in the orlando nightclub shooting rampage. >> authorities arrested nor salman in january of 2017. she grew up in the bay area and returned after the pulse nightclub shooting.

she's being tried in florida. prosecutors believe she helped plan that attack. the gunman, omar mateen, killed 49 people before authorities killed him. classes will be in session at olympic high school in concord. that's where police arrested one student yesterday after they say he had two loaded handguns on campus. officers took 18-year-old cortez into custody without incident. investigators say they found nothing to indicate cortez was planning violence at the school or that the students and faculty were threatened. happening today students in los gatos will prepare to deal with an active shooter. the issue is certainly on top of the minds following the parkland, florida, shooting. the school last held this type of drill in september. happening today b.a.r.t. says that its fare inspection team will start making sure people have paid. they are cracking down on people

who board without paying. the new technology will let them quickly and easily scan a particular and clipper cards to make sure riders have paid. the effort to bring a massive new google transit village to san jose is entering its next phase. google has been in talks with the city to create a major development in the area calling for space to house up to 20,000 google workers. the mercury news reports 38 members of an advisory group met for the first time. they will receive public input through a series of nine meetings over the next half year. if you love fights happening on tv, fight night online, the next story is for you. amazon offering to people something that won't allow them to miss any of the fights. plus, weddings are an expensive aware. the reason some americans are shelling out less cash to tie the knot. and a live look right now. you can see this is the ran rafael camera. this is the s-curve.

you can see traffic moving along smoothly. mike will talk about traffic in just a moment as we continue to follow the rain happening throughout the bay area. time now 4:37. you're watching "today in the bay."

thanks landon good morning, i'm landon downey. here's today's top business headlines. you could see some red arrows to kick off the month of march. the markets are still not sure

what to expect from the federal reserve this year as uncertainty over how many times the fed will raise interest rates will linger. the dow snapping a ten-month monthly winning streak. the longest since 1959. unemployment, income and spending and auto sales. back on capitol hill to testify again about the economy as well. the dow dropping to 25,029. the nasdaq slipping 57. spotify has filed the paperwork to go public. it's not a traditional ipo. the company will lift its stock without raising money by selling shares and offering the world's largest music stream service. could turn a profit paying licensing fees to publishers.

ufc fights through prime video service starting with ufc 222 this saturday. fights can be preordered after the start time. you can rewind and replay it within a 24-hour period. this is the first time live pay-per-view material is being made available. let's talk about weddings and how much new couples are spending. overall wedding costs decreased last year because more couples choose less formal affairs. the average cost bringing in more than $33,000. that's down slightly from the previous year. that's not including the honeymoon. the most affordable state is new mexico. average wedding costs about $17,000 there.

>> all you really need is each other. >> all you need is love. not always. >> have you look outside yesterday? rob mayeda is in for kari hall tracking what's going on weatherwise this morning. >> a lot of rain and gusty winds. when the heaviest downpours will arrive in your neighborhood coming up. wet roads, water kicking up. this is the san mateo bridge. that span moves smoothly. we'll show you what else is going on. san mateo bridge - lote

water on the span as rain welcome back to this early edition of "today in the bay." 4:45 right now as we take a live look outside from the san mateo bridge. a lot of water on the roadways as rain continues to pour down. it's been coming down steadily for several hours now in some parts and will remain that way for the next few days. we're under the micro climate weather alert this morning. >> we've been on the air since 4:00 a.m. as laura mentioned, there's rain and, of course, the wind as you can see -- there it is, shaking right there on our fremont camera. the latest on storm rise. rob mayeda is in for kari hall. we're seeing a lot of changes. it's a lot warmer outside.

close to the high temperatures and also windy. winds out of the southwest at 20 miles an hour. the camera bouncing around. 50 degrees currently through the tri-valley. a similar story, 50s. wind speeds in the 20s. scanning with the red beam. we have the mobile doppler radar which scans faster with higher definition than standard radar. if you scan to the east bay, your 680 commute. san jose and into the santa cruz mountains. quarter inch rain along with gusty winds.

>> reporter: rob, you and i have been communicating all morning long. we're noticing the wind picking up the sideways rain as it continues it blow. i do want to give you an idea as far as the rain total. if we can pop up the graphic we'll show you our higher resolution models. i'll give you a good idea what we're talking about. as of right now already the north bay has seen close to a third of rain already even this hour. we're looking at the santa cruz mountains to give you an stim of how much rain we're talking about, close to 2 inches, possibly over two and a half right here up in the higher elevation areas. when it comes to the san jose area over half an inch of rain. and even in san francisco over half an inch of rain and, again,

the north bay area has already seen a significant amount of rain totals as of right now. taking that time line through we're expecting a good amount of rainfall from this. i'll have an update on that in just a bit. >> you can see the rain coming in at an angle. you can see our wind speeds widespread on the map, 20 to 30 miles an hour. wind speeds easing up a little bit in the north bay as the front passes on by. even at 6:30 wind speeds will be blustery throughout the day. wind advisory technically up until 10:00 tonight. elevations above 1,000 feet could get gusts of 40 to 50 miles an hour so watch out for that. rainfall totals as vianey pointed out, the air hits the coastal ranges. dumps heavy rain totals through noon today. we'll see more widespread rain will move out and then scattered

showers to follow which will set the stage for some very interesting weather friday into saturday. cooler weather aloft. a chance of thunder and small hail. and, get this, snow levels could be as low as 2,000 to 3,000 feet by saturday morning. the second half of the weekend, the skies begin to clear. we'll see our temperatures rebound as we get to the beginning of next week, your seven-day forecast shows. today not much change in the temperatures. a little bit of sun, mid-50s in the forecast today turning even cooler friday and saturday. those are high temperatures near 50. as we see scattered showers and a chance of some snow on the higher peeks to start the weekend. a breezy and chilly finish. mike? not going to complain. winter has been relatively smooth so far. the roadways you can see the water on the lens. this is palo alto past ikea heading up into san francisco, towards the south bay. both sides very light as we show on the map. the radar lens also shows up as

blue on the map. that's the road weather conditions. and we're looking at the rain having traveled across to the east bay and into the south bay as rob showed and puddling and ponding on either side. so far no closures for the freeways. we do have a couple of incidents that popped up where there was flooding in the oakland area. westbound 580 a crash just cleared at lake shore. now there's a new one. you saw the speed sensors slow around 880 right around broadway. another crash reported. possibly two in the area. both of them are on the center divide or the right shoulder from the cars involved. we'll track those reports from chp. to the bay bridge relatively smooth on the freeways. a quick look at the bay bridge shows you the backup is tough to see because you need the wipers. back to you. >> thank you, mike. 4:50 right now. in an exclusive nbc bay area

investigation we uncover problems plaguing first responders struggling to cope with the stress of a job. >> lynn wagner found many men and women are not getting the help they need. liz? >> reporter: thousands of firefighters responded to our survey about mental health. we started out by sending questionnaires to california firefighters. now we're hearing from more than 7,000. the survey may rank as the largest of its kind and the results are heartbreaking. we teamed up with firefighters and asked about everything from ptsd to problems with substance abuse and learned existing resources available to first responders just don't cut it and most firefighters don't believe there's enough recognition that support services are even necessary. they are now calling our survey groundbreaking. >> what is we're doing right and, more importantly, where are the gaps? what programming do we need to

ensure our members get the help they need? the results in the survey are going to help us do that. coming up at 11:00, the results. you'll see even though we depend on firefighters to save our lives, we're not doing enough to protect theirs. back to you. >> our very longive unit is always looking for stories they can investigate. if you have one for us call. you can see it 888-996-tips or give them an e-mail nbc bayarea.com/weinvestigate. up next on "today in the bay," concerns about mud slides for people living in the north bay. what they're watching out for. but first, happening now, the gas tax. governor jerry brown asking to turn into highway improvements. it is expected to raise more than $5 billion.

the royal family is doing something it has never done before. the first official visit to israel and the palestinian territories. kensington palace says the prince will visit jordan. way 17 you could generate your own energy, at home. or to save energy, unplug unused appliances. do your thing, with energy upgrade california.

taking a live look in san jose right now at 280 and highway 17. right now that rain continues to fall. we'll continue to monitor that here on "today in the bay." >> the latest is pretty long overdue after one of the driest februarys on record. at the same time there are very real concerns in areas hit hard

by last year's wildfires. the good news, however, toxic run-off. about four months to clear hazardous waste and is reported to be near completion. and in southern california people who live below the area where those december wildfires burn are now being advised to evacuate. extended heavy rains triggered damaging mud slides. montecito is one of those under warnings. you may remember people died there back in january. chp says there are no plans to close highway 101 which was closed for days after the january slide. to those who were there to see it, it was undoubtedly worth the climb. the first gay marriage. the arch is straight up. family and friends scaled the

bridge. it is allowed and recommended if you are not afraid of the height. hold on tight to each other, literally, for the rest of your lives. coming up next on "today in the bay," we in that micro climate weather alert. wind speeds in san jose where storm ranger is targeting the heavy rain on your highway 17 commute. and to 880 and oakland, the wind kicks in and the roadway is slick and a blurry view. we have all these factors playing a part and two crashes in the area. we'll update you. today in the be

weather alert coverage continues.. right now at 5:00 a.m. "today in the bay's" micro climate weather alert tracking the system bearing down on the bay area right now bringing with it sweeping wind and rain. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm marcus watching. we came on the air at 4:00 a.m. we have a team in place to get you ready and out the door. from the south bay to the for the bay we have everything covered. >> meteorologist rob mayeda kicks off our coverage with where the storm is right now.

>> right now watching wind all over the bay area and downpours. san jose 50 degrees. 18-mile-per-hour winds. san francisco wind speeds up to 23 miles an hour. it is a milder start at 54 degrees. storm ranger atop san bruno mountain giving you that high definition faster than standard radar scan across into the east bay. heavier rain out to livermore. san jose from campbell over the highway 17 summit down into santa cruz where you see the heavier downpours coming down along with the gusty wind. hour by hour, heavy rain at times for the morning that will transition into scattered showers. high temperatures today pretty close to where they are now. those numbers in the mid-50s but that one-two punch combo of wind and rain causing problems on the roads this morning. >> we already had the major crash in oakland but it did clear without major injuries. that was 880 around 7:00. and that did clear. traffic was moving smoothly and has been. we've seen a number ofcr