flash flooding, downed trees, even some damage to homes. all of this as that threat of mudslide looms in those burn su so i had my car have a chain saw, water, of kee. >> we'll have the latest on the evacuations that are under way and the areas where the heaviest rain is still coming down as "today in the bay" continues right now. good wednesday morning to you. we came on early this morning at 4:00 a.m. just to try to get you up to speed on everything that has happened overnight. thanks for joining us. i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm cierra johnson in for marcus washington. let's start with kari hall getting into that weather. >> yeah, we are tracking all of this with stormranger, our mobile doppler radar. we have seen some of the heavier rain shifting to the south but we are still left with a steady downpour across much of the bay area as you get ready to head

out the door. as we get a closer look at the south bay, it's a little lighter around san jose but we did in the past hour or so see some of the heavier rain moving through there, but it's also moving through parts of the east bay and the tri-valley as we see the rain now moving into discovery bay, moving through pleasanton and approaching livermore within the next few minutes. as we go to the north bay we're still seeing a light rain continuing here as getting more than an inch of rain and some spots getting 2 to 3 inches of rain in the upper elevations. we can still see this storm is right over us and we are going to be in with this as we go into at least the next 24 hours. so we'll be tracking this and talk about the timeline of the heavier rain returning. that's coming up in a few minutes. laura? >> thank you very much. right now we want to go out live to bob redell who's near the bay bridge this morning. there have been some problems on the roadways across the bay area, but particularly there, right there on the bay bridge. tell us about it, bob. >> reporter: well, good morning to you, laura. fortunately here at the bay bridge right now we're in the

lull. we don't expect rain to be coming through here for quite some time. last time we saw rain was driving on westbound 580 in castro valley. earlier this evening or last night around 10:00, you can take a look at this video, this was a big rig on the eastbound section, the lower section of the bay bridge. you can see that big rig jack-knifed and ended up blocking a few lanes. it took a while for chp to get that removed. it has since been removed. the chp believed the wind was more a factor than the wet roads or the wet deck in that accident. something to keep in mind if you're going over the bridges, it is a little windy out there. it's not the worth wind we've seen but it could be a factor if you're heading into work. you might want to keep an eye out for flooding. there's minor flooding in san francisco. you're looking at 280 under the winchester boulevard overpass. you can see there's flooding in both directions there. again, just something you want to keep an eye out for as you're

driving into work. again, fortunately, at least here in the east bay, we haven't seen rain in a while and it's quite nice out, but the roads are still wet. reporting live here at the bay bridge toll plaza, bob redell, "today in the bay." well, there's a lot of power outages out there as well. more than 36,000 pg&e customers waking up in the dark across the bay area. here's in fact a look at the outage map right now. about two-thirds of the total are in the east bay and the south bay. a reminder if your power ever does go out, you can watch us on your free nbc bay area app. the north bay right now getting a bit of a break from that first round of rain, but as kari has been telling us there's more on the way. we are live in santa rosa in another burn zone, an area that's considered high risk for those slide concerns. pete, what's it like in santa rosa. >> reporter: right before our live report, we're getting a bit of a drizzle right now. a little bit of wind but it was

pretty light up until that point so conditions are changing just a tad bit here in santa rosa. but we are in sky hawk park. if you remember, this is where the glass fire, where it affected some of these properties back here. this is what's left of the properties, so obviously when you're dealing with the rain, there's always that concern for the potential of a landslide. i guess we'll have to monitor exactly how much precipitation we get over the next few days to see if that impacts any type of landslide activity here in santa rosa, specifically in this skyhawk park area. we do want to show you some tweets actually from marin county sheriff near point san pedro. you can see some of that localized flooding in the area. that's common when we're looking at the north bay when we start to get some of that rain coming in the area, you'll get some flooding. clearly if you're seeing some standing water you want to be careful. you really don't know how deep it is but this tweet was from overnight. i do want to take you back outside. this is television and it's starting to rain right before --

or right -- >> it looks like we lost pete's audio there. i think he was going to say that it began raining right as he began speaking. we'll get to pete in the next half hour but we do have an update. the storm is still moving through parts of the south bay. thousands of homes have been evacuated in the santa cruz mountains. we have an updated look at that evacuation map. now, the areas in red, you can see through here, are those mandatory evacuation orders. the area in yellow, we have a couple of patches on this map, are the evacuation warnings. and those blue areas have advisories in place right here above boulder creek and brookdale. that means you need to be ready to go as needed. now, the storm is not just bringing rain with it, it's also bringing snow. this is new video in the santa cruz mountains along highway 35 right above highway 9. that area getting several inches of snow adding more of a hazard

for drivers. well, check out this video from the north bay. a tree smashed through the bedroom of a mobile home. an 89-year-old woman living there thankfully was not hurt. can you imagine the shock to her? poor thing. in the meantime there was downed wires, trees as well. kept emergency crews certainly very busy last night. now, another big concern is the threat of mudslides in the burn scar area that's left behind by last year's glass fire. >> the concerns with that high intensity rainfall rate is the potential we've been hearing about and that's the debris slides and mud flows. so a lot of effort has gone into helping our community prepare not only physically with -- whether it's different types of measures to help control punoff and debris and sediment, especially around our burn scar. >> the emergency operation center in santa rosa remains in full operation at this hour.

take a look at this, a live look in the sierra this morning. for anyone thinking about going to tahoe right now, a blizzard warning is in effect. expect whiteout conditions and possible closures over the next 36 to 48 hours. this is i-80 at crystal springs this morning, but you've got to check all the roadways. avalanche controls will also be in play at some of the higher elevations as well. by friday morning some parts of the sierra may see up to 100 inches of new snow. we're talking about over eight feet. wow. well, let's take a live look outside at fremont. you can see the reflection there off of the lens. we're standing by for that rain across the bay area. coming up on "today in the bay" our microclimate weather alert coverage continues. everything you need to know before you leave your home. and apple is back on top. the cupertino-based company topping amazon to become the world's most valuable brand for

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right now at 4:40, as we take a look at stormranger, it's still showing some widespread rain across the bay area and we are going to see some breaks in the downpours before the rain gets even heavier for tonight. we'll talk about the timeline of that heavy rain returning and

what's ahead in our forecast. that's coming up in a few minutes. but all that rain overnight left flooding many patches and slick roadways. i'm tracking two incidents of jack-knifed big rigs. as we look at the dublin shot, we'll turn toward the interchange where there's reports of flooding as well. we're watching for too much water and checking in for just the perfect amount of frank. you know, there's a chance of full frank this morning. good morning, guys. i am frank holland, always appreciate the warm welcome. let's get to wall street. the markets are set for a mixed positive earnings from microsoft last night and will get other big tech names this afternoon. the market finished slightly lower yesterday, the dow posting its fourth straight loss. the s&p 500 pulling back from monday's record high while the nasdaq snapped a five-day winning streak as buying of

large tech stocks cooled a little bit. focus today, a report on durable goods and the fed wraps up a two-day meeting this afternoon. we also get some big earnings this afternoon, at&t and boeing, apple, facebook and tesla after the close. apple, speaking of, overtakes amazon to become the world's most valuable brand in five years. they founding the value of apple's brand climbed nearly 90% over the past year to now being $263 billion. that's due to the company's ability to diversify from smartphones to digital and prescription services. it benefitted from stay-at-home orders and surging demand. google is in third place followed by microsoft and samsung. tesla the fastest growing brand jumping 158%. target is teaming up with levi strauss. it will include 100 items and s. it will include items for your pet as well as apparel. target already carries levi's

and levi's red tab, which launched back in 2019. those are the latest headlines from cnbc. laura and cierra, back to you. i don't know if you guys still wear levi's. >> i do. >> i'm wearing jeans right now. you're giving it away. >> are you? i'm in a suit. i'm in the office. i can't see you guys. i don't know what you're up to. >> all right, frank. that's enough out of you. have a good day. well, coming up on "today in the bay," the clock particularing in san francisco. the hurdle cleared for dozens of schools. plus a live look at the bay bridge this morning. they have had some problems there overnight and where else across the bay area roadways. we're tracking it all for you as well as this microclimate weather alert that is going on right now. how long and where. we'll check in with kari.

welcome back. 4:46 right now. our stormranger busy scanning the skies for you. in fact we've got a live look at the truck positioned atop san bruno mountain and it can scan the entire area. check out the san francisco skyline you see there. we are getting a little bit of break here and there from the rain. this big storm is hitting the bay area right now. we want to check in for how long

and where, checking in with meteorologist kari hall who's got a look at the forecast for us. busy day ahead for you. >> yes, it's going to be a busy day. we're not done with this storm just yet. we're still seeing scattered showers continuing. stormranger is able to give us a very high level of detailed view of what's happening across the bay area. and so as we go to the south bay, we are seeing some of the heavier rain now moving just south of morgan hill, approaching gilroy, and we'll see that pushing on farther to the south. we've also seen some bands of rain moving through the east bay around mt. diablo, moving over toward san ramon and antioch as well as discovery bay. then for the north bay we've seen a pretty widespread light rain coming down, going from northern marin county, sonoma county over toward napa county as well and some light snow happening in some of our upper elevations in our north bay hills. we see all of the snow coming down in the sierra while we see widespread rain.

notice the reds and yellows have shifted to the south. this is the core of the atmospheric river that will stall to our south and then start to roll back to the north as we go into this evening. but in between we're still looking at spotty rain. once again the rain gets heavier tonight as it starts to move back to the north. there will even be a chance of a few isolated thunderstorms. we're watching out for a chance of lightning as well as gusty winds but have already seen the snow coming down on some of our mountain tops and it could get as low as 2,000 feet by later tonight. we are also going to still continue to monitor for the potential of isolated flood issues, especially around our burn scar areas. but as we go through the forecast, taking it hour by hour, there will be some breaks by late morning into the afternoon. at least some times when the rain gets a little bit lighter for us. and then some of the heavier rain starts to move back in during the overnight hours and it will continue off and on throughout the day tomorrow. finally this rain will start to taper off as we head toward friday, so this will be a big

impact storm that won't be just in and out of here. it's going to hang out for quite a while. additional rainfall totals on top of the 1 to 2 inches of rain that we've seen could be another inch to inch and a quarter especially for parts of the east bay, but some of the heavier rain will be to the south once again as that atmospheric river kind of stalls over some of those areas and moves back to the north. but the big story of course has been all of the snow that's expected in the sierra. they have already gotten several inches. i've seen reports of 7 or 8 inches. there could be an additional 50 to 80 inches of snow on top of what they have already seen over the next several days. we'll see not only this storm system coming in, but there will be more rain in the forecast for us as we head towards the weekend. the only break looks to be throughout the day on friday before the next scattered showers come in saturday into sunday for san francisco. we're seeing our temperatures remaining steady with highs in the 50s. of course that rain, the high

winds and all of the flooding issues that we may see out of this system will be what we'll keep you updated on as we go into the next couple of days. mike, you've been watching the road conditions and the morning commute. >> they're still tough, that's the news. the breaking news all morning for folks who join us, you're going to have a tougher drive because of those conditions. the maps show you the speed sensors are okay right now for most of the bay. the green highlighting, remember, you know that, means wet roadways, slicker conditions. we have had a jack-knifed big rig here for quite some time eastbound 580 at eden canyon road. three of your lanes are blocked. there's a traffic break right now and that's why we have much more slowing as you head toward the dublin interchange. should clear a couple of lanes and hopefully address that big rig. another jack-knifed big rig in san jose, 680 southbound connected to 101 is currently an issue right there. a live look in san jose, in addition to the blue we saw for the puddling on the maps, we see

the conditions on the roadway. the water kicking up on highway 101. that's a tough drive right now. back to you. >> thank you very much, mike. 4:50 right now. the federal government is buying more coronavirus vaccines and shipping more out to states complaining that they just don't have enough. tracie potts has the latest on the pandemic and former president trump's impeachment trial that's due to start in two weeks. >> i want to urge everyone to take the vaccine when it is your turn. >> reporter: vice president harris getting her second dose of the coronavirus vaccine with millions of americans still unable to get their first. >> i'm going to try and get up and around at 3:00 in the morning and see if i can get a reservation for my first shot. >> reporter: president biden announced the government is buying another 200 million doses, but they won't arrive till summer. for now he's shipping 16% more to states and giving them three weeks' notice of what's to come.

>> we're at the mercy of whatever is sent. >> the brutal truth is it's going to take months before we can get the majority of americans vaccinated, months. >> reporter: democrats are planning a vote on covid relief as early as next week. >> the work must move forward, preferably with our republican colleagues, but without them if we must. >> reporter: republicans objecting to the $1.9 trillion price tag. >> all of us want to help people that have lost their jobs, the small businesses, but that's not what this is. this is liberal payback. >> reporter: only five republicans voted with democrats on whether impeachment is constitutional, far short of the 17 needed to convict former president trump. tracie potts, nbc news. a former facebook executive is now trying to become the face of the movement to recall governor newsom. not only is he announcing a potential run for governor, he now runs a venture capital

company. he has not filed the papers for a formal candidacy. well, new details this morning. san francisco school board members have approved the renaming of 44 schools, all of which are linked to legacies. some argue as dishonorable. they include lincoln high school, washington high school and roosevelt middle school. some argue lincoln high should be renamed because of his treatment to native americans. each school now has until april to come up with a new name. 4:53. coming up next, the storm that is now slowing down the distribution of vaccines, but in many cases, just one problem. just ahead, why one city's major vaccine rollout is now on hold. but first, happening now, it's not only the bay area that's getting wild winter weather. in arizona, powerful storms are rolling through the state, bringing rain, hail and even some snow. flagstaff saw 15 to 25 inches of

snow. the arizona department of transportation says the snow has already caused several accidents and las vegas is also getting snow, leaving behind some slick roads and some dangerous conditions. colgate optic white renewal removes ten years of yellow stains. that's like all the way back to 2010. they're jeans. they're leggings. they're jeggings! whoa. remove ten years of yellow stains with colgate optic white renewal.

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4:55. now to the pandemic. the holiday surge of new covid-19 cases seems to be slowing. right now the state just added 17,000 new infections. california's total is now around 3.1 million. more than 37,000 people have died since the pandemic first started. the weather only adding to frustration levels in san francisco when it comes to the

city's vaccine rollout. this new drive-through vaccination site at ccf will be closed today and tomorrow as the storm moves through. san francisco mayor london breed says two more mass vaccination sites are pretty much locked and loaded, ready to go. the thing they're missing at this point is enough vaccines. >> so far the amount of vaccines we are receiving from the state and federal government is insufficient, inconsistent and unpredictable. >> the same pinch is being felt everywhere else. the state admits the rollout has been slow and there are now changes in the works to improve distribution, including a more centralized system. and our microclimate weather alert coverage continues on "today in the bay." the big crash on the bay bridge ties up traffic for hours. the conditions that led up to that collision. plus there's something that doesn't happen often, snow landing and actually sticking in parts of the bay area. where you can go to see it.

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at sylvania, we want to demonstrate just how much visibility your car's headlight bulbs can lose before burnout, so we've taken away 50 feet of visibility from this walk home. don't wait until your headlight bulbs burn out. switch to sylvania, the #1 automotive lighting brand, and see better tonight. right now at 5:00, rain, strong winds, even some snow. this is a live look outside at some of the current conditions. a pretty soggy start from a little bit of a short break that are coming here and there from the rain that's been coming down. >> yeah, we went on the air 30 minutes early to bring you this

microclimate weather alert all morning long. we'll show you the impact of the first big storm of this rain season. "today in the bay" continues right now. wednesday morning, i'm laura garcia. >> and i'm cierra johnson. first, let's start with meteorologist kari hall timing everything out. good morning, kari. >> good morning. we saw some of the heavier rain moving through during the overnight hours and now we're left with lingering light scattered showers that we're seeing still left on stormranger, our multiple doppler radar. we're still getting a pretty steady downpower just south of san jose through morgan hill and just north of gilroy, so expect the roads to be wet on 101 if you're about to head out for work. we're also seeing the scattered rain over parts of the east bay and it's going to continue with the waves of rain that we could see coming throughout the morning into the afternoon. much of the north bay still

covered with scattered light rain so w