we're going to be in two weeks. >> right now at 4:30, california's mask mandate expires in less than two weeks, but should it stay that way? we're talking to our covid experts about what may happen next. >> keep both hands on your steering wheel. meteorologist kari hall tracking strong winds whipping through parts of the bay area. how your neighborhood could be impacted. this is "today in the bay." good wednesday morning. thanks for starting this halfway workweek with us. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm marcus washington. don't forget, not only are we

here on television for you, we're also on roku, amazon fire, apple tv and online. i want to get you started with hose high winds. >> yeah, we're still under that high wind advisory for much of the bay area with continuing foh bay until tonight. it's really been approach sunri this morning. taking a look of where we are right now, haeldsburg hills about 48 miles per hour, vac ka vil, 32 miles an hour, and 51 right now in the santa cruz mountains. as we take a look at our forecast for today, once again, by the next few hours we see these winds peak, coming in from the north, and with the

east-to-west bridges you really do have to keep a tight grip on the steering wheel because the wind may shift your direction a little bit. we're watching that. mike, you're also dealing with high winds on the bridges and how that impacts the commute. >> that's right. chp gives two specific warnings. as we look at the map, on the bay bridge we had an earlier incident that did clear on west 80 at fairmont. now, it's likely going to be a factor for richmond bridge, but no callout there. on the right where i've circled, that's the antioch bridge and that is a north-south bridge and should be going with the wind. kari talked about the direction there. it is a very high bridge and that may be a factor as well as folks drive over that. no real slowing on the freeways other than that. back to you. >> thanks, mike. now let's get to the latest on the pandemic. in about two weeks our state

mask mandate expires and governor newsom is working on new guidelines, as many doctors are pushing for a maskless future, especially for kids at school. >> we are asking for a quick pivot for kids when our county and state health officials have decided that it is time to lift the mask mandate. >> reporter: dr. jean noble helped start a change.org petition addressed to the governor and state health officials, asking to put kids first when the california mask mandate is expected to expire on february 15th. >> what we would like to see is that if that is not going to be extended for adults, that that is also the moment in which we lift the mask mandate for our kids. >> reporter: dr. noble has been on the front lines during this pandemic. her colleague, dr. peter chen hong, has been there as well and has a slightly different viewpoint. >> we can't predict with omicron with certainty where we're going to be in two weeks.

i think that we're going to be fine, but, again, i would like to see the data before feeling perfectly confident. >> reporter: he's not confident that masks should come off in two weeks. waiting until february 15th to make mask changes. reversal for some people who work or workout in the city, can stop wearing a mask if they've been vaccinated and boosted. local health officials have been talking about what to predict in the coming week once omicron infections subside. across the bay area and state, case rates and test positivity are steadily dropping. but dr. chen hong says there are things we should watch out for before we let our guard down. >> the new variant ba.2, super bowl, the last game from last weekend between the 49ers and the rams. >> reporter: some doctors say the bottom line is no one knows for sure if getting rid of a

california mask mandate is premature or not. cheryl herd, "today in the bay." a first step in the push to vaccinate children under 5. as expected, pfizer has asked the fda for emergency use authorization. the vaccine would be in two doses for infants as young as 6 months old. the dose is one-tenth of an adult level. the bay area played a big role in trials for the vaccine. it was given to more than 200 children at stanford, including the child of a doctor there. >> angel, who was 3 years old at the time, had a sore arm for the day, and back then, he was 7 months, he didn't have any side effects. they were happy kids ever since. >> if the shot receives emergency use approval, it could be available as soon as next month. in the east bay, students and parents joining oakland teachers in a caravan last night. they're protesting the

district's decision to close up to eight schools and merge five others over the next two years. earlier yesterday opponents marched from westlake middle school to the district offices. protesters believe that the closed urs will unfairly affect black students. some teachers are outraged and started a hunger strike. the district blames a budget deficit. oakland schools released a statement that reads in part, we know that our students, staff, families all agree that we need a district thriving of schools, yet not everyone necessarily agrees on how best to get there, end quote. the next protest is scheduled for tomorrow. 4:36 right now. are you on the hunt for a new job? it may not surprise i, but some are considered better than others. coming up next on "today in the bay," a new list of the best jobs you can apply for right now. plus, next cup of joe may cost you a little more. the reason one major coffee chain is getting ready to raise

prices. >> and our dry weather conditions across the bay area. high pressure blocks our chance of rain and steers the rain to the north, but i'll let you know if there's any change in the weather pattern in our forecast coming up. >> so far, no change for that south county drive. we're looking at highway 17 coming over the summit, easy drive. san martin into morgan hill, north 101 very light right now. we expect to see it kick in closer to 6:00.

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right now at 4:39, we're waking up to chilly temperatures and breezy winds, getting out and about today in the inland east bay we start out in the mid-40s and we'll see temperatures reach about 60 degrees this afternoon. we do have a warm-up in our forecast and we'll talk about that in a few minutes. >> now, we do have the wind out there affecting a few of the bridges, but not this one. let's take a live look at the san mateo bridge, that's a candidate that would be crossing north-south. but so far crossing over is clear. let's see how the business world is shaping up. let's check in with silvana. >> good morning. i'm silvana henao from cnba. the dow, nasdaq and s&p are

attempting to rebound from their worst month since march 2020. in focus today a report on hiring and the private sector. starbucks will raise prices this year and reduce spending, this to offset costs for labor and goods. the coffee chain missing wall street's forecast for quarterly profits and sales. it's also cutting its outlook for this year as the omicron variant disrupted customer traffic, led to delayed office reopenings and new restrictions in china, its fastest-growing market. starbucks hasn't said which items will now cost more. and the best job in america pays $145,000 and has 14,000 current openings. glass door is out with its annual list of the top jobs, based on job potential, satisfaction and number of openings. once again, tech workers come out on top. enterprise architects who design

a company's i.t. infrastructure are number one, followed by engineers who develop websites and apps and then data scientists. back to you. >> in the heart of so much of it, right here. >> 4:42 this morning, and it looks like the end of an era for the 49er faithful. coming up on "today in the bay," a lot of signs pointing to quarterback jimmy g leaving the team. laura, don't cry. it's going to be okay. why you might just say it ain't over until it's over. >> and as you're heading out the door, temperatures in the low 50s right now for much of the north bay and some upper 40s elsewhere. we're going to continue to see a cool start and a mild day as these winds continue to gust. more in the forecast coming up. >> and a live look out here shows you a big shot of 880 as it passes by tesla on the south

side there. smooth drive through this part of freemont on the nimitz. we'll talk about where you can't drive through freemont and what to expect coming up.

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visit enbrel.com to see how your joint damage could progress. enbrel. eligible patients may pay as little as $5 per month. to you. taking a live look outside. what a beautiful site. clear skies over san francisco. you know, those winds have been blowing everything away. >> i know, right? >> trees down. you've got to be careful out there. let's check in with meteorologist kari hall.

we have to stress the wind conditions yesterday. are they going to continue today? >> they will continue today. this wind advisory has been extended through midnight and it's really been gusting across the bay area. we've seen the impacts of that and some of the highest wind gusts in the north bay and that continues with, unfortunately, a high fire danger. we've seen the downed trees. and also the potential for more power outages, especially in the north bay. we're watching out for that as, once again, it's clear due to high winds picking up. no fog across the bay area and it's a cool morning but not as cool as we've seen recently. when you have gusty winds, it keeps the temperatures from settling down so much. 50 degrees in san jose, westerly wind, and our temperatures hold steady in the low 50s, upper 40s, and then start to increase later today. we'll also see winds increasing, too. we're still looking at wind gusts at 12:30 to be at about 40

to 45 miles per hour in parts of the north bay, some of the valleys with winds at 20 to 25 miles per hour. tonight we see the winds relaxing just a bit. for the rest of the bay area, also, the peak of the winds in the next few hours into early in the afternoon, then we start to see the winds at about 5 to 10 miles per hour for tonight. another factor we look at is the relative humidity and how dry the air is and we get a northerly wind, the air dries out quickly, instead of getting the ocean breeze that has a lot of humidity. the air that goes over the land tends to be much dryer and we're looking at relative humidity numbers during the middle of the afternoon at about 18% to 19%. you're really going to feel that on your skin as you're heading out. so we're looking at critically dry conditions, even though we have the low 60s, sunshine and vegetation is still green, unfortunately we are expecting it to continue to dry out and it may start to get a little more brown. temperatures in the upper 50s,

low 60s. these are the temperatures we've seen from the past few days. really not changing too much here. and also gusty winds for the north bay. dry weather continues as we still see this large area of high pressure and these areas of low pressure moving very close by, just to the east of us. that's creating a pressure gradient, when you have high pressure close to low pressure, and it was good to see the snowpack measurement yesterday. still not too bad at 92% of average. we do know that it does continue to go down with each day of dry weather and that will continue into the weekend. our temperatures are going up into the mid-60s. mike, how is it looking now with the wind advisories out there going on? >> we advise about wind as well. the chp, if you look at the map, we're talking about bay and antioch bridge. the big view shows a smooth, easy flow of traffic. there may be a new incident popping up in san jose, so we'll check on whatever is going on

near 101 and 680. i'm going to focus on freemont. highway 84, the connecter through the niles canyon area, looking typical for the construction with 680 and mission boulevard alternate. that should clear up by 5:00 and they usually do through that area. no major issues. altamont pass, westbound shows a little bit of slowing just now. pretty much your minimum you'll see for vasco and for the drive over to the interchange. >> thanks, mike. first he tracked the tech titan, then he rebuffed his offer. a florida college student refuses to take down a flight tracker that shows the location of elon musk's jet. the exchange is on twitter, earning the teen an electrifying following. >> reporter: the twitter account elon jet is now pushing 300,000 followers and tweets out the travels of elon musk's

gulfstream aircraft, similar to this one as seen on the home page, including the stops that he makes back in the bay area. the most recent, flying from houston to brownsville, texas. it was all created by jack sweeney. >> i just want to see where he goes and some other people are interested in it. >> the i.t. major at the university of central florida says he likes tesla and spacex, so he created software that tweets its location when the plane is on the move. in late november musk reached out. >> one night when i'm about to go to bed, he dms me, hey, can you take this down, it's a security risk. after that, he offered me the $5,000. he wanted to make it harder for people to track him. i asked for $50,000. and then last wednesday he said it doesn't feel right to pay to take this down. >> reporter: nbc news has reviewed the twitter message

exchange. sweeney later wrote he would take it down for an internship, but now says musk blocks him on twitter. as for the security risk, our aviation expert says virtually all civilian aircraft can be tracked by a wide variety of tracking systems available to the public. our legal analyst says it doesn't break any laws. >> it could backfire big time on mr. musk if he tried to quiet this through the use of his legal team. >> reporter: sweeney has launched other accounts to track billionaire like bill gates and jeff bezos. the musk tracker will stay up. >> i'm not going to take it down if he's not going to give me anything. >> reporter: we reached out to tesla to see if musk wanted to comment but have not heard back. ian cole. "today in the bay." >> wow is all i can say about that. 9ers fans, even a lot of non-fans, are really wondering the same thing after sunday's game. has jimmy g played his last game for the team? >> people were saying it

his end-of-season news conference, you might as well picture him on another team next year. >> faithful, thank you very much for everything. it's been crazy, man, all the comebacks at levi's, comebacks on the road. ups and downs. it's been a hell of a ride. i love you guys. see ya. >> let's get something straight. the 9ers are not talking about their plans for jimmy g, but they do have rookie tre lance waiting in the wings. he says he wants to go to a team with a chance to win. >> if you're thinking about going to the super bowl down in l.a., be prepared to pay record high prices on ticketmaster the prices starting at $6,600 and exceed $24,000. oh, yeah, and that is for one seat. seat geeks says that the average price is about 10 grand. exclusive sits are going for

$50,000. experts say one thing really driving up the prices there is that the rams fans are willing to spend more since they don't have of dollars. just watch the game at home righlyics and super bowl all day and night on sunday, february 13th. >> we're saving you money. the winter games are getting under way as well. next on "today in the bay," we introduce you to the ice-skating olympian who is already making waves and breaking barriers. >> happening now, more help is coming for those trying to make it in the bay. san francisco leaders have just acquired the gothic hotel along turk street in the valley neighborhood. the plan is to convert the building to 114 units of housing for people exiting homelessness,

all with private bathrooms. the move comes with a price tag just under $26 million. we'll be right back.

competition for the winter 2022 olympics is getting under way today. and take a look at this. this is a live look at the great wall of china this morning. isn't it spectacular? >> beautiful. >> i would love to go there. what an opportunity, though, for those olympians, the excitement is certainly building. one person waiting his turn on the ice team, usa figure skater nathan chen. >> really there are two nathan chens competing, the athlete and the artist. one responsible for the jumps, the other for spins, but neither can win gold alone.

>> because figure skating has to be done to music, almost every single skater out there that competes at this level will be able to understand music quite well. >> nathan has almost a spiritual connection to this piece of music. you can feel it flowing out of his fingertips. >> i think when i was a kid and i started learning piano it just gave me a sense of rhythm and timing and coordination, necessary characteristics from a skater. >> wow, the choreographer, the vibe, the way that he interprets his music is unlike any other. >> i'm trying to do my best to emote to the music, but i think a lot of it is unconscious. i would definitely say that artists are quite athletic from the pure basis of stamina, to be able to perform through a four-minute program with

artistic drive requires a lot of athleticism. if you can balance the two, and i think that's something you can work toward and strive toward. >> bow down to nathan chen. >> wow, what a talent. if you missed it, you can watch our journey to the winter olympics special on our nbc bay area streaming app. download it for apple tv, roku and amazon fire and look for the special under our winter olympics playlist. 4:58 this morning. housing in high demand. still ahead on "today in the bay," the new reason homes are selling quicker in certain cities amid the pandemic. also, bay area city topping the list.

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right now at 5:00, staggering numbers. covid deaths in the u.s. top anywhere else in the world. life-saving medications are running short and how hospitals are responding. >> more than just a location. turns out vaccination rates may be impacting home sales. the signs some experts are seeing in the bay area and surrounding neighborhoods. this is "today in the bay." good wednesday morning to you. thanks so much for starting your day with us. 5:00 right now. i'm laura garcia. >> i'm marcus washington. before you head out this morning, we're not just on television. you can catch us live on roku, amazon fire, apple tv and online at nbcbayarea.com. >> let's start with a look at the forecast for this wednesday