f0 counting down to christmas. as the hour quickly professions, final celebrations and preparations underway across the bay area tonight. >> it's a big build up, so it's kind of exciting. tomorrow is like the big day. and we may have missed out on the winter storm back east, but don't worry, we have new storms on their way to the bay area this week. >> we're engaged! >> we're having a baby! as we wrap up 2022, we ask people about the good things happening in that you are lives this christmas. it's a fun story. we begin with norad, the annual tracking of the whereabouts of mr. santa claus. he's apparently over alberta. he'll be heading south soon into the bay area. we'll let you know. a lot of people out today

in the bay getting the final presents. plenty of folks out in union square today. the same goes for the east bay. downtown walnut creek was packed with shoppers. all that was missing was a saxophone. ♪ [ music ] ♪°7 >> you'd have to go to union square to find that. it was packed with people today and tonight. betty yu was there to check out the final few hours of christmas eve. >> reporter: long after the stores closed this christmas eve, union square remained bustling with people taking in all of the holiday festivities. ♪ [ music ] ♪°7 >> reporter: on christmas eve, union square was a big draw for tourists and locals. people took plenty of photos and enjoyed the ice skate rink. there were balloon animals for the kids and a sea of bubbles. we met san francisco residents casey and chris in the crowd. >> we wanted to come down, see

the lights. we got dinner in union square and just hang out, enjoy the atmosphere. >> yeah, just sort of enjoy the christmas eve, you know, it only comes once a year. >> reporter: mayor breed announced new measures this year to make union square a safe space for shoppers and businesses. on this night, the foot traffic was heavy and atmosphere lively. >> we come here all the time. >> yeah. i bring my daughter to pier 39, you know. i know it's a tourist trap, but we still enjoy it. >> yeah, we love coming downtown, don't we? >> reporter: on union street, things were heating up at the holiday pop up bar, deck the halls. they offer holiday themed drinks and bites. you might even catch costumes and snowfall. >> the best part of the pop up is seeing a lot of new faces out and about. people from all over city and bay area coming together. it's really cool. we

want everyone to have fun, be safe, and just have a great experience again. >> reporter: manager mike silva says otre opened in march of this year, and this festive pop up has given him a much needed boost in business. for some, christmas eve means there's just a few more hours to wrap up some loose ends. >> it's a big build up. it's exciting. tomorrow is like the big day after all the craziness. happy, yeah. >> reporter: do you have all the presents wrapped? >> we do. >> yeah, pretty much. one last one to wrap. the microwave. >> hope i mom's not matching! >> reporter: yeah, you gave it away! the. and santa was out at the hospital at stanford for a surprise visit to patients before hitting the skies. he and his elves met with the kids, passed out toys, and made sure no one missed out for christmas day.

further volunteers wereout people had hot meals tonight. hope on wheels served dinner at the tully library. and a heads up for your christmas day plans. you'll have to cancel the traditional roaring christmas fireplace. a spare the air alert in effect through the end of the day for tomorrow. air quality is moderate at best this weekend, so no burning wood or solid fuels inside or outside. and darren peck is here to tell us more. yes, we have a fantastic weekend for the holiday. beautiful blue sky and loaded with 60s, except for the fact that it looks like this. that's the scene from downtown back towards levi stadium today. the air quality is unhealthy for sensitive groups at times. here's the forecast for

tomorrow. another spare the air day. the primary culprit is the fireplaces and wood burning is really contributing to the majority of that. by the time we get to monday night, there's a significant storm coming our way. in fact, tuesday is a first alert weather day. from monday night through tuesday afternoon, we'll pick up two to three inches of rain. the storm out of the pacific, that's the one right there, will be fueled by a powerful atmospheric river. that's typically when you get the most impressive storms of the winter. this will be one of them. we'll look at it in detail in the full forecast. now a live look at all three bay area airports. travel a big story this weekend, or lack of travel as the winter storms hit the rest of the country. the impacts rippled out, created problems for people traveling to and from

the bay area as well. in fact, one person spoke with us at sfo and expressed her frustration at the lack of communication from airlines. >> they didn't text us, they didn't e-mail us, they checked our bags. then we had to pick them up from baggage claim just a few minutes ago, all while staying in line to rebook because they won't answer phones. >> stay up to date with the latest on the christmas day forecast and the storm that's winding up in the pacific that darren was just talking about. getting ready for a wet and rainy tuesday in the bay area. for now, still ahead, a south bay lgbtq center is preparing to host a christmas celebration for those who may have nowhere else to go. and prepare to start paying for your monthly energy bill. and the latest from an east bay

the holidays can be a really special time, especially when you're surrounded by family and friends and people you love, but can also be a hard time, and that can be

especially true in the lgbtq community. devin fehely spoke to the organizer of a special celebration meant to combat the holiday blues. >> christmas day is a big family day traditionally. so we have a saying that you can choose your family. >> reporter: gabrielle launched the holiday celebration nearly 30 years ago, saying it filled a much needed void in the lgbtq community. >> our motto for christmas day is you can choose to be with your people here. >> reporter: and members of the lgbtq community have historically struggled to gain acceptance from family, friends, and society in general. the celebration, she says, can be a comfort and welcome escape from uncomfortable family gatherings. >> i can usually tell when someone's coming because they

had nowhere else to go, so i encourage them to pretend that this was a choice. that they had many choices, and this is the one they chose so they can feel good about being here. >> reporter: and beloved celebration, she says, like the rest of us, is bouncing back post-pandemic. >> before covid we traditionally had about 200 people. now that we're coming back, at thanksgiving day, we do the same thing because that's another family trauma. and we had over 130 people coming and going, floating in and out. >> the christmas celebration runs from noon to 3:00 tomorrow, but you need proof of a covid vaccination. darren, talking about the atmospheric river, i know you'll eventually get to this, but i thought it was interesting that the atmospheric river has a split in it. does that make it more

robust or less robust? and you can discuss it when you get to it. >> i'll show you split when we get there. the bottom line is, it's going to strengthen it. that's going to be a strong atmospheric river. on a scale of 1 to 5, this one is a 4. and there's a good amount of rain coming our way from this from monday night into tuesday. but first, we still have the second half of this holiday weekend to get through. you still have christmas day. let's get you caught up on that first. tomorrow morning, you wake up, a good bit of fog in the north bay counties and contra costa county. tomorrow is a good day because you're not getting rained on. it's 60s, but not pretty. the haze is still around. it's going to be a much quieter day than what's coming. big picture, you can see the pacific is starting to get primed. it looks like we'll

enter an active pattern that could go on for quite some time. but monday and tuesday is easily the most impressive of anything we can see coming down the road. so if we look at this monday night at 10:00, if we get rid of the futurecast depiction of rain and clouds and look at what's fueling this, we'll see the atmospheric river. you'll see it show up with the brighter colors. there's a long plume that's been stretching out across the mid-latitudes. that's the primary source. but yes, here's what brian was talking about. this almost has a pineapple express aspect to it. they converge, and it has a lot to work with. it puts a lot of moisture in the atmosphere, and it drops a lot of rain when it hits the the local mountains. that's where it will be monday night. a closer look at home now, timthis out. the timing has moved up a little bit. so it's a little earlier in each

of the model runs. that's been a trend the last 24 hours. so now the the first of the showers is here monday night at 10:00. it's also speeding up. so we get the majority of the action from this storm overnight, monday into tuesday. tuesday morning, 2:30, looks like a mess on here. by the time we get to like 8:00 a.m., pretty much done. not completely. scattered showers. but tuesday in the afternoon, there's more blue sky than anything else. monday night into tuesday we get two to two and a half inches. it's enough that we need to start thinking about minor localized flooding. like low lying intersections. we had plenty of images to

share with you of low lying intersections, tributaries, streams that end to overflow, this is one of those. the other thing in the wind. the thing that drives atmospheric rivers is the wind, so we'll feel that. monday night into tuesday, you can see how much better it is. this one is relatively warm. so it is bringing snow, but the snow level is comparatively high from what we've seen and what we like to see. if the snow level is 6,000 feet, plenty of snow at the ski resorts. but the rest of the snow in the mid-sierra will get rained on, melted, and flowing into streams. would have been nice to keep it there as a reservoir

in the mountains. that's one other aspect. but it's good for snow . er thfirst alt then it stays busy these look major yet, but there's a chance of rain that sticks around for the entire second half of next week. and of course that shows up in the microclimates as well. things are about to get busy. the main focus is monday night and tuesday morning. back to you. all right, thank you. we are prepared for that. a small plane went down in livermore late today. it happened about a half mile from the municipal airport east of isabel avenue. it crashed into an rv storage unit. paramedics worked to get someone out of the plane. investigators say there was only that one person on board, and while they were seriously injured, they were also conscious and alert when first responders did finally manage to pull them from that wreckage. in other news this christmas eve, a san francisco judge has banned police from clearing out homeless

encampments while a lawsuit is pending against the city. the ban is only temporary, but in the meantime, the city can't force people to relocate or cite them for sleeping in public. the suit's aim is to force the city to redirect funds towards affordable housing and end the never ending problem of widespread homelessness. across the bay, a new phase in the battle over oakland's largest encampment. the city-owned section of the wood street encampment will be cleared out starting early in january. about two to three dozen campers are living there. earlier this year, cal trans cleared out part of the camp on their property. ultimately, 170 units will be built on that land. pg&e's electricity rate increase of $7 a month has been approved, and gas could jump by

as much as $67 as global natural gas prices soar. pg&e recommends setting the heat to no hier an 68 to keep the bill relatively low. 49ers continue the march to the playoffs. vern glenn has the highlights next.

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49ers up against the washington commanders, and vern glenn's got the story.

all right, nfl and the 11 and 4 49ers. another big day for brock purdy. it comes out a 17-point win. eight in a row. remember when th had and 4? bro of touchdowns a pick, not his fault. the commanders gave the 49ers a push. scoreless second quarter. mcloud took off. touchdown, and completed a 99-yard drive and opened the scoring. now, opening drive of the second half, tied at 7. 3rd down, purdy deep to kittle. san francisco had a 14-7 lead. later in the quarter, washington went for it on 4th down in their enter . then

kittle did the rest. 33-yard score. his fourth touchdown in two games made it 21-7. six balls, 120 yards for him. niners win their eighth in a row to improve to 11 and 4. >> i think we won eighth straight in 19 at the start of season, so we've tied our record. we got to get a couple more to go. >> it's christmas, we're all giving. some of us are grinches. it is what it is. we have to go to las vegas next week, how fun is that going to be? >> brock purdy became the first san francisco rookie to win his first three starts. and nick bossa! after christmas day, it's raiders week. that game is on new year's day in vegas. all right, after the break, we continue our countdown to christmas by spreading some good news from people here in the bay area. that's when we come back.

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e oaklt some new nit cam video of the mountain lion rescue. holly the cub was rescued from santa cruz earlier this week. she got the name holly because she was found around the holidays. she was not in good condition. she was small, weak, she was emaciated, and the vet staff got to work. they said her health is improving, and she's even licking her paws and washing her face. and she's staying hydrated and eating more. it's the time of year that people travel far and wide to spend time with their loved ones, and da lin is back with his annual holiday segment asking people to share some good news. watch. >> reporter: the iconic golden gate bridge. it's almost pandemic th ect. but 2022 perft tripledemic. from ring freezes to massive lay offs and a deflating economy, the year

was filled with a lot of uncertainties. but people marched and pushed forward. let's end this year on a positive note. i'm setting up shop at pier 39 asking people what's your good news? >> we're engaged. >> we just got engaged last night. >> last night at the nutcracker. it's where we had our first date nine years ago. >> it was the first big date i asked her to, so that's where i wanted to propose at. >> my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. >> i finally got into a relationship with my crush. it's my first boyfriend. i feel the happiest i've ever been. it's such a dream. >> i'm going on vacation to a couple of days to hawaii. it's my first family trip in years, so i'm excited to spend time with them. >> both of us changed jobs and

the kids wck to >>it's a ange, athletic facility in downtown phoenix. it's going to be called total body fitness action specifically for athletes. >> i started a photography business. looking forward to doing that in the new year as well. >> i just broke up with my before. he cheated on me, and i just dump him, and i think i'm single and available. i think that's good news. [ singing ] >> at the beginning of the year, i was going through a really tough time. i kind of broke out of that, and i really started going to the gym and got really fit and healthy. i think that just kind of changed myco'tth at the nnyear. going into the next year, i'm really

excited to just progress. >> we got this baby in june 2022, and that's our good news. pretty excited. >> reporter: what's your good news? >> we're having a baby! >> what number? >> three! >> so exciting. >> baby girl! [ singing ] >> reporter: i'll end with some great news of my own. my wife and i are also expecting a baby, baby number two. a baby girl. on this christmas weekend, i hope you're surrounded by good people and catching up over a lot of good news, because the best gift is the gift of time. from my family to yours, merry christmas and happy new year. also spreading joy, it's almost time. hopefully the kids are in bed as santa makes his final approach to the bay area. after the break, we'll check in

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the #1 covid-19 self test in the us awe and now, ladies and gentlemen, from the slovenia bureau, an impressive holiday light show. more than 2,000 lightbulbs illuminate a cave where they put on a nativity show. local law enforcement got in opt christmas spirit, doing their part to spread the cheer. this is the san francisco police parade last night. a bonus for the family house at the ucsf children's hospital. local police put on the kids spending christmas at the hospital and brought gifts. and a look at this very florida christmas tradition. hundredsof people came out

dressed as santa cahingso everc a whs en hue o? just everyone i santa claus today. keeping the spirit alive. and finally, just a matter of minutes before santa makes his approach into the bay area. he is now in the desert southwest over tucson, finally making his way to the pacific time zone and all the california chimneys. why is it snowing in arizona? i really couldn't tell you. darren has left the studio. that's it, our next local newscast tomorrow morning from 6:00 to 7:00. news and weather updates always on kpix.com. in the meantime, have yourself a merry little christmas eve. see you tomorrow night.