malls as the holiday sales start up. dramatic way to recycle your christmas tree and when the rain will stop in the bay area ahead at noon.

. complete bay area news coverage starts right now this is ktvu channel 2. >> the rain is still coming down, storm watch coverage includes what's happening today in the snowy sierra. we start on storm watch. heavy rain off and on throughout the morning. >> reporter: quick moving downpours hit the area making for slick roadways but the police say that there haven't been to many accidents, traffic has been light because of the holiday week. most areas got less than a

quarter inch of rain. in the sierra winter storm warning in effect at this hour. sugar bowl reported that one to two feet of snow fell overnight. the current storm is expected to bring up to five feet of new now. the decisions are prompting chain restrictions. the winter storm warning is expected to remain in effect through ten tonight. and the coverage has been decreasing on the radar. still, some strong cells, especially across the southern third of the bay area. right now on the maps as you can see on the sweep we will come in, take a closer look, the bright yellows and reds lining up with increasing rain. around morgan hill and the 101, increase in the rainfall rates, toward the boulevard. you can see -- monterey street. we will move the maps up to the north and show you this. the shift on the maps down

south to pick up some of this coverage toward saratoga, here we go. heavier rain and the possibility of some -- little bit of isolated hail with in these pockets. just be careful driving highway 17 in the short term. there is san jose with a few lingering rain showers, out toward the san mat, o coast but out toward san mateo extending across the bay. haywood, activity to report on 880, nothing to major but still enough to wet the roadways, we will move the maps and not a lot of coverage to the north bay. activity on the increase, ocean beach and the activity will continue to be on the increase at least with san francisco in the short term. we expect a change in the weather pattern into thursday but another system, more of the timing on that in just a few. >> caltrans making repairs

after a major rock slide near big sur. it happened sunday afternoon. a 60-foot section the roadway is damaged. caltrans said it hopes to have at least one lane open sometime this week. snoot . retailers are hoping for a boost after some say the season may be the worst since the financial crisis. >> reporter: the mall opened at seven and traffic was light. if you look out here now the parking lot is pretty full. its been filling up and it's getting busier with people looking for bargins. shoppers came early to return gifts this morning at valley fair. >> not a big fan of crowds soy wanted to quiet get in and out. . >> reporter: others relished checking out the deals, it's something they do every year.

>> my mom, aunt, sister-in- law, tradition we do. we just spend time together. do a lot of returns. >> reporter: stores throughout the mall displayed sale science, some showing as much as 75%off. >> we want to sell as much, put the spring goods out. we are going to be -- i know we are. >> reporter: november and december count up to 40% of yearly sales, the last two months before christmas were the weakest since 2008. retailers hope to make up by slashing prices, customers had different take its on the deals they saw. >> last year was much better. >> reporter: dispointing? >> little bit. >> 50% off at gap. marked down -- i got tanks, underwear and, yeah.

>> reporter: you are happy. >> yeah. >> reporter: and many are expecting to use their gift cards today and they will have plenty of chances to do that. the mall has extended hours today here at valley fair. they will be open until ten tonight. ktvu. >> thank you. for a lot of people the gifts are now unwrapped and sorted. before going to the customer service counter you need to check that exchange poll civil wal-mart has one of the most for giving, taking almost all items for 90 days. the exception is electronics which you have 15 days to exchange. k-mart allows 28 days to exchange though it said many items aren't taken but the process is easier if the person who bought it included a gift receipt. >> they are harder to deal with without a receipt for sure. they want to give you a credit f you get something that's a lower price they won't give you the difference.

>> and some people decide to avoid returns and exchanges all together. they say they take all the things in their not quite right pile and regift or donate it to a charity. alameda police say a family christmas party turned violent leaving a woman with a stab wound and three also injured. that attack happened in an apartment complex. an argument broke out between sisters and one of the women grabbed a knife and stabbed the other in the chest. three others were hurt and none of the injuries life threatening. the woman with the knife was arrested. a new study by san francisco peace group claims states with tough gun laws have fewer gun related deaths. they site a report by the law center to prevent gun violence. they find states like connecticut, california and hawaii have fewer killings, state s with fewer restrictions

have more deaths. supporters have argued that the school shooting in connecticut shows gun laws don't work. a bay area video game company is being criticized for its marketing partnership with makers of guns used in a popular game. a story said when ea of redwood released it's latest medal of honor game it created a website featuring its gun making partners. the links the site led to the company's online catalogs. one critic called it a showroom for guns. ea later disabled the links saying had been unaware of them. you can now go online to see the names of five thousand expelled from the boy scouts due to suspected sexual abuse. the los angeles times published the database which goes from 1947 to 1991.

bay area reports come from san francisco, san jose, piedmont and san rafael. awareness has increased over the years but said the scouts failed to report many allegations to police and the public. they kept that record of suspected abusers to prevent them from rejoining. optimism is dimming among lawmakers that they can reach a fiscal cliff agreement before the deadline. the president greeted marines this morning in haw hu. he plans to fly back to washington tonight in hopes of pushing the negotiations forward. any agreement worked out is unlikely to be the grand funding and debt reducing plan the president and speaker want. >> i have thought for all long for more than a month we were likely to see some last minute, slap dash, unsatisfying deal thrown together that won't do anything to solve the long term problems but will get politicians out of the bind. >> one stake point, the

president's push to raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year. republican opposition to that plan. some san francisco reward its employees for making healthy choices? that's the issue leaders debating as they look for ways to cut health care costs. a new study shows two thirds considered to be the healthiest are over weight or obese. doctors say it can lead to health problems, some say paying employees to eat better and exercise can save money in the long run. holiday celebration still going for many of you but for some of lights and ornaments are starting to come down and the tree that have stood tall will only follow. new at noon, alex live in san francisco with the winter recycling program. >> reporter: the trees still up here in san francisco. of course across the city a lot of these trees starting to come down and workers san francisco's recycling program want to make sure the trees don't end up in the landfill.

instead they want to put them to good use, eventually turning them into renewable energy. this is the demonstration just about an hour ago here outside city hall as workers put a couple dozen trees in to the chipper. crews from the recycling contractor will begin collecting people's old trees starting next week. workers expect in the end to recycle more than 500-tons of trees. the manager said all of those wood chips can be burned. the heat turns the generator and creates power. when you put your old tree out on the curb for pick up make sure to take everything off it. >> if the lights and ornaments still on it we can't put it in the chipper, it'll contaminate the load, ruin the product. if it's not stripped of all those things that will go into the trash and to the landfill. we don't want that. >> reporter: if you live in san

francisco, you can pit your tree out on the curb starting next wednesday, january 2nd, put it out onto normal collection day next to the trash bin and the folks will come by and grab it. the program will go for two weeks and there is no charge. >> tornados in the south and snow in the midwest. the day after christmas is being spent either cleaning up or preparing for more winter storms. >> mark is back in just a few with more on the rain right here in the bay area and if we will see more of it in the days ahead. >> i think it'll end up beautiful at end. this is going to be a nice freeway. >> a year's long project is almost done to relieve terrible traffic jams but you will hear why some are just not quite happy about it. ♪

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. developing news for you and new video. police are investigating the death of an elderly woman found this morning in a pond. the 70-year-old was found in that pond at a condo complex.

police are calling the circumstance unusual. they haven't called the woman's death a crime. investigators say there are no obvious signs of how she died. a christmas party was held at the clubhouse near the pond last night. a resident of the complex who found the woman said he recognized her but she didn't live there. >> we have no obvious signs of death at this point. we called out the detectives to do further investigation. >> of course we have more on this develop story tonight at the news at five. also new, the city of haywood is considering changes in it's downtown parking as part of route 238 corridor improvement project. in an effort to cut down traffic the city is making sections of foothill boulevard, a street and mission boulevard one way through high wad's downtown. the hope is it'll also better handle terrible traffic. many business owners say the current plan to eliminate at

least one of the street parking could kill their businesses. >> if you cannot park in the front we don't want to have any customers, when they start working in summer, we -- business drops 80%. >> staff is working on a parking report and hopes to present it to the city council in late january or early february. muni will offer free rides on friday to celebrate it's 100th year in service. passengers will be able to ride buses, light-rail and cable cars without paying. the rides start at 5:00 a.m. and on friday and last through 5:00 a.m. on saturday. ac transit hopes many will make taking the bus their new year's resolution. they are starting a contest through its facebook page. rider who come up with the best reason to take the bus could win prizes. those include gift certificates to east bay restaurants, movie theaters and stores.

the contest ends on january 11th. caltrain is reported problems throughout its system. a spokesman said delays are being caused by a computer problem with the signaling system. by midmorning delays were averaging about 15 to 45 minutes. they hope to have trains running on time before the evening. a massive winter storm is disrupting plans for air travelers, snow, storms, sleet, high winds, tornadoes have led to canceled flights and major delays. we have more on the severe weather. >> reporter: a powerful storm system heads toward the northeast after spawning several tornadoes in the south. the system packed heavy rain and flash flooding along with strong, straight line winds affecting people from texas all the way to florida. >> i tell you what? i have never seen one in real life and just to be able to hear one from that faraway, act a mile and you could hear it and it was pretty amazing.

>> reporter: the severe system ripped through parts of alabama, georgia, mississippi and northwest florida. one of the largest cities hit was mobile alabama. straight line winds knocked down trees and blew the roofs off many homes. people are amazed by the amount of damage done by the rare christmas twisters. >> i didn't think it was this bad. it was so dark last night i didn't get a chance to see anything. i was not expecting this. you have trees ripped in half. it's just -- >> reporter: while the day after christmas is usually one of the busiest for travel people can expect to add extra time. slick roads causing many to second guess plans while hundreds of flights are delayed leaving others stranded. >> my parents live in el paso and i was planning to go there but i think i will be staying. >> reporter: forecasters say

there could have been as many as 19 tornados in mobile. in atlanta. fox news. >> glide continued it's long time extradition of sec holiday -- serving holiday meals. they served five thousand to people who lined up in the rain for the holiday celebration. this morning's breakfast ran from seven to nine and the menu included fruit, eggs, bacon and buscuits. >> the weather pattern today changing by the minute. clouds, clear sykes, heavy showers. right now the camera looking toward oakland. overcast skies and showers nearby. still going to hold on to the shower chances for this afternoon. live storm tracker two showing you the current rainfall pattern. increase the rainfall rates here. possibility of a few isolated thunderstorms as well. especially with the brighter shades of yellow and red as you

can pick out just to the outside of evergreen. also right around santa theresa boulevard. out toward morgan hill. nothing to major but around 101, wet pavement here, out toward oakland avenue and hill road. moving the maps here closer to palo alto. this has been developing over the past few minutes, especially that yellow shade. heavier rain toward there, deploy some of the roadways here. the labels toward university avenue and forest avenue. moving the maps up north this is a new development, south san francisco around sfo. moving out to the south and east of the city. over the north bay not as much coverage but still a few spotty showers, being detectedda across parts of the north bay. nothing to major. out to the east a winter storm warning in place for the sierra. still significant snow and still chain controls, that winter storm warning in place until 11:00 as we head into

tomorrow. the snow fall will taper off. upper 40s, these are basically the afternoon highs, warm up over the next couple hours, here is the overall weather pattern. cold, unstable air mass, more showers for today but into thursday a break. showers moving out as we have partly cloudy skies, next system up shore for friday. we will increase the cloud cover, chance of a few showers for the bulk of the activity moves in late friday and into saturday morning. the first half of the weekend could be wet. tomorrow dense areas of fog for the morning hours, skies becoming partly cloudy, increase in the lie clouds and the rain showers, bringing that chance by late friday afternoon and into the evening. for today, cool showers with clouds, sun and source pushing through the area. bulk of the activity will be taking place over the next couple hours and eyelike ahead at five-day forecast with the weekend always in view.

tomorrow a break. we need them. tomorrow just morning fog. watch for that. could be dense. chance of a shower, mostly for late friday afternoon and into the evening. could be tracking another weather system, actually the first half of the weekend should be dry. just be careful for today with the -- showers moving through quickly, sun breaks, little bit of everything. >> thank you. appreciate it. south bay couple got an extra special christmas surprise, a new baby. she went into labor just after midnight on december 25th. she had planned on a home birth but the baby arrived before the midwife could get there so her husband helped. they are both doing fine. russia's president could soon decide in americans should be banned from adopting russian children. the upper chamber of their government voted in favor of such a ban. the activists say it deprives children of the chance to leave

orphanages they protested the ban is a response to a united states law calling for sanctions against those found to have violated human rights. what mood we are finding on wall street. more encouraging news related to the housing market. q

. dow down, weakness on the retail sector and worries over the fiscal cliff keeping low. s and p and nasdaq also in the red. today's price report shows average home prices up more than 4% in the 20 largest markets, prices here in the san francisco bay area are up even more. prices jumped 8.9% in october compared to the same time the year before. they increased .7% froms. that bucked the national trend where values dipped compared to september. today on the news at five the latest on that body found in santa rosa, also the weather remaining an issue for parts of the bay area though the storms have moved out. and a look at the trouble spots and in the sierra where a storm warning is in effect for the rest of the day and there are concerns up there about some avalanches. thank you for trusting us. we will see you the next time news breaks, also always here  at ktvu.com and mobile ktvu.

have a great afternoon everybody.

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