let's check in with paul heggen. >> that's been the challenge as the offshore winds while not as strong as the past couple of days, have still been a factor. what has been produced as offshore winds is a swirl in the atmosphere at my feet. that will get pushed a little further off to the east. that mean it is offshore winds will relax as we head through the next 24 hours. what we will see is gusty conditions. higher elevations, becoming a little bit less gusty as we head through the overnight and early morning hours. still offshore winds at elevation. but closer to sea level, a weak on shore breeze is going to try to return. there are no shower chances in the forecast, but we will take moisture from any source, even if it is just a return of a marine influence. and the winds will remain pretty light throughout most of the day tomorrow. let's return to the floor map and take a look at the fire weather risk. which today was up into the extremely critical category. that's going to subside somewhat tomorrow. but they are not going to be out of the woods. the fire outlook for tomorrow will b

especially overnight, paul heggen here to fill us in. things should shift a little bit. we head through tonight and tomorrow and thursday. the off shore winds continue. tonight, tomorrow, gusty at times, especially higher elevations. thursday, it will weaken and shift. running parallel to the coast instead of straight off of the shore. a weak onshore breeze is going to develop. the wind shift is complicating for the crews they would welcome the moisture, the humidity that it would bring. still, another day and night. in store for us. the wind will be in the bay area as well. let's take a look at the monitor and one consequence of that, clear skies out. that will continue through the rest of the night. no fog to speak of as the temperatures drop off. clear skies over head doing quickly. down in the upper 40s. santa rosa, and oakland and san jose. that will not last a lot longer the temperatures will be a bit on the chilly side by early tomorrow morning, only, maybe, 3-5 degrees below average. even that will be an exception than a rule. a lot of 30s from the map. away from

. >>> so chief meteorologist paul heggen is here to give us a better idea on the conditions. >> yeah. the winds have died down for now. it's unfortunately temporary. what they need are lighter winds and eventually some rain. the light winds won't last long and there's no rain in sight. let's look at the big picture setup for tomorrow as another burst of offshore winds is likely to affect southern california as another ripple in the atmosphere positions itself just far enough to the south to help squeeze the atmosphere and produce the east to west flow running downhill, a very dry and mild direction. the fire threat will be high again. let's look at the hour-by-hour gusts the next couple days. for the moment the gusts are calm, but they'll start to pick up in the higher elevations already as the sun comes up saturday morning. it will take most of the day for the stronger winds to make their way down in elevation, but they will, especially saturday evening and sunday. this is bad enough, especially given the ongoing fires that are still in progress. the smoke from those fires will be pu

. >>> getting ready for some of the first real rainfall this new year, paul heggen has the timing for your neighborhood. >>> what we're learning about plans to reopen part of the santa cruz wharf less than two weeks after part of it collapsed into the ocean. >>> it's like a river when it comes out. so it's very disconcerting. >> how the founders of a nonprofit self-defense program are having to lean on the community they've worked to empower for more than half a decade. >>> this is cbs news bay area with juliette goodrich. >> hi. i'm sara donchey in for juliette tonight. >>> we start in vallejo where the police department's new leadership is not so new, after all, after what the city called a robust national search. it officially named interim police chief jason ta as the new permanent chief. ta will formally take over a department where officer conduct has made international headlines, most notably, the high profile police shootings of willie mccoy and sean monterrosa that happened before ta joined the department. the killings resulted in firings, multimillion dollar settlements, and

katie nielsen from altadena and paul heggen will have a better idea of conditions later on in the show. >>> here's a look from high above the fires happening now. katie showed that ridge line from behind. this is what it looks like from high above. you can see that fire does continue to burn and that smoke does continue to billow. you can see the helicopter there doing water drops onto that fire. we aren't sure which fire this is exactly, but there are several wildfires continuing to burn as you can see while katie in her area in altadena, there's completely devastation. there are different spots of hotspots and flames still burning all over l.a. county. >>> the palisades fire now threatening more communities in l.a. county. you can see how close the flames are to homes. this is in topanga. the largest of the wildfires burning now in southern california scorched about 30 square miles and five people confirmed dead, the fire just 8% contained. evacuation orders have been lifted for residents near the kenneth fire which has scorched nearly 1,000 acres in the san fernando valley. the flam

paul heggen tracking the powerful winds causing so much concern. paul? >> yeah, rather than being a life threatening situation like it has been in southern california is something more inconvenient. the difference is the wind speed, not as strong, but certainly strong in the offshore wind. the biggest difference is the amount of far normal or above normal rainfall. we are still under a wind advisory for most of the bay area, where the winds will be dying down, still a breezy day overall. strongest wind gusts that we have seen so far have been in the 30 to 40 miles an hour range, barely over 25 miles an hour for san jose, but closer to 30 miles an hour gust in san francisco. farther to the north end, picking up 35, 36 miles an hour gust around napa and santa rosa and we are seeing the same pattern that is causing our gusty winds and the difference to the center of the feature that is causing the wind flow to go offshore and pack sell rate as they would run downhill towards the coast. 80 to 100 miles an hour gusts will remain possible tonight and tomorrow

let's bring in chief meteorologist paul heggen. paul, this may be it for a while it sounds like. >> yeah. the first rain of 2025 won't be followed up by the second rain of 2025 anytime soon. the forecast looks pretty dry for a while. let's look how things played out earlier today. this is the radar replay as we look over the past 12 hours or so as showers made their way into the north bay before the sun came up with the heaviest rain progressing across the bay area right around the peak of rush hour and that, of course, slowed things down for the north bay and around san francisco and oakland. just as fast as it moved in, the steadiest rain moved out just after lunchtime. let's look at how much rain added up. it generally conformed on our expectations with less than 0.1 in san jose, only 0.01 around antioch and brentwood, just over a 0.1 of an inch for danville, just 0.01 in concord, a quarter inch in san francisco and half moon bay with the highest amounts in the north bay, almost a half inch of rain around san rafael with just ove

let's bring in paul heggen. looks like we will hang on to the memory of this one? >> yes, once it comes through that will be it for awhile. the rain is falling to the north. california picking up showers, so is oregon. the bulk of the system is off shore. beginning to make its way closer to us. it will not move in until after midnight tonight. let's take a look at the local map here. talking about the progression of that rain across the bay area. the first showers are not going to hit the ground in the north bay until after midnight. likely around 3:00, 4:00 in the morning. 10:00 this evening through 10:00 tomorrow morning. you can see as the sun comes up tomorrow that is when the rain is more widespread. looks like it will be a wet morning commute. nothing in terms of torrential rain out of this system. 0 flooding threat. it will be just enough to chip away at the deficit that we are running in parts of the bay area while there are other locations that were running a surplus. on the deficit side of things, 77% of normal. the water years since october 1st in liverm

. >> after nine days of dangerous wind, relief is finally in sight, let's send it over to paul heggen with the details. >> the red flag warnings expired at 6:00 p.m. this evening, and what we have on the map tomorrow will be removed from the worst category on the map and it is just going to be elevated. this is a closer look at the conditions around the fires, there is still a red flag warning tomorrow through 3:00 in the afternoon, around santa clarita, the wind is still going to be gusting, enough to be dangerous, and humidity levels are still going to be in the 10% to 20% range, not completely out of the woods yet, the gradual onshore breeze will help to boost humidity levels, what we really need is rain. unfortunately a little bit of fog rolling in, still no rain in sight for southern california, or the bay area either. we will see if we can find some signs of optimism, maybe return to normal january weather in the full forecast. >>> turning to the middle east, israel and hamas have agreed on a six week deal to pause the fighting in gaza according to president biden, the deal prom

paul heggen will have our bay area forecast, coming up . >>> we are heading into the martin luther king holiday. a lot of people heading to the sierra where 0 new snow has fallen in the last 24 hours. 0 new snow has fallen over the last week and a half as the dry weather pattern across all of california continues. the good news is, temperatures favorable to make the own snow in the 20s at higher elevations dropping in the teens, dry weather means good travel on u.s. 50 and i-80. breezy sunday and monday especially elevation. something to keep in mind if you are heading into the mountains. the next chance of snow less than a week away. we will keep watching bounced from one doctor to the next. did they even send my lab work...? wait, was i supposed to bring that? then there's the forms. the bills. the 'not a bills.' the.... ”press 4 to repeat these options.” [chaotic music] [inspirational music] healthcare can get a whole lot easier when your medical records, care and coverage are in one place. at kaiser permanente, all of us work together for all that is you. . >>> we have friendly view

paul heggen has more details >> right, you want to catch a break. you don't want it most of january and february and you start worrying about the following fire season. it will be a little while before the next round of rain moves in. taking a look at the radar replay. showers are intensifying in the north bay with the heaviest rainmaking its way in right around the peak of the morning commute. not a long-lasting rain event. the rain pushed off to the east quickly. largely, most of it was out of here by lunchtime. a few straggling leftover showers for the rest of the afternoon. potential for sprinkles here and there heading through the rest of the evening and tonight. for the moment, the doppler is blank. how much rain? the amounts conformed to what you were expecting. more than a trace. 1/10th of an inch for danville, livermore, four 1/100th of an inch of rain. half an inch of rain for ben lowman that is one of the higher amounts in the bay area. some of the other higher amounts just under a quarter of an inch. 3/10th for napa and almost half an in

. >>> let's get to first alert chief meteorologist paul heggen with the all important wind conditions and fire conditions. >> yeah. we've got some live pictures in the monitor of one of the fires burning in southern california right now. even though the winds have died down, the vegetation is so dry, even the lighter wind is still offshore. that's a bad enough thing and the winds are going to intensify heading through tonight and into tomorrow especially in southern california. let's look at the fire weather risk and today the worst of it was actually in the hills above san diego as opposed to closer to los angeles. it was still an elevated wildfire threat closer to los angeles, but things are going to spread out once again as we head through tomorrow. this is the wildfire threat for tomorrow. you see the orange spreading out. that is critical fire weather conditions that will make their way back into the higher terrain above los angeles. downslope winds will strengthen throughout the day. let's look at the monitor and track those winds hour by hour as we head through tonight and tomo

paul heggen joining me now talking about the winds expected to be a danger into the night. certainly a scary scene there. the strongest gust is 86. just driving the flames faster and faster. when the winds are that strong, they cannot rely on air support even if they have that night vision possibility. just the worst combination of factors. we've got the gusty winds, but they are not as strong and all the rain recently. and that is in effect through 10:00 tomorrow morning, where it is more inconvenient than anything that's threatening. and because of likely the wind and impact there and the strongest gusts so far have been in the higher elevations. let's take a look for some of the peaks around the bay area. about 45 miles an hour gust near the altamont pass. strongest gust so far, no surprise, registered a 76 miles an hour gust, and that is the outlier around the bay area and the strongest gust was 43 miles an hour so far. and so it is a far cry from the level of wind that we were seeing in southern california that we are still seeing. our winds will continue to diminish t

chief meteorologist paul heggen is here with a frost warning, where it has been chilly. >> we have frost advisories and freeze warnings. for the rest of us, we are okay, which just means it will be chilly. it will be cold by tomorrow morning, but it won't be record setting. bigger concern is in southern california where that wind is in the offshore direction. extremely critical fire weather conditions. g tomorrow and again on thursday. and those red flag warnings have been extended through 8:00 on thursday. so this is going to be another couple of days of some heightened tensions, certainly in southern california. winds will be offshore, not nearly as strong. why they have been drying out, they're not nearly as crispy as what they have been experiencing in southern california. take a look at what you need to know through the next several days. we will see the continuation of the tranquil weather pattern. it will be clear and cold out there tonight, especially away from the water. sunny winds will be light throughout the day tomorrow. some 20 to 30 miles an hour gust there, which won't be

so let's check in with paul heggen to talk more about this. we know about power shutoffs or why it is done. >> and it has been happening over and over ago to worry about before things shift later this week. and the fire risk as evaluated was at the top of the scale as you can see the orange, yellow, red, which means extremely critical. the worst category. some good news, while the warnings continue, we will remove that. and we will take whatever we can get. take a look at the winds and track why we're going to be seeing a slight improvement. and so watch the purple here tomorrow morning for some 50 plus miles an hour gust, where it is not as strong, but strong enough to be problematic. it will be a breezy day tomorrow. not as blustery or flat out damaging as the winds that were hitting southern california last week. winds will die down on a more consistent basis. and what they need is some moisture and in and around los angeles over the next several days. we will talk about our forecast in a few minutes. >> thank you. an aircraft on loan shoul

so paul heggen will have more on that later. >>> neither fire grew today, though they have been using infrared cameras to search for any hot spots deep in the fire zone. clearing out debris and also search for remains. at least 25 people are confirmed dead and dozens are unaccounted for. so we will show you a map. they will show the damage in the palisades area where search crews have been able to reach so far. the each one of those red dots you see will represent a building, home, schools, businesses, anything that was destroyed. the other colors signal varying debrises of damage. now crews are still going through the destruction left behind, making sure it is safe for people to start returning. kelsi thorud is live for us in southern california. the she spoke to a man who is playing a crucial role in making that all happen. hi, kelsi. >> reporter: yeah, i mean you're talking about all the homes destroyeded in this fire. this is one behind me. if you walk over here to where the homes are on, you can see it's perfectly clear. that's in part to one man who rode out the fires here, last

so for more on this and our weather during the week, let's head to chief meteorologist paul heggen.the fog would be coming in. >> yeah. the fog won't be as much of a factor later tonight because the winds will pick up. that's kind of the concern tonight, tomorrow and into wednesday for southern california. it's going to be breezy here, but flat out windy there, possibly the strongest windstorm they've seen since 2011. it's the system in the process of dropping down from the north. it will set up camp just to the south of southern california and the direction of the air flowing around that will send it downslope. the santa ana wind will be in the 50 to 80-mile-an-hour range, some spots 100-mile-an-hour wind gusts. in the yellow is an elevated wildfire threat. orange is extreme wildfire threat. there's one more category beyond that and that could come to pass for tomorrow, talking about an unusual set of conditions, not only the strong winds, but the almost complete lack of rainfall to this point in the season making for a very dangerous situation. we do have a number of watches and w

let's get right over to chief meteorologist paul heggen with a look at the conditions. >> reporter: a strong santa ana winds have developed once again where it is airing over the mountains of southern california and it is very dry. humidity levels have been down 3% to 4%. and so another day and night that are in place for southern california, these have been expanded to 10:00 on friday morning, so just to be on the safe side where they have extended that time of the red flag warnings. the worst conditions will be tonight and during the daylight hours tomorrow. let's go and talk about the hour-by-hour wind gusts through the next 24 hours. the strongest winds won't be in the community, but in the hills. so look at where the darker colors are showing up in the higher elevations to the north of los angeles, and those ranges, just kind of funneling the wind through, where they have been accelerating through wednesday, where those warnings are allowed to expire. rain chances are going to move into southern california. not looking at the significant rain chance for the bay area, where they w

. >>> getting ready for some of the first real rainfall this new year, paul heggen has the timing forod. >>> what we're learning about plans to reopen part of the santa cruz wharf less than two weeks after part of it collapsed into the ocean. >>> it's like a river when it comes out. so it's very disconcerting. >> how the founders of a nonprofit self-defense program are having to lean on the community they've worked to empower for more than half a decade. >>> this is cbs news bay area with juliette goodrich. >> hi. i'm sara donchey in for juliette tonight. >>> we start in vallejo where the police department's new leadership is not so new, after all, after what the city called a robust national search. it officially named interim police chief jason ta as the new permanent chief. ta will formally take over a department where officer conduct has made international headlines, most notably, the high

. >>> let's check in with first alert meteorologist paul heggen.rning in san francisco it was chilly, but nothing like that. >> no. it will be chilly the next couple mornings with cloud-free skies and winds. we'll drop down to close to freezing, but nothing close to what other parts of the country will be dealing with, including a lot of snow in the eastern two-thirds of the country. let's look at the satellite perspective here. no cloud cover really anywhere close to the bay area, a few clouds up to our north. the overall pattern keeping us dry has persisted over the past several weeks. we're on pace to have our third dryest january on record just because the area of high pressure that's kept us dry steering the storm track north has been locked in place. every once in a while it drifts a little closer, squeezes the atmosphere over the west coast and results in gusty offshore winds. we had those today. they're starting to die down, but it's a bigger concern for southern california. we'll talk more about that a little later on. first let's look whe

doesn't sound like it's going to be as much in southern california, but for the expert, let's go to paul heggen. >> yeah. the wind is a factor, not as much for us over the next six hours. the wind advisory expires just after midnight. the offshore winds will continue in southern california. it's the same setup we have seen repeating efforts over the past couple weeks, big hill of air out over the pacific and a storm system in the great basin. in between the atmosphere gets squeezed and those winds are rushing offshore. the winds are not as problematic around the bay area as they have been in southern california, but they're in for several days of this. in fact, with the red flag warnings continuing for at least tomorrow afternoon and fire weather watches after that. they'll still face several days of critical fire weather conditions. those aren't the only advisories across the country. let's pan over to the east. we have an unusual setup taking place. all the light blue here are cold weather warnings because it's a big arctic air mass that has invaded and pushed down to the gulf coast. the purp

paul heggen looks at the extended dry spell in the forecast. >>> san mateo county's embattled sheriffow she's setting the stage for a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the county. >>> plus, the long road to recovery for a sick and malnourished baby monkey that was seized during a traffic stop. >>> later, the streets are his canvas and his brush is a pair of running shoes. >> there's always a wonder of oh, can i pull this off? >> we'll meet an artist who is creating a unique sort of gallery through san francisco. >>> this is cbs news bay area with juliette goodrich. >> thanks for joining us this evening. i'm anne makovec in for juliette. >>> it's been more than a week and a half since the end of the santa cruz

paul heggen looks at the extended dry spell in the forecast. >>> san mateo county's embattled sheriff on the offensive, how she's setting the stage for a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the county. >>> plus, the long road to recovery for a sick and malnourished baby monkey that was seized during a traffic stop. >>> later, the streets are his canvas and his brush is a pair of running shoes. >> there's always a wonder of oh, can i pull this off? >> we'll meet an artist who is creating a unique sort of gallery through san francisco. >>> this is cbs news bay area with juliette goodrich. >> thanks for joining us this evening. i'm anne makovec in for juliette. >>> it's been more than a week and a half since the end of the santa cruz wharf collapsed into the oceans. we're talking a huge amount of debris, construction equipment, and even an entire restroom building floating away. now in about 13 hours it's going to be back open for business. engineers have been working around the clock to assess the damage and make sure the rest of the wharf is safe. in the meantime businesses on the whar

first alert chief meteorologist paul heggen with a look at what we can expect this weekend. paul? >> looks like the weather will be cooperative for outdoor plans this first weekend of the new year. the heaviest rain trekked across the bay area between 7:00 and 10:00 this morning impacting the morning commute but moving out quickly. the bulk of the rain was gone by about lunchtime. some leftover showers were with us intermittently this afternoon. still the possibility of a couple more of those through the rest of tonight, but they'll be much more miss than hit. how much rain did we add up? anywhere from 0.01-inch in antioch and concord, a trace to 0.04 in san jose, over 0.1 for livermore and danville, almost a quarter inch for half moon bay, 0.2-inch for san francisco. the highest amounts were in the north bay, a quarter inch in san rafael, almost a half inch for santa rosa. this is the last chance of rain we'll see for a while. now that the rain is moving out, the high surf advisory goes into effect at 9:00 tonight continuing through 3:00 a.m. sunday. that's the purple areas along

. >>> let's get to our all important first alert weather with paul heggen.now you're saying it's in the record books for one of the dryest januaries, but we're not going to be third fully dry. >> at this point it's the third dryest record in san francisco dating back to 1850 if we had zero rain the rest of the month, but we've got a chance the end of the month. either way, it's been an unusually dry january. let's look what you need to know heading into the last weekend of january. nice view out from salesforce tower, clear skies other than the haze. it's going to be an unsettled weekend, not a washout, but occasional showers will be with us from saturday afternoon through saturday night and much of sunday. we'll cool off to near average high temperatures, even slightly below average the next couple days, mid- to upper 50s, and a drier and slightly milder weather pattern takes over again the first half of next week. this little trend won't last long, just for the weekend. nice view of downtown, a hint of light on the horizon, nice to see even that after 6:00

. >>> our chief meteorologist paul heggen is here with what that means for our next chances of rain. >> yeah. it's all good news so far that we are close to normal or even above normal for the northern half of the sierra, not such good news for southern california and the next round of rain will miss them as well. let's get into the details how this plays out through the next 24 hours or so. we'll see the next chance of rain headed in. my little box isn't working, so let's go right to our radar simulation as we go through tonight as we track the round of showers moving in through tonight into very early tomorrow morning. we'll freeze the map at 4:00 a.m. and you can see the showers hitting the coastline and along the north bay as we head through the rest of tonight into early tomorrow morning. let's wind the clock forward and the showers will make their way across more of the bay area as we head into early tomorrow morning. by the time rush hour is getting going, we'll be seeing the best chance of rain spreading out across more of the bay area. this isn't going to be torrential rain,

fast and that is because of the wind conditions, but for that and more information, let's go to paul heggen who can give us a better look at what's happening there. >> yeah. the winds have been gusty once again today. so new fires unfortunately were likely. look down here at southern california, the couple black dots, those stand out even from space showing the footprint of those fires which stands out on the infrared imagery. as we look at the statistics, this is the latest statistic from cal fire, but they're running a bit behind in terms of total acreage because they have so many other things to do. less than 1% containment. they have had some success in boosting containment lines around some of the very smaller spot fires, but the bigger ones are still at 0% containment unfortunately. there is some good news in terms of the winds. let's track the hour-by-hour wind gusts in the hills above los angeles as we head through the next couple days. while the winds are gusty at the moment and still will be gusty tonight, 40 to 60-mile-an-hour gusts in the higher elevations, they are going to dim

. >>> first alert chief meteorologist, paul heggen, joining us right now. mind blowing this is happening in january in the middle of winter. winds are a big factor in this, but there may be a silver lining in all this? >> they're backing down slightly. just a little bit. enough that air support is now a factor for the workers trying to get some level of containment on these fires or stop the forward progress. unfortunately they have an uphill battle ahead of them. the fires are burning largely enough where they are showing up in space. that black dot, that's the location of the palisades fire, which has been displaying the hot spot over the past 24 hours. that will just show you the size of it already and it just started over 24 hours ago. so it has just exploded in size. now again, the good news is while we'll see the winds die down, the acreage burned already. it's substantial. almost 27,000 acres and all the fires combined have 0% containment. hopefully that number can go up a little bit as we head through the next 24 hours. let's check out the wind gust

. >>> we check in with first alert chief meteorologist paul heggen now as those small, little spot fires are starting to pop up there, but good news for fire crews finally being able to get in front of some of those larger fires. >> right. they need the wind to die down and some moisture and both of those things are likely to die down heading into the weekend. southern california is still under air quality advisories and red flag warnings. the red flag warnings go until 10:00 tomorrow morning. these should be the last for a while. let's look at the wind aspect, hour-by-hour wind gusts through tonight and currently there are higher gusts especially in the higher elevations in the 30 to 40-mile-an-hour range, some gusts over 50 miles an hour. the winds will be dying down this evening. you don't see higher gusts in the communities by midnight, by a few stronger gusts in some of the highest terrain and then the winds really die down the rest of town and first half of tomorrow. red flag warnings officially expire at 10:00 a.m., but the worst of the conditions should be done in the next six to

let's get right over to chief meteorologist paul heggen for an update. >> after a couple weeks of critical fire weather conditions, i finally get to be the bearer of good news, not short term, but the winds will be offshore weakening through tonight and then those winds become onshore in southern california and see the swirl working down the west coast as we head into the weekend. that's associated with a storm system that will bring the first significant chance of rain to southern california that they've seen in the past couple months. let's switch over to futurecast. you aren't seeing anything at the beginning. notice snow in the sierra and then rain showers developing in southern california saturday, saturday night, and continuing sunday. this looks like it's mostly rain that will fall lightly enough the threat of debris flows and mudslides, both threats we have to watch in the wake of any significantly sized wildfire, that threat should be minimum, but not zero because embedded in the showers could be a couple thunderstorms that could lead to heavier rainfall rates, something we'll con

our chief meteorologist paul heggen is here to talk about how long that's going to last. >> yeah. not that much longer for the bay area. the bigger concern isagain southern california where the offshore winds resulting in critical fire weather conditions once again. we'll look at the big picture and turn on the wind arrows. it is another offshore wind event as the atmosphere gets squeezed between a big hill of air camped off out the coast and a storm system making its way through the great basin. the offshore wind is of primary concern in southern california the next few days. they have red flag warnings in effect until tomorrow, fire weather watches continuing beyond that into thursday. it's not the only active weather across the country. let's go farther east and all the pink and purple are winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings in effect all the way down to the gulf coast. this is unusual. some of these spots haven't been under these types of advisories in over ten years. it's an unusually cold air mass that's driven all the way to the south resulting in snow that

. >>> first alert chief meteorologist paul heggen is here to talk about the return of rain, not a moment too soon. >> yeah. southern california's had almost zero rainfall in the winter, their dryest start to winter on record. they're going to pick some up. we'll get a little bit the first time in three weeks. we'll take it. let's look on the floor map, the big picture how this storm system will evolve, and it's dropping down straight from the north. if we wanted more significant rain chances, we'd want it to come in from the west. it will squeeze out some scattered showers over the bay area top and sunday, snow in the high sierra, enough for a winter weather advisory and then in southern california as this system kind of drops off the coast, it is going to find more moisture and send that into the southern half of the state, likely enough to add moisture to the fire fuels, likely not enough to lead to significant threat of mudslides and debris flows, but not a 0% chance of that, lower than 10%. before that storm system arrives, let's look at the monitor and see where our tem temperatures

. >>> let's get over to chief meteorologist paul heggen with the outlook down in l.a. >> things are trending in the right direction. while they've still seen off-and-on showers throughout the day, the heavier rain has been moving out, the showers on the floor map gradually pushing farther east and the leftover sprinkles won't be on the map a lot longer. we've seen things trend in a better direction and overall while there were a couple problems with debris flows and mudslides here and there, this was a beneficial rain event for southern california. let's talk about rain chances through this week which in southern california there really aren't any. there's an outside chance of a sprinkle or two tomorrow night. otherwise the rain chances are essentially zero for the southern half of the state, but that's not the case around the bay area and northern california. we'll look at how much rain we're looking at through the last days of january into early february coming up in the full forecast. >> thanks, paul. >>> join us at cbs news bay area tomorrow on instagram as we host an instathon partnerin

. >> hi, i am sara donchey alongside chief meteorologist, paul heggen, we are watching a major disasterying out in parts of southern california. >> this is essentially a worst case scenario, when it comes to wildfire conditions. there are now multiple wildfires burning out of control. it has already been a long night there. unfortunately things are only going to get worse overnight. >> yeah, we are seeing that happen right now, we will run down the absolute wild video we have seen today and tonight, these are live pictures courtesy of our stationed in downtown los angeles, this is the palisades fire burning alongside a site. this fire has exploded over the last couple of hours, well, as you can see, not really what firefighters want to see, given how strong the winds are right now. >> right, the wind is a huge part of the problem. the fire want to burn uphill and you can see that play with his life video. but the wind is actually pushing the fire downhill in a direction it doesn't want to go , including places that are ordinarily out of the reach of these dangerous buyers. firmly within

. >>> first alert chief meteorologist paul heggen joining us now. thankfully, the fire crews had a little bit better time fighting those fires today, maybe mother nature cooperating just a little bit. >> yeah. the winds were gusty, not as bad as a couple days ago. they had a better break last night into very early this morning. the winds have been picking up, though, and unfortunately they aren't done with the critical fire weather. another offshore wind event is likely heading into next week. these are the latest statistics according to cal fire and there's no hope of keeping up on a realtime basis, just short of 30,000 acres burned, containment less than 1%. it's not 0%. they have had some success on some of the smaller fires, but the larger ones are still at 0%, but the wind is still gusty. the onshore flow will be pushing farther off to the east. that's going to allow the winds to weaken as we head through the next 24 hours. let's look at the hour-by-hour wind gusts and track those as we head through saturday morning. right now there are still s

. >>> first alert chief meteorologist paul heggen is tracking that wet weather. it really is a double sword. obviously they need moisture, but how much? >> on balance this is going to be a very beneficial event for southern california, but there's potential for a couple thunderstorms to pop up that if they're in exactly in the wrong spot over one of those burn scars, then we would get into the mudslide potential issues. let's track the rain heading through the weekend. the storm system is dropping basically straight down from the north. that doesn't give it access to a lot of moisture, but we have a chance for a few showers. the bulk of the rain will take shape once the storm system is positioned where it can grab some moisture from out over the pacific and send that into southern california. this is going to be snow at higher elevations. let's go to the monitor and look at some of the advisories in effect in the higher elevations above los angeles. winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings are actually in effect for some of those areas that were under

right now first alert chief meteorologist paul heggen has a closer look at this system heading our way. >> yeah. we'll see high waves after this next rainmaker moves in, probably not as high as what damaged the santa cruz wharf. we'll track that the next couple days. let's look where the rain is now. it's to our north, showers in the pacific northwest and the north coast of california, not quite into the bay area yet. that will change as we head through tonight. let's look at the local map and simulate what the radar is going to look like as we head through tonight into early tomorrow morning. this goes from 8:00 this evening through 8:00 tomorrow morning and the next several hours there's nothing on the radar simulation. the first showers don't move into the north bay till well after midnight it. does look like the morning commute will be pretty wet, especially for the north bay and around the central bay, san francisco and oakland getting decent showers around the peak of rush hour friday morning, probably a good idea to allow some extra time tomorrow morning. after the system moves

. >>> paul heggen is here.eel guilty because it's so nice outside, so sunny and pleasant, but we need the rain. >> we definitely need some rain. it's fine to enjoy the nice weather. it would just be great if we had these little rain chances dropped in here and there. >> i would feel less guilty. >> exactly. we're in the midst of this very tranquil pattern which means when that's set up over the west coast, it's the opposite scenario over the rest of the country. we'll look at futurecast and a couple waves of wintery weather making their ways through the middle and eastern part of the country. there are some football games being played this weekend in kansas city, philadelphia, buffalo and also one in detroit, but they have a dome. there's going to be rain and snow for the sunday games. we're carrying the buffalo game here on cbs. i think they'll see snow showers. even as that storm system moves off the coast, what's going to follow it up is very unpleasant for the middle of the country because there's going to