Bay area almost have fires. In the last hour, two fires also sparked in Sonoma County, forcing evacuations there. Lightning suspected as the cause of most of these fires. Now, fire danger not the only concern tonight. Power outages are also possible as the states grid is once again pushed to the max. Pg e is asking people to conserve electricity through 10 00 this evening. We have a lot going on right now and a team of reporters in place on the Power Outages and the wildfires. Lets start with nbc bay areas ian cull live in San Mateo County. Ian. Reporter yeah. Hey, guys. Very active scene up behind us here. You can see the plumes of smoke hundreds of feet in the air. This is what you can see from Silicon Valley throughout the bay area as more than 350 firefighters are onscene up there along that ridge. On officer who th a cal fire tells me that this is very steep, difficult terrain to be fighting a fire. Its also very dry up there because of this heat, and thats also a worry and a difficulty for those firefighters. Were trying to get up closer, learn some more new information. We do understand that there has been one injury. Were trying to find out if that was a firefighter or a person. Like raj was saying earlier, a number of evacuations, once again in the loma mar, Dearborn Park area, pescadero county park area, as well as Butano Community area. Pescadero high school has been set up as an evacuation center. I also spoke with a San Mateo County sheriffs deputy, and he said he is getting together with his other deputies. Theyre getting ready to go up there and help out in those Evacuation Orders. There are some other deputies coming from the west. It is a rural area up here, so theyre trying to gather as quickly as they can, let those people know, get it out on media as well. Then once again as we come back out here live, the large plumes of smoke, white, all the way along the ridge. We were just around the bend there, but we couldnt get cell service, so well get some more video. Well be tweeting out pictures from there as well. If you take a look at this landscape, its green, but it is extremely dry, and unfortunately fueling these fires. Reporting live, ian cull, nbc bay area news. Ian, thank you. So we have so many points of the bay area with fires active. Where ian there is on the peninsula, we have them in the south bay, east bay. Now lets bring in nbc bay areas thom jensen who joins us in naomi countpa county. Tom, we can see youre dangerously close to that smoke behind you there. Reporter a lot of evacuations this afternoon as this fire continues to grow. Now a complex of fires called the lightning complex here in napa county. And hundreds of People Living inside of the fire lines here being asked to evacuation, but many of them instead choosing to stay behind to try to protect their homes and their businesses. Gusting winds pushing flames towards highway 128 late this afternoon, forcing new evacuations as the fires in the lightning complex threaten more homes and businesses. But some people are staying behind despite the threat. Youre staying to protect it . Yeah, im a volunteer fireman too. Reporter darryl lives near the turtle rock bar and cafe in the fires path, but the business is also staying open. He says flames like these were licking at the cafe walls four years ago. He says many of the people who live and work in the area have grown accustomed to facing fires almost every year and rebuilding when they have to. My neighbor just not hgot hi house rebuilt from the last fire that burned it down. Reporter the caretaker at a nearby home says hes staying behind too because the elderly Property Owner wont evacuate. I just dont want to let him by himself. Reporter in the middle of all of it this afternoon, commuters and evacuees getting caught in a web of road closures as emergency teams coordinate protection efforts and try to keep looters out. You cant go that way, that way, or that way. Reporter a fire spokesman warning those who wont leave to remain on alert and be ready to get out fast. Demand for more firefighters, more trucks, and more air support high due to the sheer number of active fires all around the bay. We have resources that are stretched thin across the state. Reporter this area right here near Lake Berryessa, part of an emergency mandatory evacuation, expanded Evacuation Order that cal fire ordered this afternoon. I saw a lot of cars driving out of here, and that area around the turtle rock cafe and bar also in those mandatory evacuation emergency orders this afternoon. But as you heard, some people refusing to stay, and cal fire saying they better be ready to get out quick because this fire is unpredictable right now. Live in napa county, thom jensen, nbc bay area news. We are talking fire, wind, and then air quality. This is impacting so many of us. Our meteorologist rob mayeda is with us. Whats going to happen next, rob, with all of this . Not just the heat. Theres so many other factors happening. Yeah. The weather that really started these fires by estimates, 350 lightningsparked fires in just the last 72 hours. Right now its the heat, dry condition, and the wind which is making for the convergence of some really intense, explosive Fire Development around the bay area. Speaking of the north bay, this is the gamble fire there on the edge of Lake Berryessa. You can see the plumes of smoke erupting upwards during the mid afternoon heating. It almost looks like a thunderstorm developing. On the tops of these, the pyrocumulus clouds develop when the updraft starts to get very strong. The tops condense over to a cloud and sometimes as though columns collapse back down, that could lead to sudden wind shifts at ground level. Look at the conditions in sonoma and napa county. Humidity down to 13 or 17 . Wind gusts to 20 miles per hour. Thats as extreme as wildfire weather can get. You got the triple threat of heat, dry conditions, the winds increasing for the afternoon, on top of moderate to severe drought at ground level. You can see these plumes. Our radar, weve readjusted it to look for these ash plumes as they continue to move generally to the southeast, pretty close to where thom jensen was reporting live from, from those north bay fires. East bay, the winds have shifted now more out of the west. This helped to push some smoke temporarily away from the trivalley, but the Santa Cruz Mountains are really seeing some dense smoke settling down into bolder creek, bonnie doon and even santa cruz now. Again, the temperatures still hot. 100 degree temperatures inland and we have another excessive heat warning tomorrow. When we can expect better air quality and relief from the heat coming up in our forecast in ten minutes. Thanks, rob. Livermore has seen some of the hottest temps in the bay area this week and one neighborhood says not only are they sweltering, theyre doing it without any power. That means no a. C. , no fans. Nbc bay areas Damian Trujillo is in livermore. Damian. Reporter janelle, were here on chateau way in livermore, and right now the power is off again after consecutive days of losing electricity for hours on end. The residents say they just want answers. No matter the temperature, this is what folks in livermores chateau way have been doing early every morning, firing up the airconditioning. Thats because theyve been losing the a. C. And their lights in the afternoon for the past four days. Were all running our airconditioning first thing in the morning when you dont need it to get the house cooled. Then were keeping oall the blinds down. Weve put sheets over all the glass in the house that dont have blinds like on doors and stuff to trap the cold air in long as we possibly can. Reporter the neighbors say they understand there are rolling blackouts. They understand there might be a blown transformer somewhere. But they dont understand why they seem to be the only ones hit by blackouts for four straight days. With no explanation, youre at a loss. Reporter these are the text alerts the neighbors have been receiving, similar to those sent to every pg e customer. Today we got some answers for them. The utility told me the problem is that their equipment is overheating and with the higher demand, crews are working to increase the capacity of the lines. Robert glass, who worked at the Lawrence Livermore lab on energy projects, believe the outages highlight a much bigger issue. We are unprepared for these kinds of conditions. We do not have the infrastructure. We cannot support the population weve got. Reporter when the power goes out, they have to stop working. Today that was at 2 25 p. M. Right now the temperature here in livermore, 101 degrees. Live in livermore, Damian Trujillo, nbc bay area news. You need to cool down as well. Pg e has launched a new tool to help customers see if they will be affected by these outages. Customers can put in their address and then theyll be able to see if they are scheduled for an outage. You can find the online tool on our website, nbcbayarea. Com. Just click on rotating outages on our top stories bar. Well, this is usually a spirited week in american politics, but this time around, a little subdued due to social distancing. But the show does go on. Just moments ago, night two of the dnc kicking off. This is a live look now at the virtual Democratic National convention. The keynote address will begin shortly. All of this is just to excite the base and really to try to sway some people to vote for joe biden. Now, later tonight, former secretary of state colin powell is expected to endorse joe biden. General powell is a republican, as you probably well know. Well also hear from two former president s, bill clinton and jimmy carter. Dr. Jill biden is expected to close the night and talk about her husband. Our nbc political analyst Larry Gerston will join us at 6 30, so about 20 minutes from now, to give us some insight and the allimportant roll call, which will officially put joe biden as the democratic candidate for president. Still to come, a racist rant in San Franciscos dolores park. What the woman was doing before she went off on a rec and parks worker. And running out of power. We investigate where california is getting it from during this Energy Crisis and why it has some concern about the repeat of gouging that we had 20 years ago. And were under a microclimate weather alert with our excessive heat warning continues for one more day. That plus fire danger and air quality issues. Ill have a closer look at all of those when we come right back. This isnt our first flip. And sure, some renovations can require a bit of compromise. But, theres no settling here. At floor and decor, she gets to fulfill her vision while i get instock products at budgetfriendly prices. All in one trip. Plus, we get the installation materials we need to get it done right and right on time. Its a winwin. Now thats shopping like a pro. Explore floor and decor, now open for safe instore shopping and curbside pickup. A San Francisco man who was just trying to do his job at dolores park was verbally attacked by a woman upset about covid19 regulations. The whole incident caught on video. Take a look. Stop trying to steal the property we paid for. Go back to wherever you came from. This is our property. You dont get to take it. Andres pitino confronted the unidentified woman on saturday after she was seen taking down signs and cutting the rope that was keeping people from entering the playground, which is off limits right now because of the pandemic. Pitino is a Public Outreach coordinator with the recreation and Parks Department. The woman launched into a racist rant, telling pitino to go back to where he came from. A park ranger eventually intervened, and the woman was escorted out of the park. In a statement, the recreation and Parks Department called the video painful to watch, adding, quote, hate simply has no home in dolores park or San Francisco. Our parks must be spaces where we are all equal and equally welcome. Well, this is not a new problem. Why do we have issues with our power supply, and why are we experiencing rolling blackouts here in the bay area and in california . The next 30 days could be costly. Weve learned power grid managers lifted the price caps on Energy Supplies to get the power we need. Heres Investigative Reporter jaxon van derbeken. The impact being felt all across the west coast. Reporter on monday, the governor called for californians to conserve while demanding a probe into what triggered the heat waverelated rolling outages over the weekend. He told the California Independent systems operator, which regulates the states power grid, the blackouts were unacceptable. In an attempt to avoid further blackouts, cal iso lifted Energy Price Caps to buy up to 30 days worth of extra power as needed. And that has ratepayer advocates shaking their heads. It makes no sense to have a full 30 days with no price cap. Reporter mark tony is head of the ratepayer Advocacy Group turn. Im very concerned that raising the price caps will mean that wall street traders will make an enormous profit on the backs of california ratepayers, and thats just not right. Reporter former cpuc Commission President Loretta Lynch says the crisis hit at a time when the state is vulnerable to market fluctuations. Thats because a rule that required power suppliers to sell all their electricity and not hoard it to drive up prices lapsed back in 2017. They can sit on the sidelines and wait until the price goes up enough for them to offer their power, and that means the key Consumer Protection that i negotiated back in 2001 is no longer available to california, and that means california is going to pay a whole lot more for the same amount of electricity than we should. Reporter just how much more the state is paying is not yet clear. As the contracts are secret. But months of price gouging back in the blackouts of 2000 cost california an estimated 40 billion. Jaxon van derbeken, nbc bay area news. We have an update on our breaking news. The fires burning across the bay area. Sky ranger over one of the biggest ones burning right now. This is a group of fires in San Mateo County. This is southern San Mateo County near skyline boulevard and pescadero. These fires sparked by lightning believed to be early sunday morning. So far flames have burned over 1,000 acres and mandatory Evacuations Ordered for the Butano State Park area and barranca knolls community, and warnings now upgraded to mandatory Evacuation Orders for the communities of Dearborn Park and loma mar. You can see its generating a lot of smoke. You can see it along the peninsula, the south bay. You can download our free nbc bay area app to get the latest alerts on these fires and the Evacuation Orders. It will be sent straight to your smartphone. And another hot day of crippling heat, excessive heat. Not good for firefighters. Lets get a check of our forecast with rob mayeda. Yeah. Those wildfires creating significant air quality issues downwind. The fire burning up in the santa cruz areas. Well take the radar and weve readjusted the coloring here away from the rainbow colors associated with rainfall, but scanning for ash for you this hour. You can see how that plume is right over boulder creek, bonnie doon, heading into santa cruz. Again, locally unhealthy levels of air pollution and ash moving off to the south and east. Winds have picked up around the north bay. You can see quite clearly there. Those column plumes showing up much better on radar. The ash getting pushed off to the south and east and away from central napa county, moving inland. You see the other fire in Sonoma County pushing some smoke and ash between healdsburg and santa rosa. There you see the east bay. Winding picking up around the diablo range and the trivalley. This is why fire danger is so high. Its the triple threat of those high temperatures, humidity levels in the teens outside, and the increasing daytime wind even though technically its an onshore breeze. You couple that with temperatures above 100 degrees, humidity levels in the teens, and obviously drought, parched conditions especially up towards the north bay, and thats a nasty combination for fire crews. Notice this is another day tomorrow, what will start out with 70s and 80s in the morning, 100 degree temperatures inland with that air quality alert due to smoke pollution in the east bay and south bay. We may see some of that up towards the north bay too. Well have to watch the winds during the afternoon. Short term were going to get a little bit of relief, emphasizing the worlds a little there for thursday and friday. You see San Francisco dropping into the low 70s. Valleys, which have been above 100 degrees, for a brief time thursday, friday, saturday, should be in the low to mid90s. We hope that will give some relief in terms of the power reserves which have been stretched thin and hopefully give fire crews a little bit of a break because up in those inland really not going to see a big drop in temperatures. Numbers are going to rebound again later on this weekend. Lets send it back to you. A lot to digest here. Thanks, rob. Well see you in just a few minutes. Up next at 6 00, forced to move outside because of the coronavirus, but now a gym owner has run into a new problem. The ongoing issue in San Francisco thats preventing him from getting customers. Well explain. Great day on the lake it is. Lunch is cookin and i saved a bunch of money on my boat insurance with geico. Fellas, can it get any better than this . Whoa my old hairstyle grew back. So did mine. [80s music] what . I was an 80s kid. It only gets better when you switch and save with geico. Gym owners around the bay area are increasingly turning to outside spaces for makeshift gyms in hopes of simply staying in business. But at least one San Francisco gym says that solution has just sparked a very big new problem. Nbc bay areas jackie ward shows us the San Francisco gym thats now battling the homeless for space and demanding the city do something to help. Reporter some Small Business owners in San Francisco will tell you it was hard to do business in this city before the pandemic. Now its nearly impossible, especially when the rules are open outside or dont open at all. I really didnt think having a deck on sutter street would go well. I was worried people would sleep on it and hide behind fencing to do drugs and use it as a toilet. Reporter crossfit golden gates 4,700 square foot space equipped with properly spaced out equipment, cleaning supplies, and fans has been closed by covid restrictions for five months. So when owner danielle rad kin was told she could open outside, she spent the little money she had left to create an open air gym space, only to find not everyone respects that space. Given the circumstances, its very Worth Building it and having it, but i mean i know theres going to be a lot of problems for sure with the outdoor space here. Reporter under the citys health order, danielle isnt allowed to fence off or barricade her makeshift gym because its still considered a public space. Lately when the gym isnt in session, the homeless and mentally ill have started using it as a public bathroom. Its disheartening. If were going to stay closed this long, the city really needs to do more. Reporter supervisor aaron peskin represents the neighborhood, and says he was quick to connect danielle with someone who could help clean her deck. He also pointed her to a coalition of gym owners who are now demanding the city reconsider the indoor gym closures. Danielle says something has to give or she will have to give up. We cant live on this strain day to day with a much of maybes. Reporter small gyms will tell you they simply dont have the big financial reserves that these chains do. And if San Francisco doesnt reopen soon, these big chains may be all that are left. In San Francisco, jackie ward, nbc bay area news. Up next at 6 30, we continue to track more than two dozen fires right now across the bay area, most of which sparked by lightning. Were going to update you on all the Evacuation Orders. Plus congresswoman ocasiocortez, president clinton, dr. Jill biden, a big night ahead at the dnc. Our political analyst Larry Gerston tells us what messages to look out for. Right now at 6 30, its going to be a challenging night for firefighters. There are more than two dozen fires burning around the bay area with little or zero containment and new evacuations being ordered tonight as these fires continue to spread. This is a view of skyranger over San Mateo County. Four fires burning in south San Mateo County including this one near skyline boulevard near pescadero. Water drops all afternoon. Mandatory evacuations now in effect for butano park area, the Pescadero Creek county park area as well as the communities of Dearborn Park and loma mar. Mandatory evacuations mean you must leave immediately. The smoke generating so much smoke, you can see it from the peninsula and from parts of the south bay. In the north bay now, new evacuations being ordered in sonoma and napa counties. This is the hennessey fire burning east of st. Helena. Theres another fire at Lake Berryessa forcing evacuations of the communities near the lake. Heres a look bay area wide now at all the major fires. I cant think of the last time weve had so many fires simultaneously in so many different parts of the bay area. Were talking north bay here to the east bay, south bay, and then the ones we just saw there along the peninsula near pescadero. Yeah, and its a tough firefight. These are like crippling conditions and triple digit temperatures. Ian cull is on the ground in San Mateo County. Give us an update there, ian. Reporter yeah. Were right other long Pescadero Creek road and theyre calling it the august lightning complex fires. They said 22 fires were started in 16 hours on sunday, and this is what some of the result has been. You can see there are large plumes of smoke over this ridge, this rage between those two trees, and then finally this one. Its actually three separate fires coming together. Thats why they call it a complex fire and more than 350 firefighters are on scene trying to douse some of those flames. Weve shown you before that there are helicopters dropping water from above, and over the last 20 minutes since we last talked with you guys, were seeing trees go up in flames one by one and go down the hill, coming a little bit north. Thats why there are those Evacuation Orders issued in place for loma mar and Dearborn Park along with Butano State Park. Locals are saying there are many ranches up there and weve seen a number of people coming up this way, heading north with horse trailers on the back of their trucks. Cal fire tells me the Biggest Challenges right now is the terrain in this rural area, the heat, and the wind. Its not clear if the winds are going to die down or pick up because these fires tend to create their own weather. I can tell you in the last 20 minutes since weve been here, weve seen it coming just a little bit north. That is sending more plumes of smoke over across the south bay as well as to the west in pescadero. Were going to monitor this fire, bring you the latest on social media and online. Live, ian cull, nbc bay area news. Wow, ominous background, ian. Stay safe. Thank you. Were going to continue to keep an eye on these fires and the hot weather fueling them. A great resource is our nbc bay area app. Just click on the weather tab to get the forecast, the temperatures in your neighborhood. Also tonight, a big night for democrats and joe biden as he gets more crossparty support. Former secretary of state, republican colin powell is expected to endorse biden tonight. Excitement, anticipation, anxiety, this is a crucial week for the democrats. And really a crucial night. The dnc continues now. Weve been talking about it. In fact, lets take you there live. As we speak, former president bill clinton is addressing the Democratic National convention. This is a virtual event. We should also note that we just heard from the conventions keynote address. This year, 17 rising stars of the Democratic Party were selected to deliver the speech. Usually its just one keynote speaker, but this time, 17 of their rising stars. Long beach mayor Robert Garcia among them. And you know what . You deserve more than the constant chaos that donald trump delivers. Later this evening, just a short while in fact, were going to hear from former secretary of state colin powell, a republican. We mentioned a minute ago hes expected to endorse joe biden. We should note hes also endorsed barack obama, hillary clinton, so this is not the first time colin powell is crossing party lines. Well also hear from two former president s. We just saw bill clinton, and also expected, jimmy carter. Jill biden, dr. Jill biden, is expected to close the night with some personal remarks about her husband. Well, with day two under way right now, we bring in bay area political analyst Larry Gerston. Larry, obviously theyre trying to energize the base, but is there something that democrats are specifically focusing on . You know, i find so interesting, janelle, is the tendency to go after republicans i should bring republicans in. We saw that last night with john kasich. Were seeing it tonight with colin powell. Were also going to see it with cindy mccain. John mccain was a very close friend of joe biden. Theyre really making an effort to show we, the democrats, are a big tent. And as part of that big tent, we want you, disaffected republicans, republicans who are disappointed with your leader, to come on over to our side because were not as far apart from your values as you think. We are on night two. Lets talk about night one. You watched it. Powerful speech by former first Lady Michelle obama. What did you get out of night one . You know, what was interesting about Michelle Obama is the way she took it to donald trump. The gloves went off. Thats all there was to it. She went after him, talked about character, talked about his inability to really see the issues, and basically said he is not fit to run and rule as the president. There was no ambiguity here. And with that she set the stage for tonight. And i think that was very important because that first night is when the democrats have to make the case that what you got now is not good enough, and we can do better. What do you think about this nonconvention approach . We are online, all virtual. Obviously no balloons, crowds of thousands, big celebrations. Do you still think theyre generating enough energy to get people out to vote . Ill tell you what really amazes me so far is the ability of the speakers to work through the lack of an audience and make their case, punch it home. Listen, anybody who has spoken to big crowds understands that you get your energy from those crowds. They give you the energy to go on and be good. Theres no crowds here, and somehow these speakers have found within the ability to go ahead and speak as if theres crowds. And i think thats going to help them make their case and probably help them keep an audience. Okay. More big speakers tonight, including jill biden. What can we expect tonight . Shes going to make the case for her husband, and she looks to be a very wellspoken person. She knows who she is. She knows who he is. She knows all about him, his history, and shes going to talk about his history, alt the way from the tragedy affecting his sons and daughter who lost her life along with his first wife, along with all the other things that have happened, losing beau, and to the present day. And shes going to say, this is all about resilience. The man sticks to it just like hell stick to it for you. I think we can expect a very entertaining speech. Again, a strong woman speaking out, and i think the democrats like that because women have become so essential to the Democratic Party. Also senator mccains widow wife will be speaking tonight, also a powerful speech. Larry gerston, we appreciate it so much. Well probably talk to you soon. Okay. Thanks. Take care. Dont forget to join nbc news tonight for prime time coverage of the dnc and the race to the white house. Coverage begins right after this newscast at 7 00 tonight. Up next, a new lawsuit against the Trump Administration filed in San Francisco. What it has to do with the spotted owl. Making it in the bay. This is our ongoing series about the challenges of living here and the changing landscape. And things are changing as this pandemic continues. More people are moving to the suburbs as working from home becomes the new normal. The demand for homes in San Francisco is weakening while the north bay is seeing a huge surge in buyers. Look at the numbers here. Last month home sales were up about 36 in sonoma and marin counties compared to july of 2019. Napa county saw an increase of 28 . This is according to a report from the California Association of realtors. Meanwhile, home sales in San Francisco up 1 and 6. 5 in alameda county. Californias spotted owl has generated Court Battles for decades, and today its hotly debated status launched yet another lawsuit. Conservationists are suing the u. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for refusing to protect the owls under the endangered species act. The birds habitat is old growth forest favored by logging interests and threatened by claim change, drought and fires. The heart at the conflict is california and the u. S. Forest service consider the spotted owl threatened but the u. S. Fish and wildlife does not. Theyre no longer onstage but they are in the community. A San Francisco Ballet Company is filling a critical need in the city. Today the company donated more than 200 masks to the saint vincents homeless shelter on fifth street. These werent just any masks. They were hand sewn by the dancers using retired costumes from past performances. We had to cancel our performances and our rehearsals, so we decided that since we can sew, we would help out. Very cool. The masks were donated as part of the companys buy a mask, give a mask program. Thats so nice. Okay. We have been dealing with almost a week of triple digit heat and a little bit of relief is in sight. Lets check in with rob. Yeah. Were just nearing the finish line, we hope, of this excessive heat warning, lasting for one more day. How much cooling can you expect in the forecast . Well have a closer look when we come right back. Have you paid for a microwave plus installation. What he got was a mess in his kitchen. Im consumer investigator chris chmura. Nbc bay area responds next. Nbc bay area responds to a san jose man who says a microwave oven delivery did not go as planned. So he asked consumer investigator chris chmura and his team to patch things up with the installer. Quite literally patch things up here. Lets talk about tom gomezs case and start with some photos. He says that what you see here are holes in his kitchen wall made by the contractors that home depot hired to remove his old microwave and install a new one. Well, besides the holes, tom says the crew broke a glass panel on the new microwave and scratched his glasstop range. He says he repeatedly asked the contractor and home depot to make things right but that didnt happen. So he asked us to give a crack at this one. So we did, and we asked home depot what happened. It didnt explain, but it did work with the contractor to fix the wall and replace the microwave. It also gave tom a replacement range worth 385. 89. Kudos to tom for taking the photos. Whenever you have any kind of work done in your home, take lots of pictures before and after. Photos can be essential to resolving any dispute worth 1,000 words or sometimes more than 1,000 bucks, raj. Thank you, chris. Well, Agricultural Workers are among the most vulnerable communities during this pandemic. They work and live in close quarters. As nbc bay areas thom jensen reports, though, Napa Valley Vineyards and Health Care Agencies are helping. Reporter its just after 7 00 this morning, and more than a dozen workers ill be back next week to do it again. Reporter have already been tested for covid19 at this remote location in st. Helena. Its all being done out of this mobile testing van funded by st. Helena hospital association, the napa valley vintners and other nonprofits. We heard over and over again from people in the community that they couldnt afford the hours required to sent their employees to the napa test site and then wait for weeks to get results. Reporter the team has already conducted more than 1,500 onsite tests across the valley in the past month. Vineyard owners say the ability to go where workers live and work will likely save lives and possibly the Wine Industry itself. It could really could run through those communities quickly, couldnt it, if people got infected and they werent tested. No, youre exactly right. In fact, the facts are coming in. The Hispanic Community in napa valley has been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. Reporter its estimated there are more than 21,000 agriculture workers and family members in napa county alone. Luis, working for mill creek vineyard, tells us the mobile testing is a gamechanger. He and his crews were tested just after 6 00 this morning, and they were back to work minutes later. And right behind them, workers from a nearby vineyard got tested at the same location. Harvest is hard enough, so adding this extra variable, its nice to see the Community Coming together. Reporter the team has a goal of conducting 200 tests per day, hoping to speed up the results as well, which currently are back within three days. With four months left of harvesting and production, its a race against the clock as they try to test and retest everyone in this vulnerable population. Were trying to expand as fast as we can because the need is just tremendous. Reporter organizers hope by this time next year, this mobile testing unit will be used as a mobile vaccination unit, continuing its work to keep this Important Community of workers safe and healthy. In st. Helena, thom jensen, nbc bay area news. Thom, thank you. Lets get back to our fire coverage now. This is what its looking like on the peninsula. You might notice the smoke if you live in palo alto or san mateo or hillsborough or any of those cities. The smoke is coming from near pescadero. You can see the ocean right there. I cant think of a fire that weve had with such intensity on the peninsula in quite some time. Usually its in the north bay or the south bay or east bay. This time its happening right there along the peninsula. Thats for sure, raj. That Lightning Storm on sunday morning was unbelievable, hitting most of the bay area and possibly the cause of most of these fires. Lets get a check of our forecast now. Are we free and clear of those Lightning Storms, rob . Yeah, thats the good news. Around the bay area, 48 hours we calculated this and were posting it to the website soon. About 7,000 lightning strikes with at least 350 lightningsparked a bit of rain. So temperatures picked up and likely fanned some of those smoldering sites in the hills and got them to reignite, and formed some of these large fires were seeing around the bay area. Lets talk about the air quality. Its extremely bad downwind of that fire you saw there in the Santa Cruz Mountains in San Mateo County. You can see multiple plumes right there on the view. Look how the smoke does extend down towards santa cruz. Again, that is how the winds are behaving aloft, out of the northwest, pushing off that smoke to the south and east. If youre around boulder creek, bonny doon, you want to stay inside. 86 degrees, humidity at 24 . One place where the air quality has gotten a little better is the wind picking up out of the west has started to clear out the trivalley somewhat compared to earlier this morning. This is really impressive on our radar, scanning wildfires. The bright white you see there with the lightning complex in the napa county, the gamble fire and hennessey fire, that likely indicates ash probably the size of dimes or almost that size coming down out of the sky. That is what the radar picks up. Instead of rain drops its picking up sized particles like ash or embers falling away from these fires. Most of that pushing down into eastern napa county and northern Solano County at this hour. Temperatures in the 100s still at this hour inland. Humidity levels bone dry in the teens. So you got the temperatures, you got the low humidity, and the afternoon winds which picked up. So just like that, the peak heating of the day, you saw those column plumes gain inte intensity and strength. Its a nasty combination of weather factors coming together. Spare the air day tomorrow for poor air quality. We might see adjustments to the north bay tomorrow. Were going one more day of warm temperatures for tomorrow. We start off the morning around the hills in the 70s. Thats going to make fighting those fires even at night difficult with daytime warm conditions and low humidity numbers. Then for the afternoon well see numbers in the upper 90s for another day around san jose. 103 closer to morgan hill. Trivalley up towards antioch, near 100 degrees. 80s bayside from oakland into hayward, closer to fremont. San mateo about 82 degrees. San francisco starting to cool down a bit. We should see numbers in the low to mid70s tomorrow and around the north bay well see highs mainly in the mid to upper 90s. So the excessive heat will continue for one more day. This is until 9 00 tomorrow night. Then the cooling. What does that look like . Lets jump ahead to thursday. Warmest temperatures inland are still in the 90s, but even low 90s is about a 10degree drop in temperatures. So thats where the sevenday forecast is headed. Thursday and friday we begin to cool down with some breezy conditions. Not a big cooldown, not drizzle or fog. We need it. Were just not going to get it. At least the temperatures come down a little bit heading into the start of the weekend, then trending warmer against next week. One more 24hour cycle of excessive heat, then we hope to see some cooling approaching the weekend. Spare the air day tomorrow. Thanks, rob. Up next, the as and giants playing rare day games on a tuesday. Were going to show you what happened this afternoon. And dont forget its time for one of our favorite annual events when bay area and telemundo 48 team up to clear our shelters. This year it will be a virtual effort because of the pandemic, but people are still encouraged to adopt, which can be done virtually as well. You can also donate to their favorite shell your favorite shelters for the entire month of august. On august 29, well have special coverage of our clear the shelters effort. Well be right back. Experience the ultimate sports hub. Where you can find games, news and highlights. All in one place, right on your tv. The xfinity sports zone. Use your voice to search every stat, standing and score. Follow the teams you love. And, even get notifications with breaking news alerts and more. So youll never miss an update. With the xfinity sports zone everybody wins. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Click, call or visit a store for details. And comfortably shop over a million square feet of in stock flooring our expansive store is fully equipped with safe distancing guides, so you can browse our wide aisles and be amazed with our even wider selection. Or easily order online, and pick up all the products you need for your flooring project curbside so come discover the perfect floor at the perfect price in whatever way is perfect for you. All in one stop visit floor and decor in person or online. You think its hot in the bay area, today in phoenix, 114 degrees, raj. How hot . 114. Maybe its dry heat. That could be better. I used to work in yuma, arizona. It used to get to 117 degrees. I couldnt survive that. Forget the dry heat. Hot is hot. The as in arizona today against the diamondbacks. Best news of the day, they have one of those retractible domes there in phoenix, and they closed it. So thats good. As pitcher Frankie Montas having a great season but not today. He gave up nine runs in less than two niengs. Nick ahmed with the threerun homer. Dbacks win 101. The as are still in first place. The giants in anaheim, have you been watching lately . Its been brutal. Five straight agonizing losses for the giants, but today a much needed win. Hello to Pablo Sandoval with the tworun homer here. Giants beat the angels. Final score today of 82. So there is reason to smile occasionally for the giants this season. Yes. Panda is back. That is good news. At least he was back this afternoon. Thats going to do it for us here at 6 00. We hope you have a great evening. Good night. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to day two of nbc news live coverage of the 2020 democratic convention. As we come on the air, the roll call vote to nominate joe biden for president is under way. It does not look familiar to you, but they found a different way. This is the real business of the convention to nominate the candidate. Like the convention itself, the roll call is virtual in this age of covid. Right now all 57 u. S. States and territories are casting their ballots remotely. Some are live, some are on tape
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.