When you have the sun and you have the smoke moving through, different wavelengths of light are able to pass through. Red and orange is able to pass through that smoke while shorter wavelengths in the blue color are not. So it leaves us with this red to orange color. Now, check this out. Even though we have all that smoke i showed you, air quality is reading moderate to unhealthy, but the way it looks, youd think it would be reading very unhealthy. Ill explain why it looks very unhealthy but were not breathing in very unhealthy air. Pretty complicated but ill see you back here in about 18 minutes. That does sound complicated. Thank you, jeff. So how are we coping with 22 days of bad air . Live from San Francisco to continue our coverage. Pete, how bad is the air there . Reporter yeah, well, jessica, surprisingly the air quality isnt as bad here in San Francisco as weve seen recently, but as you guys mentioned, were in this long stretch of that 22 days straight of the spare the air alerts. Speaking to an air quality official, she made it clear that this may not be going away any time soon. At dolores park in San Francisco, surrounded in haze, people are trying to be optimistic. Im pretty glad that we can that i can just, like, explore the whole entire, like, parks and stuff without having to be, like, super smokey. Reporter but its hard to find a Silver Lining in all of this brown air, a blanket that has left us with some of the worst air quality in years. Im limiting my time outside. I am doing that, you know, because of the smoke that we have, you know . Sometimes i want to go someplace, but i just look at the smoke and you dont want to go out. Reporter for 22 consecutive days the bay area has been under a spare the air alert. The previous record was 14, set in 2018 during the camp fire. So this the worst . That depends. Its not the worst as far as severity, but it is the worst as far as longevity. Reporter tina landis with the bay area air Quality Management district says the overall air quality was actually worse during the camp fire, but the proximity and size of the recent wildfires along with the recent heatwave and low humidity have created this new record stretch of bad air quality, and the Health Effects of breathing in such unhealthy air for long periods of time need to be taken seriously. It is really important that people arent outside going for a jog, i mean, because the deeper you breathe, the more the more pollution youre going to get into your lungs and the deeper it will go into your lungs. Reporter dangerous air indeed, guys. As we take you back out here live, you see the skyline. The skies at this hour here in San Francisco as a spare the air alert remains in place not only in San Francisco, but throughout the bay area. But Officials Say those alerts are definitely going to continue through tomorrow, but they could continue through the end of the week. So have to wait and see how the conditions look at that point. Reporting live, pete suratos, nbc bay area news. Very gray behind you. Thank you, pete. Were following breaking news near chico and the national forest. A major flare up sending up a tower of smoke and flames. You can see it there. This is all part of the north complex fire. The u. S. Forest service said a fire jumped a containment line and burned at least 20,000 additional acres. Tonight its growing at the estimated rate of about 1,000 acres every 30 minutes. After all weve seen in the past through weeks, the fire near yosemite is an unprecedented disaster. Thats according to cal fire. This is the Sierra National forest northeast of fresno. More than 140 people trapped by the creek fire were rescued by Chinook Helicopters early this morning. Now, over the holiday weekend, National Guard helicopters rescued 200 other campers out of this area. People are being evacuated from the places you see here, hidden lake, lake edison, china peak and shaver lake. These are all popular spot. Among the people rescued, three backpackers from the south bay. Nbc bay areas Marianne Favro spoke with them about their escape. Reporter fastmoving flames engulfing miles of trees in the Sierra National forest. This is what Three Friends from the south bay escaped as the creek fire edged towards them. San jose state geology Professor Robert miller, mager ken oliver left the south bay for a Labor Day Weekend trip to deliver new supplies to a friend hiking the john mirror trail. When ash star started to rain down, they raced 12 miles back to their car near lake edison. The scary thing is wondering whether were going to get out safely or not no with the flames closing in they had limited options and got very sobering advice. They told us last night if we hear bullhorns, that meant get out immediately and run to the lake. The fresno schiheriff came o. They were going to convoy us out, but the fire closed the road. So then this morning starting around 3 30 a. M. We started hearing the helicopters come in. Reporter a welcomed sound early this morning. A National Guard helicopter arrived, air lifting the Three Friends and 14 others to safety. This is video taken inside the packed chopper, carrying backpackers, kids, even a dog. Trying to be, you know, social distancing, but in a situation like this, youre sitting on everybodys lap, but thankful to be down the hill. Reporter today alone helicopter crews air lifted more than 140 people trapped by the creek fire. Each with their own harrowing story to tell. Marianne favro, nbc bay area news. It really is remarkable. Now, rescuing people by helicopter is not how the army National Guard prefers to keep people safe, but changing winds meant changing plans and the da show interview, a fresno colonel says fresnos 30th combat Aviation Brigade has gotten really good at these rescues and their luck, they say, is continuing to hold. So definitely some great news. The weather and the smoke were cooperating with us a little bit better and were going to keep working tirelessly throughout the night until we get as many people out as we can. Reporter colonel hall says the effort has been successful. Such a collaboration working closely with sheriff offices in madera and fresno counties on identifying who gets evacuated and when they go in. Crews are battling a new fire. Its the oak fire. It sparked yesterday near willis and brook trails in mendocino county. You see it right here along 101, interstate 5 is on that part of the county there. Nearly 900 acres burned, containment is at 5 . Evacuation orders are in effect. This fire is separate. Here is the oak fire. Its separate from the august fire complex zone. You can see that fire also burning in mendocino value. The lnu complex stands at viii 1 and the woodward fire in marin county now 95 contained. Jessica . Thank you, raj. Governor newsom calls it nothing short of heroic, talking about the job the National Guard and the firefighters are doing on the fire lines. He also spoke about the number of fires weve seen this year. At this point last year, california had just under 5,000 fires and 118,000 acres had burned. Fast forward to this year, the state has endured over 7,600 acres destroying 2. 3 million acres so far. The staggering numbers put into perspective the danger were dealing with while setting records no one wants to beat. This is the largest fire season weve had in terms of total acreage impacted in some time back recorded, recent modern history, but nonetheless, you put it in comparison terms, contrast to last year, its rather extraordinary. The challenge that we faced. Now the governor says that 14,000 fighters are currently battling fires up and down the state. Now, we continue our wildfire coverage online. Meteorologist rob mayeda just sat down with a south bay scientist to talk about how theyre swinging into action to understand the behavior of these fires and the best way to fight them. You can find that right at nbcbayarea. Com. At this hour, thousands of people in the north bay are without power. That means no air conditioning, no fridge, no luck. Pg e deciding to cut power to reduce fire danger. Heres a look at the outage map. Those purple triangles there represent the psp outages. Those are the planned outages. Traffic lights are out and some businesses are closed in parts of sonoma and napa counties. After the power that was cut off early this morning. Pg e says extremely hot, dry and windy conditions have forced them to cut the power to nearly 23,000 customers. Most specifically there in the north bay. Busters barbecue in calistoga is operating by flashlight. You see the food on the grill, though. The credit card machines are not working, luckily the food and the dprgrill is ready. I think it sucks, to be perfectly honest. How much more can we take in calistoga . Fires and Power Outages and winds and, you know, just gets a little old. Well said. It gets old. Its hard, though. Pg e hopes to have power restored by 9 00 p. M. Tomorrow. Once the extreme weather conditions pass. You can find a link to that outage map on our website at nbcbayarea. Com. O. K. Santa clara county is in the red. But thats a good thing. The governor announced today that the county is one of several moving from purple, the most restricted covid areas to red. That mean the county is allowed to lift several restrictions on businesses. The question tonight, will they . Nbc bay areas Damian Trujillo live at the Emergency Operation center with an answer for us. So are they going to move to red . Reporter yeah, you know, jessica this family looked on from their nail salon as the governor spoke. Because of covid restrictions theyve only been allowed to offer manicures and pedicures outdoors. Then the state Health Director made the announcement. In terms of the counties that moved to red, its five counties, as i said, amador, orange, plaser, santa clara and santa cruz all moved to from purple to red. Im just ectatic right now. I dont know what to feel. Six months, youve been waiting for this day and finally its here. So im just so happy. This afternoon the county said it would not get in the way of reopening indoor nail salons. Those include personal Care Services like nail salons and massages can now resume operation indoors. Reporter gyms can also open at 10 capacity. Malls at 50 . But the county isnt following all the state guidelines. The county will not allow any Indoor Dining and movie theaters and places of worship will have to stay closed. Could there be a pulling back . Yes, this is very fluid. Reporter the county also wants everyone to remember it can quickly slide back to purple if covid rates start spiking again. Thats why blossom nail spa says theyve taken every precaution, sanitizing their partition booths after every customer and at the end of each day. Theyll check temperatures and follow social distancing guidelines. In fact, the county camera crew was shooting video today to show other salons online how it should be done. Its been really, really tough, but i cant im just too excited. Reporter now, if this county remains in red for two consecutive weeks, then schools, get this again, schools can reopen for inclassroom learning. This will be on a district by district basis. Live in san jose, im Damian Trujillo, nbc bay area news. And im janelle wang. Here schools already open in marin county, about a dozen of them. Were going to take you for a tour. It look a lot different. Well have that story after the break. Im chief meteorologist jeff ranieri. Look off towards the distance. It looks very unhealthy with the smoke, but ill show you why its not rated very unhealthy at the current moment. Ill see you back here with that in about six minutes. When we welcome our west coast viewers, ill have my exclusive interview with president trumps former lawyer. Why Michael Cohen calls him a cut leader and what he says about the president barack obama and race. Also, how effective is uv light as a coronavirus fighter . What you should know on nbc nightly news. Prop 19 helps californias most vulnerable. It provides property tax fairness for disabled homeowners like cynde, stuck living with a broken elevator. Nineteen helps wildfire victims, like ellie, one of 24,000 whove lost their homes to fire. And seniors like pam who need to move closer to family or medical care, without a tax penalty. Prop 19 limits taxes on our most vulnerable. Yes on 19. Back to school. Back in class. More than a dozen schools in marin county got the green light to open for inperson learning. Janelle wang joins us with how well it went on the first day of school. Janelle . Yeah, it went very well, jessica. Now, this all started months ago before the state went into this fourtier system, they gave counties permission for schools to apply, but only Elementary Schools. So the ones that opened today were all Elementary Schools and most of them are private schools. About a dozen in marin county got the green light to open today. They opened their doors. The allchildrens Academic School in san rafael welcomed back students outside. Temperature check, handwashing, the school was granted a waiver to open for 12 students. Before the pandemic, it could hold 25 students. You can see students also wearing masks. The schools owner says its a way of the unforeseeable future. While we previously spent a good amount of time outside, we have had to adapt and bring our classroom outdoors and just embrace that this is the new way of teaching. Today was also supposed to be the first day of school for students at Martin Luther king academy ins so lead owe, but inperson classes were cancelled this morning after a Staff Members covid test came back as inconclusive. Out of an abundance of caution, the school is now hoping to reopen next week. Dozens of schools reopen. That includes san mateo county, santa clara county, and about four in contracosta county. Were hearing that alameda county, some schools in that district are reportedly also applying for waivers. And as more counties move out of the purple tier into the red tier, they will also get the green light to apply for the waivers and reopen their doors. Raj and jessica . Yeah, things could be changed in the next several weeks. Thanks, janelle. The burning man beach party is over but the controversy continues and the punishment might be on the way. San francisco supervisor katherine stephanie is urging the District Attorney and City Attorney to throw the book at the events promotors, enforcing civil and criminal penalties. This all stems from over the weekend on saturday, the party with the famed burning man gathering in nevada cancelled, more than 1,000 people showed up at ocean beach in San Francisco to celebrate. It was in violation of the citys covid rules. Olympic Gold Medalist and south bay maty Kerry Walsh Jennings is apologizing after her post. Questioning the wearing of masks in public, suggesting it was taking away her rights. She described her maskless trip to the Grocery Store as an exercise in being brave. The comments received heavy criticism. Many people calling her selfish and privileged. Walsh responded with an apology, writing in part, to those ive upset so deeply, i am sorry. I fully acknowledge that addressing such an emotional, layered, nuanced and polarizing topic on social media was not the smartest thing. Turn things over to meteorologist jeff ranieri and, jeff, lets talk about this weird haze that were having. 22 days, you know, and still counting here. When can we expect the air to clear a little bit for us. Well, thats really unknown right now because of all of the active fire behavior around us. We now that we have our bay area fires, you know, with some great containment numbers, we now have three other large fires outside of the bay area. Get a little bit of wind shift here and there, and were seeing that smoke move in. So we really need to see a lot of this fire activity get controlled of before we see some differences. I want to start off with a red flag fire warning that really has been a big concern in the mountains. We have those pg e safety power shutoffs that are happening right now, and i do want to let you know in the mountains over the past 24 hours, we have seen wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour. Mount saint helena, atlas peak, 41. Notice the disparity, down at the surface, not quite as gusty. Napa, 18. Novato, 17, and santa rosa at 13. So the red flag fire warning remains in effect for 1,000 feet and above until 8 00 tomorrow morning. And then well see those winds in the mountains beginning to calm down. I want to get to the other top pressing issue, and that is the sky and the smoke. Look, we all look towards the distance today, and you can see that orange sky, the haze, the thick smoke, and youll see it right here in that live walnut creek sky camera, but look at these live air quality sensor readings were seeing right now. Take a look at the key at the top. You can see most of the bay area is reading moderate to unhealthy for sensitive groups from the north bay to the south bay. Youd think, by the way, it looks like wed be reading the very unhealthy category, but theres a reason why were seeing the thick smoke towards the distance and its not translating down to very unhealthy air quality. I want to show you why, so lets get a look. You can see as we get this expanded view, we had those three fires that are contributing to the smoke. The august complex, the creek fire and the dolan fire. Now, with those fires, the smoke with the most harmful particles is traveling just above the ground level. So those dangerous smoke particles are there, but its just not down here on the surface where were breathing it, so it is giving us a little bit of a break in that respect, even though it looks completely gross. As we look at this explainer i put together, i think this does a really good job explaining why the most harmful smoke is staying above the surface. You can see with what were dealing with right now, the smoke is lifting into the atmosphere, 1,500 to 2,000 surf. Stronger winds is keeping that winds are not that gusty to kind of mix the dangerous particles down to the surface. So were getting lucky. Were not seeing very unhealthy air and the worst of it staying just above the surface. So for tomorrow, that means were going to be in the moderate to unhealthy range, kind of teetering back and forth. So as we move through tomorrow morning, you can see my temperatures will be starting off in the low 60s here with that fog and also the haze. Down to 60 for the east bay. San francisco, 58 and the north bay at 59. My sevenday forecast here in San Francisco does drop it down to some cooler 60s by friday, saturday, sunday and monday, and for the inland valleys, were also seeing a considerable drop from that heatwave. Well eventually get down to 87 by friday and also on saturday. So well say goodbye to the heat later on this week. The smoke its going to be a day by day issue for us here. Okay. Thank you, jeff. Small victories. Thanks, jeff. Its over. Keeping up with the kardashians. Why the Famous Family is giving up the show that made them famous. Were going to tell you when the final episodes will air. It was just a get together with friends. No big deal. Everybody felt fine. But now im super sick. Everyone is sick. I just wish we had been more careful. It would have been easier than this. So wear a mask. Do what you can outside. Stay six feet apart. Because some things you just cant take back. Do your part to lower the risk. Great america remains closed, but there is something to look forward to at least. Construction crews are busy building the parks newest attractions called south bay shores. Heres a sneak peek. The water park will have seven new rides and slides, two new restaurants and upgraded amenities. Grand opening is next summer there at Great America in santa clara. Okay, youre not going to be able to keep up with the kardashians much longer. After 14 years, the kardashian show is coming to an end. Kim kardashian west took to twitter to break the news and thank her fans and the production team. The good news is that there are still two seen of the show left. Season 19 begins airing next week and set to document the family throughout this pandemic. And the last season will air early 2021. Were back in a moment with more. 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. An extra 15 credit on car and motorcycle policies . Thats great thats 15 on top of what geico could already save you. So what are you waiting for . John stamos to knit you a scarf . All finished, jean. Enjoy thank you. I give. The stitch work is impeccable. Its just a double fleck pattern with a reverse garter stitch. No big deal. Is your hair this soft . Softer. Geico. Save an extra 15 when you switch by october 7th. Well, all that smoke from the fires burning across the strait, creating dramatic images. Weird. Look outside, right . Either yellow or orange or brown or gray, whatever you think. Our viewers sending us a lot of beautiful and alarming photos. This one from megan in san ramon. And graham taking this image of the bright red sun in San Francisco. You can check out more of our viewer photos on our website or you can share them with us at nbcbayarea. Com or tag us unsocial media. Tonight the daring rescues as wildfires burn out of control, helicopters using night vision to care lyft nearly 150 campers trapped by flames our camera is there for the emotional reunion. A state of emergency in effect as deadly infernos rage in the west. The shakeup in rochester, new york after the death of daniel prude the police chief suddenly out the setback in the race for a vaccine when the final study for one promising candidate was abruptly halted and on the first day of school for many kids the staggering new number, 500,000 children in the u. S. Have been infected prid
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