Downpours causing the concern of some flooding as well as some strong winds. High wind watch in effect. You can see where the heaviest rain is now moving closer to santa rosa and that will be tracking slowly to the south as we go through the rest of this mornings commute and this evenings commute looks very dangerous for the entire bay area. We see once again the rain moving closer as some of the heavier downpours south of ukiah toward cloverdale. Were already starting to see only of the rain in the Santa Cruz Mountains where there will be a Flash Flood Watch in effect. Ill get a closer look at the timeline in a if minutes as we head to mike tracking the wet roads. We have our friends and reporters in the north bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains, well show you those conditions throughout the show. Weve been warning folks about this for days. We now see fog over here for highway 1 along the coast. That may be an additional factor, in addition to the wind and the rain. So far a mild commute. This is the bulk of the traffic between the south bay and the city. We have reports of plywood, north 880. I do call it out because with the wind continuing to build we may see debris off the backs of cars and trees as well. Well show you as well toward the bay bridge a slower drive and a live look by the richmondsan rafael bridge. The richmond side had water on the lens. You see the wet roadways. Conditions are already slick. For the rest of this, ill hand it off to you. Live outside this morning, our cameras in san rafael. As we mentioned, the north bay getting hit the hardest right now by that rain. Today in the bays Sharon Katsuda is monitoring the Road Conditions firsthand. What are you seeing right now, sharon . Reporter thats right, laura and sam. You can definitely see the rain coming down a lot harder now. Its very steady. Were here in the healdsburg area heading northbound. Its definitely different from what we saw in santa rosa about 15 mississippi us from now. The rain is coming down morsteadly and a lot harder. Seeing still fortunately traffic is flowing smoothly, but we definitely have had to reduce our speeds because the visibility is a little tougher now. You can see through the wind shield as cars drive by and the rain is coming down harder. So the chp earlier today gave out a good tweet, basically telling drivers, commuters for the morning commute to definitely get an early start, check your route before you head on out so you dont have to dole with that while youre driving and slow down, keep it to 55 or slower. Thaet what were seeing right now. We know this storm will be heading down south. So were going to monitor those areas such as 101 in the sausalito area is where it usually has a lot of flooding. Be careful when youre heading out for your morning commute. Live in the healdsburg area, Sharon Katsuda for today in the bay. Now were tracking erosion concerns as well along our coast. Live look at pacifica this morning where the city is taking drastic measures to improve public safety. Today in the bays bob redell tracking that for us. Hes going to give us an update in our next half hour. The incoming rain a big concern for people who live in the Santa Cruz Mountains damaged by the loma fire back in september. That fire burned more than 4,400 acres. Now an increased risk for flooding and mudslides since the fire burned a lot of the brush that would normally hold the soil in place. Saibs kris sanchez live in the Santa Cruz Mountains to show what people are doing there to protect their homes. Good morning, kris. Good morning, laura and sam. A very fine misty rain. Vianey arana has a fancy weather tool to tell what the wind gusts are here. Well shoot into the light so you can see where the rain is moving around, flurrying as if it were snow this morning on the summit and folks still driving far too fast for the conditions. We want to show you a live picture we have in ben loman where its still steadily raining this morning. Ha is one area of concern, but the fire area of the loma fire, thats where this storm crests were really ernest in the last couple days. Folks lined up sandbags lining Loma Chiquita road. We caught up with a homeowner who lost his shed. Hes worried the hillside could come down. The Water District is worried about the hillside coming down and where that mud will end up. The really steep areas, first of all, they burned hotter than other places. So everything is gone on the steep areas. Theres going to be erosion there. We or concerned that sediment or debris will come off the burn fire scar and end up in the reservoir. Reporter generally public works tries to plant veg takes to keep that in place. But there hasnt been time for it to grow. The concern the emotion could happen. There are still sandbags available. You should check with your local municipality as well. And there is expected to be about a 4,000 square foot boost to the reservoirs. But when you get a lot in a little bit of time, it can also present trouble. A quick reminder about the driving conditions, they are sloppy, they are messy, it doesnt take much to have a collision. Slow down and keep both hands on the wheel. In the santa mountains, chrkris sanchez for today in the bay. A great resource pour the storm is our free nbc bay area app. Check out the interactive Doppler Radar to get weather alerts straight to your smart phone and track an hour by hour forecast in realtime. We have breaking news to report and a new development in the last few minutes in the deadly crash of an egypt air flight back in may that killed all 66 people on board that flight. Flight 804 was going from paris to cairo when it went down of the mediterranean. Why it went down is still a mystery. In the last 3 minutes, investigators announced they have uncovered traces of explosives on the bodies of some of the victims recovered after the crash. The plane vanished from the radar without a mayday call. 6 07 right now. Morgan hillman beaten so badly he may have permanent brain damage. Neighbors say it all started with a fight over a pet. We have a picture of a man police say at talkd hips neighbor with a baseball bat and disappeared. Mark weber is wanted for assault with a Deadly Weapon and considered armed and dangerous. Investigators say the dispute between the neighbors centered around theic have im thes dog. The victims wife told nbc bay area her husband is being treated for brain injuries. A man accused of beating an elderly woman when later died from her injuries is due in court. 19yearold zachary cuen broke into the home of 88yearold frktlo douglas. Hes accused of ransacking the home and savagely beating her. She died four weeks after that. After being charged in early november, the judge returned cuen to court for a pretrial conference. Also happening today, fran could be on the verge of drastically reshaping the future of its parks and outdoor spaces. The planning and rec and Parks Commission are both voting on a plan that has been years in the making covering 32 areas including mt. Davidson and twin peaks. Among other things it would trim the number of offleash dog walking areas and change sharp park golf course. Also removing thousands of nonnative yuke lip pus trees, engineered to better protect endangered species and native eco systems. Good morning. Its 6 09. We are tracking the incoming storm and rain that will get heavier throughout the day. Light rain right now. Heaviest downpours near santa rosa at this point. Getting a look at the timeline as the rain moves from north to south. Good coverage during the main morning commute at 9 00. The heavy downpours into the north baby lunchtime. Well all see rain by the middle of the day and heavy downpours through 3 00, 4 00. This rain continues to track to the south with some strong winds and some standing water as the rainfall rates could reach about. 75 pininch per hour. It slowly winds down tonight. Well take a closer look at this timeline and the weekend forecast in about ten minutes. Mike is now tracking the commute for work and coming back home. Thats right. Watching both sides of the bay. Even though its easing into the rain, the rain coming down from santa rosa towards san rafael. It will kick in about 7 00, 7 30 for the big slowdown. The evening and afternoon commutes will be affected. Right now the roadways look pleasant. So far light traffic continues out there. You might want to take mass transit. By the time youre ready to come home for the evening, this will be a major factor, rain on the roadways. All that rain could cause issues as well. B. A. R. T. Not reporting delays. Severe rain will cause things to slow a bit and will certainly affect conditions for the San Francisco bay. So far, no delays or alteration of service for any of these agencies. Thank you very much, mike. Up next, once again, were learning yahoo was the target of a massive hack attack. Even if you Vice President checked your account in years, it could have a major impact on you. The reason why ahead. The state of california says not so fast to ubers plans for robot cars. Reporter we continue to track this storm, why we are monitoring the creek after major problems in years past. It is 6 14 on thursday morning. Hf i have rain moving into the bay area and heavy snow expected for the sierra. It will be very chilly as we go into the weekend. Snow wrapping up by tomorrow with a possibility of up to 20 inches in spots like squaw valley and alpine meadows. Great for ski conditions. But it will be very cold as well. Well take a look at the timeline. We have Team Coverage of this storm coming up in about five minutes. There you go, kari. Right now despite the rain and the wind, the bay bridge approach is not a problem for the eastshore freeway. 20 minutes from highway 4 out of sunol. Despite rain and wind for the Santa Cruz Mountains, highway 17 at the bottom of the screen. San jose moving close to the speed limit. Thank you, mike and kari. Is big question, is uber putting autd ton mouse cars back on the road in california. The dmv says uber doesnt have a proper permits to operate Autonomous Cars which is a surprise considering that uber has been test driving the cars in San Francisco for weeks. Yesterday it rolled out a whole fleet of them and started picking up passengers. If you see one on the streets this morning, do let us know, because the state says they should not be there. Uber argues the cars arent really autonomous so dont need the special permits. Uber did release a statement about a car that was caught running a red light. In that statement uber calls themselfdriving cars. We were generously surprised to see jeff bezos at the meeting with trump. Trump doesnt like what he owns. Hes also asked america to boycott apple products and tim cook was there. The largest hack in history at yahoo . If you had an account even ten years ago, this puts all your accounts in danger because the hackers got not just user names and passwords, but the answers to the secret questions you use to change your passwords, things like whats the name of your first dog. If you use those on other sites, hackers can get in there, too. Markets will try to resume their upward climb. The dow fell 118 points. The nasdaq was down 27. Fed hiked Interest Rates a quarter percent. Yellen hinted the committee will hike rates several more times. The fed thinks the economy is not doing well, but maybe heating up too fast. Coming up in about half an hour, well go over what the rate hikes mean for you. People want to know. Well, were seeing the rain hitting the bay area. Were keeping a close eye on your commute. The major storm making its way into the bay area. You can see a lot of rain in the bay area. Heavy rain in santa rosa right now. Theres kari hall, tracking the storm minute by minute along with mike, and vianey outside along the san fr. A live look outside at the golden gate bridge. Drivers making it through okay with light rain to start the morning. Its also very mild with temperatures in the upper 50s. Were also watching the king tides coming at the last day of. The big fluctuation between the high tide and low tide. That will be happening high tide, shortly before noon today. That, combined with a storm that continues to move in, will cause major problems. We are seeing that center of low pressure well off to the west, but this is what will finally put an end to this storm and this stream of moisture thats been coming in for the past several days. Once that moves off to the east, well cut off the moisture. The rain will be ending from north to south. Were starting to see the rain moving in at this point and very heavy downpours just to the north of us. It is making a slow progression to the south, but were starting out and well have rain pooling, especially during this afternoon. We have the Flash Flood Watch in effect in all these areas shaded in green in the Santa Cruz Mountains, two to three inches. We could have the onset of flooding especially in the burn areas. We have an your gan and small stream burn advisory. That will be in effect for the north bay. So far, about threequarters an inch in cloverdale. In san rafael, close to a half inch there. Still more where that came from as we see the heaviest rain tracking from north to south through the rest of the day. But lunchtime were all pretty much getting in on at least the steady rain with the heaviest rain farther to the north. 3 00, we see the bulk of the heavy rain moving into the east bay as well as the peninsula. South bay seeing the rain during the evening commute, looks treacherous as the rain continues to move off towards the east. The heavy rain combined with some winds, we could have gusts up to 50 miles. As we head over to forecaster vianey arana, shes tracking how the water levels are changing at San Francisquito creek. Reporter nothing too concerning right now. Im right next to the creek, i was down below but did come up here to give you a visual of exactly what were looking at. This is a residential area which means a lot of these foams are either directly behind it or in front of it. The creek runs directly almost through their back yard. We have se the creek is about two inches. As the rm to system makes its way from the north bay down here to palo alto, we are expecting it to rise near four inches. This creek runs about 45 square miles from into the San Francisco bay. This creek does run not only through res dnl areas but also through a number of store areas as well. Of course, underneath a lot of highways. So thats also going to raise a big concern, and i will have some dramatic video of that 1998 flood that affected thousands of residents and this creek does run beneath the 101. Lets go to mike for some Road Conditions. Vianey, great job out there. Were looking at this area, palo alto, San Francisquito creek is the bridge being changed, its the lane shift and the changes going on right there at University North of embarcadere. Smooth flow of traffic, light through the south bay. In fact, around most of the bay your bridges westbound across the san mateo and dumbarton bridge, a little build. This is a mild commute. The conditions getting much worse in the north bay adds traffic comes in out of the novato area and even out of santa rosa, we definitely see rain being a factor. Crash at the top of the screen is northbound. Counter commute, no major issues. Were tracking anything like this, fog will affect the folks on highway 1 as well. Let me talk to yu about the live shots. The bay bridge toll plaza, the metering lights are right on schedule. We have the backup that forms here. We have a tow truck on the shoulder. Live look from emeryville shows you the camera trembling from time to time. Well talk about mass transit. Try mass transit and let someone else do the driving. No delays right now. Back the you. Letting someone else drive could make it easier. 6 2. Up next on today in the bay, a south bay tennis coach accused of molest willing two of his students. The reason many people believe he should president have been teaching lessons in the first place. Plus nbc bay area responds. Im consumer investigator chris kmour rah, were looking at the most common problems youre asking us to solve. Nbc ba anbc bay area responds. Nbc bay area responds just surpassed the 400,000 mark. Consumer investigator chris chmura says weve hit another benchmark at the same time. In addition to achieving the 400,000 mark, we just recently received our 3,000th complaint. The calls for help are constant. Were opening about 17 new complaints per day on average. Our team has built a stockpile of consumer gripes, a oneofakind database that gives us a unique look at whats driving bay area consumers crazy. After opening 3,189 cases and looking for patterns, i can tell you the topics we are tackling are simply all over the map. There is no one sore spot. Consumers are hitting brick walls everywhere and asking us to help. We are finding we consistently receive complaints about four industries each were, contractors, airlines, car dealers and cellular phones. Wireless is complained about most. Roughly 6 of all of our calls involve a problem with cellular service. The good news is were finding Cellular Companies are pretty responsive to us. If you have a consumer complaint, well take a crack at it. You can call us at 1888996tips or visit us on nbcbayarea. Com responds. We have Team Coverage this morning tracking the storm moving into the bay area. Lets start with kari hall. We have a microclimate weather alert in effect as we track the storm and well continue to keep you updated until the storm threat is over. Ill have a look at the timeline coming up. Reporter im Sharon Katsuda where the rain is coming down and the wind picking up. Ill have more on the commute and the trouble spots today. Reporter you can feel the winter storm pushing in along the are pacific ocean. The urgent action the city of pacifica is planning to take for an apartment teetering on the edge of the ocean. Youre watching today in the bay. A very good thursday morning to you. 6 30 right now. Today in the bay continues this morning as we track a major rain storm moving into the bay area. A live look at san rafael in the top right corner of your screen. A lot of green out there. A lot of green. Theres also a live look from the Santa Cruz Mountains. This morning we see a lot of water o n the roadways, a Flash Flood Watch in effect and it comes as debris from the loma fire looms large for People Living there. Free sandbags were made available for people in that area as they try to prepare for the incoming storm. We have Team Coverage across the bay area as we track the rm to. Nbc bay area certainly has your covered to get out the door this morning and prepare you for that return home. We are going to check in with all of our reporters on the ground out there momentarily. First a check of weather and traffic. Kari, downed trees and power lines are also a concern this morning. Yes, because the winds will be picking up, too. Not only the heavy rain, but strong winds. In some spots, especially in the hills, we could have winds gusting up to 50 miles an hour today. When you have a rainsoaked ground, it makes those trees p toppile over very easily. Its making a slow progression to the south. Winds sustained at 20 to 40 miles an hour, we talked about trees, possibly more of those coming down and some power issues. Also rising river levels, although we do expect the bay area rivers to stay below flood stage. We may have street flooding, in the sierra, 12 to 20 inches of snow. More on that coming up in a few minutes. Mike is tracking what chp says about the roadways. Theyve been preparing as we have, warning folks for days this was coming. Clearing crashes almost as quickly as they happen. Look at your map, a very light volume of traffic. Some folks may be heading out of town for the Christmas Holidays or the holiday break. But they also may be avoiding the rain right now. A little slowing for hayward and across the san mateo and dumbarton bridges. No major issues. Trivalley, look how clear the dublin interchange looks. At speed there. A smooth flow of traffic through richmond and toward the bay bridge toll plaza where the metering lights are on. Slowing around the Richmond Bridge toll plaza. You see water on the lens as well. Raining over on this side of the bay and throughout the area all morning long. In the north bay, Sharon Katsuda was on highway 101. Youre now in healdsburg. What do you have for us . Reporter mike, good morning. Definitely the rain is coming down morsteadly. You can see behind me it is starting to come down. The rain is pretty light. You can see its blowing lightly. Earlier i felt like i had to hold on to this umbrella a little tighter. We have a wind advisory for all of today. Also, chp is warning people, before you head out, definitely check where youre heading so you dont have to take a look mile youre driving and get an early start because the roads will be wet. We saw that earlier during our live shot. We showed you from healdsburg down to san rafael, were expecting the storms to get Even Stronger and down in the south bay for the late commute. Be careful when you head out for your morning commute. Live in healdsburg, Sharon Katsuda, today in the bay. 6 33. San francisco also getting ready for the storm. City workers are particularly focusing on the area of 17th and fulsome. That spot has had persistent problems with flooding during storms. Also new, already getting reports of trees down in the bay area. Thats new video taken within the last hour of so from daly city showing a tree that came crashing down on a street there. This happened on east Market Street at price. Responders trying to saw off some of the branches. You can expect more scenes like this to pop up through out the day. In pacifica erosion has already created major headaches. This has been going on for years. In a matter of hours the city manager will hold a News Conference to answer questions about another apartment come plerks along esplanade avenue that will have to be demolished. Taebs bob redell is live tracking conditions there. Good morning, bob. Reporter good morning, sam. National Weather Service has said theres going to be a wind advisory for the pacific coastline starting at 10 00 this morning. It feels like its already in effect. Predicting 25, 35mileperhour win winds. Kari mentioning gusts of up to 50 miles an hour. I wish i had a wind speed indicator. At times it feels like were getting those speeds. As far as the ocean itself is concerned, this is not the worst weve seen. Look at the pacifica pier, steady waves around five to seven feet. Coastal raegs a big concern. Later this morning at 10 00 the city of pacifica is holding a News Conference to address hiring a company to demolish the apartment complex at 310 esplanade. Its been sitting on the edge of the ocean for a number of months. The erosion was so bad, the city evacuated the residents back in january. The city recently determined its now at a greater risk of crumbling. They had been hoping the owner would fix it or try to take it down. But they are blaming him for not, in their words, not dong his job. You might recall, 320 esplanade and 330 esplen nad have already been taken down. A good resource for the storm is our free nbc bay area app. You can check out our interactive radar, get weather alerts straight to your smart phone and track down to the hourbyhour forecast. An exclusive story on who is pulling the strings behind hacked emails during the president ial election. Sources tell nbc news theres evidence pointing directly to russian president Vladimir Putin. Today in the bays tracie potts joins us live from washington with more on the story. Good morning. Reporter laura, lets explain who the sources are. Part of the Intelligence Community who have direct access to information about this, information that came from diplomatic sources and in some cases, were told, from spies for our allies. The bottom lean, it looks like those hacked emails in october weeks before the election were hacked by russia, but afterwards it was Vladimir Putin himself, russias president , directly how to use that information from the dnc and from the clinton campaign. Now congress and a lot of other people want to know why. This morning we got word that the Foreign Relations committee on the senate side wants an open hearing, a public hearing in january to get to the bottom of this russian hacking, particularly why it happened. Even intelligence agencies within the u. S. Disagree on what the pd game here, was it to get drum elected . Not everyone agrees with the cias assessment. Or was it targeting Hillary Clinton which is what sources were telling us and also an attempt to embarrass and discredit the u. S. With its allies. So a lot more questions than answers. But new information this morning that Vladimir Putin, the president of russia, was directly involved with using that information to influence the election. Back to you. Tracie potts live from washington. 6 38. Back to local news, a south bay tennis coach who is a registered sex offender is accused of molesting his students. A lot of people are asking why was he allowed to coach. Matt montana worked at the Sunnyvale Tennis Center and is accused of molesting two young girls between 2006 and 2012. The case doesnt stop there. Hes since been teaching private lessons. Police believe there could be more victims and theyre asking with more information to come forward. Happening today. Santa clara county supervisors are getting public input on to adjust changes to federal immigration policy. President elect trump made it clear that overhauling immigration laws will be one of his top priorities. Today at 1 00 p. M. , supervisors will host a public form at board chambers. Community leaders and immigration experts are expected to be on hand. Good morning. Its 6 39. Were in a microclimate weather alert. Heavy rain moving closer to santa rosa. This storm is making a slow progression to the south. When it does get to where you are, it will be raining for several hours, raising the threat of some flooding. We have a Flash Flood Watch in effect for the Santa Cruz Mountains. There may be debris flows with that rain, especially in those burn areas. Also, urban small stream flood advisory in effect for the north bay where the rain has been heaviest at this point. Well continue to track all the watches, warnings, advisories and the timeline of this coming up in about ten minutes. Now as we head over to mike, the rain and the wind playing a factor. Your note on the screen did dont drive through standing water. A lot of hydroplaning likely today. The commute helps out. As we travel through december on our commute, the later in december we get, the lighter the commute. Were seeing that right now. The south bay slowing for 85, 101 and 280. Theres your Silicon Valley build. No major rain issues down here. Across the san mateo bridge you may get caught with a gust of wind across the highrise rain in the north bay and on the richmond side of the richmondsan rafael bridge. Lets talk about your travel across the span. Were looking at a slow irp drive across the bay bridge. The backup at the toll plaza because the metering lights are on, may be slowing a bit. Chp said it was a factor for them. Looking at the san mateo and dumbarton bridges. Theyre all right. Backup at the toll plaza is here. You see the spider web is actually moving in the wind. Its going to get blown away. Coming up, scott mcgrew will join us with whats happening in the business and tech world. Indeed. Well talk about Interest Rate hikes and what they mean for you. Well take you to the big board where the dow industrials are up 37 points, there we go, 19,828. Good thursday morning. Its 6 44. Tracking heavy rain as we see the downpours moving into the north bay. Spotty light rain elsewhere, but just a preview of what to expect as we go into this afternoon. Well talk about the wind and the rain and give you a better idea of the heavy rain timeline coming up in about five minutes. A live look over here toward san rafael. A wet and sometimes windy view of the north bay as the camera shakes from time to time. We have problems farther north because of the rain coming in. Mike, you talk about the rain. Its falling down, Interest Rates going up. And the markets, just on the verge of 20,000. Lets check in with scott mcgrew. Good morning. The fed did as expected, hiked rates a quarter per isnt as sam mentioned. What we didnt expect is the fed said it will likely hike rates several more times. This is only the second in ten years. The fed says not only is the economy doing well, it may be doing so well, not what you heard from some people during the president ial election. The markets higher this morning, dow industrials gaining 30. The nasdaq up about eight and were close to 20,000. A couple of quick facts for you about Interest Rate hikes, they mean more to banks than to you. If you have a credit card, you are going to see a hike. But, and its a big but, remember, youre already paying too much in credit card rates. Theyre absurdly high. If yu have a store coard, old navy up to 25 . As far as mortgages, theyre more tied to the yield on gov bonds and they do go up, but its really the trump valley on wall street thats sucking money away from bonds, hurts your Mortgage Rates more than the fed. Alaska Airlines Executives celebrated their takeover of Virgin America at sfo. Virgin america rated the best airline in the nation seven years running. A lot of passengers were asking what happens to virgin now. The answer, nothing yet. Elephant in the room right now and avoid any questions with thousands of cameras pointed at me, and that would be whats the future of the Virgin America brand. The reality is theres no immediate changes whatsoever to Virgin America, the product and the brand that you know. For now. Alaska says its going to make those decisions after the first of the year. As for the questions, sam and laura, why not keep both. You cant do it without spending millions. They use different airplanes, have to crosstrain everybody, two marketing budgets, two computer systems. Have no doubt Virgin America is going away, not today, but probably next year. If you want a chance to fly them, now is your chance. Kind of sad. Thank you very much, scott. Back to our storm ravage this morning. If youre just joining us, were expecting to see the strong of the storm yet in the entire bay area. And providing snow in the sierra already. Certainly coming down in the north bay. Keeping a close eye on the Russian River in turn ville. Its expected to spell from eight feet which is where it is now to 28 feet during the storm and flood stage is at 32 feet. Tells you just how much rain were going to get. This is video from the Russian River flooding back in april. Also, laura, talking about rivers seeing an increase in water lels rjs that also applies to the napa river. Thats expected to go from five feet to around 17. Flood stage, though, is 25 feet. There are big increases in north bay rivers and creeks during the storm. Were also talking that San Francisquito creek. This is video from the flooding back in 1997 and 98 during an el ninofueled storm. It was a big one. We are not expecting things to get that bad during this storm. Lets go to today in the bays vianey arana live at that creek in palo alto this morning. Vianey, the city keeping an eye on the creek. So are you. Reporter as of now, the city website hasnt issued any flood warnings, and they do update that about every 15 minutes. The last update was about 6 40. Right now no updated warnings. If i hold up the anemometer, it tracks the speed and is picking up pretty decent gusts, but nothing too serious. As the storm pushes through, we are expecting the winds to pick up. Lets go look at the San Francisquito creek, a big concern is the residential area. I did speak with a resident who lived here since 2009. He did see he hasnt seen any flooding in the past year but he has seen these water levels rise. A pretty scary amount. He says hes not too concerned. I did logon to the palo alto website, they said this area has managed to flood and go over the embankment about 11 times in the past 93 years. They continually have efforts to change that and make sure these creeks can hold the amount of water. The San Francisquito creek, the watershed begins in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Its expected to rise about four inches. We will be keeping an eye on this. For now its looking peaceful. Sam and laura, back to you. Thats called the calm before the storm. Nice to see the river levels are low. Weve seen it bumping up. Lets look at the timeline for todays storms, looking at not just rain, but high winds, too. We could have gusts over 50 miles an hour along the coastline. The purpose of the microclimate weather alert is keep you aware before the storm gets here and to keep you updated as the storm continues to move through. Right now we are seeing dry conditions for the south bay. A lot of clouds, light sprinkles and once again the rain will get heavier as we go into late morning and early afternoon. This has been the same storm system thats been with us throughout the week. As it finally comes to an end, and the center of low pressure moves to the east, we will get that moisture cutting off and then finally drier air with cooler temperatures. In the meantime, were getting the brunt of the storm moving in from the north. Its been raining there for several hours. Once you see the rain moving in, it will take its time before it wraps up. We do have the concern of some flooding and strong winds. The rain moving into santa rosa at this point, northern Sonoma County and that will be moving into the rest of the bay area once again with slow progression to the south. So the hourbyhour outlook shows we will have a good coverage of rain by lunchtime. As the heavy rain moves out of the north bay early afternoon, during the afternoon commute we will have standing water on the roadways. We wont see the ranl wrapping up until about midnight tonight. Several hours of rain, expect an inch all across the bay area and sustained winds around santa rosa at lunchtime at 43 miles an ho hour. It could knock over trees and cause Power Outages as we go through the day. There could be up to two inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains where theres a flash flood in effect. After the storm system moves ourt, chilly air moving in, San Franciscos forecast only comes up to 51 degrees and 50 degrees on saturday, freezing temperatures for the valleys, down to 32 degrees. Now as we head over to mike, it looks like a Pleasant Drive so far. Very pleasant so far. Thats because a lighter volume of traffic has been out there. Also chp and the other traffic agencies are out there. Theyre on edge because they know the system is coming in. As we see the map here, were seeing the traffic push west. Theyll meet around San Francisco later in the morning as kari has talked about. In the south bay, we have slowing in the south bay. Same thing for the trivalley and the hayward area. We have a typical pattern, but lighter than typical for the thursday commute. San mateo showing more slowing across the flat section. More traffic flow northbound 101 off 92. 24 off the walnut creek interchange and eastshore freeway starting to build. Heading toward the bay bridge toll plaza, a slow drive as well. Fog, rain and drizzle in the north bay. The build for the commute coming down toward the golden gate bridge, a smooth flow for the transit agencies. Try transit and let someone else do the driving. B. A. R. T. Experiencing no delays. Palo alto toward the San Francisquito bridge, thats the construction going on at university right where vianey is. Keeping track of the rising went and rain as we look at whats happening outside. This is a live look at the eastern span of the bay bridge. Calm for the moment. Periodically weve been seeing the camera shake. It is very windy out there. We have reporters in the north bay, the peninsula and the south bay. Well check in with all of them next. First, happening now, because of all the rain, we are in a microclimate weather alert. Updates right on your smart phone. Download our nbc bay area app and get alerts when rain is about to hit your area. You can track the storm with our live Doppler Radar. Good news for people looking for health care. The deadline for people signing up to cover california is extended to saturday. Head to our twitter page for more information. Well be back in two minutes. Welcome back. Weve been tracking the development of this seasons major storm and what you need to know before you head out the door. Sharon katsuda is on the road in the north baby windsor. How is it looking right now . Good morning, sam and laura. You can see through the windshield that the rain is definitely coming down right now along highway 101 near windsor. Earlier we saw that there wasnt much rain, and then kari was exactly right, it started in the north. We saw a lot coming down in healdsburg and making its way down towards santa rosa is what were seeing. Definitely be careful out there. Were seeing a lot of traffic picking up out here and slick roads. As the chp say ts, plan a lot of time and be careful on your morning commute. Live from the livan, im sharon cat sue da. Today in the bay. Im bob redell live in pacifica where in a few hours there will be a wind advisory in effect. Winds expected to be from 25 to 35 miles an hour. Gusts up to 50 miles per hour. Weve seen winds like that already. There is concern about coastal erosion, especially about a mile and a half north of the pacifica pier along the cliffs of pacifica. Thats why in a News Conference, in the three hours, the city of pacifica is announcing it will be paying someone to take down 310 esplanade, an Apartment Building yellow tagged for several months and now in danger of falling into the pacific ocean. Bob redell for today in the bay. Reporter bob redell talking about coatal erosion. Im kris sanchez in the santa cruise mountains where wroegs is also of concern, but in the area of the burns zone of the loma fire. You can see the sandbags trying to stem some of the erosion that could bring down the hillside. Thats the concern now. The speed is also a concern on highway 17. Hold on to your umbrella or it could blow away. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, kris sanchez, today in the bay. A live look outside, it could be wet and windy. Advisories in parts of the bay area. Definitely will be a very wet evening commute. That is exactly the point. Were seeing the first beginnings of this storm, kari. Really the middle of the day and the early evening is when it will get to be the worst. Thats when well see the heaviest rain moving through and strong winds. Here is a look at the storm system as it makes its slow progression to the south and bringing with it heavy rain now in parts of the north bay. We will continue to see this getting more intense throughout late morning and early afternoon. In the meantime, mike is tracking a new crash in san jose. Thats right. No necessarily storm related. But we want to watch out for any of these agencies going on northbound 101 at cully. A new crash blocks one of your lanes. Roadways are wet. Keep that in mind throughout the morning and especially the evening commute. This is a cool feature. You can track the storm on our free nbc bay area app. You can check out interactive radar, see when the storm will hit your area. Hourbyhour forecasts for you there. Sign up for that. All of those hard working crews out there, chris, vianey and bob, well check back with them in the next half hour. Have a great day. Good morning. Nbc news exclusive. New intelligence directly linking Vladimir Putin to that Russian Campaign to interfere with the u. S. President ial election. Officials telling nbc news it all began as a vendetta against Hillary Clinton. 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