Reporter 48,000 people have been evacuated so far between santa cruz and san mateo counties. As you mentioned, this fire exploding to nearly 50,000 acres, 0 contained. Coming up in a couple hour, we expect to get an up date from cal fire as to the status of the fire so far. They have been telling us about some of their challenges in fighting the fire, this low relative humidity, insaysab ina terrain and of course the limited julian glover, abc 7 news. As he mentioned, not only there in santa cruz, but fires are burning across the entire bay area this morning. And this map kind of gives you a sense of how widespread the emergency is. Many fires are burning in five counties, there are widespread evacuations. The lnu lightning complex in the north bay has caused the stuildings have been destroyed, dozens damaged. These fires have burned 131,000 acres with 0 containment. Cal fire says the winds are a huge threat as we head into the weekend. Now lets go to the south bay, the scu fire, it is
Theres a lot on your plate this morning but we want to get you up to speed with the information we have to get you going. Well start with meteorologist kari hall with a look at that forecast today. Were starting out with smoke once again, the main issue weve had besides the hot temperatures. Live look outside in walnut creek once again a smoky start to our morning. The air quality as we look from parts of the north bay, we have an unhealthy air quality for people with breathing problems as we head to the south bay. Its still been pretty bad but its the worst right now in the trivalley and parts of the east bay. This will change throughout the day. Well be monitoring this with also updates on the temperatures in the forecast for the weekend thats coming up a little bit mike, hows it looking getting out the door . Were okay as far as the commute goes, i am watching a crash over my shoulder on 101 on a map. You dont see any slowing. There is an overturned vehicle with a couple lanes block
Live from the bay area studios, this is kpix 5 this morning. Right now on kpix 5 and streaming on cbsn bay area, we are looking live from our exclusive Salesforce Tower camera as we look out and see that lowlying fog and still the haziness in the air. It is friday, august 21st. I am michelle griego. I am len keise. Lets good to our coverage of the fires. Five have been killed. Tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes. The lightning complex fires are around 656 square miles this morning and that is about 14 times the size of francisco. We will have all the latest on the fires but first, lets go straight to mary lee with the look on the air quality of the bay area. We are tracking those hazy and smoky skies for unhealthy air quality, so checking air quality conditions of this morning, looking at unhealthy air from livermore, concord and for fairfield and unhealthy air for rio vista. A spare the air alert, once again in effect today and that will continue all the way through
Are still trying to escape from the neighborhoods are facing this morning. Good morning, mike. Lisa. Its lisa, sorry. Thats okay. Well work through it, right . Here is a look at live doppler 7 where you have the low clouds and fog pushing into the city and a little bit of mist and drizzle there, so that is good news. Numbers are in the 50s and 60s, so cool here downtown and looking at the current air quality shows that were moderate in the south bay, unhealthy in the east bay. Better in the city right now, and pretty much fair to good in santa rosa and napa. But the relative humidity, this is really nice to look at, anywhere from 73 to 100 . So with the cooler temperatures, the relative humidity increases, although as we get warmer throughout the afternoon, that of course will drop and the winds will pick up. Three quarter mile visibility half moon bay. The next several hours, well look at the afternoon numbers coming up through the 90s, 80s around the what i. And then well see the fog
Forecast with kari, another warm one ahead. Were starting out with warm temperatures again this morning. This is what we look at for those fire conditions. Usually those Early Morning hours are critical and seeing some of the fire not spreading as rapidly and were looking at still another morning start where we have temperatures in the upper 60s, not much of a wind, but at times we get these gusts up to about 11 miles per hour. As we talk more about this well get a look at how our trends change for today. Thats coming mike, hows it looking for those routes . Kari, we actually have a couple of Traffic Alerts were watching. On the peninsula, getting more dale around the embarcadero exit. The speeds are okay on the peninsula but the big problem is the active Traffic Alert in San Francisco for northbound 101. From 280 you see more slowing building up. Half the freeway is closed right now because of a crash, a pickup truck reportedly hit the hillside there and brought dirt and debris down o