Now from abc7, live breaking news. Wildfires rage on in the bay area, ballooning in size overnight. Right now more than 1 million acres have burned in california. That is the most in state history. And more people are being told they need to evacuate. Good evening and thanks for joining us. Im dion lim. And im eric thomas. This is a quick look at three big fires burning in the bay area. The lnu complex, which is in the north bay, has charred more than 341,000 acres. Its the second largest wildfire in state history. The scu complex which covers parts of alameda, contra costa and santa clara is behind at 339,000 acres. And the s tzu complex is burning in san mateo and santa cruz counties. We have Team Coverage for you. Theyre getting ready for more fires. Cornell barnard is in the north bay where the lnu complex keeps growing. We begin with meteorologist drew tuma with a look at the chance of us seeing more lightning strikes tonight. Drew. We were watching live doppler 7 as we see moistu
Prosecute you to the full extent of the law. Thank you for joining us, three massive wildfires are burning across the bay area. They have scorched over 1100 square miles nearly 7 times the size of san jose. Flames are forcing new evacuation orders this evening. Right now firefighters are bracing for dry lightning and gusty winds that could ignite new fires. The biggest fire is the l and you lightning complex burning in the north bay. More than 500 square miles have been scorched, and containment is at 17 . Katie nielsen is in the Dry Creek Valley area and what are ns l this is actually the calm before the storm, literally and figuratively. The winds have not really picked up yet, we are not seeing any of those thunderheads but we are seeing a lot of these helicopters, this is the national guard, a blackhawk helicopter with what they call a bambi bucket. A 600 60 gallon bucket pulling water out of this pond in the dry creek area then taking off, headed back into the fire lines on the ot
I want to zoon in on live doppler 7. You can see a pair of returns here thankfully moving into Santa Cruz County. We want to get you an update on the czu complex right now. The statewide situation in california at the moment before we get started here specifically in these two counties. Since saturday, august 15th, we have experienced 615 fires across the state of california, and more than two dozen of those fires have turned into major fires. With that, the second and Third Largest fires in california history are burning around us at the moment in santa clara unit and up in lmu and the lake napa unit. With that, theres over 14,000 firefighters assigned across the state at this moment with this lightning siege. Additionally, theres over 2400 fire engines across california fighting these fires. And cal fire alone has 96 of all firefighting engines committed to an incident somewhere in the state of california at this exact moment with. That, we have 95 aircraft assigned to incidents in c
Have been downgraded to warnings and while calm conditions helped firefighters make some progress overnight a red flag warning is in effect, bay area wide through tomorrow afternoon. We want to get to darren peck. The thunderstorm complex sitting off the coast right now, take a look at the High Definition doppler, its a complicated picture. You see a big mass of a thunderstorm of the coast of san mateo county, that is not actually there. The Weather Service has set this radar to its most sensitive so we can pick up the leading edge of the storms. That is clutter, not rain. But here is a Lightning Strike and it is moving, all of this stuff is stationary. The stuff that is moving is the wave of scattered thunderstorms that will get here later tonight. Over the next few hours, look down here. We have a few more coming up the coast so unfortunately we are still on schedule, the forecast is not changed a whole lot. Tonight through tomorrow morning is our highest concern, a 40 chance for iso
We have gotten through the overnight hours and the period with the potential for the most lightning there we have had a few Lightning Strikes across the bay area but not a lot. Most of it was in the Central Valley and the pacific. There is still rain. Look at the showers. Actually, there is more good news because it has been light rain. But when you start to get into the bands of yellow and orange, and into mendocino, that is an example of this lightning. That potential will stay with us until 10 00 this morning. Not to mention, the red flag warning is in effect until 5 00 this evening because of the wind that can still be an issue and there is the issue with that. We are not out of the woods yet but we have gotten through the worst part of the evening in terms of where we would have seen the potential for the most widespread issues with lightning. So here is the forecast. Once the shower was clear out of the north bay, it is just going to be us and the smoke. There will be a lot of sm