Right now at 11 00, and urgent warning from the chp and caltrans, as another storm barrels towards us. Avoid the sierra. Extremely dangerous driving conditions are expected. In fact, a blizzard warning is about to go to effect. The whole area bracing for the strongest storm of the season so far you can see it turning right there in the pacific tonight. Heavy snow there which means heavy rain here. Lets get right toward chief meteorologist, jeff ranieri, this is too much for two areas here. The reason why it will be one of the strongest storms for the season is this is the first storm system we are going to see dropdown from the arctic this strong. We have really seen most of the storm systems coming in from the south with those atmospheric rivers that have been overall word. So Doppler Radar right now, that neck storm system is just off to the north. Really, for tomorrow morning, i dont see any big problems for the commute, weve deceived some spotty shower chances but it will begin to pick up by 1 00 p. M. Over napa and sonoma counties with heavier rain. Really through the duration of the storm system, what we will see is some onagain offagain. Max of rain so we will get a little break and well see you around coming back. We will see some spotty thunderstorm chances also the possibility of some help. When that 50 Miles Per Hour, make it into a little bit of street flooding with this but the sierra, that will be the goals out here, 17 and higher and with that load of snow but we want to 3000 feet. It will be treacherous here. This is just for tomorrow. 21 inches, kingvale, 15, twin bridges, 14 in kirkwood. Lets out on fridays numbers. 52 in kingsville, 29 atop. And then saturday maybe up to 93 inches came up and 92 in kirkwood. 100mileperhour winds with the blizzard warnings we can expect road closures and avalanche warnings. Those will be likely. More looks coming up about eight minutes. The race is on to get ready. Long lines and fullcourt carts at Hardware Stores and Grocery Stores in the sierra tonight. This is new video from truckee. Shoppers say the weight was to check out so long they were simply eating and snacking while waiting in line who live in truck you say this is not the weekend to visit but if you must, pack your chains, extra food, and warm blankets in case you get stuck. Here is nbcs terry mcsweeney. Reporter the biggest form of the air is bearing down on the sierra, much bigger than the one you see here from earlier in the season. The california Highway Patrol does not want you to be there to see it. The chp tweeting, quote, the sierras highly discouraged the next few days, as travel will be extremely dangerous with lizard conditions, white out conditions, near zero visibility, long delays, and road closures. Saturday is where we are going to see a lot of weather impacts, particularly up in the Sierra Nevada foothills. That is where we will see a lot of snow and there is the potential for storm related power outages. We would all the warnings in the world are not enough to stop skiers from driving up to the mountains to their favorite resorts. That is what we are told, the storm is causing a lot of excitement. There is definitely a buzz from customers and staff. Reporter i asked zach at Sports Basement to describe the allure of skiing on a huge pile of freshly fallen snow. It is like no other ski experience, for sure. Smooth surfing, like meditative. Like you are, like your best meal you can think of. Reporter which is what sidney madison was thinking as she prepared to head to the sierra ahead of the storm. I am watching the conditions on 80 and looking at chp, looking at the updates on twitter and online to make sure that no road closures are going to happen. Reporter for trevor hansen, thoughts of the perilous drive will cave his love of skiing, at least for this weekend. Didnt want to drive in it, didnt want to go in there, even sunday, without the roads might be too nicely. So we decided against it. It for next weekend, instead. Reporter with so much attention on the matches, the snow will bring potentially damaging conditions right here in the bay area. The most impact we will see is really in the financial area. We will see heavy rain, high winds starting thursday and continuing friday and for the weekend. Please san francisco, terry mcsweeney, nbc bay area news. Download our free nbc bay area app, that qr code on the left side of your screen will take you right to our radar. Your phones camera at that code to get to our weather page before you head out the door in the morning, check with our morning team for the latest on the weather and the traffic today in the bay begins at 5 00 in the morning. It was a small one with plenty of people out there, 3. 5 magnitude earthquake centered in Discovery Bay struck around 6 30 this evening. Initial magnitude was a 3. 8 but it was that downgraded to a 3. 5. Here is the map of the epicenter. People felt that it antioch, wallow clique and as far as oakland. It was quick but a strong jolt. No reports of any injuries. A police chase in Contra Costa County start, Lafayette Police responded to a robbery at a Fast Food Restaurant in mott diablo boulevard. Spotted that suspects car driving on highway 24, the car took off which led police on a highspeed chase that ended when the suspect hit an oncoming and incoming car in marinda. Police found two men and a sevenyearold boy in the car. The Sheriff Department tells us the boy was the son of the driver of the police vehicle. The men were arrested on several charges, the driver of the car that was hit was taken to the hospital and is expected to be okay. The city of oakland, will learn much more about the candidate of police chief at a public forum tomorrow. Absent from that form . Mayor sheng thao. She says she is not participating. Rejected the first batch which included the former police chief that she fired a year ago, leronne armstrong. Nbc bay area is giving with more from oakland. Reporter this is a letter the mayor sheng thao sent to the. In the second line she writes, i have decided not to participate in the forum. Mayor thao says a public forum isnt required because this will only create unnecessary risk for candidates and their current employers. It might also put oakland into a premature bidding war and possible candidates withdrawing their names when presented with a public forum. Former chief police, anne kirkpatrick. Understand why she is doing it. It seems a little lame giving the reason why she did want to participate. The candidates are now outed reporter sometimes i do understand why she is doing what she is doing. Reporter but says he will be attending the form. Clearly, talking about it we will keep an open mind. Im looking forward to a chief that will come in and do something because crime is definitely out of control in the city of oakland. Reporter all outsiders, up until last week after allegations he violated department policy. Former Lubbock Police chief resigned in september of last year after his department was criticized over abandoned 911 calls. Lisa davis is the assistant lease chief in cincinnati and the Investigations Bureau commander. And luis molina is this is an deputy mayor for the city of new york one of them could be leading the department that has been under federal oversight for more than two decades. Is a tall order for the incoming chief. Reporter some have an idea of what number one, the new chief has to have some kind of understanding. Reporter or deserves. The department deserves knowing, having stability and until you have permanent teeth you are not stable. Reporter a written list of finalists should be in march. The event, nbc bay area news. San jose detectives say their fight against retail crime is working. The Police Department received an 8 million grant from the state last year. Since then, theyve used that money to pay for a group of detectives to backup uniformed foot patrols. Those detectives are retired cops with decades of spirits who are working parttime to help catch retail thieves. Once that happens the d. A. Is using a new law to prosecute them. It is a unique, standalone statutes that we have that carries with it at least up to a year in jail and depending on the value of the property taken, we can seek prison sentences, as well. And we will. Reporter today the d. A. S lead prosecutor for retail theft walks through a southbay ball with the San Jose Police detectives who are updating him on their leads. Using Artificial Intelligence for good in the classroom. Contra costa County School district says it is fully embracing ai with caution in the classroom tonight, parent showed up to learn more about how they are using it and what they can do to help their children. Pete serrano has more. I have four kids. Reporter the parent of four it in the san ramon unified School District. I tonights workshop, to learn more about how ai is being used in classrooms two of my sons have adhd so they learn a little differently. Lee is the goal of education to prepare our students for whats next . We have to come at ai with that approach. During the workshop district officials explaining how they are approaching ai in a responsible manner. This includes fighting printable to make sure it is enhancing the learning experience and also the Leadership Team of educators to focus on the rapidly changing ai landscape. Now more of how much can we learn, take that back to our teachers so that they can take it back to the students. Not all districts are embracing it. Reporter gallagher is a director of policy analysis of california education in a 2020 the article she writes about the urgent need to update School District policies to include ai. Generative ai is coming into schools regardless of whether or not districts are embracing it. Reporter for now, students are blocked from using ai on campus, teachers can use it to streamline tasks around the classroom. By july, the district says the policy will be in place to provide ethical guidelines for students using ai. The idea that ai can kind of customize things for them and give them more access to learning content i think is exciting. In danville, pete suratos, nbc bay area news. I am chief meteorologist jeff ranieri, as that storm system quickly approaches, conditions will change fast. Started off with some rainfall and chili 40s. As we head into the day, 60 to low 70s. We are back down into the 50s. Along with that storm is going to stick around for the next three days with some low snow and that sierra blizzard all the details on this, coming up in 60 seconds. Thank you, jeff. Your next trip to paradise could cost you more. New tourist be making its way to the Hawaii Legislature and the reason for it. Inside these massive aluminum tubes are powerful lasers capable of creating temperatures up to six times hotter than the sun. What they are being used for could dramatically change the way we power homes and businesses all throughout the globe. Our Senior Investigative reporter reinvestigates the race to harness cleaner we hear so much about fossil fuels, including oil, coal, and gas that continue to pollute and drive climate change. Tech companies are now in a race to harness what is believed to be a cleaner and more cheaper form of energy. And it could one day power everything from highrises to homes to cars airplanes. Reporter explains what it is and what can we expect to benefit from it. Reporter inside an unassuming warehouse in berkeley, carl bass is hoping to change the world. We have virtually limitless power. Reporter with his company, alpha ring, is building miniature loop nuclear reactors. The first one spit on this table. Reporter small enough to store in a closet but big enough to power entire neighborhoods. We are not talking about the massively large device . No, we are not. Reporter steve wong oversees research and development and give us a tour of one of the companies labs in monterey. If we can produce Abundant Energy that will change the world. Three, two, one. Reporter alpha ring is working to create a totally different kind of Energy Source than what is currently fueling americas more than 50 Nuclear Power plants. Most facilities rely on nuclear fission, where atoms are split apart to produce massive amounts of energy. But it can also admit harmful radiation. Alpha rings reactor doesnt utilize it nuclear fission, it uses Nuclear Fusion. Instead of splitting atoms, they are fused together to create burst of energy. Fusion doesnt admit carbon or radioactive waste, and the materials needed to create the reaction are plentiful, found throughout the world. We really can produce energy at a fraction of the cost with almost none of the problems of the Current Energy infrastructure. This essentially would be a much cleaner way of powering our lives. For almost everything we do. You can imagine a small reactor in a vehicle, certainly in a boat or a ship, almost everywhere where we need to use in a heat or electricity, we can produce it differently and much more cleanly. For all the benefits, there is one major complication. No one has ever been able to turn Nuclear Fusion into a viable Energy Source. The only place fusion cures regularly is among the stars, powering most famously, the sun. But on earth, scientists believe we are the closest we have ever been to creating and sustaining that kind of power. Is not a matter of if, but when. Reporter physicist john edwards invited us inside Livermore National laboratory, where earlier this month, government scientists managed to create a Nuclear Fusion reaction. Over the past year, where the power produced measured more than what went into jumpstart the omission. You know you have a pile of wood and you can only get energy if you can light a fire and what we did is proven we can light the fire. These are the laser beams. Reporter their aim . To replicate the sons scorching heat. The lasers are inside these massive aluminum tubes together, their beams are able to create temperatures topping 180 million degrees. That is six times hotter than the center of the sun. Is or anything as hot as that in our solar system . Please not until we do another one here at the lab. Reporter relying on fusion powers can still be years if not decades away, even the most successful reaction here lasted less in 1 billionth of a second. And barely produced enough energy to heat up two pots of coffee. The process needs to generate about 100 times more energy to be considered commercially viable in the frequency of reactions would have to increase exponentially, potentially running nonstop. So you need to go from about once a month to 10 times a second. Reporter private companies are hoping to speed up and are seeing a surge of investments. More than 6 billion last year. That is over 1 billion more than the year before. Is going to do this rapidly, it will be critical we be partnering with the private sector. It is a Consumer Product with that prime industry i dont see how we get there. Reporter around the globe there are over 40 Companies Currently experimenting with more than 20 different methods to figure out how to sustain Nuclear Fusion reactions. Sleep solving that problem would change life in a fundamental way. Reporter a berkeley professor and author on Nuclear Fusion. He says he is skeptical about eager Tech Companies touting Scientific Solutions to complicated problems that remain unsolved for decades. If your theory sounds too good to be true it probably is. You dont think their science is quite there yet . Sometimes it will never be there, some of these concepts are very bad. Others are past. So this is closer to what their reactor will look like. Reporter alpha rings process for producing fusion is considered unconventional but the company says it science has led to more than 15 Nuclear Reactions the energy generated each time has only been enough to power a light bulb overnight but the company says some of its reactions have extended more than 19 hours. Remember, at the nations premier Government Lab in livermore, fusion has only lasted less then action of a second the accomplishment of this is just such a big deal. One of the important things when you make a claim like this where many people will be skeptical is that this will be able to be reproduced by others. To prove that, offering plans to submit its findings to a slew of scientific journals for review, the Company Hopes independent researchers will eventually determine the technology really does have star power. With the investigative unit. Will be talking about this for years to come. Cloudless turn our attention back to jeff ranieri and the big weather coming our way. That rainfall starts to return as we roll through tomorrows forecast. The storm system dropping down through the north so some of the coldest air we have seen all season long against with the storm system. Let me show you more particulars on what we can expect in your microclimate forecast and as we roll through tomorrow morning. I dont see a whole lot standing in your way on the commute, we just have some scattered areas of rainfall in the mix. Will start to see things pick up around 1 00 in the north bay and some of those heavy downpours making it into the east bay and south bay through 5 00 and we should start to see a little bit of a break around 11 00 p. M. Tomorrow night and that is truly the nature of what we are going to be seeing. Some areas of rain would get into a break and more areas of some heavy rain returning so is a look at friday, scattered rain, maybe some isolated thunderstorms for the morning commute on friday and then by friday evening, that is when the rain totals will really start to add up with a strong line of rain around eight, nine, and 10 00. Well get to do more scattered areas of heavy downpours, even some snow through Mount Hamilton for the morning on saturday, could see snow levels in the bay area dip at times between one to 3000 feet. Rain totals overall for tomorrow, i will break the support for you tomorrow, just a quarter to a half inch. A brown a half inch up for the north bay. San francisco southward. As we head into friday, numbers get bumped up a little bit more. This is friday specifically, a quarter to three quarters of an inch. Some of the strongest rain totals look to come on saturday with anywhere from a quarter in the south bay to maybe one to 1 1 2 for the east bay hills and right there at the coastline. So we have the rain to deal with, we are also going to get into some on and off wind gust s, we see a firsttier upswing tomorrow afternoon, 20 to 50, that wind coming out of the southwest, a second round of some when friday afternoon and evening, 20 to 50 as well and a third round here by saturday night. All that wind should taper off as we head into sundays forecast. Just in case you missed it, the snow in the sierra is going to be epic here. Really dangerous, it could turn deadly. Were looking at 94 inches in kingsville, 93, kirkwood, 78, tahoe city. Went up to 100 Miles Per Hour with those blizzard warnings in effect. Road closures possible even avalanche warning. That is really where the top headline looks to be coming out of the storm system. We will trail it off to a few spotty showers on sunday, dry on monday and a few more scattered chances on tuesday and wednesday. So a lot happening but i would say if you had plans to go to the sierra, maybe let the snow stack up and head out there next week if you can. Next week mighbe nice new at 11 00, you may have to pay more the next time you travel to hawaii. Over the past two weeks, two hawaii has committees discuss implementing a 25,000 to his fee. That proposed tax will help them mitigate the effect of climate change. A long way to go, the bill needs to pass another reading, but before it gets voted on by the states and appear up next, the hi the warrior actually didnt play tonight but they lost grounds in the standings. They switch back to the top vital playoff teams. The worries by the way are in manhattan, they played the knickerbockers tomorrow. The most challenging job in the majors, marcotte said, poor guy, loved him as a player, liked him as a manager. Rebuilding the as. The guy needs a raise. The as hosting the giants, this is in mesa, arizona. Might be the most promising Young Players for the athletics second baseman, zach gill off with a home run. The as beat the giants 74. At oracle park today, a whos who of local sports legends, we know these two, theyre celebrating the bay area what is on the verge of posting three major stuff in steve young, the former earthquake star, hunter penn, the warriors, part of a 12 person Advisory Board for the bay area host committee. The board helps promote the upcoming nba allstar game, the bay area is giving me a lot, i want to give it forward. There is a chance for me to stand up and to say i am bay area proud and i want to make an impact for the future. We need to show the beauty of the bay area. Something exceptional. Pretty cool to see all those guys. The first of the big three offenses next february, a year from right about w, the