Least three funnel clouds to sacramento county. The National Weather service tweeted this photo of one of them this afternoon. Heres Spencer Christian with an update. Weve had all kinds of weather. And much of the bay area is not receiving rain but where it is raining it is pouring. Look at this area of downpours moving through the north, reaching from san rafael on towards vallejo. Some pretty heavy downpours in this cell shifting toward the eastnortheast right now, right along highway 80 interstate 80. As you can see theres a longer line reaching towards fairfield. Meanwhile, more active weather than that has been occurring in the sacramento area, where you mentioned weve had no fewer than five funnel clouds sighted between 2 15 and2 30. And now that area is pushing off towards the sierra where it is snowing and chains are required on highways 50 and 4. Now to the winter storm warnings, we have one in effect for clear lake until 6 00. One in effect for the sierra until midnight. And here in the bay area, rainfall totaling quite impressive. Well over an inch at san rafael calistoga, about an inch at napa. And under. 7 at oakland. We have the threat of scattered showers and more locally heavy downpours downpours. Thanks a lot. The biggest impact from the rain today was on the roads. The Highway Patrol handled more than 500 accident calls during the heaviest downpours this morning in the bay area. Thats more than three times the normal amount. We were in fremont when this truck blocked the highway for nearly three hours. The driver was okay. No other cars involved. All of the accidentings are exactly why we need to slow down when its raining. Some commuters say they altered their day because of the brain. Rain. I delayed my start. I said im not going back that way. Commuters appreciate the rain, of course, they just wish it came at a slightly different time. Some of the heaviest rain hit the south bay this morning. But we found given the drought the weather made a lot of people quite happy. Reporter usually on a rainy day you see people hiding out inside. But along main street at santa cruz avenue in downtown los gatos, many people are out enjoying the spring rain. We need it. Reporter residents happy to get some relief from the drought. Im glad its raining. Im really glad that its snowing in the mountains where we need the water up there. It runs down all yearlong. We need this so bad. Im from back east so i listen to all my relatives talk about all the rain and snow well its sunny and 70something here. Reporter karen says its been months since shes had to break out her rain gear. It has her cutting back on gardening. Theres things im not replacing in the garden. Im not planting any vegetables. Reporter max the dog is embracing the weather, so is his owner, who hopes this is just the beginning. We need a lot more. This is nothing. Reporter Business Owners i talked to also prepared fort storm by raking up leaves and sweeping storm drains to make sure there wouldnt be any sort of pooling in the downtown area. In los gat oceanosgatos. This is what it looked like in Nevada County after six inches of snow fell at lake level in tahoe and as much as a foot higher up. Every little bit helps. But since the snowpack was only about 5 of normal, this wont do much to boost the spring snow melt. And here is video from the sierra. This was before 11 00. Snow has been falling steadily there all morning. Look at all that white. According to caltrans there are chain requirements in placer and nevada counties. You can keep an eye on the weather with the abc 7 weather app. As many in the state are cutting back their water usage, some Southern California communities are using even more water. Today californias water board reported in february statewide we used about 2 less than the same period last year. But those in Southern California including los angeles and san diego increased water use by more than 2 . Here in the bay area, we cut back about 8 . These are nowhere near the cut the governor ordered last week. Water officials are discussing how to enforce his mandate. While cities grapple with how to save water one wants to use more recycled water. Reporter the idea is to use greywater. And gray water is water that comes out of your bathroom sink or shower. You treat it and then you can recycle it for uses not potable like flushing the toilet. It is already in use down the street at the puc headquarters. Inside San Franciscos Public UtilitiesCommission Headquarters youll find purple pipes stretched across the bagsment ceiling part of an urban meets wetlands system that converts wastewater suitable for flushing through the toilet tank it is done through this system of recirculating the water. Reporter these jars show what the water looks like before during and after the inhouse recycling. The entire process takes about two and a half days. It cuts the buildings water usage by 75 . This is longterm saving for us. Reporter scott wiener wants to see others saving water as well. He introduced legislation requiring gray water recycling systems to be installed similar to those at the puc. It only is for buildings over 250,000 square feet. Its incredibly important piece of the puzzle. Reporter it puts the upfront cost on developers, and i couldnt find a single one today who wanted to talk about this. But supervisor wiener says its not as much as you might think. We anticipate the increase in costs would be somewhere between 1 and 2 . Reporter if passed several proposed developments could be impacted. In San Francisco tiffany wilson, abc 7 news. And before we move on a reminder visit abc 7. Com on the simple steps we can take to conserve water. A san jose man faces charges of manslaughter and dui after a deadly hitandrun that led to a second accident. He was driving a pickup truck that hit a taurus and kept on going. The nissan was stuck on the highway when another semi slammed it into a wall. The driver died. Its unclear if the first or second crash led to his death. The driver of the second truck has not been charged. Now some plane problems. She was kicked off a bay areabound flight after she mentioned that she was a cancer patient. We are live with the story, david . Reporter what a story this is. Elizabeth is on her way back to san jose and will be arriving about 10 00 this evening. But getting back to california has been an ordeal, some would say it is down right frustrating. Lets take a look at cell phone video as she and her husband were told to get off an Alaska Airlines plane as it was preparing to depart in hawaii because she mentioned she was weak and a cancer patient. She was also wearing a face mask. She was asked for a doctors note, which she didnt have. She posted all these details on her Facebook Page creating quite a stir on social media who thought the airline was wrong to do this even after she said shy contacted her oncologist who said she was clear to fly. Alaska airline has offered to refund the air fund. They said we regret the experience and how it was handled. The situation could have been handled differently. Now reaction from a travel analyst and passenger. Its an embarrassment for the airline, but not a longterm issue. And i commend alaska for saying that they were sorry and admitting the mistake that they made. People do get sick on planes. Thats part of their daily routine. Reporter so he shouldthey should be prepared for anything . Yes. Reporter we spoke to a Major Medical center here in the south bay, and were told that doctors when requested will issue ill passengers a medical letter clearing them to fly. Now alaska says it did consult with its oncall physician in this case and by policy followed the doctors recommendation, whether or not the passenger was ill enough to fly or well enough to fly. We just finished an interview with the woman and will have that interview for you on abc 7 news at5 00. A bay area based airline taking flight to new cities. The expansion Just Announced by burling games Virgin America. And theres a new way to watch hbo without that pricey cable bill. And new at 4 30, escape from yemen. A bay area man returns home after escaping from the wartorn country. Are you running out of time to file your taxes. Give us a call. Or you can go on to facebook and well answer your questions there as well. Thats at abc 7 news. Thanks, michael. And from taxes to taxing. The bay area commute, although not too bad as you look live at the san mateo bridge actually moving and we are taking a live look outside at 4 14. You can see it looks a little blustery, the wind blowing, and ooh, what a wet morning we had today. Yeah, we got a really decent storm in here which we desperately need. Can you see a live look at the Golden Gate Bridge you see scattered cloud cover out there. Look at those clouds. Yeah. This is the bay bridge. A live look there. Fortunately, traffic is moving through nicely, but yes, the clouds are still hanging around this afternoon. Well get back to spencer in a minute but still one more week to get your taxes done. Michael finney has brought back his panel of tax experts to answer your questions. Rather than just take it by phone, were taking your questions on facebook. We have don right here. Hes in charge of the San Francisco enrolled agents. You can go right now. You dont have to call us up. But if you want to call us, heres number. 4159547524. This is bart rugo right here. Im going to have you put down that phone for just a moment. Youre with united way its a low income service, right . Low and moderate income. Tell me about the 1040 ez and the 1040. How do you know which one to use . The ez is theeasyist one. It doesnt cover very much income. It doesnt do any adjustments and its very simple. Only got 14 lines. The 1040 a is an intermediate between the ez and the 1040. But the 1040 form covers everything. So if youre not sure what to use, use the 1040 and youll everything that you need to report will be reported on that form. And tell me calling the number 211. What is that . 211 is a call site where from any county in the bay area, you can call 211, and you can click up with people that will find out what your sippzip code is and refer you to free tax sites near your home. For low and moderate income. About 55,000 and under. Ill let you go back to the call i made you happenings up there. Heres our number, 9547621, thats area code 415. Go to our Facebook Page, type in your question. We have annewee have an enrolled agent. Burlingamebased Virgin America has a good thing going on. Its offering a flash sale on its rout from fso to hawaii. They are offering a 199 one way to honolulu. The deal does only apply to weekday flights which exclude weekends and holidays. You can enjoy popular shows on hbo without paying for cable. Hbos new streaming service hbo now officially arrived on apple tv today for a 14. 99 fee. It will be available on other devices and streaming services as well. Hbo had promised to release the new service ahead of sundays eagerly anticipated game of thrones premiere. The rain is mostly gone now, but it did leave it quite the sight. Look at this rainbow that was tweeted out today. Thanks for that, drew. It was sent to him by an abc 7 news viewer. You can see the rainbow right over sfo. All of a sudden the weather right here across the embarcadero has become windy. Lets show you whats going on. The nature of this system right now is widely scattered pockets of heavy downpours of stormy weather. Check out the thunderstorm cell moving through oh San Pablo Bay right now around hercules. We have hail reported near Pleasant Hill and concord. And, as you can see, this cell is moving out towards vallejo and points eastward. Pretty intense weather right now. This storm is not only accompanied by locally heavy downpours and lightning flashes, but no doubt strong gusty winds as well as the hailstones i mentioned. Here you go. Stormy weather moving through San Francisco towards the east bay. Its isolated but where its active its intense. 57 degrees here in San Francisco. Upper 50s at san Carlos Morgan hill and half moon bay. Check out this view of clouds hovering over the bay. Its currently 55 in Santa Rosa Napa 51. 59 at concord and 61 in livermore. And clouds over the bay in this view from our camera as you take a look at our forecast features. Well see scattered showers overnight. The likelihood of thunderstorms will diminish as we get through the evening hours. And it will be sunny and mild for the remainder of the week. Heres the pa passssage of the front. Right now were looking at scattered showers swinging through the bay area. So heres our forecast starting at 7 00 this evening. Well continue to see scattered showers or the chance for scattered showers overnight and through the day tomorrow, tapering off tomorrow evening. And by 8 00 tomorrow evening we predict additional rainfall totals not more than. 10 of an inch. And in the sierra, additional snow will fall. Up to about 9 more inches at kirkwood and donner, probably 5 inches at tahoe city. Back to the bay area overnight again, scattered showers cloudy skies, lows into the upper 40s. Tomorrow mostly cloudy, scattered showers highs ranging from upper 50s at the coast to lower to mid60s around the bay and inland. What a difference a day can make. Starting on thursday, sunny and milder and well have sunny and mild weather for the next several days, thursday right on through the weekend and early next week. Dan and ama . We have a little breaking news related to the weather. Youre looking at a home near jordan avenue, not far from california Pacific Medical center. In the wind out there and you can seate the trees blowing around a scaffold collapsed on this home where some work was being done. No one was hurt although one worker had to be rescued a bit untangled from this mess. But you can see its quite blustery out there, and in the process the scaffold gave of way. Heres our traffic camera, we are on 880 southbound right now. And just froze up for a second there. But we were moving quite smoothly. No problems as we went by the coliseum, but things are going to be different later. There is a Fleetwood Mac concert tonight, so your traffic on 880 will be a little thicker tonight. First bat kid saves San Francisco. Now hes headed to the big screen. When you can see the new movie featuring the caped crusader that captured the heart of a city. D. C. In the dark. Disruptions after a sudden power out and turned off the at 4 30 here are the stories making headlines where you live. Take a look at this. Its a live picture from sky 7 hd up over the city of San Francisco. This beautiful rainbow. And this after the worst of the storm. Meanwhile, the first rain weve seen in more than a month caused problems during the morning commute. Chp tells abc 7 news officers responded to several accidents this morning far above average. We are tracking the rain and it was tweeted that the showers will diminish. Now we are getting a sneak peek of the new cars for smart. We are on this story and this photo was tweeted out. A first look inside the train cars. A San Francisco man returned home today after getting stuck in yemen as Political Violence intensifies. He tried several times to flee from yemen and was finally successful. Abc news talked to him and were live from the newsroom with the details. Reporter i spoke with him last week when he was trapped in yemen and really getting desperate. He finally got out and made it home, but worried about the american friends he left behind. He is back on u. S. Soil after a journey which nearly cost him his life. Im happy to be back. I am still sad about the way i came back. Reporter he arrived at sfo. Of the final leg of his trek to escape the wartorn nation of yemen, a country under siege. Its just getting worse and worse every day. Reporter he was at working with coffee farmers. He knew getting out would be nearly impossible. The first night they bombed the civilian airport in sanaa. So they implemented a nofly zone stopped any naval activity. So we were trapped in yemen. Reporter he tried several times to escape and he skyped with us after he was taken prisoner by a militia group. They yanked me took me out of my car blindfolded me and my two friends and threw us in the back of a truck. Reporter his friends were released, and over the weekend he took Desperate Measures riding with a fisherman across the red sea. Ive never been in a huge sea like that, an ocean, to a country ive never been to and i didnt know if i would make it or not. Reporter he said he got little help from the u. S. State department which closed its doors last month. Thousands live in yemen right now and want to get out. Reporter the Bay Area Council on American Islamic relations says hundreds of americans are still trapped. Were hearing from people who dont have internet who say they dont know how to reach anyone and their internets so sporadic they cant do anything. Reporter the state Department Tells abc 7 news it has no plans to evacuate u. S. Citizens in yemen. It advises those to leave if they can. Those who remain should use caution and avoid travel unless its absolutely necessary. Jurors spent the day deliberating on 30 charges against joedzhokhar tsarnaev. Prosecutors tried to paint a picture of the tsarnaev brothers as a unified terror team. The defense admits tsarnaev was a willing partner but that his brother was the mastermind. If convicted he could face a separate jury to decide if he could get the death penalty. A few seconds into oprahs speech watch, the power goes out. Oprah finished in the dark. Todays ceremony was the unveiling of the maya angelou forever stamp. It impacted a state department briefing. Hear of can see marie harf answe