>>and 6 a major winter storm finally starting to move out of the bay area leaving everybody to mop up the mess on the radar you can still see some green showing rainfall of course, the yellow and orange spots means heavier rainfall and more rain is still expected later tonight, but it

is beginning to move out. thank you for joining us tonight at 6 i'm pam moore and i'm ken wayne want to get our first check of the weather as we watch stormy conditions around the bay area subside maybe just a little bit. chief meteorologist lawrence karnow standing by with more or yeah this some kind of storm rolling through the bay area any normal year we already have the ground completely saturated. >>then you get a storm like this and you've got some major flooding concerns so so far not as bad as it could certainly could have been but still we're not done with the storm system that low still swirling off the coastline and spitting in all that moisture right out the pacific into the bay area in california. and all that atmospheric river moisture continue to pour across parts of the bay area today to back. we watch last night just before we left at 11 o'clock last night we could see that rain started to shift a little further north again and that's where started go target parts of the santa cruz mountains they had tremendous amounts of rain again flash flood watches been issued across much of the bay area they've been discontinued flood advisories that also

been issued in that area have also brought down by the national weather service. but certainly you can still see pockets of some flooding that as we're getting a whole lot of rain into the santa cruz mountains you've got pockets downpours there and even heavy rainfall that's been pretty consistent right along one o one boy what a mess there for the commute as they've got the heavy rainfall moving in and around that area, some of rain rates i was checking upwards of an inch of rain per hour and that's certainly enough to see a lot of public out there on the roadways and certainly some localized flooding so got to be careful headed in that direction. north we go we're getting on the backside of the system now you see more widely scattered showers just pop up showers in a place like sunnyvale parts of east palo alto as well continue to see some of the lighter amounts of rain moving through right now but we could still see some isolated thunderstorms pop up the air is very unstable out there right now you can see more of these downpours on and off through the evening before the system really begins to fully taper off so get the idea more scattered showers the heaviest activity to the south. the north bay really not getting that this is how

it worked out then loma now we're still adding to those totals there but now there almost 7 and a half inches of rain over the past 2 days, los gatos they're over stuff 5 inches of rain there almost 3 in the 3rd sandra fell over 3 inches of rain and someone unusual that's how the storm system set up much of the south bay saw more rain in places north so san jose usually don't get as much rain in san francisco. but they almost 2 and a half inches of rain there san francisco yeah over an inch and a half so an ice storm we are going to catch a little bit of a break but there's another storm on the way we'll let you know when we expect that one that would be going to come up in a few minutes all right lauren thank you in cupertino santa clara county sheriffs have closed stevens canyon road because of flooding. we're told the area received between one and 6 inches of rain in the hills above cupertino. >>and all of that moisture runs into the creeks of the stream dan collection, the reservoir, some rain of course got into the roadways. the crews had to get in and siphon

that water off people are being asked to take alternate routes to get around that area such out eaten. >>and piers roads. elsewhere in the south bay fire and rain wary folks are going home in the santa cruz mountains kron four's rob fladeboe reports from boulder creek where as the storms move out evacuated residents are moving back in. >>light rain continued to fall here in boulder creek across the greater san lorenzo valley for much of the day on thursday but for the most part this atmospheric river event appears to be winding down and the evacuation orders associated with the threat of debris flows in the burn scar areas have been lifted. >>resident mariano roddy and her neighbors are only too happy to be home after evacuation orders were lifted thursday morning. they were among some 5,000 people chased from their san lorenzo valley homes by an atmospheric river type storm that threatened to

touch off debris flows for mudslides in neighborhoods in and around last summer's czu wildfire zone. >>i decided to leave because i live right here across some this burn site. and no one knows what's going to happen indeed runoff from 3 days of relentless rain is pouring down the street from the burn scar above the neighborhood. >>and then no significant debris flows or mudslides associated with the wildfire. as a result officials downgraded the evacuation order warning allowing people to go home, it's not necessarily an all-clear but what we're telling folks is we're comfortable. >>that there's not going to be any weather that could come through create a debris flow, but that doesn't mean that something could happen. >>officials attributed the relatively minor damage to the lack of rain up until this week. a warning that further evacuations may be necessary as the threat of debris flows in burn scars will persist if

and when heavy rain returns it to see that this could become somewhat of our new normal of these. >>accelerated events where evacuating folks in in head of a storm the evacuation order was lifted despite another night and morning a very heavy rain making for extremely hazardous driving. >>scenes like this are common as there are still some spotty power outages reported. sandbags are helping to divert runoff from the steve drainage above their homes. >>catherine berlin and her 2 children are glad to be home it was a little you know the kids and i left, but. >>my husband stayed to. >>they serve a tree fell skylights though he could cover it not destroy our house in boulder creek rob fladeboe kron 4 news. >>and as rob mentioned some of the orders have been downgraded to evacuation warnings. here's a look at the current warnings of both santa cruz and san mateo counties, the area shown in yellow on

the map on your screen you can see that there's only one area left with an evacuation order and that's new big bass a state park. >>crews in the area are still pretty much concerned about those debris flows and the czu wildfire burn area. >>several regional parks in the east bay are back open the parks were originally scheduled to stay closed until tomorrow morning because of the stormy weather and possible damage and cleanup. reopened locations include anthony chabot regional park lake chabot regional park tilden regional park and wildcat canyon regional parking find the full list on our website. also an east bay kron four's phillipe djegal reports the morning wind and the rain complicated driving conditions because some trees to fall. >>everest's in alamo spending the past 2 days removing limbs from leaning redwood tree on private property. it has struggled staying up against strong wind and rain a cable installed 10 years ago the

only reason it has not fallen. a new cable and anchor have been installed holding it together another large tree toppled over on tice valley boulevard and walnut creek. >>the county public works. from the roadway. it appears to failed face with ground was saturated with water driver lost control and the slick slamming a dodge challenger into a tree. >>the driver left the scene before officers arrived the california highway patrol says it's possible the weather played a role in the crash. in the rada some people took advantage of the storm breaks for some exercise. >>also staying prepared for the likelihood, another storm will hit friday. djegal all kron 4 >>i take a look at this it has been snowing hard all day squaw valley alpine medals officials tell us 22 inches fell in the upper part of the

mountains overnight last night bringing the total as squad alpine to 53 inches since monday more than 4 feet. the lower mountain lists at both mountains are open if you can get their rich shotlist remain closed. as crews perform avalanche, what they call avalanche hazard mitigation basically it's avalanche control and snow in the sierra affecting travel all around the lake tahoe region taking a live look right now where highway 80 89 meet in truckee you can see some snow covered roles, they're all gone to seek out trans. >>has cleared a lot of it. the national weather service has issued blizzard and avalanche warnings for the area so a lot to be concerned about the highway patrol and the truckee area asking people to stay home and stay off the roads until the weather clears joining us now to talk about that on the phone is officer karl spur as with the how that rolf truckee station so officer press, thanks for joining us. we saw earlier about an hour or so ago colfax on interstate 80. >>caltrans and the chp had the

interest of the freeway completely shut down is that still in effect what can you drive through 80 to get up to the sierra. >>were at the moment still closed from fact only 2 and a line. due to dangerous conditions hire and you making it unsafe to travel at this moment, yes, it is low. >>what are biggest concerns moving through the nighttime hours. >>well, i mean again right now just down so i think it's thing as a whiteout conditions in which you know you can buy and that is this is dangerous driving this you know we shut it down and you know anything bigger major. >>yeah we're looking at a live picture from donner showing 80 and we'll see an occasional vehicle drive-thru. can you describe what happened prior to the decision to close down the freeway did you have a number of what kind of calls are you getting.

>>well yeah, well before noon we just we called at about 1 o'clock or so but jackknifed big rig. and it was just not up that point couch and the side got to see for senate down to get cleared and then you know i count on to amazing job keeping the clear but that coming down into the community and humiliating and it's coming it's doubt a lot more coming tonight. >>so what is your main message or wet reminders. the you want to tell travelers you know a lot of times people see all that snow and i can't wait to get to the ski resorts message do you want to have what's your main message tonight. >>you know what we get it out in the media a lot of weather people be a big storm lethal people need to be a appear not travel writing out though but.

be prepared and down slow down little down you know that because thinking of is to prevent people are will. >>are you getting people are trying to just kind of sneak through catching people are doing what they're not supposed to. >>we some on the thanks we a lot people don't people are. and ever i mean not the way people trying to stick around and make we have to up you know when they're trying to we use or says i wrote people really hate it. >>so off of officer per as you mention of course change but remind people of the necessities they should have with them if they are traveling tonight. >>yeah he had a full tank of water load of snow shovel. you know the jumper cable. i would be fired back to the body. able. and just fact that he

prepared i mean i and you know all depends you know anderson there you go. you can go at >>i want to clarify for our audience said this picture that we're looking at is live and you see there's a lot of snow on the freeway at donner summit. we showed some earlier daytime with the snow. levels there as well so ad is closed between colfax and the nevada state line. i know you're out of the trucking office can do you know anything about what's going on on highway 50 can people get to south shore. tonight. >>moment they had about brad lets eye on the i no idea about being a softly carry does have drop a little bit below >>officer carlos perez thank you so much for your time and advice for anybody thinking of traveling through your area tonight. and of we our coverage of what's left of this atmospheric river continues now on kron 4 dot

com there you can find the interactive evacuation maps get the latest weather alerts a list of road closures and some preparedness tips all at kron 4 dot com and of course check before you drive up there another covid-19 variant has made its way into the u.s. coming up. we'll hear from public health officials on their next steps also democrats and republicans on capitol hill divided on how to move forward with the next coronavirus relief package why democrats say

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>>sad news from the east bay tonight, a horse was killed during heavy rainfall today at golden gate fields, a spokesperson tells us the 3 year-old horse was killed while training on the wet track this morning. this comes only 8 days after racing resume there at the track it had been closed because of covid-19 concerns, 26 horses were killed on that track in 2020. all right, let's take another look at stormtracker 4 with the wind and the rain across the bay area tonight. >>and beyond we're also seeing some snow fills a lot in this year's. yeah, laura says things are beginning to wind down so where do they stand right now yeah we still got some showers outside right now and some heavier amounts of rain into the south bay and that will be the case throughout the night tonight things going start to move a little further south and for the east. >>as the storm starts kick on shore still going to see couples bands move on shore

and certainly there's a chance we could see a few more heavy downpours and even some thunderstorms out there right now looking for the east bay hills lot of clouds out there at this time toward the golden gate bridge partly cloudy skies mostly dry as you head further north now but still to get the rain going on in some kind of storm this low has been lingering off the coastline very deep trough of low pressure along the coast once again said deep, it's just hard for to move very fast slow-moving storm and that has allowed all that moisture continue to roll off of civic in the bay area and much of california, the main focus really toward big serve they had uppers of 12 inches of rain across some of the places they're and they have seen some flooding and some mudslides but the atmospheric river actually in turn a little to the north last night and move back into the santa cruz mountains and parts of the south bay and that's what we had today in fact flash flood watches rough for quite a while today but they've been discontinued by the national weather service still you got pockets of some very heavy rainfall and you can see near of morgan hill down to gilroy

the very heavy storms rolling through that direction right now those will continue to push to the east and the south but certainly traveling that way bree treacherous right there as we speak showers continuing into parts of the south bay now the saratoga sunnyvale you've got some scattered showers in and around you right now some of the cells sliding through mount view some lighter amounts of rain for the most part but going to see these pop-up showers continuing on and off through the evening as the storm really tries to wind down its just not quite done yet and even heavier amounts you see that yellow there near santa clara and campbell storms moving through ca to see those brief periods of those downpours throughout the evening and then after midnight i think is going to taper off quite a bit you can see the north bay not much happening there just some really widely scattered light showers out there right now rainfall totals pretty impressive. here's where we stand we are hoping to get a lot we did. in really have changed totals a big turnout over 5 inches of rain for the season in san francisco that is 39% of normal san jose really got a nice kick they were 19% normal after the storm now at 45% of normal

over 3 inches of rain oakland now 36% of normal almost 4 inches of rain in santa rosa over 8 inches rain, 41% of normal. so certainly got a long way to go to catch up, but we've got more storms on the way to we'll time that next one out for you coming up in a few minutes all right laura, thank you very much another big story we are following tonight. >>a new variant of the coronavirus it was first identified in south africa last year has now been found here in the u.s.. doctors identified 2 cases in different parts of south carolina. neither patient had traveled recently. it's now been discovered in at least 32 other countries. the south africa variant is not a more deadly, but it is 50% more contagious. south african variant as well as the brazil and the uk variance for the subject of an online discussion today sponsored by ucsf kron four's dan kerman is live there now with more on that discussion than. well with all these variance and

different vaccines and different efficiency of the vaccines depending on the variant lots of questions today we've got many of the answers. >>a vaccine is in variance took center stage during ucsf us weekly online roundtable grand rounds, medical experts confirmed that current vaccines may be less effective against the south african variant though they said it would still provide protection against the most serious cases given that >>some reasons for concern it would be wise to develop updated vaccines that could have better recognize these particular variance that that they are so different than what's been seen in the past and indeed already. and pfizer have seen the past few days that they that they are going to do that medical experts also said the vaccines in their current form are effective against the uk variant. >>which is critical considering it appears to be 30 to 70% more transmissible and possibly more deadly we see that people who tested positive for the very end.

>>look as i am i have a slight decrease mortality is not a very big but we think it may be looking about from different angles as couple increased transmissibility and possibly an increase in mortality, but experts say it's what the variance have in common that's most helpful. >>the important thing is as that there's nothing different about these variants are still droplets. and so that masking and social distancing remains a primary means of protection. >>ucsf stopped or george rutherford was also asked whether the state's decision to lift the regional stay at home order which will allow outdoor dining to resume is a good one there not randomized controlled trials, it's a outdoor dining sums up thumbs down we're working with the city to put together a series of case control studies. >>that could really examine those questions in greater detail. >>also points out that this move is moving most counties to the purple tree or which is

the most restrictive tier so this letting up of the break he says is only a slight letting up at the break live at ucsf dan kerman kron 4 news thank you dan well, congress could begin work on passing the next covid relief package as early as next week, democrats and the biden administration are pushing for nearly 2 trillion dollar aid effort but. >>the proposal has not gone over. well with republicans on capitol hill our washington dc correspondent kellie meyer joins us live with the very latest kelli. >>and guys will democrats and republicans are split on the cost of the covid-19 relief proposal. but democrats are preparing to move forward without republican support. on thursday senate majority leader chuck schumer continued his call for a bold covid-19 relief package, the need to act big and bold is urgent schumer is leading the push to pass a nearly 2 trillion dollar relief package that would include another round of

stimulus checks money for state and local governments and work to speed up vaccine distribution we've got lot to do and first thing got get this current past president joe biden is pledging 150 million vaccinations in his first 100 days in office texas republican john cornyn says the president. >>needs to set his sights even higher researchers at baylor college of medicine in houston say we need to be vaccinated 3 million people a day. that's double the pace we're seeing right now republicans are supportive of a robust vaccination rollout but are skeptical of the cost of the overall package, the price tag on is too much schumer is ready to move without gop support we have a responsibility. to help the american people fast. schumer and house speaker nancy pelosi are preparing to use a special procedure that requires a simple majority of the vote to pass the package. pelosi said earlier today that she hopes

they don't have to use it. but they will if necessary reporting live in washington, i'm kelly meyer back to you guys, thank you kelly. well, still ahead tonight at 6 could the luna effect interfere with your sl

>>well if you're waking up feeling groggy it may be the moon's let's do that will blame the move in a new study

revealed changes in the lunar cycle can seriously disrupt your sleep. researchers found that our sleep patterns are kind of like the tides pushed and pulled as the moon dictates the study published in science advances found that in the days leading up to a full moon most people go to bed about an hour later than usual, they believe the extra moonlight could be a factor. if you haven't had as much rest past couple of days. they say it's understandable the first full moon of the year happens to be tonight. next the gamestop frenzy on wall street as investors and regular folks fascinated and frazzled create some expert answers to explain what's going on. >>so i'm tracker for watching rain and winds across the bay area