>> from the area's local news station. you're watching the kron. 4 morning news at 4. >> good morning. thank you for joining us here on the kron. 4 morning news. this is tuesday, february 15th. we are exactly halfway through the month of february. already. thank you for joining us. i'm james fletcher. let's start the hour off with john and checks, the weather and traffic here. before we get to the headlines morning, john. hey, james, good morning. much like yesterday we're starting the morning. not too terribly cold. most of our temperatures down in the 40's to 50's right now. >> a brisk feel to it. a little less foggy than yesterday was looking outside. right now we can see conditions out there that are

relatively clear at the moment to there's your view of san francisco. definitely clear than it was yesterday. look at this. visibility definitely improved from yesterday, too. so a little less on the foggy side. still some passing clouds this morning that a couple of misty spots, especially in the santa cruz mountains. but otherwise the bay has remain dry overnight. now, current temperatures i mentioned being mostly in the 40's livermore. you're at 42 degrees right now. alameda at 49 degrees. some low 40's in the north bay, too, may see a couple over upper 30's in petaluma napa. kind of like you are in fairfield right now at 38 degrees later on today. it will be about the low to mid 60's yet again. a cool feel to it. sweater jacket where the conditions. i've got more on your forecast. still to come back with us this morning and a look at the roads. how's it going out there? and good morning, the biggest thing i'm seed. >> are few would advisories across some of our bridges this morning like the antioch bridge or the venetian martinez bridge. so take your time as you're driving across

those bridges, the bay bridge right now, little under 8 minutes for your drive as you're heading into the city right now, maze to that fremont street exit. let's go and get a look at the san mateo bridge. 92 westbound under 14 minutes. you can see as you're traveling across towards the peninsula, no delays looks like they have a few construction cones going on on the opposite side of the bridge there. that's not causing a delay, though. richmond, sandra fell 5.80, westbound. if you're traveling out of richmond about 8 minutes and let's check on the golden gate bridge. 37 to the tolls are looking at 20 minute drive. james, back to you. all right, reena, thank you very much to is the time. and topping our news this morning. masks. >> we'll still be required in schools across california, even as the statewide indoor mask mandate lift starting tomorrow, health and human services secretary doctor mark ghaly says that they will be releasing the mask requirement for students at the end of the month. but during the next 2 weeks, the state will keep an eye on vaccination rates and covid conditions and decide how to move forward. doctor

ghaly didn't say if there was a specific benchmarks that state leaders want to reach before dropping masks in schools. >> and should not here that we are making a move that you're taking a little bit more time. consider the information work with our partners across the state to make sure when the move is made that we doing it successfully. >> again, they'll be reassessing the mask mandate for schools at the end lf the month. doctor galley his update comes as state covid cases and hospitalizations are declining and have been doing so over the last month, california is preparing its shift from a pandemic strategy to an endemic one. and the governor has said that those details would be coming out sometime this week. so we'll let you know once those are made public. meanwhile, the decision to keep masks in schools for now is getting some mixed reactions. kron four's dan kerman spoke to doctors and educators about the move. and here's what they had to say. >> the announcement that

california school children will need to continue to mask, at least through the 28th of the month is being applauded by both the california teachers association and the california federation of teachers. we believe he's following the much what we've been asking for. we know. >> and we believe that there needs to be an off we do have mitigating and we just coming out of omicron we've had many schools that were stress with staffing crisis and we want to make sure that our staff and students are safe, that we can continue to keep our schools open. many medical experts are also saying it's a prudent decision. if everything continues in the trajectory is going. >> that is the cases continue to drop as fast as they are dropping. hospitalizations continue to drop and they're dropping really quite rapidly right now. >> we're going to have so much less virus in the community in a couple of weeks that we're having now that that's when you can start to have this discussion about. is it time

to get rid of masks in schools? but there's not universal support, elaine, this further. >> is really a disappointment. doctor. jeanne noble is the director of covid response for ucsf emergency department just doesn't make public health or medical sense to help kids to a higher bar before they can unmask. they have more to lose from the masking and they are lower risk. >> on the 28th of this month, the state will review the numbers again. and if cases and hospitalizations continue to move in the right direction, it's likely the state will announce a future date when masks will no longer be required in schools. dan kerman kron, 4 news. >> along the peninsula, the burlingame school district has dialed back its mask requirement for students when they are outdoors. the district says that outdoor masking is now just an option for students and adults on all campuses. masks, though, still will be required indoors. the

district also says it will be keeping a close eye on covid cases within the community and they'll revisit this issue if they need to make a change. >> when we think that's a good plan, the rates are dropping lower. they're still high. community transmission level of covid. so there still is a risk. but families should be aware that the state is planning to not only drop the indoor mask mandates tomorrow, but soon after february 28th, it certainly looks that like the school mandates will probably drop some time. probably mid march would be something important for families to know. >> well, the district is also announced that it's going to allow volunteers to return indoors at schools as well. that will be starting on march 7th, although they will need to show proof of vaccination. california, meanwhile, could mandate that all businesses require their employees and

independent contractors to get vaccinated. oakland assemblywoman, buffy wicks introduced the legislation and it would allow exemptions only for medical or religious reasons. but testing would noo be an alternative to getting the shot. you got to get the shot, which says that the measure is supposed to give businesses a uniform and clear way to operate as the virus continues to circulate. turning now to the east bay, uc berkeley is appealing a lower court's ruling to the supreme court. and that's because the ruling would affect the university's enrollment numbers for the 2020 to 2023 academic school year. this ruling is requiring the university to freeze its enrollment at 43,300. 47 students. and that's the same enrollment level that the university had last year. uc berkeley says that they experienced a dramatic drop in enrollment last year because of the pandemic, so forcing them to match that enrollment. would be accurate because they saw a huge drop during the pandemic and that would reduce their number of new

undergraduates by 3rd going forward. they say the ruling will have a big impact on perspective students and the university as a whole. san francisco voters will decide whether to recall 3 school board members in a special election today. the board members facing a recall or school board. president gabriela lopez commissioner allison collins and school board vice president fogo the board has been under fire for handling the covid-19 pandemic. the renaming of schools and other matters that parents aren't too happy with opponents of the recall, though, say this is a poor use of taxpayer resources. as for mayor london breed, she says she supports the recall and that if the members are removed, then she'll named temporary replacements. polling locations are open until 7 mail in ballots need to be postmarked by tonight at 8 o'clock. district attorney chase of a teen is criticizing the san francisco police department's use of dna for rape victims. claims that the

department's used rape and assault victims, dna evidence as a way to search for possible suspects in crimes. the da's office says it recently learned of this law enforcement database and they say the practice is legally and ethically wrong because it treats victims like evidence and not human beings. san francisco police chief bill scott released a statement saying in part, quote, we must never create disincentives for crime victims to cooperate with police. and if it's true that dna can collect it from a rape or assault victim has been used by sfpd to identify and apprehend that person as a suspect in another crime. and i'm committed to ending the practice. district attorney. but dean says that he is willing to work with the police to end that practice. a memorial now being organized by the fiance of the man who drowned at near beach last week. jose padilla is body was recovered on friday, 3 days after a sneaker wave pulled him out to sea. it happened while he was fishing with his family near the shoreline. the agencies who conducted the rescue and recovery efforts are making recommendations now

to the public about dangerous sneaker waves kron four's rob nesbitt with that story. both the coast guard in the marine county fire department say that sneaker waves are difficult for even the most advanced swimmers to navigate. it's the type of way, but now has the padilla family making funeral plans? >> for days, multiple rescue agencies in moraine county search the waters of near beach for jose padilla. his fiance shawn hinson posted online but the national park service recovered his body. >> saying, quote, he was found just before sundown on february. 11th on the shore near the accident site. now we will be able to bring him home to his family in honduras. before that, we want to host a memorial to give everyone an opportunity to say goodbye, raising money online for the memorial with a $10,000 goal. according to the u.s. coast guard, sneaker waves were responsible for 17 deaths along the california coast last year. search and rescue specialist with the coast guard douglas amp's as winter storms in the gulf of alaska caused the sneaker wave that

killed padilla. the pacific ocean waves are powerful. the waters turbulent cold. >> and the coastline is rocky and jagged. it's very difficult to get out of the water once you're inside the want. >> and marine county threatening teague is in charge of coordinating water rescues. he recommends checking the marine forecast before going near the water. have a life jacket on hand and take extra precautions. if you're going to fish the shoreline. >> shouldn't spot is not in the impacted, by the way. so not your ginger or rock areas where areas that are elevated that you have that are plot from a group here that might be safer. >> the online fundraiser for the diaz memorial service has raised around $6700 of its $10,000 goal in san francisco. i'm rob nesbitt kron. 4 news. >> well, a multi car crash closed all 4 westbound lanes of highway 5.80, for a few hours last night. it happened east of park boulevard in oakland. chp says someone died during that crash, though they didn't say how the crash happened. we'll take a break

here at 4.11 coming up on the kron. 4 morning news. world leaders are waiting for russia to announce its next move. we'll tell you the latest warnings from the u.s. in the live report. plus, a popular tourist attraction in san francisco is permanently closed. why the city's chamber of commerce says the tourism industry. >> just keeps taking hits. and the bay area hasn't seen a drop of rain in over a month. how that's affecting our how that's affecting our drought conditions. after my car accident, how that's affecting our drought i wondered what my case was worth. so i called the barnes firm. i'm rich barnes. is your accident case worth more than insurance offered? call the barnes firm now to find out. you might be surprised. and now most admired alum! get up there. this is so embarrassing. there's no way it's me (friends laughing) you know her.... you love her.... ruh roh what are you doing here? it's anna gomez!

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at 4.14 and has we know it's been nearly 40 days now without any significant rainfall well anywhere in the bay area. but downtown san francisco, specifically here. >> and it's pretty alarming considering a december january february, they're all usually considered the rainiest months of our rainy season proper reports on our current drought condition. as a result. >> i'm told it's not unusual to have 2 or 3 week try spell in the middle of winter. but this midwinter dry spell that we're going through right now is the 4th driest on national weather service's records and their records go back 173 years. our vegetation is actually start to dry out. if you take a look at the california drought map, it reflects that. >> almost all of the state does in a moderate to severe drought category. and in a study recently published in

the journal nature, climate change, scientists are calling it a mega drought. the study measured moisture in soil and found 2000 to 2021. was the driest. 22 year period since at least the year 800. it on a narrower scale. nws warning coordination. meteorologist brian garcia says the current water year could get very dry. that band it's about to get ripped off. >> and we're looking like we're going to start seeing those drought impacts again as we go into the summer. the water year runs from october. first to september, 30th garcia says it started out very wet in october. november was dry. >> but then december was another wet month. >> because of those 2 wet months for the water year right now around the bay area. for the most part we're anywhere between about 80% of normal to right around 100% of normal december january and

february are usually the core wet months. >> but meteorologists are forecasting much rain through the end of february. that means those percentages will continue to decrease over time as we march toward september. 30th garcia also added that despite the fact that we're in the weather months. >> we've had several very warm days that broke records recently. >> that dried out vegetation, which could lead to fire keep in mind. >> that fire starts are possible and mid winter when we don't have any rain. so make sure you watch the sparks. meteorologists tells me it's always a good time to conserve water. so he recommends doing that. however, you can. >> amanda hari kron, 4 news. >> well, for 17, let's find out more about our forecast and see if there is still that possibility of a raindrop or 2 on the horizon. i think we're talking about maybe next week, john, is that still the case? yeah. very possible situation for sure. just a few light

drops possible towards monday, tuesday of next week. definitely not something like what we saw december october, though. so this truly were too wet months, february looks pretty sure at this point to be going down on the drier side of things much as january and november did now viewing outside this morning, definitely less fog. then we saw yesterday skies have cleared out considerably from the foggy conditions that we had to start your monday. conditions today will be nice and clear, but by no means going to be a warm day as tcis low pressure area drags with that some cool air, another breezy 1, 2, winds will pick up again this afternoon. and you probably noticed that it was a really brisk finished the day yesterday, going to be much like that. so the bay area can assist in the storm system out that low pressure area just descending too far to the east of us. it is resulting in a few inches of snowfall in the sierra nevada. that will continue over the next few hours here on into early afternoon. just those light snow showers up there in the sierra. nothing super significant. as you can see,

the bay does remain primarily dry. now we'll work our way through the rest of the week amid these dry conditions still next week is james alluded to. we do have that opportunity for some showers. now, the storm track, it does look to be similar to the one that we just saw, which means that the sierra nevada is definitely going to be picking up some snowfall from this one. the big question is how about the bay area? and it does look like a slim shot of a few light showers for us into the start of next week. good news for the colorado river basin. the great basin on over into the central rockies. they're going to be getting a good dose of snow and rain from this. that actually does supply a lot of southern california with water. just northern california bay area in particular, not really tapping into what we need to from the system. so this is the set up as we work our way through this forecast. not something that's going to offer too terribly much to break this dry trend that we've been on sierra. that is nevada snowpack is really starting to see that punch to the northern sierra about 74% of normal.

just think that at the start of january, we're at about 150% of normal. and that is a large drop in snowpack, at least as far as where we should be for this time of year. now, futurecast of winds does show another day with blustery, breezy conditions is going to be another cool one because of that. so bring the sweaters bring the jackets doesn't matter whether it's morning or afternoon, it's going to be something he won't close on hand today. a little less chilly at the coastline. a few low 60's making their return. yest rday was mid 50's out there but still cool enough for those jackets saying carlos in redwood city at 62, south bay, temperatures also in the upper 50's to low 60's temperatures in the east bay. same range of numbers pleasanton and livermore at 59 oakland, san leandro at 64 the you'll be at a comfortably cool 65 degrees and avato at 63 getting a look ahead in our next 7 days. temperatures begin to climb as soon as tomorrow. we'll start the weekend on a relatively mild, though, with a few low 70's on

friday. and then temperatures dip next week. it does look like we have that chance of a few sprinkles come monday. but still looking slim reyna. john, thank you for that forecast. hey, we are seeing some gusty winds along the antioch bridge and the venetian martinez bridge. >> so definitely make sure you have both hands on the steering wheel as you're traveling. let's get a look at the bay bridge. if you're heading from the east bay into the city. so that free missouri x a little under 8 minutes for your drive. there. san mateo bridge, 92 westbound heading across towards the peninsula. you're at about 13 minutes as you're traveling out of richmond heading across towards sandra fell about 8 minutes for your drive and the golden gate bridge. 37 to the tolls. you're looking at a 19 minute commute. james, back to you. all right, reena, thank you for 21 is the time and all eyes in washington are on. >> russia to see how president putin could move next. his ukrainian counterpart says that an attack could come as soon as tomorrow. that's the worry. jessi tenure joins us live once again from dc with the latest update this morning

morning. jesse. >> good morning to you as well. james. russia's defense ministry just announced that some of the units conducting military drills along the ukrainian border are now heading back to their bases. but the u.s. and its allies continue to keep their guard up. >> there would be widespread human suffering state department spokesperson ned price warns a full invasion into ukraine could result in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and trigger refugee crisis for millions and invasion. as we have said, could begin at any time. price stresses new russian military forces continue to arrive at the ukrainian border. the forces, the russians of mask. they could launch any following monday's briefing with white house national security adviser jake sullivan, virginia, democrat senator mark warner worried cyber attacks that could take out ukraine's power grid are also imminent. there's been a lot of speculation >> hypothetical basis, but the reality of that. we could see

literally in the coming senators have been working on a legislative response to russia but hit an impasse in negotiations. >> alabama republican senator tommy tuberville said democrats should have voted with them to sanction russia's controversial gas pipeline. the senate. >> already missed a chance. the hit puting were hurt with a more president biden reputed. >> russian officials maintain president putin is willing to negotiate. but the white house is proceeding with caution. the path for diplomacy remains available. >> if russia chooses to engage constructively. >> and those diplomatic efforts continue today on the world stage, defense secretary lloyd austin will be meeting with his european counterparts and nato leadership in belgium and germany's chancellor plans to sit down with putin in moscow live in washington. i'm jessi tenure. thank you, jesse 4.23. >> is the timing coming up next on the kron 4 morning news. the men's pursuit. team redeemed itself with a win and

a russian figure skating. favored to go goal. we're going to talk more about that coming up after the break.

>> and team usa, they didn't place in men's snowboarding competition, but there is better hope for the men's curling team. we've got matt barnes with the very latest from beijing. >> happy tuesday from beijing where team usa is looking to add to its medal count in men.

snowboard. big air team usa had 2 athletes with dreams of reaching the podium. but coming up short. but in speech to the u.s. men's team pursuit comes through after a disappointing loss in the semifinals, the americans race to a bronze given the u.s. at 17, the medal overall medal hopes remain alive. ferments currently as team schuster gets a huge win in the morning session over switzerland with wins against denmark and italy in their final 2 round robin games, the defending gold medalists will advance to the semifinals in women's figure skating is underway. russian figure skater kamila but is allowed to compete despite a positive doping test that is still under investigation. she is the gold medal favorite. the u.s. trio of mariah bell, karen chen and alyssa lou are not expected to be medal contenders. that's the latest on the winter olympics reporting from beijing. i'm matt barnes. for 27 is the time. and still ahead on the kron 4 morning news. police are hoping that a new program can help stop catalytic converter thefts will tell you how it works. we'll be right back.

and now most admired alum!

get up there. this is so embarrassing. there's no way it's me (friends laughing) you know her.... you love her.... ruh roh what are you doing here? it's anna gomez! what? who? our first gigillionaire! with at&t fiber, anna's got the fastest internet with hyper-gig speeds. i didn't know you went to this school we have a lot in common. live like a gigillionaire with at&t fiber, now with speeds up to 5 gigs. limited availability >> and we're back 4.30, on the dot just in time to get that check of the weather. got a live look here behind me. the golden gate bridge. it looks fantastic from that view. >> from sutro tower. johns also got a look at a different bridge for us this morning. and word of a little bit of that looks like behind you. there she is. that wind, that onshore breeze keeping things cool again today for us. >> it's nice to actually be able to look at our web cams this morning considering fog isn't as much of a thing. so it's cool. it's