Steady rain, heavier rain around union city, fremont as you will notice 880. So it is going to be tough getting around the south bay from sunnyvale, san jose into the santa cruz mountains. Also seeing steady rain, lighter showers in the north bay right now as we widen the picture here, this is a cold and potent level one storm. Right now were just getting the front arriving into our area, but we are seeing lightning strikes right along the Northern California coast, and its not out of the question for us to see some as well. So later on tonight, were still looking at those scattered showers as we head towards tomorrow morning. Some downpours expected at 5 a. M. 930. The commute is going to be a little bit tough. 5 p. M. Some heavier rain moving in into 7 p. M. And this is when well have our best opportunity for thunderstorms. It is gusty in livermore right now. 28 mile an hour winds look at the view from mount tam cam. Certainly windy conditions, higher terrain. Seeing those stronger winds. Its a level one through tonight. Rain brief downpours, gusty winds strongest over the hills. Isolated thunder chance it is a blizzard warning for the sierra until 10 a. M. Sunday. 12ft or higher for the peaks with 75 mile an hour or higher winds. Its extremely dangerous to impossible to get up there. Ill be back with a full look at the forecast for the weekend, which includes a lot of wintry weather coming up. Dan boy sure does sandy, thanks very much. Now, pgandes says it is prepared for this weather. They moved equipment and crews into place before the storm arrived. Take a look at the map of current outages right now. Not bad at all. Just a couple of spotty outages. But really nothing really to talk about. Well hope that that continues as this storm intensifies. Now to the north bay. And abc seven News Reporter cornell bernard live in santa rosa with a look at how communities cornell are planning to help their most vulnerable population during the storm. Yeah, thats right, dan, here we go again. The rain is back and i have to tell you, it is cold and a bit windy too. And efforts are happening tonight to get unhoused folks off the streets ahead of the storm. You cant stay out there all day long without mailing your stomach. Sam bigelow is making sure that about 100 of his unhoused clients are getting a hot lunch on a cold, rainy day like this. Sam opened his jesus cares 2020 dining room in santa rosa about four hours early to keep folks dry. Because, you know, we are all human and living out side in the cold during this time. During this weather, i think its really, really not good for the, you know, someones health. Toby really is sleeping at a local shelter at night, but he cant stay there during the day, so hes on his own on the streets. Im actually trying to get to a place where i can get warm and drink some coffee and until i can go back there, one, two, three up. This crew from Fs Global Solutions is preparing a giant tent that will be heated and used as an overnight warming shelter in the town of sonoma this weekend. The Company ProvidesOutreach Services to north bay communities, set up cots, bring coffee, you know, hot drinks, water, a little bit of food and just try to give people a place where they can shelter for the storm. So the weather that were anticipating this weekend, based on the National Weather service, indicates wind chills and temperatures and wet weather such that we want to make sure that we have a space for our most vulnerable population. Escaping the rain and cold is what toby will try to do. This weekend. He just moved to santa rosa from pennsylvania. My heart goes out to each and every one of the homeless in the community. They they really get the short end of the stick. Rain is definitely picking up again. Sonoma is cold weather shelter opens friday night and closes monday morning. Sonoma county officials are also watching the weather. Theyre considering opening cold weather shelters up here as well. And were live in santa rosa. Tonight cornell, bernard, abc seven news. All right, cornell, thank you. Lets take a look at tahoe. This is a palisades tahoe camera. You can see the snow is already piling up there. Blizzard conditions for several resorts to close today. They include donner ski ranch and Mount Rose Ski tahoe sierra at tahoe ski resort also shut down today and says it will be closed tomorrow as well. Check out the view from a few hours ago at heavenly. Thats a lot of snow there on the ground. All lifts are closed today in heavenly has already announced that it will keep the gondola closed tomorrow because of the forecast of high winds and heavy snow. So state water officials hope this weekends storm will put the Sierra Snowpack at or above normal for this time of year. The department of Water Resources snow survey today found that the statewide snowpack is currently 80 of normal, considerable more than last months measurement of 52. And while the snowpack is looking better, we are still not where we need to be. It will take several additional storms within the month of march to really get us from the current 70 of april 1st average, up to 100 of average by the 1st of april. The storm now hitting the sierra prompted officials to move up the survey from tomorrow to today. A snow from the sierra provides about a third of the water for california, so it is critical and california is completely out of the drought right now. So thats very encouraging. Were tracking reservoir levels online. You can as well check it out on abc seven news. Com. The man accused of a mass shooting at two Half Moon BayMushroom Farms pleaded not guilty today when li jiao was arraigned on seven counts of first degree murder and one count of attempted first degree murder, prosecutors say jiao shot and killed seven people in january of last year. Most of the victims worked with zhao at one of the farms. He remains in jail without bail and is set to be back in court on april 19th. Happening tonight in about 25 minutes at 630, the four candidates vying to be oaklands next police chief will take part in a public forum. Here are the candidates. Abdul pridgen is a former San Leandro Police chief. Floyd mitchell was the chief of the lubbock, texas, police department. Lisa davis is currently a Lieutenant Colonel and assistant chief in cincinnatis police force. Luis molina has an extensive resume and is currently the assistant deputy mayor for Public Safety in new york city, now oakland, as you know, and weve been reporting, has been without a police chief for more than a year now. Abc seven News Reporter tim johns takes a closer look at these candidates. Two months after rejecting a first batch of candidates, oakland mayor xiang tao is set to consider another group for the citys next police chief, the Oakland Police commission, releasing their names ahead of a planned Public Forum Thursday night. Under consideration are four candidates. The first, abdul pridgen, who was on the short list of candidates to become chief back in 2020. He most recently served as the chief of san leandro pd, but left this month. He is being investigated for unknown Department Policy violations. His second is floyd mitchell, who has more than 30 Years Experience in law enforcement. Mitchell resigned from a job in lubbock, texas, last fall after his department received criticism over its handling of certain 911 one calls also under consideration is lisa davis. Davis also has more than three decades of experience and currently serves as the assistant police chief in cincinnati. The final candidate is luis molina, a former Public Safety chief in las vegas who is now the assistant deputy mayor for Public Safety in new york city. Hes also facing criticism for his handling of deaths in new york city jails. We want to make sure that whoever we choose interview is someone that has comes with a clean record, Oakland City Council member noel gayo says while he wants a new chief to be chosen, quickly selecting the right person is critical. Opd has gone through about a dozen Police Chiefs over the past two decades, or so, and many in the city are calling for the hiring of someone who has roots here in oakland. I would prefer someone from the bay area that knows us, but i dont want to be explaining to people why i chose someone that was fired from the neighboring city or across the country. While the citys Police Commission puts candidates forward, the ultimate decision on who to hire will rest with mayor xiang tao, who fired former chief Lawrence Armstrong last february. Susan manheimer served as interim opd chief before armstrong was hired in 2021 and works with the california Police Chiefs association. She says the mayor is likely looking for certain characteristic in any potential candidate a unifier, someone that they can rally around and really translate and communicate , skate and deliver on all these different interests around Public Safety and community wellness, manheimer says. In addition to providing stability to the department, the new chief will also have work to do in the Community Rebuilding trust that has been slowly lost over the years to support underserved Land Resource and, and, um, really, uh, build trust with that chief and department, the public forum will take place virtually at 630 in oakland. Tim johns abc seven news and well stay in oakland for another moment. Faith leaders from across the bay area gathered in oakland to speak against the effort to recall Alameda CountyDistrict Attorney pamela price. She was at todays News Conference where several religious leaders offered words of support in an effort to keep her in office. They included the pastor at her church. Give this dear servant of the lord, this community servant. Give her an opportunity. Let us serve out her time. Let her complete what shes doing because her agenda cannot be accomplished overnight. But i think if we work together, we can see a change. Her supporters say price takes a progressive approach to criminal justice, Holding People accountable for the crimes they commit without sacrificing humanity. Organizers of this recall effort, however, say price is soft on crime. Nearly half of those arrested for illegal drug use in San Francisco live elsewhere. Thats according to numbers released by the city today. So 47 arent residents, while about 6 of those who were arrested arent residents and are receiving county funded cash assistance. That is a violation of the program. The percentages are based on the arrests of 718 people over the course of about a year, starting last march, mayor breed says its proof San Francisco must continue doubling down on efforts to shut down drug markets. Coming up next, building a better bay area in san jose at half price. How the city managed to cut costs for solution to homelessness and still to come, seven on your side exposes scammers using zelle to steal money conservative republican steve garvey is the wrong choice for the senate. Our republican opponent here on this stage has voted for donald trump twice. Mr. Garvey, you voted for him twice. As your own man, what is your decision . Garvey is wrong for california. But garveys surging in the polls. Fox news says garvey would be a boost to republican control of the senate. Stop garvey. Adam schiff for senate. Im adam schiff, and i approve this message. Say the cost has been cut by 50 for san joses largest safe rv parking site. They say the project on berryessa road is now only months away from opening. How did they do it . Heres abc seven news south bay reporter zach fuentes. A six acre patch of land in san jose is now on its way to become the largest rv supportive parking program. The program would not only give unhoused people 85 rv Parking Spaces with utility access, it would also give them access to critical services. So when theyre here, they get services that they need, but they also are able to go out and get back on their feet. And we hope that that allows them to transition back into something more stable, opening up a space here for another person. The initial price tag for the project was 15 million. Thursday, san jose mayor matt mehan and Council Member david cohen announced that they were able to reduce the price by half, a move city leaders said was possible partly by streamlining the project, removing some of the buildings and quite frankly, the market seemed to be ripe right now to get us better bids. So the bids came in low. We removed two of the buildings to get even more efficient design, though this area isnt immediately near any schools or businesses. Councilmember cohen, who represents this district, says he has heard some pushback from his constituents. What i remind people is the number one thing that they also contact us about are the rvs that are currently on their streets. And so we cant sit here and say, were going to deal with the rvs on your streets, but were not going to provide an alternative. Advocates for the unhoused say the site is good in theory, but the focus still needs to be on long terme solutions. The question is about tiny homes and even rvs. Is that is it a road to permanent housing, or is it a road to nowhere . Because people get stuck in these programs that go in and out of them. So a lot of them are not effective. Also, i think politicians make for good soundbites, you know, but a sound bite doesnt save a life. Construction is planned to start next month. Tasks include repaving, Building Structures and basic infrastructure. We think we can turn this around pretty quickly. We believe it will be open by early fall and that we can have it full with over 80 rvs and some other lived in smaller vehicles, sedans by the end of the year in san jose, zach fuentes, abc seven news and we are on storm watch today as a light level. One storm moves through the bay area. Check out the view for drivers on 101 through millbrae earlier today. This is near sfo windshield wipers were on but only needed into instantly. And take a look at this. Its a time lapse time lapse we took at fort mason in San Francisco. I love those clouds. Theyre just moving across the sky. Beautiful it is. More of those clouds are going to be moving in the next few days to as the rain intensifies. Yeah. So lets get to meteorologist sandhya patel for whats coming. Sandhya . Yeah were going to see some more rain and even some snow here, along with gusty winds. Ama and dan, i want to show you a live picture right now from the sierra where it is just dumping. This is from homewood right now while it is snowing in tahoe and truckee. Heavy rain is being reported at blue canyon, so not a good idea to head up to tahoe. Blizzard conditions for tomorrow 34 degrees saturday. Windy with heavy snow. Sunday still brisk with snow, but monday is your best bet. 35 and partly cloudy if you want to hit the slopes to do some skiing or boarding. Blizzard warning until 10 a. M. Sunday. Looking at 12ft or higher over the highest peaks with those strong winds, definitely extremely dangerous to impossible travel 5 to 10ft above 5000ft, 1 to 4ft above 3000ft, and even some light accumulations down to 2000 by saturday morning. So low snow levels. Avalanche watch for the eastern sierra back country until friday morning, 8 a. M. So be careful if youre going up. So lets look at live doppler seven. Im going to take you in where we are seeing some pockets of moderate rain, even heavy rain. Let me step aside across eigh8680 mission road. It is coming down also across highway 101, palo alto west middlefield road. Watch out. And in the south bay from san jose to the cupertino area, rainbow drive. Well, it is a little dicey right now, and across highway 17, the summit in the santa cruz mountains. You know how it gets when it rains up to our north in the north bay, it is lighter rain around yountville. Highway 29. So this storm is cold. Its potent coming out of the gulf of alaska right now. You can clearly see the welldefined front coming into our area. Weve seen thunderstorms up around the Northern California coast. This cold, unstable air is going to drop down. And thats why were going to see some snow showers over the weekend here locally. So snow is definitely falling in the mountains right now. They are chaining up. Heres a look at that. Live picture once again from tahoe. Sorry we just saw that graphic winds gusting to 34 miles an hour. Mount diablo, mount eminem 30 miles an hour. It was so pretty i had to show you again. 40s and 50s on your temperatures, right now it is a cooler day. A live view from san jose. Camera through tonight. Wet and windy tomorrow. Heavier rain, gusty winds arrive. Even the possibility of thunderstorms. And this weekend its a wintry mix of snow over the peaks. Hail showers and cold weather. Lets look at our level one system for tonight. Really through the late night hours, rain with brief downpours, gusty winds strongest in the hills and isolated thunder. Chance will remain in the forecast. So were going to continue with the scattered showers theme tomorrow morning. Its a wet commute at 8 a. M. Through 11 a. M. As well, and then the intensity of the rain will begin to pick up in the evening. Thats when we have our best chance of thunderstorms. 1030 youre seeing those downpours. It switches over to snow over the peaks as we do start to see that colder air filtering in on saturday. Lake mendocino counties, theyre going under a winter storm warning starting tomorrow. Snow level down to 1500 feet for our bay area peaks. Its 2 to 3000ft. Mount hamilton will likely see snow. You saw that on saturday and this pattern will repeat on sunday thro