Couple of hours. Well go ahead and get a look at the air quality. You can see as weve headed through today, as you look off toward the distance, you can see that smoke. It is cloudy. The sky has that orange haze in it, but its not necessarily in the very unhealthy air range right here in the bay area. So as you look at these live air quality monitoring sites, the only spot now thats tipped into the unhealthy category is napa. Otherwise its good in San Francisco, moderate for most of the bay area, and a few spots that are unhealthy for sensitive groups right now. So i want to talk more about the smoke and why were seeing it off towards the distance but were not necessarily smelling it as bad as it looks. And it all has to do with three different fires surrounding the bay area. We have one off to the north, the august complex, the one near fresno, the creek fire, and then the dolan fire off to the south. So with all of these fires, they are so large theyre creating whats called pyorcumulus clouds. Its basically created by the fire and the heat. It rises up this tower of smoke that can travel thousands of feet in the air, a takes that smoke and it moves it in the upper levels all across northern california. So were seeing the smoke, but those harmful particles are so far up in the atmosphere, were not really feeling the impacts, at least today, of some of the most unhealthy air particles. Right now with a look at why the sky is orange, lets go on over to rob mayeda. Hey, rob. While the air quality at the surface may not be that bad in certain parts of the area, you just cant miss the orange or red sun at times, and sometimes at night its an orange or redlooking moon. The reason why were getting that sunrise and sunset effect with our midday weather, this is how it looked earlier around danville this morning. Its the smoke pollution, the particulate matter, which takes the short wave radiation and scatters it. It allows the longer rays to come through. Instead of seeing the blue skies or light sunlight, it takes on a red appearance, and the more pollution you have in the air, it turns it a deep red. Were seeing that in the lightning complex today. As jeff talked about, the pyrocumulus plumes there transferred to the bay area. When we have this much smoke over the region, no doubt you saw the orange and red sun. As we continue to see these fires continue in activity with these offshore winds, the question remains how much of these offshore winds will continue to bring these skies filled with smoke and the red sun in the bay area . It really depends on the fire activity and the wind in the region, jeff. Thank you so much, rob. I also want to let viewers know we are still under this red flag fire warning until tomorrow morning. That is, until 8 00 a. M. Tomorrow. Thats for the Higher Elevations of the northeast and also for the south bay at 1,000 feet and above where we could get those wind gusts reaching 50, maybe 60 Miles Per Hour. So while its been pretty calm down on the surface, we start to look for maybe those stronger wind gusts, especially in the north bay overnight. Ill have a look at what we can expect for those temperatures now that were out of this heat wave. Thats coming up in about 10 minutes. Good information from both of you. Thank you, jeff and rob. Another day with smoky skies at this hour. Is this the worst air quality weve ever seen in the bay area . Thats one of the questions now. The air Quality Management district confirms this is the longest streak of unhealthy air that weve ever faced. Its currently eight days longer than the previous record, which is just a couple years ago, 2018, during the fire in butte county. As for now, tomorrow will be our 23rd consecutive spare the air day. Instantly my eyes are kind o. I am doing that because of this smoke that we have. Sometime i want to go someplace, but you look at the smoke and you dont want to go out. Weve been in this rut for three weeks now. No end in sight. Our air quality expected to stay unhealthy for the rest of this week. Were following some breaking news near chico in the Plumas National forest. Another flareup sending up a tower of new smoke and flames. Look at that. This is part of the north complex fire. The u. S. Forest service said the fire jumped a containment line. Flames have burned some 40,000 acres so far in this area. Firefighters say this particular fire is growing at an estimated rate of 1,000 acres every 30 minutes. Now, it is being called an unprecedented disaster. Tonight the creek fire burning east of fresno is raging on. Flames have scorched nearly 144,000 acres in four days. Overnight the National Guard used Chinook Helicopters to rescue 140 people trapped by the flames. Other people had to drive away from the flames with just minutes to escape. It felt like a movie. It was a living nightmare. She told us in my 20 years of being a ranger, ive not seen it this bad. Were completely surrounded by fire and you guys need to leave now. Now is the operative word. The fire is one of two dozen major fires burning across the state. The fires have burned a record 2. 2 mill kwon acion acres this. And were still not done with the season. Are these fires a potential blessing in disguise . Those are all questions bay area scientists are trying to answer in realtime. Our Business Tech reporter, scott budman, caught up with them for a look at how theyre trying to get these answers. Reporter the fastmoving creek fire has burned more than 140,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada mountains in a matter of days. The Wildfire Research center at San Jose State University is using technology to track it and dozens of other fires to figure out what happens next and where we go from here. Were in the heart of fire season. Reporter director Craig Clemens spoke to us about how heat, wind and lots of trees make for a toxic mix. Because of these hot temperatures, were going to have continuously dry fuels, and any type of wind that we get will impact fire. Reporter add in a lack of rain and you have what firefighters call stressed trees triggering another issue, the bark beetle. Those trees get stressed, the bark beetles can then kill those trees, then you have basically standing dead wood throughout the forest, and that adds to the fuels and the fuel loading. Reporter as california deals with 2 million acres lost this season, some wonder if there is any good to come from all this. Specifically, will this season mean less fuel for future seasons . Clemens said its too early to know. What that will do is it reduces fuel loads for future years. But on the flip side is that these fires are burning very, very hot, so these forests may not recover to what they were previously. Reporter in other words, theres still more to fight right now. Scott budman, nbc bay area news. Well, moving in the right direction. Governor newsom announcing hopeful signs in the fight against the coronavirus. The county moves up in the tier of the fourphase list. Janelle wang with some details. Reporter Governor Newsom announced that five counties in the state have moved up a tier and they include two locally. They are santa clara and santa cruz counties. They now join napa and San Francisco counties in the red tier. The rest of the bay area still in purple which is the most restrictive tier. In Santa Clara County, its the news many businesses have been waiting for. They wasted no time explaining what this means. Nail salons and massage parlors can open indoor operations if they met the new rules. Gyms can also open at 10 capacity. Malls can move from 25 to 50 capacity. All good news for the thousands of businesses that have struggled to survive during the shutdown. Im just ecstatic right now. Its been like six months. Youve been waiting for this day and finally its here. Im just everyone got good news today. The red tier also allows Indoor Dining to resume at 25 capacity, but Santa Clara County has decided not to move forward with that yet. Movie theaters and places of worship also cannot open yet, and there is no indication from the county as to when they might be able to reopen. As for the states positivity rate, thats looking much better. Its 4. 3 over a fourday average. Thats the lowest its been since midjune. The governor says the motto, slow and stringent. We have to keep up with this progress and hold on to these low numbers and continue to improve, especially since were entering flu season soon, so we could see more people getting sick again. When winter comes, we cant be hanging outdoors as much and socially distancing ourselves. So the key is to keep moving forward and keep up with the hand washing practices and the masks, and the governor says well continue to move in the right direction. Raj and jessica . The parts of the bay area where pg e is taking drastic measures to prevent wildfires. The move a San Francisco leader is taking after this weekends impromptu burning man celebration. Ill have more on the fire warning in the mountains coming up in about seven minutes. Hi. Were glad you came in. Whats on your mind . Can you help keep these guys protected online . Easy. Connect to the xfi gateway. What about wireless data options for the family . You can customize and save. What about internet speeds that can keep up with my gaming . Lets hook you up with the Fastest Internet from xfinity. And now with our stores reopening, were putting Healthy Practices in place. Come visit a sintment online at a time that works for you. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Ask. Shop. Discover at your local xfinity store today. Well, its going to be a dark and hot night for a lot of people. Thousands of people are without power in the north bay as we speak. Pg e has cut the power off because of fire danger. In the last few minutes, actually, pg e announcing it expects power to be restored by 7 00 p. M. Tomorrow. Theres still a good 24 hours ahead of us. Jodi hernandez joins us in calistoga. Jodi, weve gone through this before. Its all for fire safety but still very frustrating for several people. Reporter very frustrating and very tough. A lot of folks here in calistoga say they had their power turned off at about 4 30 this morning, including this bed and breakfast in here. You can hear the buzz of the generator going behind us. You can also see down the way the traffic light at this intersection is out, forcing drivers to make a fourway stop. Pg e says its experts are predicting wind gusts of up to 60 miles an hour tonight and they dont want to take any chances. Not happy. Not happy. Reporter thats how the owners of busters barbecue in calistoga are feeling after pg e cut the power early this morning, forcing them to operate by flashlight. I think it sucks, to be perfectly honest. How much more can we take in calistoga . Reporter pg e says the hot, dry, windy conditions prompted them to turn off the power to nearly 18,000 customers in Sonoma County and 5,000 in napa county. The they say the fire risk is just too high. The conditions were seeing here in california have just increased the fire threat, so severe that we feel like we have to turn off our power lines to prevent a fire. Reporter that means lights out for many. Some businesses have been forced to close. Gas station pumps arent working, catching customers by surprise. We just stopped now to refill, but i guess well move on to the next one. Reporter while much of downtown calistoga is still operational thanks pto a microgrid of generators, it doesnt reach everyone. People in town are using their own generators to hobble along. People depend on the power supply. If you dont have power supply, youre not doing anything else. Reporter electricity isnt needed to heat up the woodfired grill. The barbecue is still up and running. And were back here live where you can see folks are out of luck. People want to go get gas here are out of luck tonight because these gas stations do not have power. Now, pg e has set up Community Resource centers both in Sonoma County and in napa county, so folks do have a place to plug in, get wifi, charge up their phones. Unfortunately no airconditioning because those Community Resource centers are outdoors. Pg e again Just Announced they hope to have everybody restored by 7 00 tomorrow evening. Reporting live in calistoga, im jodi hernandez, nbc bay area news. Will your neighborhood be part of the cutoffs . Head to our website, nbcbayarea. Com. Youll find a link at the top of our trending bar. Governor newsom says were seeing fires race through california at an alarming rate this year. At this point last year, california had just under 5,000 fires and had burned 118,000 acres. Fastforward to this year, the state has endured more than 7,600 fires, destroying over 2. 2 million acres so far. Now, those io perspective for us, that what weve been dealing with is unprecedented, setting records that no one wants to see. This is the largest fire season weve had in terms of total acreage impacted in some time back recorded to recent modern history. But you compare it and contrast to last year, its rather extraordinary the challenge we faced. The governor said 14,000 firefighters are currently battling fires up and down the state. Saturdays unapproved burning man beach party could leave a lot of people feeling burned. Katherine stefani is urging the d. A. And the city and county to throw the book at the events promoters, forcing civil and criminal penalties. You can see the video here with the famed burning man in nevada canceled. More than a thousand fans instead joined a substitute party at ocean beach in San Francisco. Critics say it was a flagrant violation of the citys covid rules. Smoke from all these fires burning across the state is really turning our sky all sorts of unusual colors. We talked about it at the top of the show. This is a live look right now at san jose and walnut creek. You can see plenty of smoke and haze, and walnut creek looks kind of yellowish, still. I took this picture from my backyard in pleasanton this morning. The sun orange behind that layer of smoke. This photo is from willets. It looks like nighttime but this picture was actually taken at 3 00 this afternoon. The smoke is blocking the sun. If you want to take your own photo and share it with us, you can email it to us at ic nbcbayarea. Com. Jeff, we talked about this at the front of the newscast. It must be frustrating for you, jeff, as well as meteorologists and scientists, to figure out when this might go away. There are so many different factors going on here. There really is, and we can look at all the wind foerrecast we want, but until we get containment on all these other fires that have erupted, it really is a daybyday situation here now. Especially to see that fire that has really grown tremendously in size just north of the fresno area in the sierra mountains. Lets bring you right now off to our current view of the red flag fire warning, and youll see this continues to remain in effect until 8 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning, and thats for hills at a thousand feet and above where we do have the best chance of these isolated wind gusts of 25 to 35 Miles Per Hour. We may get a few peaks of wind above 50, but generally those higher mountaintops will be in the 35 to 45mileperhour range with a sustained wind of 20. Thats why pg e has the mapping data of those outages pretty much matching the red fire warning in the north bay. We talked about the orange sky. Look here from walnut creek back toward mt. Diablo, just an ominouslooking view here. Currently we are at 88 degrees, dropping down to 70s tonight. A warm night for us, but that heat wave is breaking. I do want to show you the temperatures tomorrow, and you can see instead of those 100s, were down to 92 in concord. San jose 86, palo alto, 77 and in morgan hill. Well see those temperatures go down. Friday, saturday and sunday has us back in the 80s, and that is going to feel real good. The air quality right now, this is what is so strange. The current reading show good air quality in San Francisco, moderate in yellow for much unh sensitive groups in the orange. So when you look at the sky, youre seeing what looks to be extremely unhealthy air, but its not translating down to the surface. Coming up in about nine minutes, well talk about the difference between what you see in the sky and what youre breathing in right now. Ill see you again in about nine minutes. Well see you shortly. Thanks, jeff. Up next, protecting this novembers election. The move that Santa Clara County did to speed up delivery from the post office. Welcome back. Election day exactly eight weeks from today. Some will be going to the voting booth, but most will be mailing in their ballots, including millions of californians. One of the biggest question marks continues to be will the u. S. Postal service be able to handle the volume . Over the past few months, as you know, the postmaster general had cut overtime hours and has idled several sorting machines. The agency also removed several public mailboxes, but after major public backlash, the post office announced that all cuts will be held off until after the election. They will support an existing lawsuit that amims to urge any prior rules set in place. Santa clara county has joined this case. Frankly since the Trump Administration took over, we have found ourselves in the courts over and over again to fry to protect the rights of people that live and work in the community. To me this is the most devastating. Part of that is its not just a lifeline for medication, its a lifeline for democracy, and we want to keep the u. S. Postal service healthy and vital. The postmaster joan, louie dejoy, a known trump supporter, has repeatedly claimed that the goal of the post office is to review any dire situation. They say they are confident it can handle mailin ballots. President trump hit the campaign trail hard today, traveling to two battleground states, florida and north carolina. Hereem fa reememphasized that that it is more important that people get their votes in. The democrats say it is important to keep politics out of it, but its right on us. We have more on this amazing story tha