Our storm coverage continues here on kron4. Live looks over in oakland where the rain is just starting near the bay bridge. You see the Golden Gate Bridge on the top right already wet as the rains moving in there and san mateo will waiting for the rain although we are seeing winds pick up and stronger gusts expected offshore. Were just Getting Started here with with this storm and the chp with some tips to help be out on the roadways a reminder to avoid outside lanes those are the ones that often flood near the roadway edges. Never drive through standing water. You never know how deep it is or whats under the surface. Chp officer reminding you to slowdown to prevent hydroplaining and keep a safe distance between cars and remember to keep those headlights on whenever your windshield wipers are on especially during daylight hours. New this morning were getting reports of trees already coming down around the bay area. This is at badega avenue near North Webster in petaluma. The tree blocked lanes for a bit but firefighters working hard and they had it cleared in about 20 minutes. Its just a sample of whats to come. More trees certainly will fall. Take a look this system awfully intense, pounding the north bay at the moment and im seeing deep red in some of that rain just offshore. Well be tracking it and letting you know exactly where the intense showers are falling minute by minton kron 4. Stay with us well be right back. Welcome back to the kron 4 morning news tracking the storm and lets go tote Weather Center and get an update from James Fletcher. Starting off with Storm Tracker 4 living us the live view in the north bay which is what started seeing rain since yesterday, in fact at 10 00 p. M. Last night they already had an inch on the ground in northwest Sonoma County and here we are getting a lot more and it will be like this for most of the morning. Petaluma same story for you, look at some of that deep red offshore as that rain is really intense in spots. In fact lets zoom in here and take a closer look. I want to get a reading on what some of these rainfall rates actually are out there. Lets click on that. 1. 78 inches per hour so nearly two inches per hour in some of those more intense cells and thats kind of what were seeing offshore, thats to come. Lets zoom in and take a look at the north bay. Again for communities like clover dale youve ben seeing rain for quite a little while. Still seeing it this morning rain coming down in clover dale at roughly quarter of an inch per hour, youre looking at just about the same clip as well and similar story for santa rosa just above that quarter of an inch per hour rainfall rate. Thats what we are seeing in that part of the north bay. Zooming in a little closer towards wine country with with sonoma and nap a, rain come down in sewn oma at about 1700 inch per hour and down near petaluma looks like its about just under a fifth of an inch per hour and again, that is intense and it looks like things will intensify over the course of the morning. The east bay relatively unscathed though we are seeing rainfalling in martinez where the rain at the moment is falling at about a tenth of an inch per hour so thats what youre seeing in martinez and that rain again will slide into the walnut creek and alamo area before too much longer. Taking a quick look at where we are seeing rain in the eastbay out near richmond. Take a look at that. 15 hundredths of an inch per hour in berkeley, so things beginning to intensify and you see all that rain there heading across the bay toward richmond and berkeley so all that headed your way before too much longer. Lets slide the maps even further. From oakland down to Hayward Union city we arent seeing too much rain. Just light rainfalling along alameda. San francisco, its the northern bit of the city seeing more intense showers right now and as we take a wider look at the peninsula youll see down near montera, youll see rainfalling at the moment and off to the left side of your screen of course we with see all of that heavy rain. That is the rain that were waiting for to slam into San Francisco and the peninsula. South bay light showers at the moment in san jose, nothing much just yet and in the Santa Cruz Mountains again just scattered light showers for now but that will be changing as we head later on into the morning and the early afternoon. Take a quick look here at satellite radar perspective and again that say em fairly large and cold air behind it. Lets walk you through the timing and again at this point 5 00 a. M. Were still looking for mainly the north bay and San Francisco peninsula to be impacted by the storm and then by 7 00 it gets more widespread with heavy showers really focusing on santa rosa, petaluma and then by 8 00 it looks like the cold front will slide down into the peninsula San Francisco, san bruno, cutting across toward oakland. By 9 00 an hour later it moves down toward freemont, redwood city, Mountain View and cutting out toward livermore, and by about 10 00 this mourn nog the 11 00 hour it will be the south bay, san jose dealing with the heaviest rain but the light showers behind it will still continue and be fairly widespread. Through the noon hour, through 3 00 in the afternoon, and then 6 00 tonight for the evening commute expect it to still be wet out there in all directions. 10 00 p. M. Finally starts to breakup and well look forward to back off a little bit by even tomorrow morning could be a wet commute as well. Just not as intense. Here is a live look at the Golden Gate Bridge things getting wetter since our last update. Looks like the pavement has seen more in the way of standing water and you can see the spray coming off the tires of the cars so thats what youll encounter as you head out this morning. As for the long term view we get a break over the weekend but rain returns come monday and tuesday of next week. Speaking of the commute and the rain out there are you following any problems erica . Its already getting pretty bad out there james. We have several cases where we have down trees out on the roadway blocking lanes and thats very much evidence eastbound 80, so an alert has been issued. A downed tree cashed into a big rig on the freeway. It looks like the big rig has been pushed over to the shoulder but emergency crews trying to cut down this tree and get it out of the way so it looks like they hope to have the lanes reopened by about 5 15 this morning and again this is the noncommute direction but it certainly could be a visual hazard as you make your way down to the bay bridge toll plaza. In orinda getting on, that on ramp to eastbound highway 24 we have a pretty large tree branch blocking the lanes there so certainly keep that in mind. Its pretty windy out there especially for parts of Contra Costa County and we do have several wind advisories in effect for bay area bridges. One in effect for the bay bridge right now at the toll plaza not so bad but mid span the wind really picks up and it has been knocking people around. Wind advisory in effect for the san mateo bridge. Looks like its pretty good here. Traffic doing all right with with a drive time of 1213 minutes but keep a firm grip on the Steering Wheel and once it starts coming down at least the rain youve got to make sure your headlights are on as you work your way across the span. Golden gate bridge getting wet, however we dont have any special traffic advisories for this span but not only is it raining but windy at the Richmond Bridge so the chp issued a wind advisory as you make your way into marin county. Mark . Speaking of the wind looking at this video coming into kron 4 causing problems. Petaluma, firefighters on the scene just after midnight because of these arcing power lines near homes on 7th street in west petaluma. The wind causing the wires to touch and thats whats causing the sparks here. This happened earlier this morning. And in San Francisco, people doing everything they can to prevent damage from this storm and the Mission District businesses putting sand bags in place and Online Fashion company here called everlane flood during the storm last wednesday and just repped a few days ago. The company is using wood planks, sand bags and foam to prevent damage this time around from the more powerful storm. The city also contracting dozens of restoration workers to clean up last weeks flood damage and work on preventing more problems in the area with this storm. Over the years this city has had to pay millions of dollars in damages to a number of businesses so a lot of these properties, so i think prevention is actually money well spent. City officials havent said exactly how much the work cost this time around. The guatalupe river and other creeks and streams in the south bay could see significant flooding at the height of the storm later today. A crane was brought in here at the river to clear potential trouble spot where several down trees were blocking the river which flows to the bay. City crews were also out clearing leaves and other debris from storm drains. And the National Park service is announcing closures due to the storm for the next 48 hours. Alkatraz is closed today. That means no tours will be taking people to the tourist hotspot, the National Park service saying other sites such as mirror woods could also be closed depending on the weather conditions. Visitors are being encouraged to avoid forested areas and to be extremely careful around streams in the park which is could flood. And a reminder we have weather updates all the time on air, online and on our website at kron 4. Com and you can get the latest information on the go on our kron 4 mobile app forecast, check the radar, and a lot more information any time, also a great way to quickly send us any storm photos that we will share on air. With with you tracking a storm well be here at least until 10 00 and possibly longer if necessary as the heart of the storm is still headed to the bay area and well be right back after this quick break as the kron 4 morning news continues. A live look outside right now to kron 4 who has a live look from san rafael where the rain is very heavy come down in sheets right now. For over 60,000 california foster children, the holidays can be an especially difficult time. Everythings different now. Sometimes i feel all alone. Christmas used to be my favorite. I just dont expect anything. What if santa cant find me . To help, sleep train is holding a secret santa toy drive. Bring your gift to any sleep train, and help keep the spirit of the holidays alive. Not everyone can be a foster parent. But anyone can help a foster child. Continuing to track the storm on the kron 4 morning news, people have been flocking to Grocery Stores trying to get stocked up for todays storm. Kron 4 jeff bush has more. Reporter take a look at this. All of the water in the safeway is gone. All of the fire logs too. The meat is running low and lines are longer than normal. Some shoppers tell me it took more than half an hour just to get through the check outlines. People are getting provisions to ride out the storm. Its crazy. Theres no water, at all. And people are fighting and its like you wouldnt know what was going on in there. Its pretty crazy. Shoppers say they want to be prepared to ride out this storm and say that they are gearing up with several days worth of food and drinks to help get through the big storm. Yes, its definitely crazier when i went down the aisle to get my iced tea, the water section is empty. They are out of water, [laughter] so good thing i have some at home already. Its pretty ridiculous. I was in there for about 35 minutes to get ground beef and stuff and theres no water on the shelves, bread is is gone, all of the daily essentials is gone. People act like its about to snow or something. Its pretty crazy. What do you think about that . I think its really crazy. Always better to be safe than sorry. Stay with kron 4. Look at the very heavy rain in the north bay about to slide into san fran is cisco and over into the eastbay. Were expecting the potential for flooding as well as down trees and power lines with with heavy rain and strong gusty winds. Things are going to get a lot worse over next few hours. Stay with kron 4. Well have Team Coverage for you all morning long. Welcome back to the kron 4 morning news were tracking a very intense storm thats just starting to slam into parts of the bay area. Live looks here at oakland where storms are starting to move in. Look at the Richmond San Rafael bridge. Not a car, just a few on the Golden Gate Bridge. Were seeing very heavy rain to the north. Lets go to the Weather CenterJames Fletcher has been very busy tracking the storm which is just starting to slam us. James . Lots to track this morning. Take a lock at Storm Tracker 4. Weve got all of the yellow and red on the map indicating moderate to heavy rain and as you can see, it is at this point anyway hammering the north bay and thats exactly what we thought would happen as the system progresses from north to south with with the winds actually coming up to us from the south. When you actually see it in motion youll understand why but in any event its the north bay getting hit first and well expect parts of the bay area to start seeing this before too much longer but lets zoom in. So in the north bay well start off there and ill just take a quick sample of what the rainfall rates are like near clover dale so about a third of an inch falling per hour, also quarter of an inch per hour falling in the areas around healsberg, so thats what the intensity is is like to the north. As we zoom closer to santa rosa, san own a looks like weve got rain falling right now better than half inch per hour in santa rosa, in roner park, quarter inch per hour just under a fifth of an inch per hour so weve got extreme rainfalling right now and of course dont forget high winds associated with this system. I felt it as i was driving across the bay bridge this morning and mark felt it when he came in from the north bay so two handson the wheel for sure especially if you drive a high profile vehicle. In eastbay delta so far so good. No rain falling there but in areas like martinez lets zoom in here and take a look. You are seeing rain beginning to fall. You can see martinez, pleasant hill, concord, all seeing light rain falling and weve got lafayette along highway 24 also dealing with the rain at the moment. If youre down near dublin, nothing much yet and as we look out toward livermore, again things all clear for the moment but that will certainly change. Take a quick look at what were seeing here out near san rafael, with that heavy rainfalling and beginning to really impact the Golden Gate Bridge. You see that there . Lets get a sample reading here of the rainfall rates. Weve got 32 hundredths of an in of per hour falling at the moment and lets pull out a little bit. I want to show you portions of the eastbay. So weve got some moderate showers beginning to ender laces like alamedar and the oakland side of the bay bridge looks like things start getting more intense as weve got moderate rainfalling. San francisco downtown just light rain but still enough to begin to build our accumulations. The wider peninsula shot shows us rain, light still in nature from San Francisco down through south San Francisco to about the san mateo bridge and thats where the rain line ends. Cuppertino, to your east, and sat aircrews mountains seeing scattered light showers but that will intensify as we head later on into the morning and early afternoon. Now the worry is that in the north bay we could see these showers stall just a bit during these Early Morning hours and that would mean more accumulation and they are already getting upwards of three to possibly eight inches. We could see more of that higher end of the spectrum as this rain continues to linger in the north bay even by 7 00 a. M. Were predicting heavy showers to still be impacting the north bay and by 8 00 that band of heavy rain begins to move down towards San Francisco and oakland. By 9 00 were talking mid peninsula and out toward the eastbay places like hayward, freemont, livermore, dublin getting hammered at that point and by looks like 1011 00 today san jose and other portions of the Santa Clara Valley to the south that well be seeing heaviest rain and then by about noon time the front moves off but well still be dealing with widespread light showers on of this system. Again it will be light compared to the heavy rain that well see this morning but it will still be raining nonetheless impacting you at 3 00 this afternoon. 6 00 this evening, and even as late as 10 00 p. M. Tonight well still have light rainfalling. It should breakup a little bit overnight but looks like maybe tomorrow morning well once again see a wet commute. Here is the live look the Golden Gate Bridge showing us wet conditions and our long range forecast calls for a brief break but again more rain next week so weve got quite the unsettled weather pattern ahead. Keep it tuned here to kron 4 well keep you updated and download our mobile app too. A great way to stay updated with weather and traffic speaking cough erica how is traffic . We have several incidents james. Outhit wind is probably the biggest impact for bay area commuters. We have several wind advisories in effect right now the bay bridge, toll plaza looks good but once you make your way past the lights and head closer to mid span thats where it gets really windy. Wind gusts up to 30 Miles Per Hour so keep a safe grip, a firm grip on the Steering Wheel and allow a safe distance between you and the cars in front of you. So far so good. No accidents to report here. We do have