right now at 11:00, the storm is not done with the bay area just yet. more rain is moving through right now. our microclimate weather alert coverage kicks off in just moments with where the storm is now and how much of a break we'll get before the next one moves in. >> plus, fights are finally taking off. this is after a systemwide outage grounds hundreds of planes across the u.s. a mad scramble to get things back to normal and how bay area airports are faring. >> thank you for joining us for our midday newscast. i'm marcus washington. >> i'm laura garcia.

you can watch us live with roku, amazon fire, apple tv, and online. first, another round of storms dumping more rain and bringing wind. >> our team coverage begins right now. nbc bay area's kris sanchez is tracking conditions in the north bay, one of the places getting hit the hardest. and we want to hear from meteorologist kari hall, who has been tracking this weather. >> we've been seeing the rain widespread and steady for much of the bay area. we've seen at times pockets of heavier rain picking up and moving into parts of the north bay from marin county right across the richmond-san rafael bridge. for the east bay, it is widespread with a few areas where you see the darker green, the heavier rain that's moving through. and we're definitely seeing that now over the santa cruz mountains, reaching more saratoga and eventually making it toward san jose, with lighter showers for morgan hill to gilroy. so we are still looking at waves of rain coming in, all of this

moisture pushing across the bay area, and at times it does pick up quite a bit as it taps into that deep tropical moisture. another atmospheric river moving in with bay area rain and sierra snow that's really reducing the visibility in those areas. all of this drawn in by the center of this storm, the area of low pressure we're seeing there and the clouds reaching in. so we're going to have several hours of all of this activity continuing for the rest of today. take a look at the conditions right now in oakland as you're out for a drive and having to deal with the windshield wipers all the way on, as well as the gusty winds that have been kicking up. we're going to see the rain continue for at least the next several hours, so those rainfall totals and the impacts continue to add up. we'll talk more about that in the forecast coming up in a few minutes. >> thank you. as kari has been telling us, the rain is especially hitting the north bay the hardest. >> let's check in with kris sanchez who joins us live.

>> reporter: it does keep coming down. you heard kari say it was going to be pretty steady rain and that's what we've experienced, not very heavy, but definitely very steady. businesses have sandbags out, as they have since the start of the new year. take a look at the flood gauge data that updates about every 15 minutes. that little blue line, the squiggle on the right-hand side is where the water level is now, about 10 feet below flood stage. so the water levels may be low, but you can see the ground very saturated. the downtown area won't need sandbags for this round of the storm as they did for previous storms. the concern today continues to be falling trees and downed power lines, with so much groundwater the root systems are just becoming unstable on a lot of trees. people seem to be taking advantage of this gentler round of rain to get out and get

things done, but they didn't really want to slow down too much and talk for very long. schools in part of the hardest-hit parts of the north bay will remain closed today. that includes four entire elementary school districts in sonoma county. that means no classes for anybody on that list because of concerns over possible flooding, falling trees and loss of power. in the south bay, los gatos high school will be closed for a second day today because of a lack of power, and we just confirmed within the last 90 minutes or so that monroe middle school is closing because of a power failure. they can't get the power back on. parents are urged to pick their children up on clifton avenue. now, a reminder, don't call 911 if you experience flooding or see a tree falling down unless there's a power line. if there is a power line, that is a 911 emergency. they need to know about that. for everything else, make sure you stick to 311 so you don't

tax the emergency system. kris sanchez, nbc bay area news. >> thank you so much. weather-related power outages really have been a major issue this week. pg&e crews are making some headway. as of 8:00 this morning, about 15,000 people in the bay area were without power. most of the number of outages are in santa clara county where close to 11,000 customers are in the dark. almost all power is now restored in san francisco and the east bay. >> a reminder, be sure to download our free nbc bay area app if you haven't already done so. it's going to give you access to our exclusive doppler radar, plus we'll send you alerts as the storm moves on. developing right now, airline passengers are still dealing with delays and cancellations. this is after the faa issued a ground stop because of a computer problem early this morning. >> nbc bay area's bob redell joins us live from oakland international airport. how are the departures and

arrivals there looking now, bob? >> reporter: the board looks pretty much the same from earlier this morning. southwest airlines here at oakland international has had a few cancellations. those are marked in red. several delays marked in yellow, ranging from 10 to 15 minutes to 2 to 3 hours. it's not clear how many of these flight disruptions are due to the fa aground stop that was lifted at 5:50 this morning versus other issues like the weather. this is a live look where they're also experiencing a lot of delays, but earlier this morning, sjc said they had only one late departure. if you look at the board, there's still a lot of delays. not clear if any of those have developed because of the faa issue or weather. sfo is telling us that they were seeing a normal number of delays and cancellations for a day like today. hard to tell which, if any, were

related to the ground stop. now, overnight the faa reported that its notam system went down. this sends alerts to pilots due to issues surrounding the airport, closed runways, equipment problems at the airport. the faa issued a ground stop for all u.s. departures until the problem was fixed. at oakland international we spoke with a grandmother who was supposed to visit her 1 month old granddaughter in phoenix but couldn't because of the southwest christmas meltdown. this morning her flight was canceled again and rescheduled for a few hours later. >> i just have to wait at the airport for a few hours, and i got up at 2:00. >> you must be excited. >> i'm excited and really tired. it's going to be a long day. >> i didn't know that it had been rescheduled through southwest, so i booked another flight. and a little chaotic, but 45 minutes later, here i am, and i'm supposed to be on an 11:30

flight. >> what does this do for your plans? >> i'm going to work and it does back me up quite a bit, but it's a new year, so i'm going to take a deep breath and roll with it. >> reporter: here is a live look at the flightaware.com website. you can see the total delays in and out of the u.s. right now, almost 8,000 today. total cancellations in and out of the u.s., almost 1,200. the fbi says there's no evidence that this morning's computer outage was the result of a cyberattack. they said it wasn't. reporting live in oakland, bob redell, nbc bay area news. >> that's good information out of all of this. >> exactly. thank you so much, bob. ground stops themselves are very rare. all airlines were ordered to land on 9/11 more than 20 years ago. >> the ground stop did not include planes already in the air. as scott mcgrew says, the planes on their way were perfectly safe. >> they were.

good morning. the notams are usually given my computer or automated radio, but they can be passed on by ground controllers over normal communication. it's less efficient. there are thousands and thousands of airplanes in the air at any given time. so the faa wisely decided to keep those planes on the ground. but planes in the air got the information they needed. here's an example of a notam sent out by san jose's airport before the computer outage. field conditions wet. the airport telling pilots, with all these rainstorms, the runways are wet. pilots can absolutely fly without that information. they can probably guess that information. but notams sometimes include important information, like don't fly over levi stadium, there's a game, the president is visiting, don't fly anywhere near his location. here's one more san jose warning pilots of a tall temporary crane that may be in the area of their flight path, as construction workers build a new tower in

downtown san jose. a little trivia for you. notam used to stand for notice to airmen. it got changed to notice to air missions, because obviously women fly airplanes, too. you would think that got changed a long time ago. in fact, it was just late last year. back to you. >> keeping up with the times. thank you. this morning marcus and i spoke with nbc bay area's aviation expert. >> he says restarting that system, like the faa had to do, is much more complicated than restarting your computer. >> it's much more complex because there's 435 commercial airports, general aviation airports get notam and they go internationally. if you're flying from london or tokyo, they get notams, too. all of them are tied together. it's the same concept, just a lot more complex as far as

interlinking the systems together. >> we send out a breaking news alert on our free nbc bay area app when that all started to unfold. make sure you download it now to get updates sent straight to your phone. more breaking news we're following this midday, the bold move twitter is reportedly considering in an effort to boost revenue. hint, it has something to do with your information. >> plus, alameda county will conduct a recount of its election. also ahead on nbc bay area nus news at midday, we'll hear about the decision. >> have you bought eggs recently? prices are spiking and they're not going down any time soon. we're going to tell you what's behind it and the alternatives out there coming up in our 4:30 p.m. newscast.

does your r vitamin cc lalast 24 hoururs? only natature's boununty . does your r vitamin cc lalast 24 hoururs? with immunune 24 h hour pluu get longerer-lasting v vitac plus h herbal and d other immunene superstarars. get momore with nanature's boun. (vo) welllls fargo lelets you knonowe plus h herbal and d other immunene superstarars. you stanand with youour fico crt scorore. what if f you knew w where you d withth everythining? lilike your fufuture in-lalaw. (b(boyfriend)) hope y you like cacats... (hero innener thought)t) i hopepe your parerents like m. they'rere whisperining. (father r in-law) the kittieies like herer... (hero o inner thouought) cacan they telell i'm alaller? (m(mother in-l-law) tearars of joy..... (f(father in-l-law) wewelcome to t the family!! (hero innener thought)t) whew!! (v(vo) likeke knowing w where you s s? whenen it comes s to your crcret scorore, you canan with welllls.

we are tracking the latest round of that rain hitting the bay area right now.

take a look, you can see right there a lot of green. that means a lot of rain. we are, again, under a microclimate weather alert. meteorologist kari hall will be here in just a moment. she's going to give us a detailed look at that forecast. breaking news just coming into our newsroom, according to a new report in the "new york times," twitter has considered selling user names in a move to generate new revenue. it all comes as the new owner, elon musk, tries to bring back the company's business. twitter has been facing a lot of turmoil since musk bought it for $44 billion back in october. so far, twitter is not commenting on this report. the midterm election isn't over just yet in alameda county. the board of supervisors voted to approve a recount of oakland mayor's race and every other race that used ranked choice voting. the naacp has been demanding this action be taken for several weeks now. they say ranked choice voting was just too confusing for many voters, leading to a tainted outcome. they are calling for this move

here, quote, a win. they held a news conference in the last hour and say this push is all about protecting civil rights. >> we got into this to make, as john lewis would have said, some good trouble, because it was the right thing to do. >> they've agreed to pay for the recount for the mayor race and school board races. any recount will cost tens of thousands of dollars. they will have not actually said when it will actually begin. new details, san jose's first homicide of the new year is under investigation. it happened along west carlos street just west of highway 87 on new year's day. a man was taken to the hospital, but died on monday. we're still working to learn his identity and what led up to the shooting. anyone with information should call san jose police. new overnight, firefighters respond to a fire in downtown

san jose that happened around 7th sometime early this morning. we're told three cars caught on fire in an apartment carport. smoke spread and caused minor damage. firefighters tell us a resident helped another blind resident. we're working to learn how those cars caught on fire. we're told no one will be displaced. now to new video from highway 17 in santa cruz mountains. take a look at this. this is when first responders rescued two people and a dog overnight after that car plunged about 50 feet down a cliff. this is near redwood estates. firefighters used rope and equipment to repel and save the people. and turning to new video, this near i-80 in the sierra, you can see right here a lot of people there plowing things out. hard at work right there. the highway remains open,

although chain controls are in effect. traction remains an issue there on side roads and in parking lots. we want to give you a live look at palisades tahoe ski resort where it looks like another day of fresh snow will be measuring in feet. getting to tahoe right now may be a big problem. take a look at these conditions from yesterday on the way to sierra. interstate 80 was closed for much of the day and everyone is still being advised to avoid traveling there. if you absolutely have to go there, those chains are required. >> that's right. look at the snowplows go. they've been very busy. north star received 27 inches of new snow overnight. >> that's pretty impressive. and the snowpack is impressive, too. we're going to get to that in just a bit. let me show you all of the rain that still continues for us here in the bay area as this storm rolls in that's been giving us a steady light rain. this is the kind of rain that we

like to see. yesterday we had a cold front that came through that gave more energy to the atmosphere and that triggered all of those storms, the small hail and the lightening. today we warm air lifting in and that's giving us widespread light rain that we see continuing. and we are continuing to focus on the north bay, even though right now around santa rosa there's a break in the activity, still picking up for marin county and heavier toward oakland and hayward, extending toward the tri-valley. the south bay, it's been pretty heavy over the santa cruz mountains and then it's still been light for the south bay from san jose to morgan hill. but all of this activity, more of this rain coming in with not a lot of places for it to go. so it's definitely going to continue to rise going into this afternoon. and some of the heaviest rain right now is moving through monterey county and then moving off toward the east. so that's missing us, but there's still a lot more off the coast that has to make its way through the bay area today with

this system that's tapping into that tropical moisture once again. so this is another atmospheric river. it's a narrow band of air that rides low in the atmosphere, and as it moves, especially to the coastline and some of the mountains, it wrings out a lot of moisture. we're still looking at heavy rainfall along the coastline. we can also see what is steering the moisture into the bay area. here is the center of the low pressure as it continues to bring it in. we'll see it not letting up for a while. so we've had all of these atmospheric rivers and we continue to monitor how our reservoirs are doing, some of the larger ones take a long time to fill up. so we are right now with our largest reservoirs on average about 38% of capacity. and you can see some of the lower ones like trinity lake, that's only at about one-quarter of its normal amount. then we look at bay area reservoirs that have been over 100% of capacity, even as all of this extra rain comes in for

today. and as we've seen recently, record rainfall looking at the rainiest 15-day periods in san francisco history, this is going down in san francisco as the third wettest since the gold rush. we haven't seen rain in this significance in a long time. you can check that out, that information at gd weather. we're looking at more gusty winds as the rain continues. wind advise up until 7:00 this evening, and some of those gusts may reach 60 miles per hour. for the rest of the evening we're looking at 30 to 40-mile-per-hour gusts along the coastline and hills. we'll check out some of these conditions. a live look at the golden gate bridge. raindrops and very wet roads. it's pretty windy in fremont. it shredded the flag. we've seen some breaks in the rain. also lighter showers for the south bay as we do continue to see waves of this. but the north bay will be this

afternoon where we see the heaviest rain. that's going to continue into tonight while the rest of us get a bit of a break before the next storm system comes in. that one is set to arrive on friday, so we go into the weekend with more storms coming in that continue into next week, and a lot of people enjoying the snow. that's a live look at kirkwood as we are seeing, also, a lot of skiers hitting the slopes with that fresh powder that's now at 228% of its normal amount. we do have a lot more snow on the way, so we'll be tracking all of that, and of course the conditions trying to get there to enjoy it. you definitely have to wait a while. >> sure do. it's getting harder and harder to get around. breaking news just into our newsroom, santa matt county sheriff's office says highway 92 is closed in both directions. this is from the upper skyline to the crystal spring reservoir due to a large sinkhole. it happened right after we went on the air at the top of the

hour. we're told crews are on the scene and so far there's no estimated time of reopening. happening now, a bit of a reprieve of sorts for convicted former theranos executive sonny balwani. he'll be allowed to stay home during the appeals process. balwani argued that he does not pose a flight risk or danger to the community. jurors in july convicted him on 12 counts of fraud for his rule in theranos defrauding man: i'm not slslowing down anynytime soon.n. in theranos defrauding in

that's why i i take osteteo bi-flex x every day. itit's clclinically s shown to impmprove jointnt comfmfort in 7 d days, and cocontinues toto imprprove over t time. kinda lilike us. and cocontinues toto imprprove over t time. osteo bibi-flex. because e i'm mamade to m.

trending this midday, $1.1 billion and counting. what could that mean? >> it means you're rich, very rich. look, the mega millions drawing will definitely make someone rich because no one won last

night. it is still not known if anyone -- little prizes, but maybe you won something. check them out. the numbers are 7, 13, 14, 15, 18, and the mega ball 9. again, no one won the big jackpot. friday's new jackpot will reach $1.3 billion, or $700 million for that cash payout. more breaking news coming into our newsroom, this time in sonoma county after a two-day search, a rescue crew has found one person dead, trapped in a car in submerged floodwaters in forestville, according to a twitter post by officials. chp says the car was reported to be stuck in the floodwaters on trendon hillsburg road on tuesday. the caller reported there was water in the car before getting disconnected. a chp chopper could not locate the car or driver and it became too dangerous to continue their search. they resumed it today and sadly

made that discovery. >> we've been talking about floodwaters. if you see floodwaters, don't go through it. >> you don't know how deep it is, so you just need to turn around and go a safer route. we're going to have a possibility of more flooding today as the rain is lightening up for some, it's still coming down. we've had storm after storm. there will be a brief break tomorrow, maybe even peeks of sunshine. then we head into friday with more rounds of rain and that rain continues into the weekend, as well as early next week. may not be until the end of next week when we see a break in all of this activity. so we're going to be busy and continuing to watch all of this. >> so get ready for it. it just keeps coming. >> thanks, kari. >> we did need it, but we just need more breaks in between. we're seeing so many stories of trees down and now this latest news. the thing is nbc bay area, our

teams are fanned out to continuously bring you any updates to try to help you move forward and stay informed. >> that's why you should download that free nbc bay area app. that's going to keep you updated. stay safe. our next newscast coming up at 4:30 tonight. (vo) atat wells farargo, directct des come up p to twtwo days eararly with eaearly day. whwhat if evererything camame ts early? (h(hero) hahave a good d weekend! alright nonow... have e a god weekend. (c(co-worker)) but itit's wedndnesday...

(co-workerer 2) see e you mondayay! (co-o-worker 3)) am i misissing sometething? (herero) it's the weekekend baby..... seu later. (vo)o) like g getting thihings two ds earlrly? when it t comes to p payday, you cacan with welells fargo. (co-o-worker 4)) what arere you doingng this weweekend?

right now on "california live," red carpet stunners. we're breaking down the hottest looks from last night's golden globes. then, older dogs need love, too. we'll introduce you to a bay area rescue on a mission to save our four-legged friends. speaking of dogs, it's national train your dog month, and we're going to give you four essential tips. plus, our celebrity chef stops by to share a healthy pasta recipe from his new cookbook. it's all happening right now on