DAN GELSTON, Associated Press

6 days ago

Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants on Monday, May 6, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Zack Wheeler struck out 11 in seven innings, Bryce Harper hit a three-run home run and Kyle Schwarber added a solo shot to help the Philadelphia Phillies earn a four-game win over the San Francisco Giants by 6 :1 to complete victory on Monday.

Harper singled deep against Giants rookie Mason Black, spoiling the major league debut of the Giants right-hander, who pitched in the fifth inning against the team he rooted for as a kid.

“I hope he enjoyed it with his family, his teammates and everything else because there is only one debut,” Harper said.

This season's Phillies are winning as many as the ones Black cheered for as a child.

The major league-leading Phillies (25-11) won their sixth straight and have won 10 of 11 and 17 of 20 to open a three-game lead over Atlanta in the NL East.

The Phillies have also won 10 straight games at Citizens Bank Park, just two wins shy of matching the team record set in 2012. Philadelphia also set a franchise record with 11 consecutive wins against NL West opponents.

“I feel like we win in different ways every night. And it's a completely different player who makes it big, be it a hitter or a pitcher. It’s never the same guy, which is nice,” catcher JT Realmuto said. “There is not too much pressure on a player. We all feel like we play really well together and have a lot of fun, and the guys contribute every night.”

Harper hit a home run for the second straight game and his eighth hit of the season made it 4-0 against Black (0-1). Black made his major league debut in front of his parents, younger brother, girlfriend and numerous friends and family who came to watch him play against his favorite childhood team.

The 24-year-old Black – rated the seventh-best prospect in baseball according to MLB.com – was the Giants' third-round pick in the 2021 draft out of Lehigh University. Black recorded a 1-2-3 first inning that included strikeouts by JT Realmuto and Harper, the latter of which was caught in the 88 mph changeup.

Black allowed eight hits, five runs and three walks. He struck out four hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Wheeler (4-3) showed the rookie how it's done. He rebounded from an 0-3 start – he allowed a total of six runs in his first three starts – to win his fourth straight start. Wheeler allowed one run, walked one and lowered his ERA to 1.64.

“Today Wheels did what Zack does every time he goes out there. It was fun to watch and keep us in the game,” Harper said.

Matt Strahm pitched a scoreless eighth and Orion Kerkering pitched the ninth to complete the five.

With shortstop Trea Turner out for at least six weeks with a left hamstring strain, his replacements are starting to fill the void. Bryson Stott moved from second base to shortstop and snagged a great grounder from Wilmer Flores in the first to set up an inning-ending double play. Whit Merrifield started second and gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the fourth.

Harper had a three-run toss in the fifth and Nick Castellanos, who hit 37 doubles last season, got his first hit of the year later in the inning for a 5-0 lead.

Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm went 0-for-4, ending his hitting streak at 18 games.

HUGE BREAK

The Giants lost for the sixth time in seven games, falling 6-14 on the road. They lost two of three games in Boston and ended their 10-game trip with three games at Colorado, the only team behind San Francisco in the NL West. Maybe there will be a Mile High fortune change for the Giants — they are 18-8 at Coors Field with a plus-51 run differential since 2021.

“We need to clean up,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We have to play better. We left home one game under .500 and not playing very well. I thought (the road) could be a pretty good spot for us since we hadn't been playing well. And now we’re playing terribly.”

NEXT

The Giants send LHP Kyle Harrison (2-1, 3.79 ERA) to the mound against Rockies RHP Dakota Hudson (0-5, 5.93) on Tuesday.

The Phillies stay at home and open a two-game set against Toronto on Tuesday. They will send LHP Cristopher Sánchez (1-3, 3.68) to the mound against Blue Jays RHP José Berríos (4-2, 1.44).

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

The post Harper homers, Wheeler strikes out 11 as Phillies full 4-game sweep of Giants with 6-1 win – WWLP appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

DAN GELSTON, Associated Press

4 days ago

Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants on Monday, May 6, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Zack Wheeler struck out 11 in seven innings, Bryce Harper hit a three-run home run and Kyle Schwarber added a solo shot to help the Philadelphia Phillies earn a four-game win over the San Francisco Giants by 6 :1 to complete victory on Monday.

Harper singled deep against Giants rookie Mason Black, spoiling the major league debut of the Giants right-hander, who pitched in the fifth inning against the team he rooted for as a kid.

“I hope he enjoyed it with his family, his teammates and everything else because there is only one debut,” Harper said.

This season's Phillies are winning as many as the ones Black cheered for as a child.

The major league-leading Phillies (25-11) won their sixth straight and have won 10 of 11 and 17 of 20, gaining a three-game lead over Atlanta in the NL East.

The Phillies have also won 10 straight games at Citizens Bank Park, just two wins shy of matching the team record set in 2012. Philadelphia also set a franchise record with 11 consecutive wins against NL West opponents.

“I feel like we win in different ways every night. And it's a completely different player who makes it big, be it a hitter or a pitcher. It’s never the same guy, which is nice,” catcher JT Realmuto said. “There is not too much pressure on a player. We all feel like we play really well together and have a lot of fun, and the guys contribute every night.”

Harper hit a home run for the second straight game and his eighth hit of the season made it 4-0 against Black (0-1). Black made his major league debut in front of his parents, younger brother, girlfriend and numerous friends and family who came to watch him play against his favorite childhood team.

The 24-year-old Black – rated the seventh-best prospect in baseball according to MLB.com – was the Giants' third-round pick in the 2021 draft out of Lehigh University. Black recorded a 1-2-3 first inning that included strikeouts by JT Realmuto and Harper, the latter of which was caught in the 88 mph changeup.

Black allowed eight hits, five runs and three walks. He struck out four hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Wheeler (4-3) showed the rookie how it's done. He rebounded from an 0-3 start – he allowed a total of six runs in his first three starts – to win his fourth straight start. Wheeler allowed one run, walked one and lowered his ERA to 1.64.

“Today Wheels did what Zack does every time he goes out there. It was fun to watch and keep us in the game,” Harper said.

Matt Strahm pitched a scoreless eighth and Orion Kerkering pitched the ninth to complete the five.

With shortstop Trea Turner out for at least six weeks with a left hamstring strain, his replacements are starting to fill the void. Bryson Stott moved from second base to shortstop and snagged a great grounder from Wilmer Flores in the first to set up an inning-ending double play. Whit Merrifield started second and gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the fourth.

Harper had a three-run toss in the fifth and Nick Castellanos, who hit 37 doubles last season, got his first hit of the year later in the inning for a 5-0 lead.

Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm went 0-for-4, ending his 18-game hitting streak.

HUGE BREAK

The Giants lost for the sixth time in seven games, falling 6-14 on the road. They lost two of three games in Boston and ended their 10-game trip with three games at Colorado, the only team behind San Francisco in the NL West. Maybe there will be a Mile High fortune change for the Giants — they are 18-8 at Coors Field with a plus-51 run differential since 2021.

“We need to clean up,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We have to play better. We left home one game under .500 and not playing very well. I thought (the road) might be a pretty good place for us since we hadn't played well. And now we’re playing terribly.”

NEXT

The Giants send LHP Kyle Harrison (2-1, 3.79 ERA) to the mound against Rockies RHP Dakota Hudson (0-5, 5.93) on Tuesday.

The Phillies stay at home and open a two-game set against Toronto on Tuesday. They will send LHP Cristopher Sánchez (1-3, 3.68) to the mound against Blue Jays RHP José Berríos (4-2, 1.44).

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

The post Harper homers, Wheeler strikes out 11 as Phillies full 4-game sweep of Giants with 6-1 win – NewsNation appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

DAN GELSTON, Associated Press

19 hours ago

Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies throws during the second inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants on Monday, May 6, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Zack Wheeler struck out 11 in seven innings, Bryce Harper hit a three-run home run and Kyle Schwarber added a solo shot to help the Philadelphia Phillies earn a four-game win over the San Francisco Giants by 6 :1 to complete victory on Monday.

Harper singled deep against Giants rookie Mason Black, spoiling the major league debut of the Giants right-hander, who pitched in the fifth inning against the team he rooted for as a kid.

“I hope he enjoyed it with his family, his teammates and everything else because there is only one debut,” Harper said.

This season's Phillies are winning as many as the ones Black cheered for as a child.

The major league-leading Phillies (25-11) won their sixth straight and have won 10 of 11 and 17 of 20 to open a three-game lead over Atlanta in the NL East.

The Phillies have also won 10 straight games at Citizens Bank Park, just two wins shy of matching the team record set in 2012. Philadelphia also set a franchise record with 11 consecutive wins against NL West opponents.

“I feel like we win in different ways every night. And it's a completely different player who makes it big, be it a hitter or a pitcher. It’s never the same guy, which is nice,” catcher JT Realmuto said. “There is not too much pressure on a player. We all feel like we play really well together and have a lot of fun, and the guys contribute every night.”

Harper hit a home run for the second straight game and his eighth hit of the season made it 4-0 against Black (0-1). Black made his major league debut in front of his parents, younger brother, girlfriend and numerous friends and family who came to watch him play against his favorite childhood team.

The 24-year-old Black – rated the seventh-best prospect in baseball according to MLB.com – was the Giants' third-round pick in the 2021 draft out of Lehigh University. Black recorded a 1-2-3 first inning that included strikeouts by JT Realmuto and Harper, the latter of which was caught in the 88 mph changeup.

Black allowed eight hits, five runs and three walks. He struck out four hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Wheeler (4-3) showed the rookie how it's done. He rebounded from an 0-3 start – he allowed a total of six runs in his first three starts – to win his fourth straight start. Wheeler allowed one run, walked one and lowered his ERA to 1.64.

“Today Wheels did what Zack does every time he goes out there. It was fun to watch and keep us in the game,” Harper said.

Matt Strahm pitched a scoreless eighth and Orion Kerkering pitched the ninth to complete the five.

With shortstop Trea Turner out for at least six weeks with a left hamstring strain, his replacements are starting to fill the void. Bryson Stott moved from second base to shortstop and snagged a great grounder from Wilmer Flores in the first to set up an inning-ending double play. Whit Merrifield started second and gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the fourth.

Harper had a three-run toss in the fifth and Nick Castellanos, who hit 37 doubles last season, got his first hit of the year later in the inning for a 5-0 lead.

Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm went 0-for-4, ending his hitting streak at 18 games.

HUGE BREAK

The Giants lost for the sixth time in seven games, falling 6-14 on the road. They lost two of three games in Boston and ended their 10-game trip with three games at Colorado, the only team behind San Francisco in the NL West. Maybe there will be a Mile High fortune change for the Giants — they are 18-8 at Coors Field with a plus-51 run differential since 2021.

“We need to clean up,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We have to play better. We left home one game under .500 and not playing particularly well. I thought (the road) could be a pretty good spot for us since we hadn't been playing well. And now we’re playing terribly.”

NEXT

The Giants send LHP Kyle Harrison (2-1, 3.79 ERA) to the mound against Rockies RHP Dakota Hudson (0-5, 5.93) on Tuesday.

The Phillies stay at home and open a two-game set against Toronto on Tuesday. They will send LHP Cristopher Sánchez (1-3, 3.68) to the mound against Blue Jays RHP José Berríos (4-2, 1.44).

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

The post Harper homers, Wheeler strikes out 11 as Phillies full 4-game sweep of Giants with 6-1 win appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO >> A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled the San Francisco Bay Area today, causing delays of some commuter trains. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The US Geological Survey said the 11:42 am quake was centered 12 miles east of San Jose at a depth of about 4 miles. The area is hill country about 40 miles southeast of downtown San Francisco.

Lucy Jones, a veteran California seismologist, told KNTV-TV that the quake happened on the Calaveras fault, one of eight major faults in the Bay Area.

“The Calaveras fault is one that tends to have smaller earthquakes,” Jones said.

It was the largest earthquake in the Bay Area since a magnitude 6.0 jolt in the Napa wine country in 2014, Jones said in a social media post.

The 138-mile long Calaveras fault is a major branch of the San Andreas fault and runs from San Juan Bautista in the south to San Ramon in the north, Jones said.

Numerous moderate earthquakes have occurred along the Calaveras fault, including the 6.2 Morgan Hill earthquake in 1984, Annemarie Baltay, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey, said in a video statement posted on Twitter.

Rich Constantine, the mayor of Morgan Hill, a city next to San Jose, said he was in the kitchen of his home when today’s “long and steady” quake struck.

“We had a frame in the house fall, everything was shaking but once it stopped, there was no damage,” he said.

Constantine said Morgan Hill’s City Hall and other city offices were evacuated but that everyone returned to work soon after.

People reported feeling the quake as far south as the scenic Big Sur coast, 75 miles south of the epicenter in the region of Joseph Grant Ranch County Park, a huge natural area.

Nearly 100,000 people reported receiving a warning before the shaking started through California’s earthquake early warning system, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES.

“Advance notice varied from two seconds for those very near the epicenter to 18 seconds for those in San Francisco,” the agency said.

MyShake, a statewide cellphone app that went live to the general public in late 2019, relies on an earthquake detection and notification system developed by the US Geological Survey and partners.

A 3.1 aftershock followed about 5 minutes later, according to the US Geological Survey.

Several commuter train companies, including Cal Train and the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, known as BART, held trains to check for damage. BART returned to normal service by early afternoon.

The post Magnitude 5.1 quake strikes in San Francisco Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday, causing delays of some commuter trains. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The US Geological Survey said the 11:42 am quake was centered 12 miles (19 kilometers) east of San Jose at a depth of about 4 miles (6 kilometers). The area is hill country about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of downtown San Francisco.

Lucy Jones, a veteran California seismologist, told KNTV-TV that the quake happened on the Calaveras fault, one of eight major faults in the Bay Area.

“The Calaveras fault is one that tends to have smaller earthquakes,” Jones said.

It was the largest earthquake in the Bay Area since a magnitude 6.0 jolt in the Napa wine country in 2014, Jones said in a social media post.

The 138-mile (220-kilometer) long Calaveras fault is a major branch of the San Andreas fault and runs from San Juan Bautista in the south to San Ramon in the north, Jones said.

Numerous moderate earthquakes have occurred along the Calaveras fault, including the 6.2 Morgan Hill earthquake in 1984, Annemarie Baltay, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey, said in a video statement posted on Twitter.

Rich Constantine, the mayor of Morgan Hill, a city next to San Jose, said he was struck in the kitchen of his home when Tuesday’s “long and steady” quake.

“We had a frame in the house fall, everything was shaking but once it stopped, there was no damage,” he said.

Constantine said Morgan Hill’s City Hall and other city offices were evacuated but that everyone returned to work soon after.

People reported feeling the quake as far south as the scenic Big Sur coast, 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of the epicenter in the region of Joseph Grant Ranch County Park, a huge natural area.

Nearly 100,000 people reported receiving a warning before the shaking started through California’s earthquake early warning system, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES.

“Advance notice varied from two seconds for those very near the epicenter to 18 seconds for those in San Francisco,” the agency said.

MyShake, a statewide cellphone app that went live to the general public in late 2019, relies on an earthquake detection and notification system developed by the US Geological Survey and partners.

A 3.1 aftershock followed about 5 minutes later, according to the US Geological Survey.

Several commuter train companies, including Cal Train and the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, known as BART, held trains to check for damage. BART returned to normal service by early afternoon.

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

The post Magnitude 5.1 quake strikes in San Francisco Bay Space | Nationwide appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO — A magnitude 5.1 earthquake rattled the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday, causing delays of some commuter trains. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The US Geological Survey said the 11:42 am quake was centered 12 miles (19 kilometers) east of San Jose at a depth of about 4 miles (6 kilometers). The area is hill country about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of downtown San Francisco.

Lucy Jones, a veteran California seismologist, told KNTV-TV that the quake happened on the Calaveras fault, one of eight major faults in the Bay Area.

“The Calaveras fault is one that tends to have smaller earthquakes,” Jones said.

It was the largest earthquake in the Bay Area since a magnitude 6.0 jolt in the Napa wine country in 2014, Jones said in a social media post.

The 138-mile (220-kilometer) long Calaveras fault is a major branch of the San Andreas fault and runs from San Juan Bautista in the south to San Ramon in the north, Jones said.

Numerous moderate earthquakes have occurred along the Calaveras fault, including the 6.2 Morgan Hill earthquake in 1984, Annemarie Baltay, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey, said in a video statement posted on Twitter.

Rich Constantine, the mayor of Morgan Hill, a city next to San Jose, said he was in the kitchen of his home when Tuesday’s “long and steady” quake struck.

“We had a frame in the house fall, everything was shaking but once it stopped, there was no damage,” he said.

Constantine said Morgan Hill’s City Hall and other city offices were evacuated but that everyone returned to work soon after.

People reported feeling the quake as far south as the scenic Big Sur coast, 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of the epicenter in the region of Joseph Grant Ranch County Park, a huge natural area.

Nearly 100,000 people reported receiving a warning before the shaking started through California’s earthquake early warning system, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES.

“Advance notice varied from two seconds for those very near the epicenter to 18 seconds for those in San Francisco,” the agency said.

MyShake, a statewide cellphone app that went live to the general public in late 2019, relies on an earthquake detection and notification system developed by the US Geological Survey and partners.

A 3.1 aftershock followed about 5 minutes later, according to the US Geological Survey.

Several commuter train companies, including Cal Train and the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, known as BART, held trains to check for damage. BART returned to normal service by early afternoon.

The post Magnitude 5.1 quake strikes in San Francisco Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS / AP / KPIX) – Millions of online users lost access to popular websites and services when Amazon’s cloud service network went down for hours on Tuesday, even disrupting its own delivery service for its customers. The service provides remote computing services to many governments, universities, and corporations, including The Associated Press.

About five hours after numerous companies and other organizations began reporting issues with Amazon Web Services, the company said in a post on the AWS Status page that it had “mitigated” the underlying problem that caused the outage . Shortly thereafter, it was reported that “many services have already recovered,” but noted that others were still working on a full recovery.

CONTINUE READING: Steph Curry joins the 3-hand record as Warriors Top Blazers

The problem primarily affected Amazon’s web services in the eastern United States, it said. The problems started this morning on the US east coast, said Doug Madory, director of internet analytics at Kentik Inc, a network intelligence company – including Amazon’s own e-commerce operation.

In a statement, Amazon spokesman Richard Rocha confirmed that the AWS failure had also caused problems in Amazon’s warehouse and delivery operations. Rocha added that the company is “working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible”.

It is not just large companies that have felt the effects of the Amazon Web Services shutdown. It is unclear how or if the Amazon outage affected the federal government. The US agency for cybersecurity and infrastructure security said in an email response to questions that it was working with Amazon “to understand the possible impact of this outage on federal agencies or other partners.”

What is certain is that when a great service like this fails, there is a domino effect that can be felt worldwide.

“The reason we’re seeing this more often is because the internet is centralized,” said CNET editor at Large Ian Sherr.

Deliveries were canceled, some apps were unresponsive, and customers trying to book flights with airlines were unable to connect. Those were just a few of the problems.

Students like Kayley Flanagan also felt the effects.

“Some people were in the middle of the finale when it shut down and they couldn’t access it,” Flanagan said.

Platforms like Canvas, which enable online learning and teaching for academic institutions as well, are closed, leaving students desperate and desperate for answers on social media.

“I couldn’t access my homework or the study guides for the final exams,” Flanagan said.

CONTINUE READING: Berkeley Police Department arrests a convicted sex offender for allegedly assaulting teenagers and alleging a police officer

“Thirty, 40 years ago, when we first developed the Internet, the whole idea was to have it decentralized and to have information accessible from anywhere in case there was an attack,” said Sherr.

Scherr believes centralizing the Internet with a handful of companies under control is part of the problem as incidents like Tuesday’s outage with huge economic repercussions are just waiting to happen.

“A lot of companies rely on Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, and as a result, things can go wrong and it can get really bad online,” said Sherr.

Customers trying to book or rebook trips with Delta Air Lines have had problems connecting with the airline. “Delta is working quickly to restore functionality to our AWS-supported phone lines,” said spokesman Morgan Durrant. The airline apologized and urged customers to use their website or mobile app instead.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines said it switched to west coast servers after some airport-based systems were affected by the outage. Customers reported DownDetector, a popular clearinghouse for user outage reporting, still outages, more than three hours after launch. Southwest spokesman Brian Parrish said there had been no major flight disruptions.

Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said the company’s eastern US region for dealer services has declined. The company has apps that access inventory data, monthly payment calculators, service bulletins, and other items. More than 20 apps were affected.

According to DownDetector, people who tried using Instacart, Venmo, Kindle, Roku, and Disney + have reported problems. The McDonald’s app was also down. But American, United, Alaska and JetBlue airlines were not affected. Kentik posted a 26% decrease in traffic to Netflix, among the top web-based services hit by the outage.

Madory said he didn’t think the failure was anything nefarious. He said a recent accumulation of outages among providers hosting large websites reflects the evolution of the networking industry. “More and more of these outages are the result of the automation and centralization of administration,” he said. “This ultimately leads to failures that are difficult to completely avoid due to operational complexity, but are very effective when they occur.”

Public data access technologist and public data access activist Carl Malamud said the outage shows how much the internet’s original design goal – a distributed network with no central point of failure that makes it resilient to mass disasters like a nuclear attack – has been skewed by big tech.

“If we put everything in one place, be it the cloud from Amazon or the monolith from Facebook, we are violating this basic principle,” said Malamud, who developed the Internet’s first radio station and later an important database for the US Security and Stock Exchange Commission online posed. “We saw when Facebook became the instrument of a massive disinformation campaign, we only saw it today with the failure of Amazon.”

Kenny Choi contributed to this report.

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© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The post Main Outage Strikes Amazon Internet Providers ; Netflix, Venmo, Instacart Amongst Many Affected Websites – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Thursday night there were multiple reports of rain, thunder and lightning in the North Bay as an unstable weather system moved across the Bay Area amid a red flag warning keeping firefighters on guard.

The National Weather Service Bay Area Twitter account posted about thunder and lightning around 9:20 p.m.

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Numerous reports of thunder and lightning strikes in North Bay while a number of showers sweep across the area. The peak phase of instability and thunderstorm potential will continue during the night. #RedFlagWarning pic.twitter.com/FQqWHotlTG

– NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) September 10, 2021

The Santa Rosa fire department also reported some rain showers on Thursday evening.

Yes, it is rain. Hopefully that’s all we see during this red flag alert. for no dry lighting. @NWSBayArea pic.twitter.com/a040k5PuAL

– Santa Rosa Fire Department (@SantaRosaFire) September 10, 2021

The system is expected to bring cool temperatures to the Bay Area this weekend, but firefighters are concerned that lightning strikes could recreate last year’s devastating complex fires.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning Thursday for the mountains, hills and valleys of North Bay and East Bay, which runs from 5 p.m. Thursday to 11 a.m. Friday. The main concern is lightning strikes that could trigger additional forest fires in extremely dry vegetation. The warning was an upgrade from a previous Fire Weather Watch.

Wind and lightning strikes are a recipe for disaster, especially with the dry fuels in this area.

Earl Small sat on the porch of his new Santa Rosa home, looking for lightning and signs of fire.

“After waiting four years to get back to our house, it’s nerve-wracking,” said Small.

The Santa Rosa Fire Department has staffed its stations, although the weather shouldn’t be as volatile as the thunderstorms that started the LNU Lightning Complex fire last year.

“Given the critical dryness of the fuels and the irregular winds that can be expected on many fronts, every blow will start a fire. It just depends on how big it gets or how small we can keep it, ”said Paul Lowenthal from the Santa Rosa fire department.

CONTINUE READING: Call back supporters in rural California

Santa Rosa is working closely with other departments in the North Bay to respond quickly to fires and to alert residents of evacuations if necessary. It’s an experience Earl Small hopes never to go through again.

“If you lose everything, you have nothing,” he said.

After years of financial and emotional struggles, Small got his house back, but not his home.

“To live in a house for twenty-two years is a home. If we go back to a structure that is a house, people who haven’t been through it and lost everything will never understand, ”said Small.

KPIX 5 Weather Center: Current conditions, maps, forecasts for your region

More than 600 forest fires were ignited across Northern California as of mid-August 2020 by rare summer thunderstorms that combined burned more than 2.5 million acres as the fires extended into January. At least 23 people died and more than 3,500 buildings were destroyed.

In the Bay Area, the largest fires in August 2020 were the SCU Lightning Complex, the LNU Lightning Complex and the CZU Lightning Complex, which burned nearly 900,000 hectares by mid-September. Further north, the August Complex in counties Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn, Lake, and Colusa burned more than a million acres and is considered the largest forest fire in California history.

According to the weather service, in September there are often interactions between tropical humidity and pre-season troughs in the late season, which lead to lightning fires. In September 2009, a lightning strike triggered about 30 small fires in the Bay Area. There were also lightning events in mid-September in 2017 and 2019.

Unusual this year, however, is the extreme drought and the risk of lightning after days with very hot and dry weather, said the weather service.

“We’re full right now,” says Chelsea Burkett of Cal Fire’s Santa Clara Unit. “We have a lot of resources right now for various incidents in the state of California. We are where we can be. “

Additional equipment is now on standby at Morgan Hill Headquarters, and other preparations are being made all the way over the hills of the East Bay where the fire departments will be keeping additional crews ready.

Cal Fire says it works with NOAA to track the weather, and when a lightning strike hits the ground, they know where it happened, often meters from the landing. It is more difficult to know whether this strike started a fire or not.

“All we can do in our unit is be prepared,” says Burkett. “And that’s why we have a plan to be prepared and send resources accordingly.”

At 10 a.m. on Thursday, there was subtropical moisture over the region with isolated showers moving over the north bay and several heavier showers over the coastal waters. No lightning was detected locally until this morning, but there was a lightning band west of the Channel Islands in Southern California.

The passing system will result in a gradual cooling trend into late week, along with the likely return of a deepening ocean layer, with temperatures close to seasonal averages from Friday through the coming weekend, with night / morning low clouds more prevalent, said the weather service.

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Andrea Nakano from KPIX 5 contributed to this report

The post In a single day Lightning Strikes in North Bay Preserve Residents, Firefighters on Edge – CBS San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Four dead gray whales washed ashore on the beaches of San Francisco Bay in nine days. Experts announced that two of the giant aquatic mammals have died from ship attacks and the other two are under investigation on Saturday.

Biologists from the nonprofit Marine Mammal Center in California said in a press release Saturday that two dead whales washed ashore in the Bay Area on Thursday, joining two more whales discovered dead on the area’s beaches since March 31 were.

Of the four animals, two died of blunt violent trauma from ship attacks, the center said.

“It is alarming to be responding to four dead gray whales in just over a week as it really puts the current challenges facing these species into perspective,” said Padraig Duignan, director of pathology at the center, in a press release.

Other common causes of gray whale death include starvation and complications from entanglement in deep-sea fishing nets and other equipment, the center said.

Biologists from the California Academy of Sciences came to the center’s experts to perform the autopsies.

Climate change can affect water temperatures, which affects the availability of food for the whales. These can grow up to 50 feet long and migrate approximately 10,000 miles each year between foraging areas in the cold waters of the North Pacific and breeding areas in warm water lagoons on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.

The species is not currently considered endangered, but is protected by the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Department keeps track of whale populations. The last published study in 2016 found a population of 27,000 gray whales. Data from a 2020 study is still being analyzed, according to the NOAA website.

Reporting from Rich McKay in Atlanta; Adaptation by Andrea Ricci

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