Record-breaking heat in March: up to 94°F in San Jose
From Tuesday through Friday, the Bay Area will be hit by a heat wave that is highly unusual for March—the strongest on record for this time of year. For the first time in history, the National Weather Service has issued a March heat advisory: it is in effect from 10 a.m. Monday through 8 p.m. Friday. The cause is a massive high-pressure system over the Pacific Ocean: it is moving directly over the region by midweek. Forecast highs: San Jose — 94°F, Oakland — 92°F, Concord — 92°F. For comparison: Oakland’s March record is 85°F, set in 2005. In Richmond, Half Moon Bay, and San Rafael, temperatures could exceed the previous record by more than 10 degrees. NWS meteorologist Roger Gass warns: don’t expect relief until Saturday.
Jensen Huang in San Jose: $1 Trillion in AI Chips
On Monday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang opened the annual GTC conference at the SAP Center in San Jose—30,000 attendees, over two hours on stage. Key announcement: The total order backlog for Blackwell and Vera Rubin chips will reach $1 trillion by 2027—twice as much as Huang predicted six months ago. Central thesis: The era of AI training is over; the era of inference has arrived—when systems don’t just learn, but actually perform work. A hybrid architecture was unveiled at GTC: the Vera Rubin GPU processes the initial request, while a chip based on Groq LPU technology handles the final response generation. Nvidia uses Groq technology under license to accelerate inference tasks.
Bay Lights Return to the Bay Bridge on March 20
On Friday, March 20, the Bay Lights will illuminate the western span of the Bay Bridge for the first time in three years. Artist Leo Villareal’s original installation operated for ten years before being shut down in March 2023—wind, salt, and humidity had damaged the electronics. The new version is a complete overhaul: 48,000 LEDs instead of the previous 25,000, designed specifically for marine environments. The project cost $11 million, raised exclusively from private donors—more than 1,300 people—without any public funding. The ceremonial lighting will take place on the 92nd birthday of former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, after whom the western span is officially named.
Xfinity Outage: Thousands Without Internet on Monday
On Monday morning, a major Xfinity outage left thousands of subscribers in San Francisco, the East Bay, and the Peninsula without internet. Remote work came to a halt. Users on r/bayarea flooded Reddit with complaints. By Tuesday morning, service had been restored in most areas.
Super Bowl Shooter Caught in Washington
San Jose police announced the arrest of Tyrone Asphy, 46, a resident of Federal Way, Washington—a suburb of Seattle. On the evening of February 8, a few hours after the Super Bowl, Asphy opened fire at the intersection of Santa Clara Street and Market Street in downtown San Jose: six people were injured, all with non-life-threatening injuries. Asphy fled home to Washington. Detectives from the Gang Investigations Unit identified his vehicle using ALPR data—automatic license plate recognition cameras. On March 11, he was apprehended with the assistance of the FBI and the Washington State SWAT team. A search of his vehicle turned up a firearm and a Seattle Seahawks T-shirt. Asphy is currently being held at King County Jail, awaiting extradition to Santa Clara County.
Santana Row Attack: Charges Filed Against Three
The Santa Clara County District Attorney has filed charges against three suspects in the attack on two Israeli-American men outside the Augustine restaurant on Santana Row on March 8. They are Henry Brunell Chamaki, 32, of Morgan Hill—a practicing attorney—as well as brothers Roma Akoyans, 20, and Ramon Akoyans, 18, both of San Jose. According to investigators, the attack began after the victims spoke in Hebrew: one of the suspects pointed to the Star of David around one of their necks. No hate crime charges have been filed yet, and the investigation is ongoing. All three turned themselves in to police on Monday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 12.
Bridge repairs and BART delays through the end of March
Scheduled nighttime work has begun on the Carquinez Bridge and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge (I-580)—it will continue through the end of March, and lane closures are possible. On the BART section between Millbrae and San Bruno, delays of up to 30 minutes are expected in the evenings after 9:00 p.m. due to the modernization of the train control system.
St. Patrick’s Day: A Parade in Healdsburg and a Run in Oakland
Today, March 17, Healdsburg is hosting its traditional “world’s shortest parade”—a few steps down Main Street. In San Francisco, the festivities are centered at the United Irish Cultural Center. Meanwhile, the lead-up week for the Oakland Marathon has begun: organizers are expecting a record 10,000 participants.