LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Sunday’s heavy storm has left numerous incidents of flooding and road closures around Lake County.
The following reports from the California Highway Patrol and Caltrans were current as for 3:30 a.m. Monday.
Flooding:
• Soda Bay Road at S. Main Street, Lakeport: Roadway flooded.
Closures:
• Scotts Valley Road at Hendicks Road, Lakeport: No details. • Highway 175 at Salmina Road, Middletown: Multiple treds down. • Bartlett Springs Road at Highway 20, Lucerne: Road closed by Cal Fire. • Park Street from Second to Third streets, Lakeport: Damage from a downed treet. • Red Hills Road to Salmina Road, Kelseyville: Due to electrical work. • Highway 175 from Buckman Drive to 0.56 miles south of the Granite quarry, Lakeport: Due to flooding. No estimated time for reopening of closure.
These inspirational headlines may sound familiar. They highlight brief but exhilarating moments of disabled students in sports.
They represent what’s commonly referred to in the disability community as “inspiration porn,” but they often miss an injustice that deserves far more attention. Student athletes with disabilities are sidelined or, even worse, never granted the opportunity to try out, even though they gained equal rights to extracurricular activities such as school sports more than 50 years ago.
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. As a professor who studies sport and physical activity participation of children with disabilities, it’s clear to me that this public law has been misinterpreted for more than 50 years, in ways that deny students equal opportunities.
Clarifying the issue
Just over 10 years ago, the U.S. Department of Education had to broadly issue a “Dear Colleague” letter to schools across the country to communicate and clarify their responsibilities under the act. In other words, school districts had to be reminded not to generalize information about students with disabilities based on stereotypes.
Section 504 of the act says students with disabilities must receive the same equal rights and opportunities afforded to their peers without disabilities in extracurricular activities such as school sports. It further states that school districts should work directly with athletic associations to ensure that students with disabilities are granted an equal opportunity to participate.
The precedent for this broad-stroke communication came from a U.S. Government Accountability Office report, which found that disabled students were not afforded equal opportunities to participate in school sports, including club, intramural or interscholastic. The content in the letter wasn’t new information – it clearly reiterated key components of Section 504, reminding school districts not to act on generalizations or stereotypes of disability. It also provided examples about how to ensure equal opportunities for disabled students.
So where do things stand now?
Participation rates unclear
Students with disabilities make up 15% of U.S. public school students, which is about 7.3 million K-12th graders. It’s impossible to know if the “Dear Colleague” letter made a difference, because there still isn’t much data on this issue.
Data on the general makeup of school sports teams or intramural activities is lacking, despite the fact that research shows participating has physical, social, academic and mental health benefits.
As someone who sees students with disabilities and their families on a regular basis, the stories I hear haven’t changed. Students with disabilities are still put in so-called manager roles or aren’t taken seriously when they express an interest in interscholastic sports.
A recent conversation with a parent echoed the stagnant nature of this subject: “It was just never presented as an option. If we knew more, we may have been able to help facilitate (participation in sports), but it just didn’t come up …”
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is responsible for enforcing Section 504. Since 2013, civil rights lawsuits still arise. While these lawsuits often are resolved in favor of the student, they can be finalized or settled long after the egregious act. In other words, the legal action doesn’t always have immediate effects on the student athlete.
What can be done
While schools and their administrators have a responsibility to implement the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, there’s a collective public responsibility to ensure equal access and to uphold civil rights laws. There are tangible ways to start making changes now.
For starters, coaches should practice inclusive recruiting efforts for all school sporting activities, including direct outreach to disabled students. School districts can ensure training opportunities for all coaches and athletics directors focused on the best inclusive coaching practices.
I envision a future where headlines will reflect diverse teams, strengths of the student athletes and equal opportunity. Ignoring the civil rights of students with disabilities devalues their athletic skills. It’s also a violation of children’s civil rights. It shouldn’t take another 50 years for students with disabilities to get into the game.
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through.”
These quotes, the first from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaking to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the second from Zuckerberg to families of victims of online child abuse in the audience, are highlights from an extraordinary day of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about protecting children online.
But perhaps the most telling quote from the Jan. 31, 2024, hearing came not from the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X, Discord or Snap but from Sen. Graham in his opening statement: Social media platforms “as they are currently designed and operate are dangerous products.”
We are university researcherswho study how social media organizes news, information and communities. Whether or not social media apps meet the legal definition of “unreasonably dangerous products,” the social media companies’ business models do rely on having millions of young users. At the same time, we believe that the companies have not invested sufficient resources to effectively protect those users.
Mobile device use by children and teens skyrocketed during the pandemic and has stayed high. Naturally, teens want to be where their friends are, be it the skate park or on social media. In 2022, there were an estimated 49.8 million users age 17 and under of YouTube, 19 million of TikTok, 18 million of Snapchat, 16.7 million of Instagram, 9.9 million of Facebook and 7 million of Twitter, according to a recent study by researchers at Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health.
Teens are a significant revenue source for social media companies. Revenue from users 17 and under of social media was US$11 billion in 2022, according to the Chan School study. Instagram netted nearly $5 billion, while TikTok and YouTube each accrued over $2 billion. Teens mean green.
Social media poses a range of risks for teens, from exposing them to harassment, bullying and sexual exploitation to encouraging eating disorders and suicidal ideation. For Congress to take meaningful action on protecting children online, we identify three issues that need to be accounted for: age, business model and content moderation.
How old are you?
Social media companies have an incentive to look the other way in terms of their users’ ages. Otherwise they would have to spend the resources to moderate their content appropriately. Millions of underage users – those under 13 – are an “open secret” at Meta. Meta has described some potential strategies to verify user ages, like requiring identification or video selfies, and using AI to guess their age based on “Happy Birthday” messages.
However, the accuracy of these methods is not publicly open to scrutiny, so it’s difficult to audit them independently.
Meta has stated that online teen safety legislation is needed to prevent harm, but the company points to app stores, currently dominated by Apple and Google, as the place where age verification should happen. However, these guardrails can be easily circumvented by accessing a social media platform’s website rather than its app.
New generations of customers
Teen adoption is crucial for continued growth of all social media platforms. The Facebook Files, an investigation based on a review of company documents, showed that Instagram’s growth strategy relies on teens helping family members, particularly younger siblings, get on the platform. Meta claims it optimizes for “meaningful social interaction,” prioritizing family and friends’ content over other interests. However, Instagram allows pseudonymity and multiple accounts, which makes parental oversight even more difficult.
On Nov. 7, 2023, Auturo Bejar, a former senior engineer at Facebook, testified before Congress. At Meta he surveyed teen Instagram users and found 24% of 13- to 15-year-olds said they had received unwanted advances within the past seven days, a fact he characterizes as “likely the largest-scale sexual harassment of teens to have ever happened.” Meta has since implemented restrictions on direct messaging in its products for underage users.
But to be clear, widespread harassment, bullying and solicitation is a part of the landscape of social media, and it’s going to take more than parents and app stores to rein it in.
Meta recently announced that it is aiming to provide teens with “age-appropriate experiences,” in part by prohibiting searches for terms related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. However, these steps don’t stop online communities that promote these harmful behaviors from flourishing on the company’s social media platforms. It takes a carefully trained team of human moderators to monitor and enforce terms of service violations for dangerous groups.
Content moderation
Social media companies point to the promise of artificial intelligence to moderate content and provide safety on their platforms, but AI is not a silver bullet for managing human behavior. Communities adapt quickly to AI moderation, augmenting banned words with purposeful misspellings and creating backup accounts to prevent getting kicked off a platform.
Human content moderation is also problematic, given social media companies’ business models and practices. Since 2022, social media companies have implemented massive layoffs that struck at the heart of their trust and safety operations and weakened content moderation across the industry.
Congress will need hard data from the social media companies – data the companies have not provided to date – to assess the appropriate ratio of moderators to users.
The way forward
In health care, professionals have a duty to warn if they believe something dangerous might happen. When these uncomfortable truths surface in corporate research, little is done to inform the public of threats to safety. Congress could mandate reporting when internal studies reveal damaging outcomes.
Helping teens today will require social media companies to invest in human content moderation and meaningful age verification. But even that is not likely to fix the problem. The challenge is facing the reality that social media as it exists today thrives on having legions of young users spending significant time in environments that put them at risk. These dangers for young users are baked into the design of contemporary social media, which requires much clearer statutes about who polices social media and when intervention is needed.
One of the motives for tech companies not to segment their user base by age, which would better protect children, is how it would affect advertising revenue. Congress has limited tools available to enact change, such as enforcing laws about advertising transparency, including “know your customer” rules. Especially as AI accelerates targeted marketing, social media companies are going to continue making it easy for advertisers to reach users of any age. But if advertisers knew what proportion of ads were seen by children, rather than adults, they may think twice about where they place ads in the future.
Despite a number of high-profile hearings on the harms of social media, Congress has not yet passed legislation to protect children or make social media platforms liable for the content published on their platforms. But with so many young people online post-pandemic, it’s up to Congress to implement guardrails that ultimately put privacy and community safety at the center of social media design.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A heavy winter storm barreled in from the tropical Pacific on Sunday, dropping heavy rain and — in some areas — snow and pummeling Lake County with high winds.
The atmospheric river storm, which began early Sunday, continued wreaking damage most of the day.
On Sunday morning, areas including Cobb and Kelseyville found themselves under a blanket of snow, with snow plows working roadways in those locations.
Snow also was reported along Highway 20 near Highway 16 east of Clearlake Oaks.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services said a high wind warning issued for Lake County, which remains in effect until Sunday night, was upgraded due to guests of 50 miles per hour on the north end of the lake and gusts of up to 70 miles per hour over ridges.
Due to the conditions, OES urged people to refrain from unnecessary travel, treat all lines down as live and report them, and check in on neighbors, especially those who may not have access to internet or phone services.
The conditions led to a steady stream of reports of downed trees, trees into houses, fallen power lines and flooding throughout the day.
Shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday, a tree was reported to be down and blocking Highway 20 at Burpee Drive in Nice.
Portions of Highway 20 also were partially flooded between Nice and Lucerne throughout the day.
Then just after 4 p.m. Sunday, the Lakeport Police Department said there were multiple roadways closed in the city due to the ongoing storm, with damage reported at Library Park.
Police said N. Main Street was closed from Clearlake Avenue to Sixteenth Street, with live power lines down. That closure is expected to last for several hours, into Sunday night.
Park Street was closed from Second to Third Street, due to downed trees and damage. The city said it's expected to last into Monday.
Authorities asked people to stay out of the area.
The National Weather Service said more heavy rain — and possibly a thunderstorm — are expected into Sunday night, with wind gusts of about 30 miles per hour, raising concerns about the potential for more downed trees and power lines.
The agency issued updated high wind warning and flood watches for Lake County on Sunday. Both remain in effect until Sunday night.
On Monday, the storm is supposed to taper off, with the National Weather Service reporting that chances of rain are in the forecast for the rest of the week.
Pacific Gas and Electric reported hundreds of outages in their vast coverage area on Sunday.
In Lake County, there were more than a dozen outages on the company’s outage map as of 3 p.m., from Kelseyville and Cobb to the Northshore and north of Upper Lake — all attributed to the storm.
Based on the map, about 2,000 customers appeared to be out of power at that point.
Elsewhere around the state, the heavy storm prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency across eight Southern California counties which were taking a hard hit.
Road conditions
As of 4:15 p.m. Sunday, road hazards and closures were reported by the California Highway Patrol and the Lake County Public Works Department’s Road Division in the following locations:
• Westlake Drive and Highway 29, north Lakeport: Unspecified. • Grove Street at Highway 20, Lucerne: Tree fell on a parked vehicle. • 1005 Nice Lucerne Cutoff Road, Nice: Tree into a vehicle. • 5115 Highway 20, Lucerne: Large tree blocking entire roadway.
Closures:
• Highway 20 at Burpee Drive, Nice: Fallen tree across the roadway. • Highway 175 at Salmina Road: Multiple trees across the roadway with lines down. • Bartlett Springs Road at Highway 20, Lucerne: Closed by Cal Fire. • Red Hills Road at Highway 29, Kelseyville: Unspecified, likely due to snow. • Black Oak Drive, Cobb: Roadway closed due to a downed tree. • Spruce Grove Road Extension, Hidden Valley Lake: Closed near USS Liberty Lane (Quarry Road) due to road slipout. • Dry Creek Cutoff Road, Middletown: Seasonal road closure at the low water crossing.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has more new dogs ready to be adopted this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Alaskan husky, Australian cattle dog, Australian shepherd, border collie, boxer, bulldog, chihuahua, Doberman pinscher, English bulldog, German shepherd, hound, Labrador retriever, pit bull, poodle, Queensland heeler, Rottweiler, shepherd and terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
Those dogs and the others shown on this page at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The shelter is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has dozens of dogs waiting to be adopted this week.
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 45 adoptable dogs.
The adoptable dogs include “Rock,” an American Staffordshire terrier mix with a white and brown coat. He has been neutered.
There also is “Dandelion,” a female Doberman pinscher mix with a tricolor coat. She has been spayed.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Historian Carter G. Woodson launched Black History Week in 1926 to recognize the significant contributions of African Americans during the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12) and abolitionist/writer Frederick Douglass (Feb. 14).
Congress expanded it to National Black History Month 50 years later during the nation’s bicentennial celebration at which time then-President Gerald Ford urged the country to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
On Thursday, the Clearlake City Council presented a proclamation declaring Black History Month, with the Board of Supervisors to present a similar proclamation as well as one to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday on Tuesday.
The following facts are possible thanks to the invaluable responses to U.S. Census Bureau surveys.
“We appreciate the public’s cooperation as we measure America’s people, places and economy,” the Census Bureau said.
Did You Know?
50,087,750 The Black or African American alone or in combination population in the United States in 2022.
2,237,044 The Black or African American alone or in combination population in California.
1,199 The Black or African American alone or in combination population in Lake County.
90.1% The percentage of African Americans age 25 and older with a high school diploma or higher in 2022.
30.3% The percentage of Black or African Americans with a high school diploma or higher in California in 2022.
34.4% The percentage of the employed Black population age 16 and older working in management, business, science and arts occupations in 2022.
161,031 The number of Black-owned employer businesses in the United States in 2021.
2.0 million The number of Black civilian veterans in the United States nationwide in 2022.
Planets orbit their parent stars while separated by enormous distances – in our solar system, planets are like grains of sand in a region the size of a football field. The time that planets take to orbit their suns have no specific relationship to each other.
But sometimes, their orbits display striking patterns. For example, astronomers studying six planets orbiting a star 100 light years away have just found that they orbit their star with an almost rhythmic beat, in perfect synchrony. Each pair of planets completes their orbits in times that are the ratios of whole numbers, allowing the planets to align and exert a gravitational push and pull on the other during their orbit.
This type of gravitational alignment is called orbital resonance, and it’s like a harmony between distant planets.
I’m an astronomer who studies and writes about cosmology. Researchers have discovered over 5,600 exoplanets in the past 30 years, and their extraordinary diversity continues to surprise astronomers.
Harmony of the spheres
Greek mathematician Pythagoras discovered the principles of musical harmony 2,500 years ago by analyzing the sounds of blacksmiths’ hammers and plucked strings.
He believed mathematics was at the heart of the natural world and proposed that the Sun, Moon and planets each emit unique hums based on their orbital properties. He thought this “music of the spheres” would be imperceptible to the human ear.
Four hundred years ago, Johannes Kepler picked up this idea. He proposed that musical intervals and harmonies described the motions of the six known planets at the time.
To Kepler, the solar system had two basses, Jupiter and Saturn; a tenor, Mars; two altos, Venus and Earth; and a soprano, Mercury. These roles reflected how long it took each planet to orbit the Sun, lower speeds for the outer planets and higher speeds for the inner planets.
Resonance happens when planets or moons have orbital periods that are ratios of whole numbers. The orbital period is the time taken for a planet to make one complete circuit of the star. So, for example, two planets orbiting a star would be in a 2:1 resonance when one planet takes twice as long as the other to orbit the star. Resonance is seen in only 5% of planetary systems.
In the solar system, Neptune and Pluto are in a 3:2 resonance. There’s also a triple resonance, 4:2:1, among Jupiter’s three moons: Ganymede, Europa and Io. In the time it takes Ganymede to orbit Jupiter, Europa orbits twice and Io orbits four times. Resonances occur naturally, when planets happen to have orbital periods that are the ratio of whole numbers.
Musical intervals describe the relationship between two musical notes. In the musical analogy, important musical intervals based on ratios of frequencies are the fourth, 4:3, the fifth, 3:2, and the octave, 2:1. Anyone who plays the guitar or the piano might recognize these intervals.
Orbital resonances can change how gravity influences two bodies, causing them to speed up, slow down, stabilize on their orbital path and sometimes have their orbits disrupted.
Think of pushing a child on a swing. A planet and a swing both have a natural frequency. Give the child a push that matches the swing motion and they’ll get a boost. They’ll also get a boost if you push them every other time they’re in that position, or every third time. But push them at random times, sometimes with the motion of the swing and sometimes against, and they get no boost.
For planets, the boost can keep them continuing on their orbital paths, but it’s much more likely to disrupt their orbits.
Exoplanet resonance
Exoplanets, or planets outside the solar system, show striking examples of resonance, not just between two objects but also between resonant “chains” involving three or more objects.
The star Gliese 876 has three planets with orbit period ratios of 4:2:1, just like Jupiter’s three moons. Kepler 223 has four planets with ratios of 8:6:4:3.
The red dwarf Kepler 80 has five planets with ratios of 9:6:4:3:2, and TOI 178 has six planets, of which five are in a resonant chain with ratios of 18:9:6:4:3.
TRAPPIST-1 is the record holder. It has seven Earth-like planets, two of which might be habitable, with orbit ratios of 24:15:9:6:4:3:2.
The newest example of a resonant chain is the HD 110067 system. It’s about 100 light years away and has six sub-Neptune planets, a common type of exoplanet, with orbit ratios of 54:36:24:16:12:9. The discovery is interesting because most resonance chains are unstable and disappear over time.
Despite these examples, resonant chains are rare, and only 1% of all planetary systems display them. Astronomers think that planets form in resonance, but small gravitational nudges from passing stars and wandering planets erase the resonance over time. With HD 110067, the resonant chain has survived for billions of years, offering a rare and pristine view of the system as it was when it formed.
With exoplanets, sonification can convey the mathematical relationships of their orbits. Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory created what they call “music of the spheres” for the TOI 178 system by associating a sound on a pentatonic scale to each of the five planets.
A similar musical translation has been done for the TRAPPIST-1 system, with the orbital frequencies scaled up by a factor of 212 million to bring them into audible range.
Astronomers have also created a sonification for the HD 110067 system. People may not agree on whether these renditions sound like actual music, but it’s inspiring to see Pythagoras’ ideas realized after 2,500 years.
The recent appellate court decision by the First Appellate Department of the California Court of Appeals in Spears v. Spears, 97 Cal. App. 5th 1294, 2023 Cal. App., is an important change to how creditors of a decedent’s estate could satisfy their creditor’s claim against the decedent’s trust estate, under certain conditions, in the California First Appellate Department.
Previously, a decedent’s creditor needed first to file a timely creditor claim in the decedent’s probate estate and obtain either a judgment or approval of the claim, and, if there were insufficient assets in the decedent’s probate estate to pay the claim, then proceed against the decedent’s trust estate to pay the unpaid balance.
An important exception to the foregoing rule is when the trustee elects to open the optional trust creditors claim procedure (analogous to a probate proceeding), under sections 19000 of the Probate Code, in the absence of a probate. This allows the creditor to file the claim in the trust creditor claims proceedings.
A trustee may elect this procedure when the trust beneficiaries are located in California and they wish to avoid being chased by the decedent’s creditors after the creditor’s claim becomes a judgment; a judgment creditor has the right to proceed against the beneficiaries who have received distributions when the trust has insufficient assets on hand.
In the Arluk Medical Center Industrial Group, Inc. v. Dobler, 89 Cal.App.4th 530 (Second Dist., Div. Seven, May 25, 2001), the Second Appellate Department, held that, “if the claimant prevails and obtains a judgment in its favor, the judgment is payable in the ordinary course of the administration of the estate. If the estate is inadequate to satisfy the judgment, the judgment creditor may proceed against the assets in the settlor's revocable living trust. The judgment creditor ‘need only establish it has a money judgment against the decedent/settlor; thereafter, the judgment is paid in the normal course of administration of the trust.’”" 89 Cal.App.4th at pp. 540-541.
Under the Arluk decision the trustee does not have to keep a reserve to pay pending creditor claims filed in a probate proceeding.
In Arluk, the creditor’s judgment came after 5 years of probate litigation, by which time the trust was insolvent as the assets were essentially distributed.
In Spears, however, no probate proceedings were open. Thus, there was no probate proceeding in which the creditor could file a claim. Instead, the creditor filed a claim in a trust proceeding directly against the decedent’s trust estate even though the trustee had not opened a trust creditors claim proceeding. The trustee followed the decision in Arluk and denied the claim stating that the creditor needed to file a creditor’s claim in a probate estate.
However, the appellate court in Spears ruled that, “if there is no probate proceeding to administer the decedent's estate, it is impossible for the creditor to obtain a judgment against the settlor's estate.
Arluk also ignores section 19402 and its implicit requirement that a creditor must first proceed against the assets of a trust before seeking recovery from trust beneficiaries who received distributions. (§ 19402, subd. (b).)
In any event, in Arluk, a probate proceeding was opened for the settlor's estate and the creditor obtained a judgment against the estate. (Arluk, supra, 116 Cal.App.4th at pp. 1329–1330.)
Arluk's comment about what happens when there is no proceeding to administer an estate is therefore dicta.” Spears v. Spears, 97 Cal. App. 5th 1294, 1304.
The decision then discussed how the creditor could pursue its claim against the trust: “[the creditor] had two methods available to him through which to assert his claims. If there is no probate administration and the trust claims procedure is not initiated, the creditor may file suit against the trustee to enforce a debt, claim, or action against the deceased settlor. … [¶] Alternatively, a creditor of the deceased settlor or a person who claims that the trustee is in possession of real or personal property belonging to the claimant may file a petition under [Probate Code] §850(a)(3)(A) or (C).” Spears v. Spears, Id..
The foregoing discussion is not legal advice. Consult a qualified attorney or accountant for guidance. Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that California has mobilized more than 8,300 boots on the ground ahead of the next set of winter storms anticipated to bring serious impacts to much of the state this weekend and into early next week.
In addition to increased personnel, California has activated its State Operations Center, Flood Operations Center, Caltrans Emergency Operations Center and the Medical Health Coordination Center — all coordinating a unified response with our local and federal partners.
The National Weather Service said an atmospheric river will move into California starting early morning on Sunday and will continue through Tuesday and possibly Wednesday.
Heavy rainfall is possible nearly statewide, but the most likely focus will be on coastal central to southern California.
Significant flooding is becoming increasingly likely, including the potential for flooding on roadways, creek and main stem river flooding, mud/rockslides and debris flows.
Additional heavy mountain snowfall is expected across virtually the entire state, with snow levels on Sunday starting as low as 2,500 to 4,500 feet across northern California and 5,000 to 6,000 feet in southern California.
Multiple feet of new snow accumulation are likely in several mountain ranges, and extremely difficult mountain travel conditions are expected.
Periods of strong, gusty winds will likely lead to outdoor property damage, tree damage, and power outages.
California has mobilized 8,300-plus boots on the ground, including:
• Cal OES, through the California Fire and Rescue Mutual Aid System, has deployed more than 550 local government firefighters and support staff, as well as 19 swift water rescue teams, one local government urban search and rescue team, in 19 counties.
• More than 4,000 Caltrans personnel deployed throughout the state.
• California Highway Patrol officers and other personnel are available in impacted regions and can activate limited emergency operations centers.
Cal Fire has prepositioned five hoist-rescue helicopters, two swift water rescue teams, additional four-wheel drive engines and six handcrews.
• The California National Guard is ready to rapidly deploy if called upon. These resources include high-water vehicles, aviation search and rescue assets, military police, general transportation, and heavy engineering equipment units.
• 500 California Conservation Corps members available to support.
The state also has deployed the following equipment:
• 1,200+ pieces of winter equipment from Eureka to El Centro – such as snow blowers, graders and sweepers – are available to remove snow and ice from the highways.
• Caltrans has prepositioned water pumps in flood-prone areas, and is ensuring storm drains are clear of debris, checking portable backup generators, and stocking up on reflective signs in the event of power outages.
• 7 million-plus sandbags prepositioned
• Sheltering and food supplies for 37,000+ people, including cots, blankets, water and food.
Other state efforts include:
• The State Operations Center is activated, whole of state government expertise responding 24/7.
• Community partner phone banking effort making thousands of calls to sign up Californians for local emergency alerts in the most at-risk counties.
• The Flood Operations Center is activated and coordinating flood planning and response. DWR Flood Fight Specialists are also on standby and are patrolling priority levees 24/7. The California Nevada River Forecast Center is in a 24-hour operation, producing updated forecasts every 6 hours throughout the duration of the event.
• State Parks continues to actively monitor the storm’s impacts on state parks and making real-time decisions on closures as needed. As of this morning, California has fully closed 7 state parks and partially closed 6 and have staff on the ground to respond. The public is advised to stay out of the ocean during the storm. For the latest closure information, please visit parks.ca.gov/incidents.
“California has more than 8,300 boots on the ground as we prepare for this next set of serious storms.
All Californians in the storm’s path – especially those in Southern California – should prepare now and follow the guidance of local government officials and first responders.”
Five things you can do to stay safer:
• Stay connected. Dial 311 to get help or ask questions. If you have a critical emergency, call 911. Stay informed by signing up for emergency alerts including warnings and evacuation notices at CalAlerts.org.
• Get your information from trusted sources. Check state and local government or emergency management websites and social media accounts for trusted information specific to your area. Local news outlets and meteorologists are also a good source of information. Be wary of posts from unknown sources on social platforms or from online ‘experts’ without credentials.
• Prepare for high winds. Before a high wind event: remove any dead trees or overhanging branches near structures, remove loose roofing material, bring in unsecured objects from patios and balconies, secure outdoor objects that could blow away, shutter windows securely and brace outside doors. During a high wind event: take cover next to a building or under shelter, stay away from windows, stay clear of roadways and train tracks, avoid elevated areas such as roofs, watch for flying debris.
• Travel safely. Avoid non-essential travel during the peak of the storm expected Sunday and Monday. If you must drive, download the QuickMap app or visit QuickMap (ca.gov) to learn up-to-the-minute information on road conditions, traffic, closures, and more. Do not walk, swim or drive through flood waters. Turn Around, Don’t Drown! Remember, just six inches of moving water can knock you down, and one foot of moving water can sweep your vehicle away.
• Be ready in case of power outages. Take inventory of the items you need that rely on electricity. Keep your devices charged. Plan for batteries and other alternative power sources to meet your needs if the power goes out such as a portable charger or power bank. Have flashlights for every household member.
Storm Season Safety Guide: the state is sharing multilingual resources, deploying a network of community-based organizations through the Listos California campaign, and highlighting other work underway to protect at-risk communities this rainy season.
Prepare Yourself through Texts: Californians can sign up for a 5-lesson text message course through Listos California on what to do before, during and after floods, high winds, debris flows and other storm impacts. This course is available in English, Spanish, Hmong and Punjabi. Text “CAWINTER” to 20202 via SMS to sign up.
Visit National Weather Service for current weather patterns in your area.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Forecasters said another major storm — one of the largest of the winter season so far — is set to hit Lake and Mendocino counties on Sunday and continue through much of the coming week.
AccuWeather’s meteorologists said the storm, which originated near Hawaii, will tap into moisture from atmospheric rivers, heightening flood risk.
Called a “pineapple express” because it brings moisture from the tropical pacific, the storm is forecast d to drop the heaviest rain from San Francisco south to Los Angeles.
However, at the same time heavy rain is expected throughout Lake County.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch and wind advisory for most of Lake County, as well as a winter storm warning for the northern third of the county, all of them in effect through Sunday.
The forecast calls for the storm to begin late on Saturday or early Sunday.
Moderate to heavy rain — up to 2.5 inches on Sunday in parts of the county — will fall along with strong and gusty winds and snow in the higher elevations. On Monday, close to another inch of rain could fall.
From Tuesday through the rest of the week, chances of showers remain in the forecast, although rain is expected to taper off during that time.
Due to the already saturated soils, the National Weather Service issued the flood watch for southern Lake County, which will last much of the day on Sunday.
The rain so far this year has caused the level of Clear Lake to quickly rise.
Since Jan. 1, the lake has risen from 3.02 feet Rumsey — the special measure for Clear Lake to 6.16 feet Rumsey as of early Saturday. That’s more than a foot and a half higher than this time last year.
For context, the lake is full at 7.56 feet Rumsey.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
What's up for February? Venus and Mars make quite the pair, Jupiter and the Moon are each other's Valentine, and observing M81, aka "Bode's Galaxy."
Venus is still a brilliant beacon in the morning, rising in the couple of hours before the Sun. It has been steadily sinking lower in the sky for the past couple of months, though, and by the end of February it's pretty much getting lost in the light of sunrise.
It will start making its return as an evening sight in July. You can catch the bright planet together with a slim crescent Moon on the morning of February 6th, just as the sky starts to brighten.
Next, Valentine's Day brings a nice pairing to enjoy with someone special. That evening, look for the crescent Moon near Jupiter, high in the southwest following sunset. They're just a couple of finger widths apart on the sky, meaning most binoculars will show them in the same field of view.
And speaking of the Moon, NASA's VIPER moon rover is planned to launch later this year, and you can send your name to the Moon along with it! Visit nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-viper for details.
Returning to the inner planets, as Venus begins its exit, we find Mars returning to view. The Red Planet left the evening sky last September, passing through conjunction, where it was on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth, and thus not visible for a few months.
It's now just starting to be visible in the predawn sky. In February it's quite low, and not super bright, but you can observe it brightening and rising ever earlier in the coming months. Those with an unobstructed view toward the southeast horizon can look for a close approach of Mars and Venus as the pair are rising during the last week of February.
February is a good time to view one of the famed "Messier objects" known as M81.
This is a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way, but just a bit smaller, and it's one of the brightest galaxies in the night sky. It's located about 11.8 million light years away from us, which means, if you're able to observe it, those photons of light hitting your eye have been traveling through space for more than 11 million years to reach you.
It was discovered by astronomer Johann Bode in 1774, which is where it gets its other common name, "Bode's Galaxy." At the time, it was simply cataloged as a nebula or faint, fuzzy patch. It wouldn't be until the work of Edwin Hubble in the 1920s that many such faint, fuzzy objects were understood to be self-contained galaxies of stars, outside the Milky Way and incredibly distant from us.
M81 is a bit too dim to see with the unaided eye, but it's visible with binoculars or a small telescope, where it appears as a dim patch of light. With a 6-inch telescope you can resolve the galaxy's bright core, and with an 8-inch telescope, you can begin to make out the spiral arms.
Locating M81 is not too difficult, with the Big Dipper (or the Plough) to guide you. Starting with the star on the end corner, called Dubhe, imagine a line twice the distance from the star on the opposite corner of the Dipper, Phecda. Pointing your telescope or binoculars in that area ought to put you pretty close to M81.
You might also notice its faint, fuzzy companion nearby, which is M82. This is another galaxy, but seen edge-on, and it gets its other common name, the "Cigar Galaxy," from this appearance.
This pair of galaxies is "circumpolar" in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning they rotate around the north celestial pole and never set. (Unfortunately, this means they're not really visible from the Southern Hemisphere.) Although it's visible all year in the Northern Hemisphere, from about February through May, you'll find M81 high in the northern sky in the first half of the night, making it easier to observe.
So grab your telescope, or find a local astronomy event with NASA's Night Sky Network, and check out M81, Bode's Galaxy, a distant cousin to our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
Stay up to date on NASA's missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov.
Preston Dyches works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.