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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Thousands of Clearlake residents found themselves without power on Saturday morning due to a problem with a section of underground utility cable.
The power to approximately 3,641 customers went off at 8:39 a.m. Saturday, according to Pacific Gas & Electric spokesperson Jana Morris.
Morris said that an underground cable had become damaged or failed in the 14000 block of Lakeshore Drive.
“They’re in the process of replacing that right now,” she said Saturday afternoon.
Witnesses had reported smoke coming from the ground where the cable had been located, which was in front of the Castle Doughnuts shop. Nearby Palmer Avenue was reported to have been shut down briefly to allow for repairs.
Clearlake Police confirmed sending out some officers to the scene and clearing shortly thereafter.
Some customers were reporting that the power had come back on by late morning.
By 2:30 p.m. 12 customers were still without power. Morris said power was anticipated to be restored to all customers by 9 p.m. Saturday.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Fair has compiled its annual wish list for equipment.
Businesses and individuals can write off the full market value of equipment, supplies or funds that they donate to the fairgrounds, just as they would any other donation to a non-profit or a government agency.
“We will happily supply the proper documentation for a donor’s tax preparer,” said fair chief executive officer Richard Persons.
Although the fair is operated by a state agency, the 49th District Agricultural Association, it receives no tax dollars.
“The association depends upon revenues it derives from activities on the fairgrounds and from donations by businesses and individuals in order to survive,” said Persons. “People often think that their state income taxes help to support the fairgrounds, but that isn’t the case. There are no tax dollars of any sort, all funds are generated locally.”
After the publication of the wish list in previous years, the fair received donations of thousands of dollars worth of landscaping equipment, painting equipment, a backhoe tractor, a bucket lift truck, fencing, 4-inch steel pipe, a 12,000 gallon water storage tank, more than 70 new 55 gallon drums, a strap banding tool with strap supplies, several hundred hours of labor, and some cash.
Items on the fair’s current wish list include a small refrigerator approximately 12 cubic feet in size, large two or three door commercial refrigerators, a turf vacuum, two weed-eaters, a commercial paper shredder, ten full sheets of exterior plywood, a commercial carpet cleaner/vacuum, 40 gallons of white latex paint, a small tractor with a bucket.
Also needed are 120 feet of 36” culvert pipe, fifty cubic yards of road base, 25 cubic yards of concrete, 200 yards of pea gravel, and various roofing materials. The fair will accept donations of most types of tools or equipment in good condition, supplies, labor, or cash donations.
Businesses or individuals interested in donating should stop by or call the fair office at 707-263-6181. Winter hours at the fair office are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The office is located at 401 Martin St. in Lakeport.
Buildings and outdoor areas at the fairgrounds are available for events all year round. The annual Lake County Fair takes place Labor Day weekend each year.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A retiring Lake County Superior Court judge will be celebrated at a party early next month.
The retirement celebration for Judge David Herrick will take place beginning at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 3, in his Department 1 courtroom on the fourth floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
Herrick took the bench in 1994, winning election on the retirement of Judge John Golden.
He announced earlier this year that he planned to retire and so did not seek reelection.
Michael Lunas of Lakeport won the judicial race in November and will succeed Herrick on the Department 1 bench. His oath of office ceremony also is set for January.
Community members are invited to drop in during the Jan. 3 event, enjoy some cake and offer Judge Herrick congratulations on his retirement.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
Scientists this week unveiled an unprecedented new look at our planet at night.
A global composite image, constructed using cloud-free night images
from a new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite, shows the glow of natural and human-built phenomena across the planet in greater detail than ever before.
Many satellites are equipped to look at Earth during the day, when they can observe our planet fully illuminated by the sun.
With a new sensor aboard the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite launched last year, scientists now can observe Earth’s atmosphere and surface during nighttime hours.
The new sensor, the day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), is sensitive enough to detect the nocturnal glow produced by Earth’s atmosphere and the light from a single ship in the sea.
Satellites in the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program have been making observations with low-light sensors for 40 years. But the VIIRS day-night band can better detect and resolve Earth’s night lights.
The new, higher resolution composite image of Earth at night was released at a news conference at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.
This and other VIIRS day-night band images are
providing researchers with valuable data for a wide variety of previously unseen or poorly seen events.
“For all the reasons that we need to see Earth during the day, we also need to see Earth at night,” said Steve Miller, a researcher at NOAA’s Colorado State University Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. “Unlike humans, the Earth never sleeps.”
The day-night band observed Hurricane Sandy, illuminated by moonlight, making landfall over New Jersey on the evening of Oct. 29.
Night images showed the widespread power outag
es that left millions in darkness in the wake of the storm.
With its night view, VIIRS is able to detect a more complete view of storms and other weather conditions, such as fog, that are difficult to discern with infrared, or thermal, sensors. Night is also when many types of clouds begin to form.
“NOAA’s National Weather Service is continuing to explore the use of the day-night band,” said Mitch Goldberg, program scientist for NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System. “The very high resolution from VIIRS data will take forecasting weather events at night to a much higher level.”
Unlike a camera that captures a picture in one exposure, the day-night band produces an image by repeatedly scanning a scene and resolving it as millions of individual pixels.
Then, the day-night band reviews the amount of light in each pixel. If it is very bright, a low-gain mode prevents the pixel from oversaturating. If the pixel is very dark, the signal is amplified.
“It’s like having three simultaneous low-light cameras operating at once and we pick the best of various cameras, depending on where we’re looking in the scene,” Miller said.
The instrument can capture images on nights with or without moonlight, producing crisp views of Earth’s atmosphere, land and ocean surfaces.
Flickr slideshow of more Suomi NPP “Earth at Night” imagery.
“The night is nowhere as dark as we might think,” Miller said. And with the VIIRS day-night band helping scientists to tease out information from human and natural sources of nighttime light, “we don’t have to be in the dark anymore, either.”
“The remarkable day-night band images from Suomi NPP have impressed the scientific community and exceeded our pre-launch expectations,” said James Gleason, Suomi NPP project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
