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- Written by: Kate Ramsayer
This year’s Arctic sea ice cover shrank to the second-lowest extent since modern record-keeping began in the late 1970s.
An analysis of satellite data by NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, or NSIDC, at the University of Colorado, Boulder shows that the 2020 minimum extent, which was likely reached on Sept. 15, measured 1.44 million square miles.
In winter, frozen seawater covers almost the entire Arctic Ocean and neighboring seas. This sea ice undergoes seasonal patterns of change – thinning and shrinking during late spring and summer, and thickening and expanding during fall and winter.
The extent of summer sea ice in the Arctic can impact local ecosystems, regional and global weather patterns, and ocean circulation. In the last two decades, the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice in the summer has dropped markedly.
The lowest extent on record was set in 2012, and last year’s extent was tied for second – until this year’s.
A Siberian heat wave in spring 2020 began this year’s Arctic sea ice melt season early, and with Arctic temperatures being 14 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average, the ice extent kept declining.
The 2020 minimum extent was 958,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average of yearly minimum extents, and 2020 is only the second time on record that the minimum extent has fallen below 1.5 million square miles.
“It was just really warm in the Arctic this year, and the melt seasons have been starting earlier and earlier,” said Nathan Kurtz, a sea ice scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The earlier the melt season starts, the more ice you generally lose.”
Thin ice also melts quicker than thicker floes. Dramatic drops in sea ice extent in 2007 and 2012, along with generally declining summer extent, has led to fewer regions of thick, multi-year ice that has built up over multiple winters. In addition, a recent study showed that warmer water from the Atlantic Ocean, which is typically deep below the colder Arctic waters, is creeping up closer to the bottom of the sea ice and warming it from below.
There are cascading effects in the Arctic, said Mark Serreze, director of NSIDC. Warmer ocean temperatures eat away at the thicker multiyear ice, and also result in thinner ice to start the spring melt season.
Melt early in the season results in more open water, which absorbs heat from the Sun and increases water temperatures.
“As the sea ice cover extent declines, what we’re seeing is we’re continuing to lose that multiyear ice,” Serreze said. “The ice is shrinking in the summer, but it’s also getting thinner. You’re losing extent, and you’re losing the thick ice as well. It’s a double whammy.”
The second-lowest extent of sea ice on record is just one of many signs of a warming climate in the north, he said, pointing to the Siberian heat waves, forest fires, hotter-than-average temperatures over the Central Arctic, and the thawing permafrost that led to a Russian fuel spill.
Kate Ramsayer works for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Due to high winds forecast from early Sunday morning through Monday, the National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning from Lake County and much of the region that’s in effect from 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, to 8 a.m. Monday, Sept. 28.
Officials said winds are forecasted to reach peak gusts of 35 to 50 miles per hour in the hills above 1,000 feet and low relative humidity values of 10 to 25 percent.
In response to the red flag warning, the Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit said it has increased its staffing on all available engines not already on the 25 major fires across the state.
PG&E said it’s continuing to monitor the wind event and, given the expected weather conditions, the company began its one-day advance notifications to customers in areas where it may need to proactively turn power off for safety to reduce the risk of wildfire from energized power lines.
The potential public safety power shutoff, or PSPS, expected to start early Sunday morning, could impact approximately 97,000 customers in portions of 15 counties in the Northern Sierra and the northern Sacramento Valley.
PG&E said customers in portions of Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Kern, Lake, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Tehama and Yuba counties are being notified.
In Lake County, PG&E said it has notified 55 customers, two of them being medical baseline customers.
PG&E said late Friday afternoon that the anticipated scope and timing of this event has changed from earlier announcements, based on updated weather forecasts that showed stronger wind gusts in a larger portion of PG&E’s service area.
The company said its in-house meteorologists, as well as its Wildfire Safety Operation Center and Emergency Operations Center, continue to monitor conditions closely and additional notifications will be made on Friday to customers who may be impacted by this event.
Customers can look up their address online to find out if their location is being monitored for the potential safety shutoff at www.pge.com/pspsupdates or www.pge.com/pspszipcodealerts, PG&E reported.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The US Forest Service said Friday that the August Complex increased by nearly 5,000 more acres, to a total of 867,335 acres. Containment rose slightly to 40 percent.
The lightning-caused complex has been burning since Aug. 17 and is anticipated to be fully contained on Nov. 15. It is burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests.
At 7 a.m. Friday, a Type 2 Incident Management Team from the Mendocino National Forest, under Incident Commander Curtis Coots as well as a National Incident Management Team team, assumed command of the South Zone of the August Complex, officials said.
The Forest Service said crews continue to make progress in the Pillsbury Lake area, mopping up after successful firing operations earlier in the week. In addition, crews are working on approved fireline locations in Elk Creek drainage and the Sanhedrin Wilderness to prevent further fire spread to the west.
In the Pillsbury Ranch and Lake Pillsbury basin areas of Lake County, mandatory evacuations remain in place. More information on evacuations across the fire area can be found here.
In advance of a significant change in the forecast for the upcoming weekend – including high winds that have resulted in the National Weather Service issuing a red flag warning for much of Northern California from Saturday night through Monday – firefighters worked on Thursday to improve control lines west and northwest of Lake Pillsbury near Sunset Gap, officials said.
The Forest Service said pumps, hose lays, and sprinklers have been installed and tested, and dozer lines are being improved for use in firing and holding operations that may be needed as weather conditions change.
The east side of the South Zone is fully contained, and is being patrolled with aircraft to ensure that any threats to control lines are identified, officials said.
Officials said residents and property owners may return to their properties within the Mendocino National Forest in Glenn County, but access to the Forest Service closure area for other purposes, including hunting and recreation, is prohibited. Properties accessed via a Forest System road may require a permit from the US Forest Service.
Please contact the Mendocino National Forest at 530-934-3316 for more information.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Thursday afternoon, the Lake County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People presented its inaugural Veterans Patriot Award to a man who the group said works tirelessly to look out for the well-being of veterans.
In the brief ceremony in front of the Veterans Service Office in downtown Lakeport’s historic courthouse square, local NAACP President Rick Mayo and Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Kenneth Bagsby presented the newly created award to Saul Sanabria, Lake County’s veterans services officer.
On hand were dignitaries including Capt. David D. Smith, the NAACP’s state area director, Vallejo NAACP President Jimmy Jackson, Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin, Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White, Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall and Undersheriff Darren Brewster, NAACP Branch Secretary Hazel Deaner and Roger Sciutto, an NAACP life member and former Clearlake Police chief.
“This to me is invaluable,” said Sanabria in accepting the award from the NAACP.
He also noted his gratitude to the people who had traveled so far to see him honored.
This is the first veterans award that the Lake County NAACP chapter has ever given in its 37 years of existence, said Mayo, also a member of the NAACP’s Veterans Affairs Committee.
And if anyone deserved it, Mayo added, it’s Sanabria, himself a veteran.
“He’s helped a lot of veterans in the community,” Mayo, a Vietnam era veteran, told Lake County News.
For his part, Sanabria credited his two staffers – Nancy Mitchell and Denver Cortez – with support to make good things happen at his little office, which serves not just Lake, which has a large per-capita veterans population, but a total of 15 counties.
Sanabria has worked as a veterans services officer for about 20 years. The Board of Supervisors appointed Sanabria to head the Lake County Veterans Services Office beginning in July 2014. Since then, he’s been involved in efforts including the creation of the county’s veterans court.
He and his staff are always on the lookout for veterans because they want to make sure people who served their country are in turn getting the benefits they’ve earned and deserve.
Sanabria makes a point of being available to help veterans around the clock, seven days a week.
To contact the Veterans Services Office, call 707-263-2384, visit its website or email Sanabria directly at
Mayo said the NAACP plans to offer the award once every 10 years.
Email Elizabeth Larson at