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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Two men were pulled from Clear Lake Monday after their boat capsized.
Lake County Fire Protection District Chief Willie Sapeta said firefighters were dispatched early Monday afternoon to a report of two people in the water.
He said the Northshore Fire Protection District fire boat out of Clearlake Oaks and the Lake County Sheriff's Marine Patrol also were dispatched.
The two men, in their early 50s, had gone out in a canoe, Sapeta said.
The lake on Monday was very rough, and Sapeta said he had been surprised anyone would have gone out on the lake in such choppy conditions.
Clearlake resident Tony Parra watched the rescue take place from his backyard.
Parra reported that the canoe had flipped over.
Sapeta said firefighters got help in reaching the two men before the fire or sheriff's boats could arrive.
“We were able to commandeer a boat from a local fisherman,” he said, explaining that one of his battalion chiefs had waved down a bass boat.
Fire personnel found the two men about 300 to 400 yards offshore of Galaxy Resort, which is on Highway 53, Sapeta said.
They were able to pull the men from the water and take them to shore at the Galaxy Resort, transporting them from there to St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, according to Sapeta.
He said the two men were treated for hypothermia and released.
The sheriff's Marine Patrol had planned to go out to find the canoe on Wednesday, Sapeta said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Cheerleaders hailing from Lake County squads will perform in the halftime show during the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl on New Year's Day.
The game, which pits Minnesota against Missouri, begins at 10 a.m. on KGO Channel 7 (San Francisco).
The halftime show will feature top high school cheerleaders who were selected for participation during summer cheer camps and clinics.
Lower Lake High School cheerleaders Johanna Anderson, Haylee Wade, Gladys Lopez and Dallas Kuckowicz, and Linda Ralosky of the Lake County Diamonds Cheer Team will be among those performing during the halftime show.
Lower Lake High School cheer instructor Angie Wade traveled with the girls to Orlando, Fla., for the performance.
She said they planned to visit Walt Disney World and Universal Studios during their trip.
Email Denise Rockenstein at
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The first manual snow survey of the Sierra snowpack this winter found more snow than last year at this time, but the snow water equivalent as measured statewide remains far below average for this date.
The Department of Water Resources conducted the survey Tuesday at Phillips Station, located about 90 miles east of Sacramento on a plot along Highway 50 near Echo Summit.
Snow covered the ground there to a depth of 21.3 inches, according to DWR’s Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, who conducted the survey.
The snow water equivalent was 4 inches at that particular snow course, or 33 percent of average.
Statewide, 105 electronic sensors in the Sierra detected a snow water equivalent of 4.8 inches, 50 percent of the multi-year average for Dec. 30.
That compares favorably with last winter’s first survey, when the snow water equivalent statewide was only 20 percent of normal, which tied with 2012 as the driest readings on record.
“Although this year’s survey shows a deeper snowpack than last year, California needs much more rain and snow than we’ve experienced over the past two years to end the drought in 2015,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “The department encourages Californians to continue their water conservation practices.”
Cowin said the state’s surface and groundwater reservoirs have been severely depleted during the drought, which now is in its fourth consecutive year.
He said a snowpack built up significantly during the winter months would be needed to recharge the reservoirs to their historical averages as the snow melts during the late spring and summer months.
Generally, California’s snowpack supplies about a third of the water needed by the state’s residents, agriculture and industry as it melts in the late spring and summer.
Tuesday's electronic readings indicate that water content in the northern mountains is 57 percent of normal for the date and 20 percent of the average on April 1, when the snowpack normally is at its peak before the spring melt.
Electronic readings in the central Sierra show 45 percent of normal for the date and 16 percent of the April 1 average.
The numbers for the southern Sierra are 48 percent of average for the date and 15 percent of the April 1 average.
DWR and cooperating agencies conduct manual snow surveys around the first of the month from January to May. The manual measurements supplement and check the accuracy of real-time electronic readings.
The average Jan. 1 snowpack water content at Phillips Station is about 12 inches; the April 1 average 27.6 inches. Phillips had its lowest early-January water content reading of 0.1 inch in 2012, in a snow depth of only 0.6 inches.
On Jan. 3, 2014, Phillips had 2.3 inches of water content in 9.3 inches of snow. Besides that reading and the similar one in 2012, the driest January readings at Phillips were in 1987 (0.9 inches of snowpack water content), 1981 (2 inches), 1976 (2.7 inches) and 2000 (3 inches). Records at Phillips go back 50 years.
DWR currently estimates it will be able to deliver only 10 percent of the slightly more than four million acre-feet of State Water Project water requested for calendar year 2015 by the 29 public agencies that collectively supply more than 25 million Californians and nearly a million acres of irrigated farmland. It is hoped the initial 10 percent delivery estimate will increase as winter storms develop.
The final State Water Project allocation for calendar year 2014 was 5 percent of the slightly more than 4 million acre-feet requested. In 2013, it was 35 percent, and in 2012, the final allocation was 65 percent. It was 80 percent in 2011, up dramatically from an initial allocation of 25 percent.
The final allocation was 50 percent in 2010, 40 percent in 2009, 35 percent in 2008, and 60 percent in 2007.
The last 100-percent allocation – difficult to achieve even in wet years because of Delta pumping restrictions to protect threatened and endangered fish – was in 2006.
DWR weather watchers note that it’s early in the season with plenty of time for the snowpack to build.
The concern, however, is that irrigation-dependent San Joaquin Valley farms and some other areas will be hard hit if Water Year 2015 ends as the fourth full year of drought. Storage in key reservoirs has increased due to heavy December rainfall but is still far below normal levels for the date.
Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s principal reservoir, on Tuesday was at only 38 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity (61 percent of its historical average for the date).
Shasta Lake north of Redding, California’s and the federal Central Valley Project’s largest reservoir, is at 41 percent of its 4.5 million acre-feet capacity (66 percent of average for the date).
San Luis Reservoir, a critical south-of-Delta reservoir for both the State Water Project and Central Valley Project, is a mere 39 percent of its 2 million acre-foot capacity (58 percent of average for the date) due both to dry weather and Delta pumping restrictions to protect salmon and Delta smelt.
Delta water is pumped into the off-stream reservoir in winter and early spring for summer use in the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and Southern California.
Continuing dry weather prompted Director Cowin on Dec. 13, 2013, to mobilize DWR’s drought management team “to offset potentially devastating impacts to citizen health, well-being and our economy.”
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency on Jan. 17.
In October, DWR announced the award of more than $200 million in grants to reduce drought impacts on local communities and improve access to water supplies. Lake County Special Districts received $2.6 million of that funding for several projects, as Lake County News has reported.
Electronic snowpack readings are available at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/snowapp/sweq.action .
AccuWeather reports those headed out to celebrate New Year's Eve may want to bundle up as arctic air affects much of the nation.
The worst of the cold will focus on the Rocky Mountains and northern Plains, but temperatures are forecast to dip below freezing across a majority of the nation on Wednesday night.
Folks headed to outdoor venues to ring in the new year will want to dress warm to stay protected from the cold weather.
Wearing gloves, hats, and multiple layers of clothing are suggested to stay warm when spending extended periods of time in the outdoors.
Sosnowski warns, "that while the consumption of alcohol can make you feel warmer, it can sharply lower your core body temperature."
Despite dealing with the cold, many people should not have to worry about rain or snow hindering their celebrations.
However, a low pressure system will cause disruptions across much of the Southwest.
Southern California should avoid the worst of the storm with showers on Wednesday clearing out for overnight celebrations.
If you are traveling across this region on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, you should prepare for delays and allow for extra time to reach your destination.
Dry weather and below-normal temperatures are forecast to continue for much of the country heading into New Year's Day.
Texas will be one of the few exceptions to this as rain, drizzle, and even a bit of ice, will spread over the state.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A two-vehicle crash on Highway 29 in Napa County Monday evening injured three people, including a Clearlake Oaks man who was flown to a regional trauma center.
Daniel Graham, 25, was taken by REACH air ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with major injuries following the wreck, which occurred just south of the Lake County line at 6:35 p.m. Monday, according to the California Highway Patrol's Napa Area office.
The CHP said Graham, driving a 1991 Mazda Miata northbound on Highway 29, was approaching a sweeping left curve in the roadway when he failed to maintain his lane.
Graham's Mazda crossed into the southbound lane and into the path of Kevin Lee, 56, of Santa Rosa, who was driving a 2001 GMC Yukon, the CHP.
The front of Lee's GMC hit the Mazda's passenger side. The CHP said the crash resulted in major damage to the Mazda and moderate damage to the GMC.
Kevin Lee and his passenger, 54-year-old Cindy Lee, also of Santa Rosa, both suffered minor injuries, the CHP said. A 3-year-old female in the GMC with the Lees was not injured.
All three of the GMC's occupants were transported by AMR ground ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to the report.
The CHP said all four individuals in the two vehicles were wearing their seat belts.
The roadway was closed for just under three hours while the collision investigation took place, the CHP said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Human remains found in Clearlake in late November have been determined to be those of a Hidden Valley Lake man reported missing the previous month, with police now investigating the case as a homicide.
Clearlake Police Sgt. Nick Bennett said the remains have been identified as 36-year-old Guillermo Figueroa, who was reported as a missing person from Hidden Valley Lake on Oct. 27.
Authorities said Figueroa, a husband and father of three, had been visiting a friend in Clearlake and telephoned his wife to say he was coming home but never arrived, as Lake County News has previously reported.
Clearlake Police officers later found an abandoned car registered in Figueroa’s name in the vicinity of Burns Valley Road. They also had pinged his cell phone and tracked it to a general area in Clearlake, but couldn't get an exact location at that time.
Just before 10:20 p.m. Nov. 28 Clearlake Police received a call from a resident on the 2700 block of Oleander Street reporting he had found a human skull in his yard, police reported.
During a search the following day a canine from the Contra Costa County-based California Rescue Dog Association discovered partial remains of a deceased person about 100 yards north of the residence where the skull had been found, according to the police report.
Bennett said autopsy and DNA results matched the skull and remains as belonging to the same person – Figueroa.
A joint investigation into Figueroa's disappearance has been ongoing between the Clearlake Police Department and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. Bennett said the case is now being investigated as a homicide.
Anyone with information in relation to this case is encouraged to contact Det. Tomas Riley at the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251, Extension 315.