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Scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, and Thursday, Sept. 22, the event will be at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St.
Veterans must provide their ID cards or DD Forms 214. Lake Transit will provide veterans free rides to the stand down. Lunch will be served by Vet Connect volunteers.
Resources to be offered include a significant amount of veterans’ services such as MPIC, VetWorks, disability services, DMV, Nation's Finest, One Step Away, housing, homeless assistance, emergency preparedness, Woodland Community College, behavioral health, substance abuse counseling services, employment assistance, advance care planning and child support assistance.
Hundreds of local veterans are served by the Veterans Stand Down and quarterly mobile outreach events.
“Over the past year I have been given a wealth of knowledge that I would have never made an attempt to discover on my own. For this, I will be forever grateful to the countless number of people who are a part of this veterans program,” said Air Force veteran Jovanie Otei.
The Vet Connect committee currently falls under the auspices of the Lake County United Veterans Council, a nonprofit organization. Members are asking the public to spread the word regarding the stand down and benefits available to local veterans.
“In the military, ‘stand down’ afforded battle-weary soldiers the opportunity to renew their spirits, enjoy warm meals, receive medical and dental care, mail and receive letters, and enjoy the camaraderie of friends in a safe environment,” says Vet Connect Chair Chris Taliaferro.
“Today, ‘stand down’ refers to grassroots, community-based intervention programs designed to help our nation’s vulnerable veterans remain safe and receive the services they need to achieve a healthy lifestyle. At risk veterans are invited to a single location and provided access to the community resources needed to begin addressing their individual problems,” Taliaferro said.
For more information, contact Taliaferro at
For updates, visit the Vet Connect Hookup Hub on Facebook.
Janine Smith-Citron is development director for Hospice Services of Lake County.
The City of Clearlake Animal Association also is seeking fosters for the animals waiting to be adopted.
Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
The following dogs are available for adoption. New additions are at the top.
‘Babs’
“Babs” is a female Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49505856.
‘Buster’
“Buster” is a male pit bull mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50762164.
‘Foxie’
“Foxie” is a female German shepherd with a red, black and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49702845.
‘Keilani’
“Keilani” is a 3-year-old female German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed and she is house trained.
She is dog No. 50427566.
“Luciano” is a male Siberian husky mix with a short black and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50596272.
‘Teddy’
“Teddy” is a male retriever mix with a cream-colored coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49583194.
‘Andy’
“Andy” is a male American pit bull mix with a short gray and white coat.
He is dog No. 48995415.
‘Bear’
“Bear” is a male Labrador retriever-American pit bull mix with a short charcoal and fawn coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 48443153.
‘Big Phil’
“Big Phil” is a 13-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a blue coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49951647.
“Hakuna” is a male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Hondo’
“Hondo” is a male Alaskan husky mix with a buff coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s dog No. 50227693.
“Mamba” is a male Siberian husky mix with a gray and cream-colored coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49520569.
‘Matata’
“Matata” is male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Sadie’
“Sadie” is a female German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49802563.
‘Snowball’
“Snowball is a 1 and a half year old male American Staffordshire terrier mix with a short white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49159168.
‘Terry’
“Terry” is a handsome male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He gets along with other dogs, including small ones, and enjoys toys. He also likes water, playing fetch and keep away.
Staff said he is now getting some training to help him build confidence.
He is dog No. 48443693.
‘Willie’
“Willie” is a male German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50596003.
‘Ziggy’
“Ziggy” is a male American pit bull terrier mix with a short gray and white coat.
He has been neutered.
Ziggy is dog No. 50146247
Email Elizabeth Larson at
There’s an old joke about the fellow who has his left foot in a bucket of ice water and the right in a bucket of hot water, so that his overall temperature is average. That seems to apply to the climate during 2022’s northern summer of extremes: Overall, the planet was tied for only the fifth-warmest June-August, yet regional heat waves shattered records.
Global warming is undoubtedly a factor, but just how the increasing extremes that marked the summer of 2022 – heat waves, droughts and floods, sometimes one on top of the other – are related can be bewildering to the public and policymakers.
As a climate scientist, I’ve been working on these issues for more than four decades, and my new book, “The changing flow of energy through the climate system,” details the causes, feedbacks and impacts. Let’s take a closer look at how climate change and natural weather patterns like La Niña influence what we’re seeing around the world today.
The Northern Hemisphere’s extreme summer
Summer 2022 has indeed seemed to feature one climate-related disaster after another.
Record-breaking heat waves baked India and Pakistan, then monsoon flooding left about a third of Pakistan under water, affecting an estimated 33 million people. Temperatures exceeded 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius) for prolonged periods in many places, and even broke 122 F (50 C) in Jacobabad, Pakistan, in May.
The Asian heat helped to melt some glaciers in the Himalayas, elevating rivers. At the same time, three times the normal annual rain fell in Pakistan during the weekslong monsoon. More than 1,500 people died in the flooding, an estimated 1.8 million homes were damaged or destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of livestock were lost. Food for the coming seasons will be in short supply.
Extreme heat in Europe led to wildfires, especially in Spain and Portugal. The drought in Spain dried up a reservoir, revealing the long-submerged “Spanish Stonehenge,” an ancient circle of megalithic stones believed to date back to around 5000 B.C. Electricity generation in France plummeted, with low rivers reducing the ability to cool nuclear power towers, and German barges had difficulty finding enough water to navigate the Rhine River.
In the United States, the West and the Midwest suffered through intense heat waves, and the crucial Colorado River reservoirs Lake Powell and Lake Mead hit record lows, triggering water restrictions. Yet, the country also saw major disruptive flooding in several cities and regions, from Death Valley to the mountains of eastern Kentucky.
In China, heat waves and drought stretched over eight weeks and dried up parts of the Yangtze River to the lowest level since at least 1865 – until parts of the same area were inundated with flooding rains in August.
Climate change exacerbates the extremes
Yes, these are all manifestations of climate change brought about by human activities.
Climate change for the most part does not directly cause the rainfall or drought, but it makes these naturally occurring events more intense or severe. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, largely from power plants, vehicles, buildings, industry and agriculture, trap heat in the atmosphere, heating the planet.
In addition to raising temperature, global warming increases evaporation of surface waters into the atmosphere, drying areas that have had little rain. Warmer air increases the amount of water vapor the atmosphere can hold, and the thirstier atmosphere sucks moisture from the surface.
That extra moisture is carried away by winds and eventually flows into storms, often a thousand miles distant, that rain harder. Atmospheric moisture has increased by 5% to 20% in general compared with the pre-1970s. The increase in water vapor, a greenhouse gas, further amplifies warming. When water evaporates, it absorbs heat, and when it later falls as rain, that heat is released back into the atmosphere. This extra energy fuels storms, leading to more intense systems that may also be bigger and last longer, with up to 30% more rain as a consequence of warming.
On average, precipitation falls on only about 8% of the land globally at any time. It is the intermittency of precipitation that leads to the exaggerated extremes, resulting in localized heavy rains and widespread dry spells.
So, with the accelerated water cycle, wet areas get wetter, and dry areas get drier, while over the oceans, this results in salty waters becoming saltier and fresh waters becoming fresher.
Infrastructure isn’t ready for the consequences
The impact of these events and whether they turn into disasters depend in part on how prepared communities are for the changes. Most infrastructure, forests and farms are adapted to a previous climate.
Whether heavy rains result in flooding depends critically on drainage systems and surface water management.
When populations grow, as Pakistan’s has, more people become vulnerable when they settle in flood plains. It takes time for surface waters to evaporate, and flood water runoff is affected by rising sea levels that slow and may even reverse stream and river flows to the ocean.
Natural variability also plays a major role
While the observed increases in extremes are a consequence of climate change, the weather events themselves are still largely naturally occurring.
Two naturally reoccurring weather patterns are important to understand: La Niña and El Niño – the two opposite phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation.
In 2022, we are likely headed into a third year of a La Niña event, in which cool waters dominate the central and eastern tropical Pacific. The pattern affects atmospheric circulation, keeping the main rains over southern Asia and the Indonesian region, and with associated record-breaking marine heat waves in the North and South Pacific. In North America, it typically means the southern half of the U.S. is drier than normal.
In the Southern Hemisphere, that marine heat wave over the South Pacific led to the warmest and wettest meteorological winter (June-August) on record in New Zealand, with several major floods. Rain was 141% of “normal,” and nationwide temperatures averaged 2.5 F (1.4 C) above the 1981-2010 average. The exceptionally high sea surface temperatures not only contributed to warmer temperatures on land, but also fed atmospheric rivers and provided extra moisture to onshore winds and storms.
The La Niña cooling in the tropical Pacific can readily reverse, with an El Niño pattern effectively pumping heat out of the ocean and into the atmosphere. A preliminary analysis colleagues and I conducted suggests that the global ocean heat content is at record-high levels. Exceptionally warm deep waters in the tropical western Pacific right now suggest prospects for the next El Niño event in 2023, potentially resulting in more global temperature records in 2024 as some ocean heat returns to the atmosphere.
All La Niñas are not the same, however. Because of how sea temperatures responded to the heat in the extratropics, the environment today is very different than it was two years ago. Warmth in the North Pacific could have consequences for the “pineapple express” and other West Coast U.S. storms this coming winter.
The natural variability component means that we should not simply expect more of the same every year. As we likely go into an El Niño next year and global temperatures get a boost, extremes will shift to new locations.
This article was updated Sept. 15, 2022, with the Pakistan death toll rising to more than 1,500.
Kevin Trenberth, Distinguished Scholar, NCAR; Affiliated Faculty, University of Auckland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The forecast calls for mainly dry conditions and below normal temperatures through Friday, with rain showers to become probable across much of the region this weekend into early next week.
The National Weather Service’s extended forecast for Lake County notes that early indications are for a high chance of the county and other parts of the North Coast to receive light rainfall over the weekend.
At the same time it’s possible that portions of southern Humboldt and northern Mendocino counties will receive as much as a half inch of rain during that time.
The specific Lake County forecast expects patchy overnight fog through parts of the Northshore through Saturday, but otherwise clear conditions.
Beginning on Saturday night, there is up to a 40% chance of rain, with between a tenth and a quarter of an inch possible.
The forecast further calls for chances of rain on Sunday and Sunday night, as well as on Monday, with a slight chance of rain anticipated on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Daytime temperatures through Friday are expected to range between the high 70s on the Northshore to the low 80s in the south county, dropping into the 60s from Saturday through Monday before rising into the 70s again on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Nighttime conditions are expected to hover in the low 50s through the middle of next week, with light winds also in the forecast through Saturday.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Rick Winer, who has served on the Kelseyville Unified School Board for the past 21 years and as chair for 15, announced he is running for reelection.
He was a public educator for 33 years. Since retiring in 2009, he has dedicated his time to his position on the Kelseyville Unified board.
After earning his master’s degree in psychology, Winer served in many roles including district psychologist and special education director, middle school principal and student services director.
Winer, his wife Denee, and daughter Sarah moved to Kelseyville in 1987. Denee worked for Kelseyville Unified for 24 years as a nurse’s aide and then special needs aide. Sarah graduated from Kelseyville High and went on to earn her master’s degree in school counseling and serves Tracy Unified as counseling department chair.
Rick Winer has been involved in nearly every aspect of being a board member during his tenure including hiring a superintendent, communicating with the public, approving building projects, developing board policies, approving and oversight of budget.
The passage of Bond Measure U provided funds to modernize the schools of the district and all promised improvements are near to completion.
His advanced training and work in the field of psychology coupled with his collaborative decision-making skills position him as a valuable resource to fill the post- pandemic need for student social and emotional support.
When asked why he was seeking another term on the board, he said, “I feel that there is still a lot of unfinished work to do to support students, staff and the community recover from the effects of the global pandemic. My experience as an educator and board member aids in my decision-making process. Kelseyville Unified School District has remarkably dedicated teachers, administrators, support staff and community. I find being a board member truly rewarding.”
Rick Winer can be reached at 707-245-4324 or email
Visit his website at RickWiner4KVUSD.com or Facebook @RickWiner4KVUSD.
Scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21, and Thursday, Sept. 22, the event will be at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St.
Veterans must provide their ID cards or DD Forms 214. Lake Transit will provide veterans free rides to the stand down. Lunch will be served by Vet Connect volunteers.
Resources to be offered include a significant amount of veterans’ services such as MPIC, VetWorks, disability services, DMV, Nation's Finest, One Step Away, housing, homeless assistance, emergency preparedness, Woodland Community College, behavioral health, substance abuse counseling services, employment assistance, advance care planning and child support assistance.
Hundreds of local veterans are served by the Veterans Stand Down and quarterly mobile outreach events.
“Over the past year I have been given a wealth of knowledge that I would have never made an attempt to discover on my own. For this, I will be forever grateful to the countless number of people who are a part of this veterans program,” said Air Force veteran Jovanie Otei.
The Vet Connect committee currently falls under the auspices of the Lake County United Veterans Council, a nonprofit organization. Members are asking the public to spread the word regarding the stand down and benefits available to local veterans.
“In the military, ‘stand down’ afforded battle-weary soldiers the opportunity to renew their spirits, enjoy warm meals, receive medical and dental care, mail and receive letters, and enjoy the camaraderie of friends in a safe environment,” says Vet Connect Chair Chris Taliaferro.
“Today, ‘stand down’ refers to grassroots, community-based intervention programs designed to help our nation’s vulnerable veterans remain safe and receive the services they need to achieve a healthy lifestyle. At risk veterans are invited to a single location and provided access to the community resources needed to begin addressing their individual problems,” Taliaferro said.
For more information, contact Taliaferro at
For updates, visit the Vet Connect Hookup Hub on Facebook.
Janine Smith-Citron is development director for Hospice Services of Lake County.