A severe winter storm that brought crippling freezing rain, sleet and snow to a large part of the U.S. in late January 2026 left a mess in states from New Mexico to New England. Hundreds of thousands of people lost power across the South as ice pulled down tree branches and power lines, more than a foot of snow fell in parts of the Midwest and Northeast, and many states faced bitter cold that was expected to linger for days.
The sudden blast may have come as a shock to many Americans after a mostly mild start to winter, but that warmth may have partly contributed to the ferocity of the storm.
As atmospheric and climate scientists, we conduct research that aims to improve understanding of extreme weather, including what makes it more or less likely to occur and how climate change might or might not play a role.
To understand what Americans are experiencing with this winter blast, we need to look more than 20 miles above the surface of Earth, to the stratospheric polar vortex.
On the morning of Jan. 26, 2026, the freezing line, shown in white, reached far into Texas. The light band with arrows indicates the jet stream, and the dark band indicates the stratospheric polar vortex. The jet stream is shown at about 3.5 miles above the surface, a typical height for tracking storm systems. The polar vortex is approximately 20 miles above the surface.Mathew Barlow, CC BY
What creates a severe winter storm like this?
Multiple weather factors have to come together to produce such a large and severe storm.
Winter storms typically develop where there are sharp temperature contrasts near the surface and a southward dip in the jet stream, the narrow band of fast-moving air that steers weather systems. If there is a substantial source of moisture, the storms can produce heavy rain or snow.
In late January, a strong Arctic air mass from the north was creating the temperature contrast with warmer air from the south. Multiple disturbances within the jet stream were acting together to create favorable conditions for precipitation, and the storm system was able to pull moisture from the very warm Gulf of Mexico.
The National Weather Service issued severe storm warnings (pink) on Jan. 24, 2026, for a large swath of the U.S. that could see sleet and heavy snow over the following days, along with ice storm warnings (dark purple) in several states and extreme cold warnings (dark blue).National Weather Service
Where does the polar vortex come in?
The fastest winds of the jet stream occur just below the top of the troposphere, which is the lowest level of the atmosphere and ends about seven miles above Earth’s surface. Weather systems are capped at the top of the troposphere, because the atmosphere above it becomes very stable.
The stratosphere is the next layer up, from about seven miles to about 30 miles. While the stratosphere extends high above weather systems, it can still interact with them through atmospheric waves that move up and down in the atmosphere. These waves are similar to the waves in the jet stream that cause it to dip southward, but they move vertically instead of horizontally.
A chart shows how temperatures in the lower layers of the atmosphere change between the troposphere and stratosphere. Miles are on the right, kilometers on the left.NOAA
You’ve probably heard the term “polar vortex” used when an area of cold Arctic air moves far enough southward to influence the United States. That term describes air circulating around the pole, but it can refer to two different circulations, one in the troposphere and one in the stratosphere.
The Northern Hemisphere stratospheric polar vortex is a belt of fast-moving air circulating around the North Pole. It is like a second jet stream, high above the one you may be familiar with from weather graphics, and usually less wavy and closer to the pole.
Sometimes the stratospheric polar vortex can stretch southward over the United States. When that happens, it creates ideal conditions for the up-and-down movement of waves that connect the stratosphere with severe winter weather at the surface.
A stretched stratospheric polar vortex reflects upward waves back down, left, which affects the jet stream and surface weather, right.Mathew Barlow and Judah Cohen, CC BY
The forecast for the January storm showed a close overlap between the southward stretch of the stratospheric polar vortex and the jet stream over the U.S., indicating perfect conditions for cold and snow.
This is what was happening in late January 2026 in the central and eastern U.S.
If the climate is warming, why are we still getting severe winter storms?
Earth is unequivocally warming as human activities release greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere, and snow amounts are decreasing overall. But that does not mean severe winter weather will never happen again.
The polar vortex is a strong band of winds in the stratosphere, normally ringing the North Pole. When it weakens, it can split. The polar jet stream can mirror this upheaval, becoming weaker or wavy. At the surface, cold air is pushed southward in some locations.NOAA
Additionally, a warmer ocean leads to more evaporation, and because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, that means more moisture is available for storms. The process of moisture condensing into rain or snow produces energy for storms as well. However, warming can also reduce the strength of storms by reducing temperature contrasts.
A warmer environment also increases the likelihood that precipitation that would have fallen as snow in previous winters may now be more likely to fall as sleet and freezing rain.
There are still many questions
Scientists are constantly improving the ability to predict and respond to these severe weather events, but there are many questions still to answer.
Much of the data and research in the field relies on a foundation of work by federal employees, including government labs like the National Center for Atmospheric Research, known as NCAR, which has been targeted by the Trump administration for funding cuts. These scientists help develop the crucial models, measuring instruments and data that scientists and forecasters everywhere depend on.
This article, originally published Jan. 24, 2026, has been updated with details from the weekend storm.
The 2025 Lake County Special Olympics Polar Plunge. Courtesy photo.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Special Olympics is inviting community members to come take a jump in the lake with them for a good cause.
Lake County Special Olympics will hold its 15th annual Polar Plunge on Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Buckingham Homeowners Association Clubhouse and beach in Kelseyville.
This is the sole fundraiser for the county’s Special Olympics program and has been supporting the program for the past 15 years.
Every dollar raised supports the more than 40 Lake County athletes in training and competition opportunities year round in five current sport offerings.
“We appreciate the tremendous support we have received throughout the years and we hope to make the 2026 Polar Plunge another successful and fun event,” organizers said.
Come join the fun by signing up to plunge or by sponsoring one of our plungers.
“We would love to see you there!” the Lake County Special Olympics team said.
The map of the Robin Lane Sewer Spill incident has remained the same since Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, although officials say it is subject to change. Image courtesy of the county of Lake.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – County officials said more work to ensure there is a safe water supply for residents impacted by a sewer spill in Clearlake earlier this month is taking place and will continue this week.
The Robin Lane sewage spill incident began on Sunday, Jan. 11, when a 16-inch force main near the northern end of Robin Lane in Clearlake – operated by the Lake County Sanitation District – ruptured
Nearly three million gallons of raw sewage across roads and private properties, contaminating dozens of wells, forcing some residents of the spill area to temporarily relocate and triggering a long-term cleanup effort in a roughly 297-area impact area.
For the last 10 days, the guidance from Public Health Officer Dr. Bob Bernstein has remained unchanged: Those in the spill area who rely on private wells for drinking water are urged to temporarily relocate until their wells are deemed safe after testing.
Bernstein has urged residents to seek immediate medical attention if they develop symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps; fever or flu-like symptoms; skin rashes or infections; and eye, ear or wound infections.
Lake County Environmental Health, which is overseeing aspects of the cleanup including well testing and long-term monitoring, said its contractors continued health and safety operations in the field on Sunday.
“Field crews are currently sanitizing private wells, including those that have not yet received treatment as well as wells that were previously sanitized but continue to show detectable contamination levels,” the county said in a Sunday evening update.
Environmental Health anticipates initiating a second round of water sampling as early as Monday to verify results and monitor continued improvements in water quality.
The Sunday update’s information on Special Districts remained largely unchanged from Saturday’s.
Special Districts is continuing soil cleanup and removal, as well as water deliveries for livestock in the spill impact area.
Water deliveries for livestock are continuing through the weekend and into the coming week to ensure animals have access to safe drinking water, officials said.
The county also said that water tank installations through the Home Safe program, administered by Social Services, are underway to help residents who need an alternative water supply.
“Additional tank installations are expected to begin on Tuesday, with placement prioritized based on private well testing results,” the county said.
The county said road work on Robin Lane is scheduled to begin Monday.
As part of that road work, Lake County Public Works crews will grade the roadway, remove impacted soil, and apply approximately three inches of base rock to improve road conditions and maintain safe access for residents and response vehicles.
The county will hold its third town hall meeting on the spill and its remediation efforts at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
Available resources
County officials direct spill area residents to the following resources.
ADA showers: Available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Friday at the Clearlake Senior Center, 3245 Bowers Ave.
Avoiding scams after a disaster: Visit this link, https://bit.ly/4jP8A1Z.
Drinking water: Highlands Water Co. offers a free public water filling station from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 14580 Lakeshore Drive. Please bring your own jugs or bottles.
Drinking water guidance and information on testing of private wells: Contact Environmental Health at 707-263-1164.
Food assistance: For vouchers and assistance, call Supervisor Bruno Sabatier at 707-695-0834.
Relocation: Affected residents are directed to first contact their homeowner’s insurance provider to inquire about coverage for temporary lodging under their policy. Residents may also contact Lake County Special Districts at 707-263-0119 for additional assistance and guidance.
Support to mitigate water and sewer-related needs: Call Special Districts at 707-263-0119.
Temporary housing: Call Social Services at 707-995-4200, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to request temporary housing. Assistance is available for any household that needs it. Help is no longer limited to elderly/disabled or low-income families. Households that are ineligible for Social Services temporary housing programs will be referred to Church World Service. Church World Service eligibility requirements are: Residents must be impacted by recent sewage flooding; applicants must be vetted through an agency representative (the agency knows the client lives at the address impacted); a confirmed damage assessment is required; clients must have or create an Airbnb account and be able to use the Airbnb app on their phone; clients must have an email address, and the address must be the same address they used to create the Airbnb account.
Water delivery for elderly/disabled: Call Social Services at 707-995-4200, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to request delivery for households physically unable to refill their own water containers.
Well sanitization services: To schedule well sanitization services or for more information, please contact Environmental Health at 707-263-1164. Environmental Health staff are available to review your location, confirm whether your property falls within the mapped area and provide guidance on appropriate next steps.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, and on Bluesky, @erlarson.bsky.social. Find Lake County News on the following platforms: Facebook, @LakeCoNews; X, @LakeCoNews; Threads, @lakeconews, and on Bluesky, @lakeconews.bsky.social.
As communities across the country continue to confront the federal government’s dangerous, authoritarian violence, it’s important to know your rights and call for Congressional action.
As the nation experiences yet another violent killing at the hands of federal agents, Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging Californians to stay safe and know their rights amidst the ongoing federal chaos.
Newsom’s office said President Trump wants local communities to respond with violence so he can justify his authoritarian actions — like deploying the military against civilians and expanding dangerous, immigration raids.
“The federal government has used California as a training ground to test their blatantly racist, dangerous, and indiscriminate mass detention agenda. They have killed civilians, terrified children, arrested Americans, and disappeared parents,” the Governor’s Office said in a statement.
“In California, we know our rights — and we will defend them,” said Newsom. “When federal agents are used to intimidate and kill civilians, when people’s rights under the Constitution are treated as optional, that’s not strength — that’s authoritarianism. And we must continue rejecting that notion – every single day. No President and no administration is above our country’s Constitution, and no one in this country is without rights. In California, we stand for accountability, the rule of law, and freedom over fear. Democracy will only survive if we refuse to let it be bullied into silence.”
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote this week on a proposal to fund ICE and Border Patrol without any guardrails and restraints for public safety. As the news of the latest killing out of Minneapolis at the hands of federal immigration agents reverberates nationwide it is yet another unfortunate reminder why checks and balances need to be enforced.
The Governor’s Office said Californians — and communities nationwide — should vehemently oppose this vote and Congress needs to do its job and place guardrails on the Trump Administration’s continued abuses of power.
Support your immigrant neighbors and friends by calling for congressional action to hold federal agencies accountable, and to pass laws so that good, hardworking immigrant Californians can stay and work in the United States.
“The Trump administration is targeting people for detention and deportation who are following the immigration rules, are good contributing members of our communities and economy, and are part of American families. Mass indiscriminate raids hurt all of us. We need real solutions, not cruelty and economic harm,” the Governor’s Office said.
Be aware
Gov. Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta have a new online portal to assist members of the public in reporting potentially unlawful activity by federal agents and officers across the state.
The portal allows Californians to submit video and photos, helping create a record of potential unlawful conduct by federal agents and informing possible legal actions the state may take to protect Californians’ rights.
If you believe you are witnessing a crime in progress, you should call 911 or your local law enforcement agency and report it.
You have the right to peacefully exercise your First Amendment rights but it is against the law to threaten, assault, or block access to federal property or interfere with federal law enforcement operations. Violence is never the answer, and assaulting a federal agent or obstructing an arrest is a crime.
Keep a safe distance and be mindful that you may encounter federal agents who are angry, inexperienced, improperly vetted, and untrained on how to do their job safely, including interacting with demonstrators or large crowds.
Exercise your rights
Newsom’s office said, “Trump and Stephen Miller have brought chaos and violence to our streets, undermining local law enforcement and creating dangerous situations. Violence is exactly what Trump wants, so he can use it as a reason to further block access to lawyers when people are detained and to bring the military to our streets to respond to protests.”
“Make your voice heard without resorting to violence, vandalism, or interference with law enforcement. This is an important time to support your community with information that empowers people to stay safe and prepared,” Newsom’s office said.
Know your rights fact sheets are available in: English, Arabic, Armenian, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Tagalog, and Ukrainian.
California law is clear and prudent
The Governor’s Office said state and local law enforcement agencies do not participate in reckless and indiscriminate immigration raids. Their focus is on keeping people safe and preventing crime, not tearing families apart and threatening working people. State law requires them to cooperate only with federal immigration enforcement for people who have been convicted of dangerous crimes, including those leaving state prisons.
California has taken action, including enacting recent legislation to help keep people safe and push back against Trump and Stephen Miller’s reckless “secret police” tactics in California.
Schools: Families will be notified when immigration enforcement comes on school campuses, and student information and classrooms are protected from ICE — and require a judicial warrant or court order to be accessed.
Hospitals: Emergency rooms and other nonpublic areas in a public hospital are off limits to immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant or court order, and immigration information collected by a health care provider is protected as medical information.
Due process: Funding immigration attorneys and assistance for immigrants so they can keep or apply for legal status, and have their day in court to prevent their wrongful detention and deportation.
Trump’s actions have a chilling effect – the state’s economy is likely to contract later this year due to fallout from global tariffs and immigration raids in Los Angeles and other cities that have rattled key sectors, including construction, hospitality, and agriculture, according to a UCLA Anderson forecast.
Earlier this year, the governor met with business owners and faith leaders in the Los Angeles area to discuss the economic and societal impact indiscriminate federal immigration actions have had on their communities.
Mass deportations in California could slash $275 billion from the state’s economy and eliminate $23 billion in annual tax revenue. The loss of immigrant labor would delay projects (including rebuilding Los Angeles after the wildfires), reduce food supply, and drive up costs.
Undocumented immigrants contributed $8.5 billion in state and local taxes in 2022 — a number that would rise to $10.3 billion if these taxpayers could apply to work lawfully.
Imagine going to the hospital for a bacterial ear infection and hearing your doctor say, “We’re out of options.” It may sound dramatic, but antibiotic resistance is pushing that scenario closer to becoming reality for an increasing number of people. In 2016, a woman from Nevada died from a bacterial infection that was resistant to all 26 antibiotics that were available in the United States at that time.
Bacteria naturally evolve in ways that can make the drugs meant to kill them less effective. However, when antibiotics are overused or used improperly in medicine or agriculture, these pressures accelerate the process of resistance.
As resistant bacteria spread, lifesaving treatments face new complications – common infections become harder to treat, and routine surgeries become riskier. Slowing these threats to modern medicine requires not only responsible antibiotic use and good hygiene, but also awareness of how everyday actions influence resistance.
For decades, treating bacterial infections has involved a lot of educated guesswork. When a very sick patient arrives at the hospital and clinicians don’t yet know the exact bacteria causing the illness, they often start with a broad-spectrum antibiotic. These drugs kill many different types of bacteria at once, which can be lifesaving — but they also expose a wide range of other bacteria in the body to antibiotics. While some bacteria are killed, the ones that remain continue to multiply and spread resistance genes between different bacterial species. That unnecessary exposure gives harmless or unrelated bacteria a chance to adapt and develop resistance.
In contrast, narrow-spectrum antibiotics target only a small group of bacteria. Clinicians typically prefer these types of antibiotics because they treat the infection without disturbing bacteria that are not involved in the infection. However, it can take several days to identify the exact bacteria causing the infection. During that waiting period, clinicians often feel they have no choice but to start broad-spectrum treatment – especially if the patient is seriously ill.
For clinicians, better tests could help them make faster diagnoses and more effective treatment plans that won’t exacerbate resistance. For researchers, these tools point to an urgent need to integrate diagnostics with real-time surveillance networks capable of tracking resistance patterns as they emerge.
Diagnostics alone will not solve resistance, but they provide the precision, speed and early warning needed to stay ahead.
2. Expanding beyond traditional antibiotics
Antibiotics transformed medicine in the 20th century, but relying on them alone won’t carry humanity through the 21st. The pipeline of new antibiotics remains distressingly thin, and most drugs currently in development are structurally similar to existing antibiotics, potentially limiting their effectiveness.
To stay ahead, researchers are investing in nontraditional therapies, many of which work in fundamentally different ways than standard antibiotics.
One promising direction is bacteriophage therapy, which uses viruses that specifically infect and kill harmful bacteria. Others are exploring microbiome-based therapies that restore healthy bacterial communities to crowd out pathogens.
Researchers are also developing CRISPR-based antimicrobials, using gene-editing tools to precisely disable resistance genes. New compounds like antimicrobial peptides, which puncture the membranes of bacteria to kill them, show promise as next-generation drugs. Meanwhile, scientists are designing nanoparticle delivery systems to transport antimicrobials directly to infection sites with fewer side effects.
Many of these options remain early-stage, and bacteria may eventually evolve around them. But these innovations reflect a powerful shift: Instead of betting on discovering a single antibiotic to address resistance, researchers are building a more diverse and resilient tool kit to fight antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria.
3. Antimicrobial resistance outside hospitals
Antibiotic resistance doesn’t only spread in hospitals. It moves through people, wildlife, crops, wastewater, soil and global trade networks. This broader perspective that takes the principles of One Health into account is essential for understanding how resistance genes travel through ecosystems.
Researchers are increasingly recognizing environmental and agricultural factors as major drivers of resistance, on par with misuse of antibiotics in the clinic. These include how antibiotics used in animal agriculture can create resistant bacteria that spread to people; how resistance genes in wastewater can survive treatment systems and enter rivers and soil; and how farms, sewage plants and other environmental hot spots become hubs where resistance spreads quickly. Even global travel accelerates the movement of resistant bacteria across continents within hours.
Antibiotic misuse in agriculture is a significant contributor to antibiotic resistance.
Together, these forces show that antibiotic resistance isn’t just an issue for hospitals – it’s an ecological and societal problem. For researchers, this means designing solutions that cross disciplines, integrating microbiology, ecology, engineering, agriculture and public health.
4. Policies on what treatments exist in the future
Drug companies lose money developing new antibiotics. Because new antibiotics are used sparingly in order to preserve their effectiveness, companies often sell too few doses to recoup development costs even after the Food and Drug Administration approves the drugs. Several antibiotic companies have gone bankrupt for this reason.
To encourage antibiotic innovation, the U.S. is considering major policy changes like the PASTEUR Act. This bipartisan bill proposes creating a subscription-style payment model that would allow the federal government up to US$3 billion to pay drug manufacturers over five to 10 years for access to critical antibiotics instead of paying per pill.
Still, the bill represents one of the most significant policy proposals related to antimicrobial resistance in U.S. history and could determine what antibiotics exist in the future.
The future of antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic resistance is sometimes framed as an inevitable catastrophe. But I believe the reality is more hopeful: Society is entering an era of smarter diagnostics, innovative therapies, ecosystem-level strategies and policy reforms aimed at rebuilding the antibiotic pipeline in addition to addressing stewardship.
For the public, this means better tools and stronger systems of protection. For researchers and policymakers, it means collaborating in new ways.
The question now isn’t whether there are solutions to antibiotic resistance – it’s whether society will act fast enough to use them.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A longtime Lake County resident who became a titan in the California wine industry for his innovation and human touch will be remembered in a special event at the end of this month.
Jed Steele died Oct. 31 at his Kelseyville home, surrounded by his family and friends. He was 80 years old.
His family will host a celebration of his life and legacy on Saturday, Jan. 31, at 1 p.m. at The Mercantile, 4350 Thomas Drive in Lakeport – formerly the site of his famed winery.
Steele was famed for a decades-long career in the wine industry that included his creation – albeit accidentally – of what became the industry standard chardonnay recipe. That wine would later be at the heart of a lawsuit that had a longtime impact on the winemaking industry.
He founded Steele Wines, a company with a portfolio of wines including Shooting Star, Stymie and Writer's Block that amassed a lengthy list of awards.
“He was a huge part” of establishing Lake County as a wine region, said Shannon Gunier, a noted wine industry consultant who also was a founder and longtime executive director for the Lake County Winegrape Association.
Gunier called Steele “the rock star of Lake County” who put Lake County and the North Coast on the map nationally for grape growing and winemaking.
“Everybody knew Jed,” she said, noting he was a kind and impeccable winemaker, and a mentor.
His longtime partner, Paula Doran, said he was like the godfather of wine, who was known to help others in the small local wine community.
“The whole thing about Jed is how he cared about people,” Doran said.
“Jed was a dear friend whose presence filled every room. He was larger than life in stature and spirit. His vision and hard work helped put Lake County’s vineyards on the map. I’m grateful to have known him and to honor his memory,” Congressman Mike Thompson said in a statement released after Steele’s death.
Jed Steele attended Gonzaga University on a basketball scholarship. Courtesy photo.
An early fascination with wine
He was born Jedediah Tecumseh Steele in New York City on Jan. 26, 1945, the last of five children born to Robert and Frances Steele. The family later moved to San Francisco.
Doran said that by the time Jed Steele was born, his parents were older and his father had retired as a copywriter.
Robert Steele completed 13 historical fiction novels. Doran said he wrote at home in the morning, and in the afternoons he would go and work on finding dinner before cooking it up. The family also often had parties, with Frances Steele going so far as to pull people in off the street to enjoy meals served with nice wine.
“Jed got into that,” Doran said.
Jed Steele grew into what friends and family recalled as a “gentle giant,” standing 6 feet 4 inches tall with size 15 shoes and a mild demeanor.
As he grew up in San Francisco, his family said he spent his childhood exploring the city by bicycle, delivering newspapers at dawn and excelling in school.
Thanks in part to his big stature, he went to Gonzaga University on a basketball scholarship. During that time took a year away to coach Native Alaskan students, leading them to their first-ever championship and celebrating as they carried him on their shoulders, a moment he cherished for the rest of his life, his family said.
Later, following the interest in wine cultivated by his parents, Steele worked with some friends at a Napa winery. He also traveled for a time before enrolling at the University of California, Davis, where he was among the first members of classes on wine.
“He went to school with a lot of big names,” Doran said.
Those names included other winemaking legends Merry Edwards and Tim Mondavi.
He earned his Master of Science in food science in 1976. He worked at Edmeades Winery in Geyservville before joining Kendall-Jackson in Anderson Valley in Mendocino County, working for Jess Jackson.
“He liked the rural lifestyle,” and decided to stay in the area, Doran said.
Jed Steele. Courtesy photo.
With Kendall-Jackson in the 1980s, Steele helped expand the winery from 20,000 cases a year to nearly a million. During that time, he developed the recipe for the Vintner's Reserve chardonnay, which became a hit nationally and a favorite of then-First Lady Nancy Reagan.
In 1990, he won International Winemaker of the Year in London.
In 1991, he left Kendall-Jackson to found Steele Wines, which his family said “he guided with heart, humor, and vision until its sale in 2020 to Shannon Family of Wines.”
It was after the founding of Steele Wines that the working relationship between Steele and Jackson was permanently ruptured – over unpaid money and the recipe for the Vintner's Reserve chardonnay.
As Gunier explained, the winemaking industry in California was maturing, after having only taken off again starting in the 1960s. People in the industry were cooperative and shared ideas to try to make it successful.
Doran said Jackson and Steele had a handshake deal, with Jackson having told Steele that, in 10 years, they would both be millionaires. Later, Steele went to Jackson to tell him that while he was a millionaire, Steele was not.
At that point, she said Steele decided to leave and asked for severance pay. Jackson only made one payment.
In what became a landmark case, Steele sued Jackson for the rest of the severance money he was owed, and Jackson, a successful property rights attorney, countersued Steele, alleging that the chardonnay recipe that Steele developed by accident – due to accidentally leaving residual sugar in some chardonnay that created a wine that people loved – was proprietary and belonged to him, not to Steele. Further, he accused Steele of taking that recipe with him, along with grape suppliers.
Gunier and Doran said the ultimate court decision was a split one, with Steele getting some money and Jackson getting the recipe.
After the lawsuit, everyone quit sharing, Gunier said. “It changed the wine business,” adding that it made people “very secretive.”
A new era for Lake County wine
Despite the lawsuit, Steele had a long and successful career yet to come in the wine industry.
For the first four years of his new company, Doran said Steele made his wine at Ployez Winery in Lower Lake and at Wildhurst in Kelseyville before buying the building on the corner of Highway 29 and Thomas Drive in 1995.
During his tenure at Steele Wines, he also consulted for Northstar, Fess Parker, Indian Springs, Lolonis Vineyards and Wildhurst Vineyards.
“No one makes wine like Jed Steele,” said Gunier, and he went about creating a catalog of award-winning wines.
At about the same time as Steele was turning his full attention to his new Lake County winery, Gunier and her husband, Rick, were working to establish the new winegrape commission. That process involved talking to local industry members.
Gunier said that at that time, Lake County wines were “the blend,” the additional grapes added to wine made in other areas. She and her husband, however, believed they were as good as the grapes from Napa and Sonoma, yet weren’t getting as much enthusiasm to put Lake County on the map. Additionally, Kendall-Jackson had just closed their tasting room in Lakeport.
So the Guniers asked Steele to come and talk to their second annual commission dinner at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeport.
Gunier recalled the building had bats. She said Steele stood up to talk – with bats flying around his head – and spoke words that resulted in a personal epiphany for Gunier.
“You all have to decide – does Lake County want to be on the front of the label or on the back of the label?” She remembered him saying.
He emphasized that at that point, Lake County was on the back of the label.
The resulting epiphany led to the building of a strategic plan based on the goal of leading the region, Gunier said.
“He was really the impetus for that,” she said. “I knew that he loved Lake County so much.”
She said he was always kind and helpful, mentored many winemakers, sent people bottles of wine, T-shirts and gifts certificates, and could be asked anything. “People just really adored him.”
He was known well beyond Lake County, the North Coast and California. Gunier said a local winemaker tells a story of visiting New Zealand, where she wanted to work. In her conversation with a potential employer, she saw that he had a magazine featuring Steele, with whom she’d worked. She got the job.
In an obituary provided by his family, they wrote, “For nearly three decades, he poured his soul into crafting first-class, award-winning wines, building friendships across the country and bringing meaningful recognition to Lake County’s viticulture. Jed fostered a true family atmosphere at his winery – holiday turkeys and Christmas trees for employees, scholarship funds for new babies, and kids and winery pups growing up between the barrels. He supported and taught countless people in the wine world at every level, including many Lake County winemakers and professionals across the country – among them his son Quincy, who is currently working at wineries in France and Switzerland.”
Beyond his wines, Steele became known for the bowling tournaments, the baseball and golf games, the cornhole contests, and the legendary wine dinners that always sold out simply because he was there.
His family said he had a remarkable gift for making people feel seen – remembering names, birthdays and even a child’s ballet recital – and he took genuine joy in people.
Doran said that when they traveled, first thing every single morning he would sit down and send 20 thank you notes. “That’s how he started his day.”
Steele and Doran met when he came to her Clearlake lamp shop, Clayton Creek Studios. Later, she was at the Saw Shop in Kelseyville – when it was owned by his ex-wife Marie Beery – and Doran said she heard him and Clay Shannon talking about a crush contest.
She said she wanted to do it, and Steele replied that it was hard work. Doran, in turn, said she is a hard worker and decided to work the crush that year. Afterward, he asked her out, and they spent the next 14 years together.
Those were great years and she and Steele enjoyed “a very special romance,” Doran said.
She recalled that Steele was a “big yellow legal pad kind of guy” who, as an employer, liked to make people lists.
He tried giving her a list. She said she gave it back. He was, apparently, OK with that.
Jed Steele and his partner, Paula Doran, on one of their many adventures. Courtesy photo.
Doran said Steele was a normal guy who would rather spend $1,000 taking people to dinner rather than working on his house. He loved baseball games, fishing and golfing.
During their time together, they traveled extensively. One of the things she said she loved about him was his interest in things she liked to do. She is a scuba diver and he wanted to learn to dive as well – but first he had to learn to swim. During a trip to the Bahamas, he did just that.
On their first cruise together, he booked a dancing cruise so they could learn to dance together.
“He brought me into his world of wine dinners,” she said, and he liked to go and spend time with people who he knew in the wine business.
Six months of the year they were away from Lake County, visiting homes in Montana, where they liked to go on annual pack trips, and in Florida.
“I was lucky. I got to meet him when he was slowing down and wanting to do some traveling,” when he wanted to do life differently, Doran said. “I feel like I had the best years with him.”
Shannon has since turned the Steele Wines facility into The Mercantile, a popular wine and entertainment venue where Steele’s memorial event will be held.
As a winemaker, Gunier said Steele was in a class of his own, and nobody had his rock star quality.
“He’s just a real legend,” she said.
With all of Steele’s many accomplishments, his family said he considered his greatest achievement to be being a father to Mendocino and Quincy, and he was thrilled to become a grandfather when granddaughter Astrid arrived.
Steele was preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Frances; his sisters, Clelia, Theodora and Judy; and his brother Johnny.
Survivors include Doran; his children, Mendocino and Quincy; and his granddaughter, Astrid.
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Jed Steele sold his winery to Clay Shannon in 2020. Courtesy photo.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The California Highway Patrol on Saturday released a report on a crash that claimed the life of a pedestrian on Friday night.
The CHP’s Clear Lake Area office said its officers were dispatched to a traffic collision with an ambulance responding for a pedestrian hit by a vehicle on Highway 20, west of Howard Avenue in Nice.
CHP Officer Corey Burgess was first to arrive on scene and located an unresponsive adult female lying in the roadway, officials said.
Officer Burgess immediately began life saving efforts, however the female succumbed to her injuries at the scene, according to the report.
The identity of the pedestrian, a 23-year-old female from Antioch, is being withheld until next of kin notifications have been made, the CHP said.
The CHP said preliminary investigations have determined the pedestrian was crossing Highway 20 from south to north, within a crosswalk at Howard Avenue.
Brannon Keller, 64, of Clearlake was driving a gray 2012 Honda Ridgeline westbound on Highway 20, approaching the crosswalk.
For reasons under investigation, the CHP said Keller did not stop or take evasive maneuvers before the collision.
After the crash, Keller immediately stopped his vehicle and called 911 to report the collision, the CHP said.
Officials said Keller remained on scene and cooperated with investigating officers.
Keller was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol and was released from the scene, according to the report.
The CHP said it is unknown if the pedestrian was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the collision.
The CHP is continuing its investigation of the crash.
Anyone with information or knowledge of the incident is asked to contact the Clear Lake CHP Office at 707-281-5200.
