NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The snowpack in the Sierras and in parts of the Mendocino National Forest has dwindled to the point of being nearly nonexistent or gone altogether, and the lack of snow caused state officials to cancel the latest public snow survey.

The Department of Water Resources was set to hold the snow survey event on Friday, but said that, due to the prospect of just finding bare ground at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, 90 miles east of Sacramento, there was no point in going forward.

“This is the first time we formally canceled the media component of the snow survey. There is no need, since there is nothing to see, but bare ground, however reading are still taken by visual indicators and electronically at the survey locations,” Jennifer Iida, a public information officer with the Department of Water Resources, told Lake County News.

Bare ground was just what was found at last month's snow survey, as Lake County News has reported.

When Gov. Jerry Brown attended the April 1 survey at Phillips and announced a mandatory 25-percent reduction in water use across the state, the ground was barren of snow in every direction.

State officials said it was the only April 1 since the Department of Water Resources began surveying Phillips in 1941 that no snow was found there.

“We can’t count on the Sierra snowpack to replenish our water supplies,” said California Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin. “Major reservoirs are dropping at a time when they typically would be filling with melted snow. We need careful, sparing use of water across the state, because we don’t know when this drought will end.”

April's vanishing snowpack – it was at just 5 percent of normal – was of special concern because, according to the Department of Water Resources, California's snowpack normally is at its peak in early April.

From that point on, it begins slowly melting in spring and early summer, going into streams and reservoirs and supplying 30 percent of the water used by California’s cities and farms, the state reported.

Lack of snow in May at Phillips Station is not as uncommon as the April situation; the Department of Water Resources said the last time snow was found there on May 1 was 2011.

Electronic snowpack readings on Monday show that dry conditions are continuing to deepen.

Statewide, the snowpack on Monday was at 1 percent of normal for this time of year, or three-tenths of an inch – compared to a normal level of more than 16 inches – with a total of 98 stations reporting.

That breaks down as follows for the three different areas of the Sierra:

– Northern Sierra: 2 percent of normal, average snow water equipment of 0.4 of an inch, 30 stations reporting;
– Central Sierra: 1 percent of normal, average snow water equipment of 0.3 of an inch, 42 stations reporting;
– Southern Sierra: 0 percent of normal, average snow water equipment of 0.1 of an inch, 26 stations reporting.

In the Mendocino National Forest, there appears to be no snow at the reporting stations.

Forest officials reported that the two snow reporting stations are at Anthony Peak and Plaskett Meadows.

Department of Water Resources California Data Exchange Center for the two sites goes back to February 1944.

For Anthony Peak, located in the Covelo Ranger District, no snow has been reported since Dec. 21, when there was 7 inches, with 1.5 inches of water content, according to the state's data.

Since 1944, the other instances of no snow being present during snow survey months are as follows: May 1944; May 1947; February 1948; May 1950; January and February of 1963; January 1974; January 1976; February 1977; January, February and April 1981; and May 1986.

For Plaskett Meadows, the last snow measured at the site was on April 3, 2014, based on the state data.

Previous incidences of no snow at Plaskett Meadows during snow survey months since 1944, according to the data exchange center, are as follows: March 1970, May 1990 and February 1991.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

As motorcycle fatalities and injuries have increased in California, the California Highway Patrol and Office of Traffic Safety have stepped up their efforts to promote safety and education, highlighted by Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month in May.

In 2013, motorcycle collisions resulted in 475 fatalities and 13,143 injured victims. In 2012, 467 people were killed and 12,617 were injured, the agencies reported.

Nationwide, motorcyclists made up 14 percent of all vehicle-related fatalities in 2013, up from about 9 percent in 2004, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.

“Surviving the ride must be foremost in the mind of every motorcyclist. This means taking a motorcycle safety course, wearing the proper gear, using a Department of Transportation compliant helmet and staying alert,” CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said. “Every vehicle has its place on the road, but motorcyclists face additional dangers because motorcycles require exceptional handling ability and are more difficult to see.”

During Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month – and throughout the year – all road users are reminded to safely "share the road" with motorcyclists, and to be extra alert to help keep motorcyclists safe.

That message is most important in California, which is home to more than 830,000 registered motorcycles – the most of any state – and more than 1.4 million motorcycle riders.

“Californians increasingly get around by means other than cars and trucks. More are bicycling, walking, taking mass transit and motorcycling,” said OTS Director Rhonda Craft. “That also means that everyone needs to be extra cautious and looking out for everyone else, no matter what their means of transportation is.”

The CHP is statutorily responsible for California's official motorcycle safety training program. The California Motorcyclist Safety Program (CMSP) trains approximately 65,000 motorcyclists every year.

As of July 2014, nearly 945,000 motorcycle riders have received training at one of the authorized CMSP training sites since the program began in 1987.

For more information or to find a training site near you, go to www.californiamotorcyclist.com .

The agencies offer these important safety reminders for motorcyclists:
 
– Wear the proper safety gear at all times, including a DOT-compliant helmet.
– Obey the speed limit – excess speed is the most common rider-related factor in motorcycle related crashes.
– Don’t drink and ride – DUI is a leading cause of motorcycle crashes.
– Ride within your own limits – don’t be a victim of peer pressure.
– Ride defensively – assume other drivers don’t see you.
– Survive the ride.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A colony of honey bees took refuge on a tree at the Coyote Valley Elementary School playground for several hours recently.

The nearly soccer ball-sized gathering of bees caused quite a stir amongst the students, who were guided safely away from the pollinators, and informed of  just how valuable the golden orb of insects is!

A local bee extractor was called in, however, the bees took flight before they could arrived to collect them.

Members of the genus Apis, there are only seven species of honeybees among the 20,000 identified species of bees in the world.

Scientists believe the honeybee originated in Asia. Evidence in fossils show up as far back as 56 million years ago.

A serious condition in bee populations known as colony collapse disorder, or CCD, has been widely reported in the west recently.

Beekeepers have been baffled as to the causes, but have taken notice of a severe impairment in the bee's protein production.

Other theories for CCD include the adverse effects of the agricultural growth practices of monoculture, along with the negative effects of pesticide use.

The bee colony that paid a visit to Coyote Valley Elementary School was in the process of finding a new home for their overgrown hive. 

The old hive, containing a queen bee, thousands of drone bees (fertile mates), and thousand of sterile (female) worker bees was made up of a wax honeycomb constructed by the diligent worker bees as a repository for the queen's eggs.

Bee society is very complex and interesting, to say the least. 

To learn more about apiology, the study of honey bees, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7cX2cjFunw .

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.

Over the past 35 years, California’s high-wage workers have seen steady increases in their paychecks.

But low-wage workers, 4.8 million strong and about one-third of the state’s workforce, earned less in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2014 than they did in 1979, according to an analysis from the University of California, Berkeley.

UC Berkeley researchers analyzing U.S. Census Bureau data at the campus’s Center for Labor Research and Education found that low-wage workers, defined as those earning hourly wages of $13.63 or less, have seen steady declines in their inflation-adjusted buying power.

This low-wage workforce, nearly three-quarters nonwhite and concentrated in two industries – retail trade, and restaurants and other food services – has also become older and more highly educated.

Teens made up 5 percent of low-wage workers in 2014, down from 16 percent in 1979, and 48 percent of low-wage earners in 2014 had attended some college, compared to 39 percent in 1979.

The analysis also showed that 40 percent of the state’s low-wage workers in 2014 were foreign-born.

“We found that low-wage workers in California are older and more educated than they were 30 years ago, and yet they’ve seen stagnant and even declining wages,” said Annette Bernhardt, a visiting UC Berkeley professor of sociology and a senior researcher at the center. “The story of growing inequality is not just about the top 1 percent, it is also about the millions of low-wage workers and their families who struggle with economic insecurity every day.”

Bernhardt and the study’s other authors, Ian Perry and Lindsay Cattell, found that the top occupations of California’s low-wage workers are retail sales workers; cooks and food preparation workers; material-moving workers; and personal care and childcare workers. About half are in Southern California.

In 2013, the median income of low-wage workers’ families was $29,100, compared to $63,000 for all California families, a gap that has widened since 2000.

From 2007 to 2011, families of low-wage workers received $14.3 billion in annual support from public-assistance programs such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid and food stamps.

The researchers published their analysis in chart form in Low-Wage Work in California: 2014 Chartbook, the first edition of an ongoing resource with a wide range of information about low-wage workers, their families and their jobs.

The chartbook will be updated annually as new census data becomes available.

Thomas Levy writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Planning Commission this week will hold a swearing-in ceremony for two new members and conduct a public hearing on a use permit application for a cell phone tower.

The commission, sitting jointly as the Clearlake Parks and Recreation Committee, will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 5, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

At the start of the meeting new commissioners Nathalie Antus and Dirk Slooten will take their oaths of office.

The main item of business on the Tuesday agenda is a public hearing on a proposed mitigated negative declaration, a use permit and a height variance application for Verizon Wireless to construct a mono-pine cell phone tower at 15696 25th Ave.

The staff report to the commission said the project proposes to build the tower – which will be constructed to look like a pine tree – in a low density residential district.

The tower will be 70 feet tall, have three antenna sectors, a 30 kilowatt diesel emergency backup generator, a 132-gallon fuel tank and a 12-foot by 17-foot prefabricated unmanned equipment shelter. The report said power and utilities to the site will be routed underground.

Staff is recommending approval of the mitigated negative declaration, permit and variance based on a number of conditions and requirements common to such projects.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – May is a great time to get out and about and enjoy the weather, and if you're looking for a four-legged friend to enjoy the outdoors with you, check out this week's dogs available to new homes at Lake County Animal Care and Control.

The dogs available this week include mixes of Australian Shepherd, Chihuahua, flat-coated retriever, Jack Russell Terrier, pit bull, Schipperke and terrier.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

'Tippy'

“Tippy” is a female Australian Shepherd.

Shelter staff said they do not know her background, but she needs a home with women only, as she is very afraid of men.

Tippy is good with other dogs and has been fine with mellow children.

Find Tippy in kennel No. 1, ID No. 2142.

'Pokey'

“Pokey” is a terrier-Schipperke mix.

Shelter staff said Pokey is very social and friendly, and has a great personality. He loves to play with toys and is great with other dogs.

Pokey is in kennel No. 2, ID No. 2054.

'Barney'

“Barney” is a Jack Russell Terrier-Chihuahua mix.

He has a short brown and tan coat.

He's in kennel No. 3, ID No. 2051.

Female Chihuahua mix

This female Chihuahua mix has a short tan coat.

She's in kennel No. 7, ID No. 2085.

Male Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix has a short buff-colored coat.

He's in kennel No. 9, ID No. 2064.

Male pit bull terrier mix

This male pit bull terrier mix has a short gray and white coat.

Shelter staff calls him a “big squishy guy” who is very gentle. They believe he would be fine with children.

He has no food aggression, gets along with other dogs both male and female, and is very appropriate in every way.

The shelter is looking for that special "pitty" lover to take him home and care for him.

He's in kennel No. 13, ID No. 2035.

Male pit bull mix

This male pit bull mix has a short dark brown and white coat.

Shelter staff said he is pretty well behaved with a moderate to low energy level.

They said he has been through a lot he appears to have been dumped in the middle of nowhere; when he arrived he was full of punctures all on his legs, possibly from a dog fight.

Despite all of that, shelter staff said he is very social and friendly with dogs.

He's in kennel No. 15, ID No. 2094.

'Butch'

“Butch” is a male flat-coated retriever mix.

Shelter staff said he is heartworm-positive so he will need treatment.

They said he is a great dog, and is good with female dogs large and small, as he lived with a small female. He does not do well with dominant males, but submissive males are OK.

Butch is in kennel No. 16, ID No. 2113.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

As drought conditions continue to significantly elevate California’s fire danger, Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr. has declared May 3 to 9, 2015, as “Wildfire Awareness Week.”

During Wildfire Awareness Week, Cal Fire is reminding all Californians of the role they play in preparing for and preventing wildfires.

“With a record dry and warm winter Californian’s fire activity has been nearly double what it normally is for this time of year,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director. “Our firefighters continue to meet the challenges posed by California’s historic drought, but we all must do our part to ensure our homes are prepared for wildfire and that residents and visitors to our state take extreme caution to avoid sparking a wildfire.”

On May 1, the Department of Water Resources announced that California’s snowpack water content was only 3 percent of normal.

The lack of snow and overall rainfall has led to conditions being much drier than normal, lending themselves to the quick spread of wildfire.

Between Jan. 1 and May 2, Cal Fire has responded to more than 1,100 wildfires that have charred over 4,200 acres.

In an average year for the same time period, Cal Fire would typically respond to fewer than 650 wildfires burning approximately 1,500 acres.

During Wildfire Awareness Week, Cal Fire is reminding Californians that when it comes to wildfires, remember “Ready, Set, Go!”

“Being ready” for a wildfire starts by maintaining 100 feet of Defensible Space and hardening homes with fire resistant building materials.

During this drought Cal Fire is highly recommending residents landscape their yards with drought tolerant and fire resistant plants.

“Being set” includes have an evacuation plan and an emergency supply kit.

Lastly, when a wildfires strikes, residents are urged to “Go!” and evacuate early.

Cal Fire is also urging all Californians during Wildfire Awareness Week to learn the steps to prevent sparking a wildfire.

More than 90 percent of the wildfires in California are sparked by the activity of people, so Cal Fire has joined local and federal fire agencies in the “One Less Spark, One Less Wildfire” campaign in hopes of getting the public to practice fire safety outdoors and prevent sparking a wildfire.

Residents looking for additional information on how to prepare themselves, their families and their homes for wildfire can visit www.ReadyForWildfire.org .

The site offers tips for residents to make their homes more resistant to wildfires and to ensure that their families are ready to evacuate early and safely when a wildfire strikes.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s pouring rain when local postman Ben Lovato drives into Lakeport Elementary School to do his lesson, but he’s still smiling.

And as he prepares for his lesson in the back of Mrs. Beedle’s second grade class, the children are noticeably distracted.

They keep looking at the big black mailbox Lovato has put on the back counter.

About two years ago, when a group of 20-somethings walked into the Lakeport Post Office looking for assistance addressing an envelope, Lovato didn’t hesitate to help.

But after another young woman in her early 20s walked in with the same questions less than two weeks later, Lovato began to notice a pattern.

“I started calling around to other post offices and asking if they were experiencing the same thing,” Lovato said. “And sure enough, more and more people have never learned how to address an envelope.”

He said that’s when he first got the idea to teach kids not only how to write a real letter, but about the journey our physical mail takes before reaching recipients on the other end.

“I grew up where you were taught how to write a letter, how to address an envelope and … see how the letter was mailed,” he said. “I feel this art should not be lost, and should be taught in schools and local communities.”

Lovato added, “Everything is text messages, or phone calls, or emails,” and he has a point.

The conveyance of communications is almost universally instantaneous now. Today children rarely have the opportunity to learn how the mail system works, or even develop a curiosity for it, unless educators and parents go out of their way.

“I remember how exciting it was to receive [a] letter back from someone,” Lovato said. “And how eager I was to read and write back.”

Not many would describe writing and sending a letter as a lost art the way Lovato does. Neither was calligraphy or fiber craft once upon a time. Could letter writing be shelved along with them as an obsolete skill that was once common knowledge?

With more and more schools no longer teaching cursive, more emphasis is placed on the speed a person can type than the thought and time that people used to value when writing to others.

Even the Chinese government has expressed its frustration with the younger generation’s lack of knowledge on Mandarin’s written form.

Which is why with the help of some friends who teach at elementary schools, Lovato has begun to bring the “lost art of letter writing” back to Lake County children.

At Lakeport Elementary, Mrs. Beedle’s students still want to know what Lovato has in his mailbox.

Since the students have not yet learned all of their letters, Lovato doesn’t have them write on any envelopes.

He begins with the basics and then tells them about the children whose parents put them in the mail when it was legal over 100 years ago.

Students crowd around his iPad to look at the dated monochrome and sepia photographs. In one is May, a 6 or 7-year-old girl – close in age to Lovato's audience – who was mailed 73 miles away by her parents.

In another, a disgruntled mail carrier in traditional uniform looks at the camera with his infant cargo.

One student can’t help but exclaim, “That’s so awkward!” at the absurdity.

Despite a recent promotion at the post office in Clearlake Oaks, Lovato’s goals for this lost art expand beyond his visits to local schools.

“I would hope this could spawn into something bigger and one day the post office could have a ‘National Day of Letter Writing,’” he said. “One day a year … everyone would write someone a letter instead of emailing or texting.”

Lovato also hopes to get schools to implement their own post office with an elected student postmaster and special postal employees within each classroom to distribute letters between classmates.

Students would learn how to write a letter, an address, where to place a stamp and develop a more intimate knowledge of how mail gets from one place to another.

“If these simple concepts were taught again, it not only would benefit USPS but children and young adults everywhere,” Lovato said.

Anita Swanson, principal of Lakeport Elementary School, agrees. “Kids are motivated by people coming in from the outside.”

When asked if Lovato could return for a future visit, she replied: “Oh gosh yes!”

Before Lovato says goodbye, he promises goodies from the post office. He and Mrs. Beedle’s students venture out into the rain single file where he shows them his mail truck before they all pile into the back for a picture.

It’s clear from his smile and everyone else’s that Lovato’s enthusiasm for a vanishing art is rubbing off on a new generation.

Email Shari Shepard at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The Sahara Desert is one of the least hospitable climates on Earth. Its barren plateaus, rocky peaks, and shifting sands envelop the northern third of Africa, which sees very little rain, vegetation and life.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean thrives the world’s largest rainforest. The lush, vibrant Amazon basin, located in northeast South America, supports a vast network of unparalleled ecological diversity.

So, what do these seemingly different climates have in common? They are intimately connected by a 10,000 mile long intermittent atmospheric river of dust.

Every year, intense Saharan winds send enormous clouds of dust on a trans-Atlantic journey to the Amazon basin.

This dust, much of it originating in an ancient lakebed in Chad, is rich in phosphorus. When it reaches the rainforest, the remains of long-dead organisms of the Sahara provide crucial nutrients to the rainforest’s living flora.

Phosphorus, which is essential to plant growth, is in short supply in the Amazon. Desert dust dumped into the forest every year helps to diminish this deficit.

NASA researchers are studying this dusty link between Amazon and Sahara, to understand how it operates and how it might be affected by climate change.

"We know that dust is very important in many complex ways,” said Hongbin Yu, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Maryland who works at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Dust affects climate and, at the same time, climate change will affect dust."

“As researchers,” he adds, “we ask ourselves two basic questions: “How much dust is transported? And how does climate change affect the amount of dust that travels across the Atlantic?”

Data from NASA’s CALIPSO satellite, launched in 2006, may provide the answers.

For the first time, CALIPSO has quantified the amount of dust that makes the trans-continental voyage – and the numbers are impressive: of the 182 million tons (or nearly 700,000 semi trucks’ worth) of dust that leave the Sahara each year, 27.7 million tons, or 15% of the total are scattered over the Amazon basin.

CALIPSO, short for “Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation,” uses a laser range finder or lidar to scan Earth’s atmosphere for the vertical distribution of dust and other aerosols. It regularly tracks the Sahara-Amazon dust plume.

One of the things CALIPSO has revealed is the connection’s variability – changing as much as 86 percent between 2007 and 2011.

Why? The answer could lie in the Sahel, the long strip of semi-arid land on the southern border of the Sahara.

Yu and his colleagues have found a possible connection between rainfall in the Sahel and the amount of dust transported over the Atlantic. When rainfall in the Sahel is higher, the volume of dust is lower.

The exact reason behind this correlation is unknown, but Yu has some ideas. It’s possible that the increased rainfall could cause more vegetation to grow in the Sahel, thus leaving less sand exposed to powerful winds.

Another possibility centers on the wind. The amount of rainfall is correlated with wind patterns that can sweep dust from the Sahara and the Sahel into the upper atmosphere, which is basically a superhighway to the Amazon.

Thanks to CALIPSO’s unprecedented 3D observations of atmospheric dust, scientists can begin to create models to predict how the dust may impact climate in the future – and how it nurtures the lush forests of South America today.

Rachel Molina works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

ACCUWEATHER GLOBAL WEATHER CENTER – AccuWeather reports the peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower is set for this week.

Especially favorable viewing conditions are in store for parts of the Southeast and Southwestern U.S., with fair conditions throughout much of California, including Lake County.

The shower's peak lasts from the evening hours of Tuesday, May 5, into the predawn hours of Wednesday, May 6, but meteors can still be seen several days before and after the peak, according to Slooh, a community observatory that has connected telescopes to the Internet for public use.

The Eta Aquarids take their name from the star Eta Aquarii in the constellation Aquarius.

Due to the fact Aquarius sits south of the celestial equator, those in the southern hemisphere will be able to view as many as 30 to 60 meteors per hour, according to Slooh.

For northern stargazers, about half as many meteors will be seen near the peak, Slooh said.

Astronomy fans who will encounter inclement weather or cloudy skies can view Slooh's live broadcast of the meteor shower on the night of May 5.

Slooh frequently airs live astronomy events by using its large network of community observatories from all around the world. After the event concludes, Slooh will show a replay of the event.

While many in the Southeast and Southwest will have optimal viewing weather, others throughout the U.S. will not be as fortunate.

Across the center of the nation, a slow-moving storm system that will first bring a flood threat and some severe thunderstorms to the southern High Plains later Monday into Tuesday, will prevent observers from getting a clear view, according to AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski.

Elsewhere, a cold front that will cut into the warmth moving into the Northeast for the start of the week will bring a band of showers and thunderstorms to parts of the Northeast, Pydynowski said.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest, a storm system bringing showers and thunderstorms will impede viewing opportunities, she added.

In addition to inclement weather, a bright waning gibbous moon will interfere with this year's event, according to EarthSky.

Viewers can look anywhere in the sky to catch a glimpse of the meteors and the best time to observe will be an “hour or two” before dawn, EarthSky said.

Kevin Byrne is a staff writer for www.AccuWeather.com .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – If you can get up early in the morning of Cinco De Mayo (May 5), say, around 4:30 a.m., you are in for a treat.

The Eta Aquarids meteor shower will take place.

Look toward the east. The moon will affect your viewing, but some of the brighter meteors can still be seen.

Also occurring early in the morning of May 5 is the close pairing of Saturn and the Moon. Look toward the southwest for this.

The constellation we want to explore in May is Ursa Major, the Big Bear.

High in the northern sky, this magnificent pattern of stars has been recognized by many cultures since man began gazing at the stars.

Within Ursa Major, there are seven bright stars that form a pattern we call an asterism. In this case, the asterism is known as The Big Dipper (or “The Plough” if you live in England).

The two end stars in the cup of the dipper point to Polaris, the North Star.

The second star from the end of the handle is Mizar. If you have very good eyesight, you may see that Mizar is really a double star, Alcor being the name of its companion.

With a telescope, Ursa Major reveals a wealth of deep sky objects:

There is the Owl Nebula, appearing as the face of a ghostly owl.

There is M 108, a galaxy similar to ours that shows itself tilted on its edge.

Finally, the Pinwheel galaxy lives up to its name.

John Zimmerman is a resident of Lake County and has been an amateur astronomer for more than 50 years. For more information about Astronomy and local resources, visit his Web site at www.lakecountyskies.com .

CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A Clearlake Oaks man sustained major injuries on Thursday when his motorcycle hit a guardrail and later was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

Ronald Ferro, 44, was injured in the wreck, which occurred at about 6:45 p.m. Thursday on Highway 20 east of the intersection with Highway 53, according to the California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Area office.

The CHP said firefighters found Ferro and his black 2007 special construction motorcycle down and blocking the No. 2 eastbound lane of Highway 20 about 10 minutes after the crash took place.

Based on the CHP's investigation so far, Ferro was heading eastbound on Highway 20 at an undetermined speed when, for reasons yet to be determined, his motorcycle hit a metal and wood guardrail.

Due to his injuries, Ferro was transported by REACH air ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, the CHP reported.

The CHP said it was at the hospital that Ferro was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, with alcohol appearing to be a factor in the crash.

The CHP said Ferro was using his safety equipment.

The crash remains under investigation, the CHP said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.