LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Westshore Youth Basketball Program is seeking out interested parents and community members to help lead it next season.

Melody De Leon, who along with husband Scott and a dedicated 12-member board have overseen the program since 2008, said they're looking to hand over the reins to a new group.

De Leon said many of the participating parents' children – including her own – will be leaving the league as they advance in grade levels, which makes it necessary to recruit new board members to coordinate if the league is to return next year.

The organization is designed to provide children with the opportunity to develop the fundamental understanding and enjoyment of the game of basketball with an emphasis on learning basic skills, sportsmanship and team play, she said.

The program serves boys and girls from third through eighth grades, or roughly ages 8 to 14, De Leon said.

It previously was funded and organized by the Lakeport schools, but De Leon said budget cuts ended that.

So in November 2008 the school announced the program – which had run many years – would be ending. De Leon said her husband, who had played in the league as a child, hated to see it end and suggested they take it over.

“What a pleasure it's been,” she said, adding that both of their sons have played in it, with their youngest just completing his last season.

Since taking over the league – previously known as the “pee wee” program – De Leon said they've run 400 games.

Sponsors and sign up fees are the primary funding source, said De Leon. Funding is needed to cover costs such as renting the school facilities for the games.

Planning for the season usually starts in the fall, at the end of October or start of November, with the season running in January and February. The All-Star tournament takes place in March, she said.

During the season, there are three games per night for four nights a week. De Leon said tasks include refereeing, running the game clock, and organizing needed first aid items like ice packs. “We've got it down to where it just flows,” she said.

She said this year they've had more student participation – and more compliments from happy parents – than ever before.

“I hate for it to end and I don’t want to walk away from it,” she said.

The league averages about 210 children playing a year, but the number was higher this year.

“The tremendous parent and community support, along with the dedicated volunteer coaches, referees, and staff is what makes it all happen,” she said. “Combine that with growth you seen in each child each game and the excitement of watching them play, and you find yourself not wanting to be anywhere else.”

For more information or to volunteer, contact De Leon at 707-263-6111 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The league can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Westshore-Youth-Basketball-League/172909386059731#!/pages/Westshore-Youth-Basketball-League/172909386059731?v=wall .

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted for a short-term budget in order to prevent the federal government from shutting down.

The continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating until a compromise can be reached on a year-long funding bill was passed by a 335-91 vote margin.

It would prevent a looming government-wide shutdown and gives the House, Senate, and White House more time to reach an agreement on a long-term funding bill.

North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), a senior member of the House Committee on Ways & Means, voted for the bill, voted in favor of the continuing resolution.

“Unless Congress and the president come together to pass a short-term spending bill, crucial services and programs the American people rely on will come to a halt,” he said in a statement issued by his office.

“Given the potential impact on working families in my community and across our country, a shutdown is simply not an acceptable option,” he said. “This legislation gives both sides more time to hash out their differences and come up with a longer-term solution that’s thoughtful and fiscally responsible.”

The continuing resolution contains funding to allow government agencies and programs to continue operating through March 18 – extending the deadline from March 4 – and reduces spending by $4 billion.

On Feb. 19 Thompson had cast his vote against HR 1, which would have funded the federal government through the end of this year, calling the budget proposal “irresponsible.”

He said it included irresponsible cuts that would hurt working families in Northern California and across the country, and would have resulted in more than 800,000 lost jobs in both the public and private sector.

Cuts in that bill included defunding federal salmon protections, stripping $1.7 billion from the Social Security Administration, cutting $1.3 billion in funding for community health centers, reducing the maximum Pell Grant scholarship award and eliminating Title X, the nation’s family planning program, and federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

POINT ARENA, Calif. – A North Coast teenager has found himself in trouble after displaying an air soft pistol in a public place in such a manner that law enforcement believed it was a real handgun.

The 14-year-old male from Point Arena was arrested Sunday, according to a report from Capt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

Shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday Mendocino County Sheriff Deputies were dispatched to an area of the Point Arena Elementary School regarding a male subject observed with a handgun, Smallcomb said.

Smallcomb said the person who made the report told deputies that he had observed an individual pointing a handgun around as if he was going to shoot someone.

The first deputy on scene located a subject matching the given description on the school grounds, and saw a black-colored handgun in his hand, Smallcomb said.

Smallcomb said the deputy pointed his firearm at the teen and told him to put down the gun. The male subject didn't obey the command but instead ran around the corner of a building before coming back with it still in his hand.

The deputy repeated his command to put the gun down and for the teen to get on the ground, which he eventually did, with the deputy then handcuffing him, Smallcomb said.

When the deputy further inspected what he believed to be a handgun he found that it was a black colored Umarex "HK USP" air soft-style pistol, which Smallcomb said was nearly identical to an actual firearm.

After the arrest the deputy discovered the subject was 14 years old, said Smallcomb.

He said charges for display of an imitation firearm in a public place are pending. The completed portion of the investigation will be forwarded to the district attorney for review.

Smallcomb said the agency wanted to advise the general public that display or exposure of a imitation type firearm is not only dangerous, but it is also against the law.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

No one was injured when a vehicle went into Clear Lake at Rodman Slough near Nice, Calif., on Wednesday, March 2, 2011. Photo by Gary McAuley.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A vehicle went into an area of the lake on Tuesday afternoon.

The incident occurred at around 4 p.m. at the Rodman Slough between north Lakeport and Nice.

Northshore Fire Protection District units responded but were canceled by Lake County Sheriff's deputies at the site, according to reports from the scene.

Witnesses on the scene reported two occupants got out of the vehicle and escaped unhurt.

It was reported that when law enforcement – including the California Highway Patrol – arrived on the scene, only the driver was there.

The driver told officials that the other occupant had been a hitchhiker who fled after exiting the submerged vehicle.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

THE GEYSERS, Calif. – Swinging chandeliers, barking dogs, running deer and chiming clocks were part of the fallout from a Monday evening earthquake felt throughout parts of Lake County.

The US Geological Survey reported the 4.5-magnitude quake occurred at 6:19 p.m.

It was recorded at a depth of 1.6 miles, and was centered one mile north northwest of The Geysers, five miles west southwest of Cobb and seven miles west northwest from Anderson Springs, the US Geological Survey reported.

By midnight, 40 smaller quakes and aftershocks – some as large as magnitude 2.7 – were reported in The Geysers area, US Geological Survey reported.

County residents reported watching furniture move, feeling their dining room tables shake as they sat at dinner, and dogs barking and fussing ahead of the quake.

Residents in Clearlake, Lakeport, Kelseyville, Lower Lake, Middletown and Hidden Valley Lake were among those who felt the jarring quake, based on US Geological Survey reports.

In all, hundreds of people reported feeling the quake, not just in Lake County but around the North Coast.

By midnight the US Geological Survey received 246 shake reports from 35 zip codes.

One report even came from faraway Phoenix, Ariz., some 1,126 miles away.

A 4.3-magnitude quake, immediately followed by a 4.2-magnitude temblor, occurred in the Lake Pillsbury area on Feb. 22, as Lake County News as reported.

The last time a quake measuring 4.0-magnitude or above occurred in The Geysers area was last July, according to Lake County News records.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

LUCERNE, Calif. – Northshore Fire Protection District's chief said he'll hang up his gear officially this summer.

Jim Robbins, 59, said he will be retiring on June 30.

By the time of his retirement Robbins will have spent 38 years as a fire chief.

He has been chief of the Northshore Fire Protection District since 2006, after the districts on the Northshore – Upper Lake, Nice, Clearlake Oaks and Lucerne – finished their consolidation process.

Prior to that, he was chief of the Lucerne Fire Department beginning in 1973.

Robbins, who grew up in the county, started with the district in 1967, when – at age 16 – he began as a junior fireman.

Northshore Fire is the largest fire protection district by geographic size in the state, at 350 square miles. Robbins said the district currently has 26 full-time and part-time paid firefighters and another 62 volunteers.

He said the district's board is going out to an open selection process.

“We would hope to have somebody selected prior to me leaving so I can at least work with them for a couple of months to go over things, how we run things around here,” Robbins said.

Robbins, whose wife Leah also is a Northshore firefighter, said he plans to continue living in the county following his retirement.

In other district news, Robbins said Battalion Chief Pat Brown has been promoted to the deputy chief position.

The appointment of Brown, a longtime firefighter with the district, is permanent, Robbins said.

The position had been unfilled since Gary Saylor retired some time ago, Robbins added.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – An armed robbery suspect on the run from the East Coast was captured in the seaside town of Mendocino on Tuesday.

Sean Fullwood, 23, of Florida was arrested Tuesday after Mendocino County Sheriff's officials worked with the US Marshal's Office to locate him.

The US Marshal's Office contacted the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Tuesday morning, advising that Fullwood – wanted in Florida in connection with the armed robbery of a jewelry store – was in the Mendocino Township area, according to a report from Capt. Kurt Smallcomb.

Smallcomb said US Marshals and sheriff's personnel began checking the Mendocino area for Fullwood and his female companion.

Fullwood had reportedly been in the area for about three weeks and had been staying in a hotel before he and his companion moved into a small apartment in Mendocino, Smallcomb said.

Once the apartment was located, Smallcomb said it was learned that Fullwood had just left walking towards the Mendocino Headlands.

Fullwood was spotted and fled on foot. Smallcomb said Fullwood was last observed in the area between Main Street and Albion streets. A one-block perimeter was established.

Additional law enforcement personnel were requested from the California Highway patrol, State Parks and the Ft. Bragg Police Department to assist pending the arrival of a MCSO K-9 unit for a search of the area, according to Smallcomb.

The MCSO reverse 911 was initiated to advise citizens of the police activity and the suspect description, he said.

When the K-9 team arrived a search began and Fullwood was found hiding in shrubbery between two buildings, Smallcomb said.

Smallcomb said Fullwood was transported to Mendocino County Jail where he was booked on the listed charges with bail being set at $1 million.

Smallcomb said the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office extended its thanks to the allied agencies who assisted in the operation, and also thanked Mendocino businesses and citizens for their patience and cooperation.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

Frank Buckles of Virginia, pictured at left as a young soldier during World War I, and at right later in life, died on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the age of 110. He was the last U.S. soldier to have served during World War I. Photos courtesy of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States' last 'doughboy' has died.

Frank Woodruff Buckles, who lied about his age to enlist in the Army in 1917 and became the last known U.S. veteran of World War I, died Sunday, Feb. 27, at the age of 110.

“We have lost a living link to an important era in our nation's history,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “But we have also lost a man of quiet dignity, who dedicated his final years to

ensuring the sacrifices of his fellow 'doughboys' are appropriately commemorated.”

Burial with full military honors will be held at Arlington National Cemetery. Details about the funeral are expected to be released soon.

A long-time resident of Charles Town, West Virginia, where he had a farm, Buckles was born in Bethany, Missouri, according to a biography provided by the VA. He enlisted shortly after his 16th birthday and served in France and Germany.

At the start of World War II, he was a civilian working with a steamship company in the Philippines. He was imprisoned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp for three and a half years.

In his later years, Buckles became an advocate for the expansion of a little-known memorial to World War I Veterans from the District of Columbia into a national memorial.

More than 4,700,000 Americans served in the military during World War I, the VA reported. About 53,000 died of combat-related causes, while another 63,000 deaths were listed as non-combat. The VA said there were 204,000 U.S. soldiers wounded in the war.

A 109-year-old Australian man and a 110-year-old British woman are reported to be the last surviving World War I veterans in the world.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

This collard plant in the garden of Fran Ransley of Lower Lake, Calif. is grown for food, but also adds interest to the landscape. Photo by Esther Oertel.

While it may be too late to lock in your luck for 2011 if you didn’t eat collards on the first day of the year, amazing health benefits are provided by this plant year round nonetheless.

Along with vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and its closest cousin, kale, collard greens are members of the brassica oleracea (also known as cruciferous) family of edible plants.

Its cultivar group name – acephala – means “without a head” in Greek, referring to the mass of loose green leaves that contrast with the compact, tightly-knit core of leaves that form the head of its relative, the cabbage.

It’s been said that collards are an extroverted version of cabbage, growing outward, rather than holding itself in.

Like kale, collards are prized for their ornamental qualities in landscapes. They’re known for their huge presentation of leaves, with a single plant able to grow as much as four feet high and five feet wide. An individual leaf, in fact, can cover a full square foot.

A cold weather crop, the flavor of collard greens is enhanced by frost, and its peak of season is now, between January and April. Fall collard plants can readily survive winter temperatures and produce again in the spring.

While a staple in the cuisine of the American South, collards also enjoy popularity in diverse parts of the world, including Brazil, Portugal, Egypt, Ethiopia and Kashmir, a region in the northwestern portion of the Indian subcontinent.

They’re cultivated on almost every continent.

In Portugal and Brazil, they’re a main component of a popular soup known as caldo verde (green broth), as well as an accompaniment to fish and pork dishes. Caldo verde is considered a national dish and is served daily.

The juice of the collard plant is consumed in these countries as a believed remedy for gout, circulation problems and bronchitis.

These collard plants in the garden of Fran Ransley of Lower Lake, Calif. stand tall behind a row of their cousins, purple cabbages. Photo by Esther Oertel.

Both the leaves and roots are utilized in the cuisine of Kashmir. They may be cooked separately or together, often with meat, fish or cheese. The leaves are cooked in a soup with rice, and both leaves and roots are fermented to make pickles in the winter.

In Egypt, collard greens are cooked in a garlicky soup with starchy taro root, and in Ethiopia, they’re prepared in a spicy fashion with plenty of pepper.

According to botanists, the collard plant has remained the same for more than 2000 years and some consider it a type of kale. The differences between the two include leaf shape, length of stem, color and flavor. Kale is bitterer than its cousin, the deep green collard, which has a milder, somewhat smokier flavor.

Both collards and kale preceded modern-day cabbage. All are descendents of the wild cabbage, which is surmised to have originated in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and along the Mediterranean in Greece, and is thought to have been consumed since prehistoric times.

Collard greens have been cultivated since the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Interestingly, the Greeks ate only the stalks and avoided the leaves, while the Romans were found of collard leaves and cultivated more than 400 cabbage varieties.

Eventually, by the first century A.D., collards wended their way into other areas of Europe. They were introduced into the U.S. early in our history and were growing prolifically in Virginia by 1619, which marks their first written mention related to our nation.

They are the quintessential vegetable of the American South and, perhaps more than any vegetable other than okra, are strongly associated with that region.

It’s traditional there to simmer them slowly in liquid with salty meats like a ham hock, salt pork or smoked turkey, a practice that dates back to the time of the African slaves, when plantation owners gave them inferior cuts of meat, such as pigs’ feet, and the tops of turnips and other greens.

Collard greens (with kale to their left and lettuce to their right) in the organic section at Hardester

Respected pilot and Clear Lake Seaplane Splash-In chairman Chuck Kimes, 61, died on Sunday, February 27, 2011, in a seaplane crash in the United Arab Emirates. Courtesy photo.

A respected Nevada pilot who for several years has been a prime mover behind the Lakeport-based seaplane festival has been killed in a crash in the United Arab Emirates.

Chuck Kimes, 61, of Zephyr Cove, Nev., was with three other pilots bringing a 1940s-era seaplane from the Middle East to Texas when the deadly crash occurred Sunday evening at Abu Dhabi's Al Ain International Airport.

Traveling with Kimes were Tyler Orsow of Angels Camp, Calif., who turned 25 on the day of the fatal crash; and Texans Landon Studer and Joshua Hucklebridge, according to media reports and statements by friends on Facebook and other Internet sites.

An account printed in The National, a United Arab Emirates newspaper, said the four men were taking the vintage Aleutian Goose seaplane on a trip that would see them traveling through Saudi Arabia, Morocco and South America, with plans to land in Texas next week.

The United Arab Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority issued a report Monday that explained that the four men were departing from Al Ain for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in a Grumman 21T aircraft just after 8 p.m. Sunday.

“Shortly after liftoff the aircraft veered to the left and crashed on taxiway kilo,” the report stated.

The General Civil Aviation Authority reported that airport fire and rescue services responded immediately and the accident site was secured by the Al Ain Police.

“The aircraft was destroyed by the impact and subsequent fire,” reported the agency, which dispatched an air accident investigation team to the crash scene.

Additional details about the cause of the crash have not yet been released by officials. It's also not clear at this point which of the men was piloting the craft.

An eyewitness report quoted on a seaplane forum stated that the plane was airborne at about 200 feet when it started a left turn, pitched down and cartwheeled, leading to the crash.

Kimes had been a flight instructor for close to four decades, serving during that time as a captain for American Airlines. He had even flown the world's largest seaplane, according to the biography on his company Web site, www.seaplaneops.com .

The biography also noted that he instructed pilots on flying the Albatross seaplane at the US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base.

The site also stated that Kimes had “developed an extensive array of manuals and training programs to support the safe operation of the Albatross and other seaplanes,” and was one of the highest-time Albatross pilots still flying the aircraft.

Kimes had become a well-known figure in Lake County where, for several years, he has chaired the annual Clear Lake Splash-In, which sees dozens of seaplanes converge on Lakeport from around the country.

This year's festival, the 32^nd annual, already has been scheduled for Sept. 23-25.

The event has been popular not just with pilots but with people of all ages who have enjoyed seeing the planes descend over the lake at the end of summer.

In an interview with Lake County News last year, Kimes acknowledged the community's support for the event, billed as the largest seaplane gathering west of the Mississippi.

When Kimes wasn't keeping busy working on the event, he was taking part in humanitarian efforts, including using seaplanes to fly much-needed supplies into Haiti last year following a devastating earthquake.

Kimes and his company provided flight planning, permitting and customs clearance filing services in the effort to get doctors and nurses to Haiti, according to the Web site for the Albatross Haiti Relief Mission, www.haiti.seaplaneops.com/Haiti/Welcome.html .

The site stated the group made three successful missions, flying to Haiti from Florida.

A growing number of tributes to Kimes and his flying companions have been posted on seaplane forums and Web sites in the past few days.

Pilot Jason Baker posted on his Web site that Kimes' death “hits the aviation community hard.”

“A great man with so much passion, always only one email or phone call away – he will be sorely missed,” Baker wrote at http://jasonjamesbaker.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/chuck-kimes-a-heavy-loss .

A Facebook memorial page has been started for Kimes and Orsow at www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_197069060312576 .

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County Vector Control District said Monday that it postponed an aerial larvicide treatment between Clear Lake State Park and south Lakeport due to weather.

District Manager Dr. Jamie Scott said no new date has been set for the aerial spraying, which will be done with the use of a crop duster.

Scott said the district was conducting the spraying because it has detected large numbers of mosquito larvae in the standing water in this area, and they want to reduce the number of adult mosquitoes that will hatch out in the warmer weather.

The treatment will include the use of Aquabac, which is based on the naturally occurring soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti). It is registered with the Environmental Protection Agency for the control of larval mosquitoes in nearly all aquatic habitats.

For additional information contact the Lake County Vector Control District at 707-263-4770 or visit the district's Web site at www.lcvcd.org.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

Walt Petersen and Kevin Knupp have traveled far and wide to study winter storms.

They never dreamed that the most extraordinary one they'd see – featuring freakish thundersnow, a 50-mile long lightning bolt, and almost a dozen gravity waves – would erupt in their own back yards. The storm hit Huntsville, Alabama, on the evening of Jan. 9.

“This incredible storm rolled right over the National Space Science and Technology Center where we work,” said Knupp. “What luck!”

Both Knupp and Petersen work at a Huntsville, Alabama, research center known as the National Space Science and Technology Center that houses scientists from NASA, UA-Huntsville, and other entities.

Knupp is a professor of atmospheric science and director of severe weather research at University of Alabama, Huntsville.

Petersen is an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. He leads a NASA-funded group that travels around the world gathering precipitation data that will support a network of Earth-monitoring satellites being developed by NASA called the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission.

The snowstorm provided an excellent opportunity for Petersen's team to take detailed measurements of precipitation and use those observations as a type of database or model to simulate what the constellation of GPM satellites would see from space. By combining the observations at the ground with those of the polarimetric radar, Petersen's team expects to learn a great deal about the processes responsible for creating the snowfall, and more accurately measure the water content of the snow from space and the rate at which that snow-water equivalent accumulates on the ground.

Snowstorms usually slip in silently, with soft snowflakes drifting noiselessly to Earth. Yet this Alabama snowstorm swept in with the fanfare of lightning and the growl of thunder.

Eyewitness Steve Coulter described the night's events: “It was as if a wizard was hurling lightning behind a huge white curtain. The flashes, muted inside thick, low hanging clouds, glowed purplish blue, like light through a prism. And then the thunder rumbled deep and low. This was one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced.'”

It was a once-in-a-lifetime scene for anyone lucky enough to see it, but especially enthralling to scientists seeking the keys to nature's unique displays of power. Petersen and Knupp, with the help of graduate students from the University of Alabama-Huntsville, had their research equipment primed and ready.

From his at-home workstation, Petersen can monitor lightning detector networks and control radars, which he used to measure and record the storm.

But when the storm first hit his response was a little less scientific: “I was so excited that I ran outside in my house slippers to take pictures,” he recalled.

At around 10:30 p.m., he heard the first rumble of thundersnow. “My first thought was, 'excellent, a bonus!'”

What made this snowstorm act like a thunderstorm? Petersen explains:

“You rarely have lightning in a snowstorm. But in this case, some unique conditions set the stage for it. Moist air at the bottom of the storm was lifted up, rapidly forming snow and ice. Some of the snow even grew in pellet forms called 'graupel,'” he said.

Snowflakes and ice pellets of different sizes ascended at different rates – and they began to exchange charges.

The process isn't fully understood, but it could be a result of particles rubbing together (like wool socks on carpet). As the cloud charged up, it began to act less like an ordinary winter snowstorm and more like a summer thunderstorm.

It's no coincidence that the thundersnow was accompanied by massive roller coasters of air known as gravity waves. These waves are similar to waves in the ocean, but roll through the air instead of water.

“There was a nearly constant, uniform progression of gravity waves, starting at Monte Sano, a small mountain a few miles east of us, and moving westward, right over our building,” said Knupp, who spent most of the storm's duration with his eyes riveted on instrument displays inside the team's mobile X-band radar van.

“An easterly flow of air on the other side of the mountain ridge bumped into and was pushed over Monte Sano, forming 11 separate waves, about one per hour,” Knupp said.

He believes the clockwork up and down motion of the waves created variations in the updrafts responsible for the heavy snow, leading to the charge separation that generated lightning.

Unfortunately, he was knee-deep in computer displays instead of snow when the storm's most impressive lightning bolt set the sky aglow.

“This bolt reached from the tower on Monte Sano Mountain all the way to Molton, Alabama, about 50 miles away,” said Knupp. “And I missed it.”

Was he disappointed?

“I felt cheated, but it was worth the trade off. I learned some interesting things.”

Spoken like a true scientist.

Dauna Coulter works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .