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MODERNISM INC., 724 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

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In an early victory for the nation’s largest dam-removal project, the first salmon in more than a century is believed to have pushed up the Klamath River this past week into waters formerly blocked by dams.

Scientists with the nonprofit California Trout told the Chronicle that their sonar camera captured what was almost certainly a chinook salmon migrating upstream Thursday past the site where Iron Gate Dam once stood, just south of the California-Oregon border.

The roughly 2½-foot-long fish is thought to be part of the Klamath River’s fall run, the first and largest run of salmon expected to benefit from the recent removal of four hydroelectric dams on the 250-mile waterway.

“This fish marks the beginning of the recovery for the fishes of the Klamath,” said Damon Goodman, a fish biologist and regional director at California Trout. “This is testament to the success of dam removal and marks a new beginning for the Klamath River.”

Since the early 1900s, the construction of four hydroelectric dams has kept fish from swimming to hundreds of miles of upstream waterways in what was once the third-largest salmon-producing river in the West. The lack of access to these cold waters for spawning is one of the reasons for the steady demise of California’s iconic salmon population.

While the decades-long push to raze the dams was billed as a restoration of the Klamath River’s entire ecosystem, the central driver of the project was the fish.

A collaboration of nonprofit, state and federal scientists has been monitoring fish movement in and around the site of the former Iron Gate Dam since dam removal wrapped up over the past few weeks. Iron Gate was the southernmost of the four demolished dams.

At 10:06 p.m. Thursday, the sonar camera at the site recorded a fish swimming upriver, which the scientists discovered Friday when they were reviewing footage. The equipment does not photograph the fish, but from the images created by ultrasonic waves transmitted through the water, the scientists have little doubt that the fish is a chinook salmon.

Salmon had been observed just south of the area in recent weeks.

The fish are generally born in the river, then swim to the ocean and stay there for two to three years before returning to their birthplace to spawn. The fall run of fish is named for the time of year the salmon come back to the river.

The $500 million dam-removal project, which sought to finish before the fall run, was directed by PacifiCorp, the utility that ran the hydroelectric dams, and the states of California and Oregon.

Native American communities had pushed for the project for decades, and PacifiCorp eventually agreed to remove the facilities because of their age and high operating costs. The dams did not provide water storage or flood protection. Funding for the project came from the utility and California voter-approved water bonds.

The ongoing fish monitoring is a collaboration of conservation groups Cal Trout and Ridges to Riffles, the Karuk, Yurok and Klamath tribes, state and federal scientists and others.

While salmon were expected to begin swimming past the former dam sites this year, scientists have said it will be years, even decades, before they fully populate the long-blocked upper reaches of the watershed.

Reach Kurtis Alexander: kalexander@sfchronicle.com

Oct 4, 2024

Reporter

Kurtis Alexander is an enterprise reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle, with a focus on natural resources and the environment. He frequently writes about water, wildfire, climate and the American West. His recent work has examined the impacts of drought, threats to public lands and wildlife, and the nation’s widening rural-urban divide.

Before joining the Chronicle, Alexander worked as a freelance writer and as a staff reporter for several media organizations, including The Fresno Bee and Bay Area News Group, writing about government, politics and the environment.

SAN FRANCISCO — The sun fired off another massive solar flare early Thursday morning, increasing the chances of seeing the colorful northern lights in Northern California on Friday evening and into the weekend.

Thursday’s strong X9.0 solar flare, the strongest of the current solar cycle, followed Tuesday’s X7.1 solar flare, boosting the odds the aurora borealis could dip far into the nation’s midsection and beyond, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center.

The SWPC issued a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm watch for Friday through Sunday, which could make for a powerful enough event for the Northern Lights to dance over northern portions of California.

While a few variables can affect a geomagnetic storm's strength upon arrival, an SWPC representative told the San Francisco Chronicle that "seeing the aurora in far Northern California is certainly possible," and would largely depend on whether it lands on the weaker or stronger end of a G3.

With no signs of rain or clouds in the forecast, the weather should stay favorable for aurora chasers through the weekend.

Find out what's happening in San Franciscowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The sun is currently at or near “solar maximum,” the peak in its 11-year cycle when heightened geomagnetic storming increases the chances of seeing the aurora far south of its Arctic range.

Thursday’s X9.0 flare was stronger than the X8.7 flare in May that pushed the aurora to near the nation’s southern border in a spectacular display seen around the world.

“Flares of this magnitude in and around solar maximum are generally not common, although not necessarily unusual,” NOAA said in a statement on the social media platform X.

But, the agency cautioned, “solar flares of this magnitude can be impulsive,” meaning they are quick to rise and decrease. Some last minutes, while others go on for a few hours.

The chances of seeing northern lights generally increase around the fall equinox, when the sun produces a surplus of geomagnetic storms — almost twice the annual average — but this fall and the coming year should be especially spectacular as Solar Cycle 25 reaches its peak, which NOAA predicts will occur from November through March 2026.

The ethereal curtains of pink, purple, green and yellow light have been seen in multiple U.S. locations over the past several months. The Space Weather Prediction Center’s aurora dashboard is a good site to bookmark for aurora chasers. In general, the best times to see the northern lights are within an hour or two of midnight.

Geomagnetic storms start with the explosions, or solar flares, of superheated gasses that can be as powerful as a billion hydrogen bombs.

When this happens, the electron- and proton-charged magnetic particles hurtling toward our planet in a coronal mass ejection, or CME, can temporarily disrupt Earth’s magnetic fields, sending the oval aurora south of its Arctic home, but also potentially disrupting satellite systems and GPS and radio communications.

Sat, Oct 5, 2024 at 8:00 PM

Bayfront Theatre, 2 Marina Blvd, Bldg B, San Francisco, CA 94123

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Saturdays in October (10/5, 10/12, 10/19, 10/26), 8pm to 10pm

FREE CANDY! It's one of the best perks of Halloween, and you can count on BATS to keep the tradition going. In October, BATS Improv treats you to "Trick or Treat: Fun-Size Spooky Scenes" on Saturdays starting October 5th.

In this format, a cast of 6 improvisers accompanied by improvisers on music and lighting will create a variety of short scenes (3-5 minutes) revolving around Halloween themes and genres including horror, sci-fi, monster and everything in between. The players will take their inspiration from audience suggestions. And for every suggestion that is used, the lucky audience members will receive a piece of candy. That bears repeating: you get actual candy just for yelling things!

As a rule the scenes are unrelated; think of how Candy Corn, Baby Ruth, and Sweet Tarts are very different, but still in the same bowl. Not all of the scenes need to be scary; there might be a tender love story between a mummy and a vampire, or a silly farce of ghosts moving into their new home. The improvisers will be creating haunted houses, gothic castles, graveyards and every other Halloween location without sets or props, using only their skills as improvisers to guide and inspire the audience's imagination.

Co-directors Karen Brelsford and Derek Yee created the format because they wanted something fun and suitable for the season. As Brelsford says, "We wanted something that says Halloween! Where all ages can attend and get into the spirit."

If you're looking for ghoulish giggles and frightening fun, make BATS your destination for Saturdays in October. Oh, and did we mention there's FREE CANDY?

Tickets for BATS Improv shows range from $15-$25, with Pay-What-You-Will tickets available on the second Saturday of the run of each production. Tickets may be purchased online at www.improv.org or in person beginning half-hour before the performance.

$15-$25.

Presented by BATS Improv.

https://www.improv.org/

bats@improv.org

415-474-6776

Recent bursts of solar activity could mean the northern lights are visible from Northern California as early as Thursday night, experts say.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center has issued watches for strong geomagnetic storms Friday through Sunday, with a severity of 3 out of 5. This means Californians could have additional viewing opportunities throughout the weekend.

If the conditions are right, “seeing the aurora in far Northern California is certainly possible,” said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator for the Space Weather Prediction Center. This is especially true with digital technology, like sensitive cell phone cameras, Dahl added.

“On the other hand, if it’s the low end of a G3, the chances really significantly go down for Northern California,” Dahl added.

The sun has produced solar flares Tuesday and Thursday this week, both associated with coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, plumes of solar material and magnetic fields currently en route toward Earth. The solar flare Thursday was the largest of the current solar cycle, and the biggest since 2017.

After hurtling 93 million miles through space, a coronal mass ejection is expected to arrive Friday, with another expected to appear Saturday afternoon or evening. When CMEs interact with Earth’s magnetic field, they can potentially damage power grids and interfere with satellite activity. But they can also produce the bright colors associated with the northern lights.

A vivid display, however, is not guaranteed.

“There is quite a bit of uncertainty in both the strength and the orientation of the magnetic field that will be embedded in the cloud that hits us,” said Mark Conde, a professor of physics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Space Weather Prediction Center forecasters are waiting to see how the first CME unfolds.

“We may upgrade from a G3 to a G4 or just keep things as they are,” Dahl said.

Solar activity, which rises and falls on an 11-year cycle, is currently peaking, meaning there may continue to be opportunities to view the northern lights over California.

Reach Jack Lee: jack.lee@sfchronicle.com

Oct 3, 2024

Weather Science Data Reporter

Jack Lee joined The San Francisco Chronicle's Weather Science team in 2022 as a data reporter.

He has written for a variety of science journalism outlets, covering everything from COVID-19 to songbirds to extreme weather events. Most recently, he has been writing about cancer prevention and early detection for the National Cancer Institute.

Before coming to science writing and journalism, Lee earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology at Princeton University and then worked as a data engineer for several years in the Bay Area. He obtained a master’s in science communication from UC Santa Cruz in 2020.