Drew Sandsor

Patches of wildflowers are so vibrant and abundant across California that their hues look like paint swatches from space. Photos via NASA Earth Observatory An unusually wet winter led an abundance of poppies and lupine — among other wildflowers — to crop up alongside California’s roadways, trails and fields.

For some people, spiders can be at the same time fascinating and frightening. The helpful friend who caught that fly buzzing around your kitchen, and the pest that scared you in the shower. But this weekend some of the country's top experts on arachnids — the group that includes not just spiders but scorpions, mites and ticks, among others — will be in Davis to help demystify the amazing creatures, and even name a new species.

An atmospheric river weather system is hitting Northern California, bringing the threat of downpours that could unleash flash flooding and destructive debris flows from wildfire burn scars. Michelle Mead, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sacramento, told CapRadio's Insight that the storm will be on the stronger side, bringing “some heavy bands of precipitation.” According to Mead, California can typically expect five to seven big storms a year, and this is our first one in 2021.