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The woman behind a popular California bald eagle camera that monitorsJackie and Shadowhas died, a nonprofit that works to preserve their habitat announced.

Sandy Steers was the executive director of Friends of Big Bear Valley, an environmental-education nonprofit organization well known for their live camera and social media posts of the eagle couple. Their mission is to protect and preserve the amazing natural local surroundings through environmental education and advocacy.

Big Bear Valley is part of the San Bernardino National Forest, about 95 miles from Los Angeles.

"It is with heavy hearts and great sadness to let our Friends of Big Bear Valley eagle family know that Sandy Steers passed away on the evening of Feb. 11, 2026," the group said in a Facebook post the same day.

In an emailed statement to USA TODAY, the group described Steers as "kind, caring, calming and healing.

"People love her and she is missed dearly. Our team is heartbroken."

Steers died from cancer, the organization said. She'd beaten cancer 30 years ago, but was diagnosed with it again later in life.

She had served as the organization's executive director for roughly 25 years.

The Daily Press, part of the USA TODAY Network,also shared news of her passing.

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Sandy Steers' legacy

"Sandy Steers truly exemplifies the spirit of the outdoors through her efforts to conserve the natural environment while helping to enhance and expand opportunities for outdoor recreation in California," Barbara Steinberg, a member of the Outdoor Writers Association of California, wrote in 2023, whilenominatingSteers for Outdoor Californian of the Year.

"Her efforts to preserve nesting sites for Big Bear Lake bald eagles and open space in the region including helping to save a rare pebble plain and a threatened paintbrush flower which is listed on the federal and the state endangered list, and only exists in Big Bear Valley."

The nomination added that Steers had established eco-tourism in the Valley, helping people understand that they can support the local economy by promoting and protecting the natural surroundings rather than destroying them for commercial gain.

The group also puts together educational programs for classrooms that teach children about wildlife and nature.

Steers began the Jackie and Shadow camera for the U.S. Forest Service. The first camera was installed in 2015, Friends of Big Bear Valley told USA TODAY. Steers had loved Jackie since the bird was a chick and wanted to know what was happening inside her nest.

"Her vision was to share it with others as a public benefit, free for all to see and connect with nature," the organization said. "She told amazing stories that helped people understand what was happening and relate to the trials, tribulations and successes felt by Jackie and Shadow in their daily lives."

What's happening with Jackie and Shadow this year?

Friends of Big Bear Valley shared on Jan. 30 in aFacebook postthat Jackie and Shadow had lost their eggs after a raven attack. The ordeal was caught on camera.

The pair might lay a 2nd clutch of eggs, the group said, since the eggs were laid early in the season.

Michelle Del Rey is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at mdelrey@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Voice behind beloved Jackie and Shadow eagle cam dies

As the Pacific warms, there is a growing chance of neutral El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions this spring, according to the latest update from NOAA Thursday morning, with a better than 50% chance of El Niño returning this autumn, including the peak of hurricane season.

We are nearing the peak of the current La Niña, solidly in the moderate category as far as La Niñas go. This area of colder water is circled in red on the map below.

La Niña occurs when the ocean's surface temperatures in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific reach a specific cooler-than-average temperature. El Niño is the warming of the same area of the Pacific and has a different set of weather effects around the planet.

(MORE:Climate Change Threatens The Winter Olympics' Future)

Neutral conditions are the state between El Niño and La Niña, meaning the water in the Pacific is neither warmer nor cooler than average. This condition will be reached after near-average temperatures are sustained for a multi-month period, and will be indicated by the disappearance of blue colors on the map below in the circled area.

Here's what this forecast means for the next few months:

Impacts

Spring impacts:Years that have shifted from moderately (and relatively) chilly in the Pacific to average have featured some predictable temperature tweaks stateside from March to April.

• Cooler-than-average temperatures from the Northern Rockies to the interior Northeast.

• Reliably warmer than average temperatures in the Southeast and in the Southwest.

By May and June, the signal becomes much more mixed using these analogs, but that's not surprising as the jet stream, and its influence over the Lower 48, typically weakens. One of the meteorological features that ENSO has its hands in is the jet stream. Warming conditions in the Pacific (i.e. a slide toward neutral conditions) could also muddy any connections with weather in the U.S.

Summer impacts?El Niño and La Niña usually have their biggest impacts on the weather in winter, when they've been in place for several months. But if El Niño can develop fast enough, it could at least subtly affect both temperatures and rainfall in the U.S. this summer.

El Niño summers tend to be cooler in the East and Rockies and wetter in the Southeast.

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From a global perspective, the defining warmth of an El Niño will give this summer a push toward the top of the warmest years on record.

(Further beef up your forecast with our detailed, hour-by-hour breakdown for the next 8 days – only available on ourPremium Pro experience.)

Quieter hurricane season ahead?In El Niño hurricane seasons, stronger shearing winds and sinking air often occur over at least the Caribbean Sea and some adjacent parts of the Atlantic Basin. This tends to limit the number and intensity of storms and hurricanes, especially if the El Niño is stronger.

El Niño isn't the only factor that can shape how a hurricane season goes. Bursts of dry air and sinking air or a lack of tropical waves are all other factors that can change how a season goes.

Forecast caveat you should know about:What lies beyond the springtime months is often highly uncertain.

That's because of what's known as aspring predictability barrier– a time of year when models struggle with accurate predictions.

Spring is a time when the ocean is more likely to be closer to average in the temperature department due to the shift out of the polarized summer and winter seasons in their respective hemispheres.

Winds across the equator are also often weaker during the spring because there's less temperature contrast in either hemisphere.

These factors make the signals that climatologists use to make forecasts more fuzzy, leading to a drop off in the accuracy of the forecasts.

Jonathan Belleshas been a digital meteorologist forweather.comfor 9 years and also assists in the production of videos for The Weather Channel en español. His favorite weather is tropical weather, but also enjoys covering high-impact weather and news stories and winter storms. He's a two-time graduate of Florida State University and a proud graduate of St. Petersburg College.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Noah Gragson was caught red-handed by NASCAR.

Gragson was the first driver busted during Daytona 500 qualifying for violating the new rule that specifies drivers are banned for sticking their hands out the opening of the window during the qualifying run.

Gragson's time in the No. 4 Ford for Front Row Motorsports was thrown out Wednesday because he used his left hand in an attempt to deflect air and gain an advantage on the track.

"I completely forgot about that rule so that one's on me," Gragson said. "Yeah, I feel like an idiot for that."

The 27-year-old Gragson did not advance to the second round of qualifying and lost his chance to race for the pole. The starting order for Sunday's Daytona 500 will be determined by a pair of Thursday night qualifying races.

"I feel like the Daytona 500 is such a long race, you can kind of start wherever," Gragson said. "It is what it is. I feel like an idiot for that. I'm dumb for that."

On the other hand, most in NASCAR found it hilarious.

"This is the most Noah thing ever," NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrote on social media. "Don't touch that stove, it's hot. Touches stove. Gets burnt. Says yes, it is hot."

Kyle Busch won the pole for the Daytona 500. Chase Briscoe, last year's pole-sitter, qualified second and got a good chuckle out of Gragson getting busted.

"He's my buddy, but I'm not surprised it was the guy that had it happen to him," Briscoe said. "I told my guys as soon as it happened, of all the people, I bet he didn't even remember it was a rule."

Teams believed that drivers could earn an aerodynamic advantage on superspeedways with the gesture before NASCAR made the call in the offseason to ban it.

"Sometimes you have a car that drives very easily, and you can do it easily and other times you have got your hands full and you can't do it," Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman said. "You always have an engineer telling you that you need to do it, exactly what position to put your hand in and all that. But I am glad that I can just keep two hands on the steering wheel for this one."

NASCAR suspended Gragson in 2023 and he parted ways with Legacy Motor Club liking an insensitive meme with a photo of George Floyd's face.

Gragson is winless in 111 career Cup races and will make his fifth Daytona 500 start.

"I don't care if I start last for this race," Gragson said. "I know that's probably not what people want to hear, but my best finish in Cup is third at Talladega and we qualified second-to-last. It's kind of crazy, but it is what it is here."

AP auto racing:https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing