Check out our OC photographers’ favorite images from February 2026

A beachgoer fishes south of the pier as USS Anchorage (LPD-23) is docked in Alamitos Bay at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in Seal Beach, CA, on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. The ship is a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

An offering is given during a performance by Southern Wind Lion Dance in Irvine, CA on Monday, February 9, 2026. UC Irvine was celebrating the Year of the Horse during their Lunar New Year celebration. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Westminster City Council members take a horse-drawn carriage ride during the Tet Parade on Saturday, February 21, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A dead sub-adult humpback whale floats in the surf between 10th and 11th Streets on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The 27-foot whale came onto shore at about 3 p.m. Officials at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center examined the whale and said their current plan is to wait to see if the coming storm brings the whale back out to sea. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Orange Lutheran softball players, clockwise from bottom center, Carlie Snyder, Sierra Nichols, Cate Medvitz, Maddy Armendariz, Morgan Fitzpatrick and Josephine Marsh in Orange, CA, on Friday, February 6, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Jim Ponnet, 74, takes a photo with Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant during a Presidents’ Day celebration at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, CA on Monday, February 16, 2026. Lincoln is played by Robert Broski and Grant is played by Jaxson Brashier. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Traditional dancers perform in the lobby at the Richard Nixon Library and Museum during the Nixon Lunar New Year Celebration in Yorba Linda on Monday, February 9, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Mandy Hur, 15, performs a traditional Korean dance in the lobby at the Richard Nixon Library and Museum during the Nixon Lunar New Year Celebration in Yorba Linda on Monday, February 9, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Irvine Police Department’s mounted units are part of the Great Park Lunar New Year Parade on Saturday, February 7, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A man jogs in the rain through the Palm Court at the Great Park in Irvine, CA on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. Rain is expected through Thursday in Southern California. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Three bronze plaques are missing from a memorial at Tustin’s Veterans Sports Park in Tustin, CA, on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. The plaques are among six that Tustin police say were stolen during the early morning hours of Jan. 20, 2026. Sean Green, of Long Beach, was arrested for stealing the monuments and was also linked to bronze plaque thefts in Huntington Beach, Santa Ana and the city of Orange, according to the Orange Police Department. He was arrested by Orange police on Feb. 5. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

California Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva will be termed out in 2026. She is at her office in La Palma, CA on Friday, February 6, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

SEAL BEACH, CA – February 02: A surfer rides a wave at the pier in Seal Beach, CA on Monday, February 2, 2026. A heat wave is expected to bring temperatures 20 degrees above normal. (Photo by Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)

Fans at Great Park Ice in Irvine, CA cheer for Andrew Torgashev as he competes in the Olympic Winter Games men’s free skate finals on Friday, February 13, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A beam of window light hits Graciela Pena as she prays during Ash Wednesday Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Garden Grove Unified School District Superintendent Gabriela Mafi talks with Miya Carrasco, right, and Kyran Le in their transitional kindergarten/kindergarten class at Rosita Elementary School in Santa Ana, CA on Thursday, February 12, 2026. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Surf City Half Marathon runner, Micaela Choo, waves her magic wand as she and thousands of other athletes take to the streets on Sunday, February 1, 2026. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Workers cut up trees that fell during high winds in the early monring on the 1800 block of Ash Avenue in Fullerton, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

An airliner heads towards John Wayne Airport as snow cap mountains fill the sky seen from Irvine, CA, on Friday, February 20, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The main sign at Totally 80’s Bar & Grille​ on Orangethorpe Avenue fell during high winds in Fullerton, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A car is stuck under a tree that fell during high winds in the early monring on the 1800 block of West Avenue in Fullerton, CA, on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Visitors to QUA Contemporary Chinese Cuisine, incliding Wyatt Sullivan, 3, right, watch Ane Thanh Lion Dance perform during a Lunar New Year celebration in Fountain Valley, CA, on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. The Asian community kicked off the Year of the Horse on February 17. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Seahawk quarterback Sam Darnold makes his way through Disneyland guests after a parade down Main Street, U.S.A., at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, on Monday, February 9, 2026. Seattle defeated New England 29 to 13 during Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara on Sunday. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Bryce Land and his daughter, Eliza Land, frolic in the rain on the pier in Seal Beach, CA, on Thursday, February 19, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Wyatt Sullivan, 3, peers thrpough an interior window as Ane Thanh Lion Dance perform during a Lunar New Year celebration at QUA Contemporary Chinese Cuisine in Fountain Valley, CA, on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. The Asian community kicked off the Year of the Horse on February 17. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Sunny Hills’ Jaiden Duran (27) and El Toro’s AJ Davis (27) go after the ball during their second round CIF-SS Division 1 playoff game in Fullerton, CA, on Friday, February 13, 2026. Sunny Hills defeated El Toro, 1 to 0. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Suin Kim, left, and Jeremy Wang, both 13, from Rancho San Joaquin Middle School, launch their “helicopter” during the Orange County Regional Science Olympiad at UC Irvine on Saturday, February 14, 2026. Teams are judged on how long the object stays in the air. Theirs hovered for almost two minutes. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Jiana Alagot, 9, left, and Berlyn Niedjelski, 10, occupy themselves during the K1 Speed California Teen Championship race in Irvine on Saturday, January 31, 2026. A family friend was competing. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Fullerton Fire Department ambulance operator Patrick Manfredi sits inside an ambulance borrowed from OCFA on Tuesday, February 24, 2026. The department is starting an in-house service and will be getting seven ambulances, (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Kitty Malcolm, pictured at the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, retired from law-firm management and is now on the board of the Laguna Playhouse and is a volunteer chair of Playhouse Women. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Guests at Disney California Adventure’s Animation Academy learn to draw the Frozen character Marshmallow from a Disney artist. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)