The good news is that after two days of a sweltering late-summer heat wave that's creating record-setting high temperatures across the Valley and the West, the power grid is still up and running with no blackouts so far. The bad news: We've still got about a week of extremely...
Q&A: California’s New Electricity-Blackout Challenge
BERKELEY — As if the pandemic and economic recession weren't bad enough, millions of Californians now face recurring threats of abrupt blackouts during a heat wave in the nation's most populous state. California's Independent System Operator, a nonprofit agency that manages the state's power supply, ordered utilities to impose temporary...
Walters: Blackouts Reveal Our Power Shortage
The prolonged heat wave of 100-degree-plus temperatures that grips California has strained the state’s electric power grid to the breaking point, resulting in rolling blackouts for the first time in nearly two decades. California’s Independent System Operator (ISO), which manages the distribution of power for the state’s investor-owned utilities, imposed...
Death Valley’s Brutal 130 Degrees May Be Record If Verified
California sizzled to a triple-digit temperature so hot that meteorologists need to verify it as a planet-wide high mark. Death Valley recorded a scorching 130 degrees Sunday, which if the sensors and other conditions check out, would be the hottest Earth has been in more than 89 years and the third-warmest ever...
California Heat Wave Raises Fire Threat, Virus Spread Fears
LOS ANGELES — California faces a heat wave Friday that could bring dangerously high temperatures throughout the state, increased wildfire danger and a higher threat of the spreading of the coronavirus as people flock to lakes, beaches and other recreation areas. High pressure building over Western states will push temperatures...
Will Fresno Set Back-to-Back Heat Records?
How hot was it Wednesday in Fresno? A record-breaking 105 degrees for May 27, with the possibility of another mark falling Thursday. The National Weather Service in Hanford is predicting the thermometer will tick up another degree to 106. Should it hit 107, the May 28 record will fall as...
Scientists Monitoring New Marine Heat Wave off West Coast
SEATTLE — Federal scientists said Thursday they are monitoring a new ocean heat wave off the U.S. West Coast, a development that could badly disrupt marine life including salmon, whales and sea lions. The expanse of unusually warm water stretches from Alaska to California, researchers with the National Oceanic and...
Paris Hits Record High, London Boils in Europe Heat Wave
PARIS — Even ice cream, Italian gelato or Popsicles couldn't help this time. Temperature records that had stood for decades or even just days fell minute by minute Thursday afternoon and Europeans and tourists alike threw themselves into fountains, lakes, rivers, or the sea to escape a suffocating heat wave...
New Threat to Fire-Damaged Notre Dame Cathedral: Heat Wave
PARIS — The chief architect of France's historic monuments says he's afraid that the heat wave sweeping Europe could cause the vaulted ceilings of fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral to collapse. Dozens of sensors dotted around the 12th-century monument have shown no indication that it's deteriorating, but architect Philippe Villeneuve is...