California temperatures soar to new records, adding strain to power grid

(Reuters) -File excessive temperatures had been anticipated in California’s Central Valley from Sacramento to outdoors of Los Angeles on Sunday, with officers warning that the damaging warmth wave may afflict the state by means of the tip of the week and check the boundaries of the electrical grid.

State officers on Sunday had been urging residents to restrict their energy utilization for the fifth day in a row as power demand spiked and temperatures had been nonetheless on the rise.

The worst of the warmth was concentrated within the Central Valley on Sunday. The thermometer may hit 115 levels Fahrenheit (46 levels Celsius) by midweek, the Nationwide Climate Service mentioned, warning residents to remain indoors to keep away from heat-related sickness.

“The warmth wave begins in earnest at this time with harmful temperatures now forecast to increase by means of the tip of the week,” Nationwide Climate Service Sacramento wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

The Southern California metropolis of San Diego, which set a document temperature on Saturday of 95 levels, may set one other document on Sunday, Nationwide Climate Service forecaster Tony Fracasso mentioned, though an opportunity of afternoon thunderstorms may supply some aid.

The California Unbiased System Operator (ISO), which oversees the state’s electrical grid, prolonged a “flex alert” to a fifth day, asking state residents to set their thermostats to 78 levels or larger, keep away from utilizing main home equipment, and switch off lights so as to preserve power.

“Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday specifically are shaping as much as be essentially the most tough of this warmth wave,” the company mentioned in a information launch.

It added that the state’s ongoing wildfires and potential new blazes may additional pressure the facility grid by crippling traces and mills. Greater than twenty years of drought and rising temperatures, exacerbated by local weather change, have made California extra weak than ever to wildfires.

In Northern California’s Siskiyou County, the place firefighters had been battling the fast-moving Mill Hearth that prompted hundreds to evacuate their houses, the excessive temperature forecast for Sunday was 95 levels.

Two folks died within the hearth, Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue advised a group assembly on Sunday, in keeping with a video that his workplace shared on social media.

Temperatures had been anticipated to prime 100 levels within the coming days. The hearth had burned greater than 4,000 acres and was 25% contained as of Sunday morning, in keeping with the California Division of Forestry and Hearth Safety.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter and Michael Martina; Modifying by Mark Porter and Bradley Perrett)