Will California cool down soon? Was it really 112? Answers to your heat wave questions
Sweltering, scorching, miserable, apocalyptic.
Whatever adjective you want to throw in front of it, California has been in an unprecedented mid-August heat wave since late last week.
The weekend brought record-smashing high temperatures north of 110 degrees, rolling blackouts for hundreds of thousands on the state’s electric grid, socially distanced cooling centers and an array of other weird weather phenomena usually reserved for different parts of the U.S. — or the bowels of hell.
To kick off this week, forecasters expect temperatures to get just as hot or hotter, and an even more massive series of blackouts is on tap for Monday.
You probably have some questions regarding the freakish, extreme heat wave. We’ll start with the most burning ones.
When might Northern California’s heat wave end?
Seriously, when will it end?
The answer may depend on what you consider a heat wave.
Sacramento’s forecast shows Tuesday’s possible high of 112 and Wednesday’s predicted 105 subsiding slightly, down to 100 degrees by Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. The NWS excessive heat warning is currently set to expire Wednesday night, at 9 p.m.
This coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday are expected to reach about 102 or 103 degrees.
Those temperatures would remain more than 10 degrees hotter than normal for this time of year, when high temps average about 90 degrees in the capital region, but we may have to take what we can get after both days of this past weekend shattered records.
It’s worth pointing out that forecasts can change relatively late, and there’s no guarantee of temperatures dipping back down to the low 100s. Up until late last week, forecasters expected this past Sunday to be the coolest day of the weekend with a predicted high of 104 degrees in Sacramento. Instead, downtown reached 112, which was the hottest day for the capital since ... well, Saturday, which tied the hottest day in more than 14 years.
What’s the status on rolling blackouts on California’s grid?
California Independent System Operator, which operates the state’s power grid, is almost certain to institute rolling blackouts Monday, top agency officials said.
Friday and Saturday marked the first time since 2001 that ISO did so, and it resulted in hundreds of thousands losing power in one-hour stretches across service areas for multiple major utilities, including Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in Northern California.
Sunday managed to avoid becoming the third consecutive night of them, but ISO Chief Executive Steve Berberich told the ISO board Monday that “millions” of Californians will likely be blacked out that afternoon and evening, some of them possibly in two-hour chunks. Energy officials said grid problems could begin around 3 p.m. and last around six hours.
John Phipps, the agency’s director of real-time operations said Monday’s energy deficit is far worse than those of the past weekend: 4,000 megawatts, which is quadruple what the system lacked Friday and about eight times more than on Saturday.
As for Tuesday, Phipps said another big blackout is likely, but he had fewer details available for that.
What about SMUD users? Will they lose power?
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District is not part of the ISO grid, and therefore not subject to the statewide rolling blackouts implemented Friday and Saturday or impending this week.
However, Sacramento’s extreme heat makes it possible that local energy demand could force SMUD to implement its own, separate deliberate power outages, which it hasn’t had to do since 2000.
The company’s risk of doing so would be highest in the afternoon, and it could increase if, for instance, a line or pole goes down.
Because of this, SMUD and other utilities have advised a somewhat counterintuitive strategy for customers. SMUD says users should turn their air conditioning units on overnight and run them through the morning to keep the home cool before the day’s heat kicks in in full force. Then, at 1 p.m., switch the thermostat to 80 degrees.
The time for that has passed Monday, but it’ll apply to Tuesday’s megaheat as well. The idea is to “pre-cool” one’s residence, retaining the cool air within the walls, rather than simply running the thermostat to a lower temperature in the hottest part of the day as most are probably accustomed to.
PG&E advises a similar strategy, though they advise raising the thermostat to 78 degrees starting at noon.
Did it really reach 112 degrees Sunday in Sacramento?
It really reached 112 degrees in Sacramento on Sunday, both downtown and at the Sacramento Executive Airport weather station, according to the NWS.
That’s not just a daily record for Aug. 16, but also the hottest August day in the city’s history, NWS recordbooks show.
The hottest day in all of recorded history at Sacramento Executive Airport was June 15, 1961, when it reached 115 degrees. The all-time record for downtown is 114, set July 17, 1925.
This story was originally published August 17, 2020 at 1:38 PM.
