Brian K. Sullivan and Naureen S. Malik
Wed, May 4, 2022
(Bloomberg) -- Texas’s power-grid manager warned that demand will jump over the weekend as customers turn to air conditioners to get relief from searing record heat
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said there could be “larger-than-normal” power consumption but the state’s grid should produce enough to meet demand. There is a chance many areas across Texas and neighboring Louisiana could set records for the date as temperatures push into the upper 90s Fahrenheit (30s Celsius) and even higher closer to the Mexican border.
“They may not get any relief for days and days and days,” said David Roth, a senior branch forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center. “This weekend is horrible, not that it is going to be all that better next week.”
Extreme weather has been putting more pressure on electricity grids -- particularly in Texas and California -- in recent years, which in turn has led to economic and political fallout. Both states have experienced power outages brought on by unusual cold or heat.
Temperatures will soar across the Lone Star state, reaching 94 degrees Fahrenheit in Dallas by Saturday, while Austin will touch 99 on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Similar heat will grip the border town of Laredo and the state’s biggest metropolis Houston.
A forecast high in Houston of 97 and 102 in Brownsville this weekend would certainly set new records for the date, said Roth.
In many places, temperatures will feel even hotter than the thermometer reads. The heat will also spill over into New Mexico as well, Roth said.
Normally at this time of year, a weather front would push through to ease the high temperatures and bring some mild air, but there’s little chance of that in the next few days, he said.
Equilibrium/Sustainability — Texas stares down the barrel of summer grid failure
Sharon Udasin
Tue, May 3, 2022, 5
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Texas’s power grid may be courting collapse this weekend as temperatures soar across the state.
By Saturday, the state utility regulator expects just under 70 gigawatts of demand — more than any previous May, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Demand this weekend is expected to climb to just below the amount that crashed the grid during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, according to a study by the Texas Oil and Gas Association.
This means that the state’s “notoriously fickle power grid” is bracing for a squeeze, according to the Chronicle.
With 100-plus-degree temperatures forecast for South and West Texas this weekend, the state regulator is scrambling to restart idled power plants, the Chronicle reported.
Without these plants online, Texas “could be short” on energy — heightening the need for state-funded cooling centers for those “who can’t afford to stay cool,” according to energy consultant Doug Lewin.
Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.
Today we’ll meet New Mexico residents who are forced to choose whether to flee or fight the nation’s largest current fire. Then we’ll look at how so-called forever chemicals can disrupt some teenagers’ bone growth.
Out-of-control fire gives hint of summer to come
The largest fire in the United States is blazing out of control through the pine forests of northern New Mexico, leading to evacuations, 172 burnt houses and the destruction of 228 square miles, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
The still-spreading combination of the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak Fires — propelled by 50-mile-per-hour winds and months of drought conditions that dried trees to tinder — is a grim warning that the West is facing a long, hard fire season.
Big concerns: “We are very concerned about very significant fire growth today,” National Weather Service fire meteorologist David Craft told the AP on Tuesday.
Constantly shifting winds have helped the fire escape containment, incident commander Carl Schwope told The Daily Beast over the weekend.
“We’re at the weather’s mercy,” Joy Ansley, manager of San Miguel county told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Monday.
Running for cover: As the fire burned northwest of Las Vegas, N.M., in San Miguel County, some chose to flee, stripping grocery shelves bare as they went, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
“I’d rather take off now than hear a siren ringing,” Cathy Garcia told the New Mexican as she wrapped up porcelain figures.
Down the street, Ronnie Marquez loaded his wife and four kids into his truck and a flock of about 100 pet chickens and ducks into his trailer.
“I don’t have to take the furniture, that can all be replaced,” Marquez told the New Mexican. “You can’t replace the personal stuff, your family.”
Others choose to fight: Amid falling ash, Chris Castillo and his cousins moved trees and other fuel away from a relative’s Las Vegas home, the AP reported.
“We’re all family here. We’re trying to make a fire line,” Castillo said.
SIGNS OF A BIG FIRE SEASON STILL TO COME
The Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires came on the heels of federal National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) estimates for July and August, which on Sunday predicted elevated fire danger across the West.
What does that mean in practice? According to NIFC predictions, fire risk is elevated in the following locations:
In western Florida in May
On the High Plains through August, particularly after the “green up” of summer grass dries out
In southern and western Colorado in May and June
In Oregon, Washington and Northern California through July
Across most of the Pacific Northwest by August
It’s already a big fire year: More than 1.1 million acres have already burned this year— twice as much as during the equivalent period in 2021 and four times as much as the same period in 2020.
That total burned acreage is still much less than the damage incurred during the 2016, 2017 or 2018 fire seasons, according to NIFC.
Nearby states are on alert: San Diego rang in the beginning of Wildfire Preparedness Week with a “very concerning” .02 inches of April precipitation, NBC San Diego reported.
With dry soil, diminishing snowpack and fire risk creeping north along the Wasatch Range east of Salt Lake City, state officials are urging citizens to “use good fire sense,”Salt Lake City’s KSL reported.
The state credits its Fire Sense educational program with cutting the number of human caused fires by nearly a thousand between 2020 and 2021, according to KSL.
And then there’s the Pacific Northwest — which is bracing for impact.
One local meteorologist, John Saltenberger, warned Portland-based NBC affiliated KGW Oregon that he foresees one of the worst seasons in his 38 years on the job.
“I can’t recall seeing such an ominous signal displayed over such a large swath [of] the continental United States,” Saltenberger said.
Sharon Udasin
Tue, May 3, 2022, 5
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Texas’s power grid may be courting collapse this weekend as temperatures soar across the state.
By Saturday, the state utility regulator expects just under 70 gigawatts of demand — more than any previous May, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Demand this weekend is expected to climb to just below the amount that crashed the grid during Winter Storm Uri in 2021, according to a study by the Texas Oil and Gas Association.
This means that the state’s “notoriously fickle power grid” is bracing for a squeeze, according to the Chronicle.
With 100-plus-degree temperatures forecast for South and West Texas this weekend, the state regulator is scrambling to restart idled power plants, the Chronicle reported.
Without these plants online, Texas “could be short” on energy — heightening the need for state-funded cooling centers for those “who can’t afford to stay cool,” according to energy consultant Doug Lewin.
Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback. A friend forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.
Today we’ll meet New Mexico residents who are forced to choose whether to flee or fight the nation’s largest current fire. Then we’ll look at how so-called forever chemicals can disrupt some teenagers’ bone growth.
Out-of-control fire gives hint of summer to come
The largest fire in the United States is blazing out of control through the pine forests of northern New Mexico, leading to evacuations, 172 burnt houses and the destruction of 228 square miles, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.
The still-spreading combination of the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak Fires — propelled by 50-mile-per-hour winds and months of drought conditions that dried trees to tinder — is a grim warning that the West is facing a long, hard fire season.
Big concerns: “We are very concerned about very significant fire growth today,” National Weather Service fire meteorologist David Craft told the AP on Tuesday.
Constantly shifting winds have helped the fire escape containment, incident commander Carl Schwope told The Daily Beast over the weekend.
“We’re at the weather’s mercy,” Joy Ansley, manager of San Miguel county told the Santa Fe New Mexican on Monday.
Running for cover: As the fire burned northwest of Las Vegas, N.M., in San Miguel County, some chose to flee, stripping grocery shelves bare as they went, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
“I’d rather take off now than hear a siren ringing,” Cathy Garcia told the New Mexican as she wrapped up porcelain figures.
Down the street, Ronnie Marquez loaded his wife and four kids into his truck and a flock of about 100 pet chickens and ducks into his trailer.
“I don’t have to take the furniture, that can all be replaced,” Marquez told the New Mexican. “You can’t replace the personal stuff, your family.”
Others choose to fight: Amid falling ash, Chris Castillo and his cousins moved trees and other fuel away from a relative’s Las Vegas home, the AP reported.
“We’re all family here. We’re trying to make a fire line,” Castillo said.
SIGNS OF A BIG FIRE SEASON STILL TO COME
The Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires came on the heels of federal National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) estimates for July and August, which on Sunday predicted elevated fire danger across the West.
What does that mean in practice? According to NIFC predictions, fire risk is elevated in the following locations:
In western Florida in May
On the High Plains through August, particularly after the “green up” of summer grass dries out
In southern and western Colorado in May and June
In Oregon, Washington and Northern California through July
Across most of the Pacific Northwest by August
It’s already a big fire year: More than 1.1 million acres have already burned this year— twice as much as during the equivalent period in 2021 and four times as much as the same period in 2020.
That total burned acreage is still much less than the damage incurred during the 2016, 2017 or 2018 fire seasons, according to NIFC.
Nearby states are on alert: San Diego rang in the beginning of Wildfire Preparedness Week with a “very concerning” .02 inches of April precipitation, NBC San Diego reported.
With dry soil, diminishing snowpack and fire risk creeping north along the Wasatch Range east of Salt Lake City, state officials are urging citizens to “use good fire sense,”Salt Lake City’s KSL reported.
The state credits its Fire Sense educational program with cutting the number of human caused fires by nearly a thousand between 2020 and 2021, according to KSL.
And then there’s the Pacific Northwest — which is bracing for impact.
One local meteorologist, John Saltenberger, warned Portland-based NBC affiliated KGW Oregon that he foresees one of the worst seasons in his 38 years on the job.
“I can’t recall seeing such an ominous signal displayed over such a large swath [of] the continental United States,” Saltenberger said.
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