Texas warns of rolling blackouts amid power shortages after air conditioners go on overdrive as stat

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Daily Mail

Texas warns of rolling blackouts amid power shortages after air conditioners go on overdrive as state endures 39 days of 100F-plus heat

• Arkansas and Oklahoma also see record highs as temperatures soar
  
• Texas woman dies after having air conditioning unit stolen
  
• 'Excessively dry' conditions announced in ten U.S. states

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 5:27 PM on 5th August 2011

Electricity officials in heatwave-hit Texas have warned of impending rolling blackouts from power shortages as the U.S. state struggles to cope with the relentless scorching temperatures.

Texans have turned to air conditioners in huge numbers in a bid to beat one of the hottest summers on record in America's second most populous state.

But bosses for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) say the soaring power demand in the face of the brutal heatwave has left the state one power plant shut-down away from rolling blackouts.

Temperatures in Texas are currently topping 100F (37.8C) and have been soaring for well over a month.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2022801/Texas-warns-rolling-blackouts-amid-power-shortages-air-conditioners-overdrive-state-endures-39-days-100F-plus-heat.html

[LanternWaste]

1. The office where I work just re-booted after a ten minute blackout

The office where I work just re-booted after a ten minute blackout-- our first of the season.

No rain in site and 105-109 highs until at least mid-next week. Brutal is indeed a good way to describe this.

[daa]

2. They can pray nt

[yellowcanine]

6. I thought Gov Good Hair (Thanks Molly Ivins) already did lead a prayer service on this issue.

[tanyev]

13. Apr. 21, 2011 Gov. Perry Issues Proclamation for Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas

http://governor.state.tx.us/news/proclamation/16038/


See how well that worked out?

[daa]

22. Here in Georgia

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21767716/ns/weather/t/dry-georgia-rallies-prays-rain/


But it did rain a week later.

[marasinghe]

8. i may be wrong here, but, in the old days, in them parts ....

.... wouldn't Aztec leaders be sacrificing themselves to the gods, to avert droughts & bring about rain & stuff - for the good of their subjects? just saying.

since Rick Perry is into that particular mode of emergency response, as well as the petty autocratic mindset of a minor chieftain, maybe a bible-based, Abrahamic self-immolation might do the trick. he can perform it in the well of the inverted pyramid at Reliant Stadium.


(to DU Texans: my apologies; don't mean to make light of your predicament. worked in the desert sun & know what it's like to be out in the no-rain zone in the hot season. hope you people get some relief soon; from the heat & from the Perrystalsis.)

[snooper2]

42. A lot of us don't pray but thanks...You can keep your religions...

Only thing I pray to is my soaker hoses to keep my foundation from getting any more fucked than it already is

[Xipe Totec]

3. Thank God there's no global warming

Can you *imagine* how bad it would be then?!






:sarcasm:

[orwell]

12. + 100 n/t

[ShockediSay]

19. Or climate change n/t

[Yavapai]

4. Will this Texas drought never end???

SEND MORE BEER!

[ananda]

11. Our Texas drought will not end any time soon.

La Nina is expected to return in the short term. It's very very bad news.

[Yavapai]

16. So we will see another "Dust Bowl" in the coming depression.

I sure hope it changes for y'all.

[CleanGreenFuture]

26. I'm seeing areas to the immediate west and southwest of Ft Worth turning

into desert. Almost all the grass is burned off and even the cactus are drying up. These are areas which have not been burned and have historically been green, though not as vibrant during the summer as in early spring.

I think what I'm seeing is a gradual desertification approaching north central Texas from the west.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. We've had temps here in Fort Smith of over 100F since July 4th.

We set a new all time record high of 115F a few days ago and no real relief in sight.

[w8liftinglady]

14. I met some ranchers driving through OK...

who had to sell their cattle early..."Or they'd have died anyway"

It's rough.

[Bolo Boffin]

7. Crazy bad here.

I've been keeping the AC on 75 and it looks like I should take it up a couple of degrees in the daytime.

[AlbertCat]

9. No doubt god is punishing TX for...

.... rick perry.

[japple]

10. I feel guilty, here in Georgia, for complaining of 92-98 degree days.

At least we had a little rain in July, though much less than normal. Hope you get some relief soon. Lots of my kinfolks live in Texas and I really feel for you guys.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. We had one on Wednesday...

I work at a flight training center- 19 full-flight simulators. Two 35KVA transformers feeding the building. We were down for about 2 hours.

[Dover]

17. To lose air conditioning at this point would be a death sentence.

And I'm not exagerating!

I wondered why the hummingbirds who have been totally dependent on the feeders (no blossoming plants) were landing on the feeder but not drinking the nectar liquid. I changed the liquid twice in case it was a bad batch or something, but then realized as I poured the second one out that it was not the mixture but most likely the water temps. I could have made a hot cup of tea from it! My feeders were placed in the shadiest spot I could find under the eave of my house that gets no direct sun, but it's over 100 IN THE SHADE here. So the poor little hummers are no longer around. I hope they survive. I hope we ALL survive.

[snappyturtle]

18. Ahhh! poor little things...good luck to you. nt

[rainbow4321]

25. And it was, unfortunately, for one Dallas woman

Two days before she died from the heat level in her home, she had called the police to report her air conditioning unit had been stolen :(
The news interviewed her neighbor who had said that she offered the woman a place to stay but the woman turned her down, saying that someone was going to "bring her some fans over".

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

27. Tell me about it, been 111 all week around Hope, Arkansas

Our hummingbirds are seem to like our feeder.I bought this one, 32oz at the farmstore last year and I have to refill it every morning. Ours is hanging in the shade ans I just felt it and is a little warm, not hot. .
220 Perky-Pet The Grand Master Hummingbird Feeder
(remove the "tn_" to see bigger picture)

[pitohui]

36. yes the crackheads who stole the old woman's AC killed that woman dead

they are murderers to steal such a thing for a few pennies worth of copper

as for the hummingbirds, put a little dish of water -- less than 1/2 of an inch -- and they will come if they're still around, a great many of them have moved to the east where the drought has broken in louisiana, the hummers are pretty good at spotting water and feeders from a long distance

i have red on my birdbath as well as my feeders and they keep a coming!

[JDPriestly]

20. So far cool in LA. Can't believe it, but it has been a basically

cool summer here.

[bamacrat]

21. I live in Dallas, supposed to be 107 today

The 10 day forecast has the lowest high at 105 over that time. If that holds, and I'm sure it will, it will destroy the all-time record for Texas of 42 consecutive days. It is extremely hot, I am in and out of my office where I work all day long and it is a beating to step out in what feels like an oven. Nothing but concrete to reflect the heat for miles and miles.

But hey, at least its a dry heat!

[sofa king]

23. I've always wondered about that.

The "heat index" around here bounced around 108 on a couple of afternoons two weeks ago. The actual temperature was in the high 90s, but humidity was way above 80%--maybe more than that, because one of those days started with the sun burning through a fog bank a thousand feet high.

So is my imaginary 108 really similar to your very real 107? Has anyone been able to directly compare by say, noting temp and humidity in Washington, DC, and then flying to Dallas on the same day?

[bamacrat]

33. I am originally from Alabama and dry heat is way better.

It may be 107+ but its just hot. Growing up in Alabama we would have days that were 95+ with 95% humidity and that is horrible. The instant you walk outside you are covered in a blanket of hot air. Alabama summers feel like breath outside.

[rainbow4321]

24. Some people have been "rooting" for the record to be beat

Saying we might as well "get something out of this". Somehow, I don't think those who have lost their loved ones this summer BECAUSE OF THIS HEAT will remember the record being broken...it will always be the summer that their family/friend died. Including the 12 people in Dallas County and the family of the football coach (who died from heat related heart problems). Those families are wishing that we lost the chance of beating the record 3 weeks ago!

[Gin]

28. years ago I lived in San Diego and temps hit 111...Yikes...we had

Santa Ana winds....the humidity was not a factor....

I feel for you Texas guys....if we have that in VA with the humidity.....I would never leave the house...AC is a blessing.

Hope the power company doesn't take advantage of the citizens like Enron did.

[Uncle Joe]

29. This looks more like a garfish than an alligator.

Lifeless: The remains of an alligator are seen in Fisher Lake, San Angelo State Park, Texas on Wednesday as the much-hoped for rain from Tropical Storm Don didn't materialise

Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.

[okasha]

30. Not an alligator. No legs.

n/t

[texanwitch]

32. Looks like a alligator gar.

Mean fish.

[pitohui]

35. they are alligator gars

they may be a mean fish but it still cuts my heart to see them out of water like that

[texanwitch]

40. I know, I hate to see the suffering due to the weather we aere having.

I have been noticing the tress lately, they are not looking good.

Many have brown leaves, and look like they are dieing.

The pine trees in the near by park look dead.

These are really tall pine trees, a strong wind would know them over now.

[quakerboy]

31. Too many people

Not enough resources.

Seems like this might be one of those ideal times to have a shit ton of solar panels taking that heat producing light and turning it into AC running electricity and stations to take ocean water and make it useable drinkable water, then pump it back up to where its needed, no?

In the meantime, its maybe a sign that we as a species ought maybe consider having fewer people living in inhospitable climes. NO gets crap for being under sea level. I fail to see how living in a place known for its extreme heat is any different.

Course, now that I say that, if there's ever a crisis here in Oregon and we cannot get our imported Iodine, I will have to shut up and just live with my well deserved goiter.

[pitohui]

37. are you out of your gourd? ARKANSAS is not known for its extreme heat

this is not a question of places known for their extreme heat, we are talking about (formerly) pleasant and green places like ARKANSAS being hit by temps of 110 degrees and heat indexes in the 120s

no one could have predicted this, no one

dallas is in east=ish texas, again, not in WEST texas, not an area famous for "extreme heat" -- people are dropping dead there right and left

i suggest if you don't know what you're talking about, STOP TALKING

i can't comment on oklahoma but places in arkansas being hit used to be very pleasant temperate places, so to crap on the people for living there is just fucking wrong

[Vanje]

39. Is there ANY subject for which

you are not an exert!?

[quakerboy]

41. Are you?

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk/hwave.php

"When the Summer months arrive in Arkansas, the heat can become unbearable at times."

http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimatology/daily/USTX0327

Average daily temperature for Dallas in august is 96. That's extreme heat in my book. This hundred ten plus stuff goes beyond extreme.




As to the "noone could have predicted this", I call BS. Anyone paying attention to climate change could have predicted "crazy shit" happening. Weather getting extreme. And in places where it gets hot, extreme would be... Hotter. In the end it will affect us all. I was surprised we did not get more crazy weather here in the Pacific NW this year.

[JVS]

34. I hope the weather breaks and that there is enough power for people.

[Psephos]

38. Me too. n/t

[raccoon]

43. Why don't they hire some Native Americans to do a rain dance? nt