Holy smokes, I can't imagine weeks of 120F. We had one little heat dome in the PNW for a week last summer and that was crazy enough. Yikes! 😵 My swamp cooler is on the way from Amazon. In other news, they say if Lake Mead drops another 32 feet it's lights out for Arizona and NM. Corpses in barrels is just the bonus! Ew ew ew.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/02/pakistan-india-heatwaves-water-electricity-shortages https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/02/us/lake-mead-body-barrel-water-level-drought-climate/index.html
Where you are as opposed to where I am, a 180 degree difference-it's been cool and cloudy nearly every single day for the last month. Rainy, sometimes, but we've not had any of the normal temperatures in Maine for that long.
I'm sorry you are going through such rough weather, but global climate change is now irreversible and we're all to blame.
It only 200 years.
Yeah, this one is going to be interesting. It sounds like the energy deficit can be made up by running coal and gas plants harder, though. Palo Verde nuclear generating station is in western AZ and they will likely have to also run harder. Supposedly all viable to make up the deficit but it will also make that grid less resilient and less able to stand heavy usage this coming summer.
If this isn’t the actual manifestation of warnings about global warming knocking out infrastructure legs, it’s hard to know what is.
This is how things are going now, though. Our energy grid will likely be less reliable as it not only groans under the strain, but also buckles occasionally. Folks would be wise to start considering how they will cope.
Funky - the only time that I visited the Hoover Dam in Oct 2001, the lake was near full level, with water near the top of the penstock inlets. It would be unrecognizable for me today.