STORM2K

Here in the Houston area today it was HOT!!!! Right now its sitting at 92.3 here at my house where my sensor is sitting on the north side of the house in the shade!! The news just broke talking of blackouts here in the Houston area and reporting about 68,000 people are without power and to turn up your a/c's and turn off what ever your not using... Yuck!! Summer is here early!!!

From News 2 Houston:

CenterPoint Energy Issues Rolling Blackouts In Houston
Customers Should Decrease Electricity Usage

POSTED: 5:26 pm CDT April 17, 2006

HOUSTON -- CenterPoint Energy began issuing rolling blackouts Monday in the Houston area after being asked by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Inc.

As of 5 p.m., about 68,000 customers were without power.

"ERCOT requested that 1,000 megawatts of load be dropped throughout the state of Texas, so CenterPoint Energy represents 26 percent of that load. So, we started periodically dropping customers in 15-minute intervals on a rotating basis in our service area," said Emily Mir Thompson, with CenterPoint Energy.

She said the number of outages would vary with each rotating blackout.

ERCOT, the corporation that administers a portion of Texas' power grid serving approximately 85 percent of the state's electric load, said there is not sufficient generating capacity in the region to reliably serve the public's electricity demand.

ERCOT stated that it is extremely important that all electricity customers reduce their use of electricity to the lowest level possible. This includes the following:

*
* Making sure your thermostat is set at 78 degrees or higher in the summer.
* Don't use any electric lighting, appliances or equipment unless absolutely necessary for health or safety.
Don't open refrigerators and freezers more than necessary.

Customers in Dallas and Austin were also affected.

It is supposed to be at 90 degrees here in SE Louisiana tomorrow and Wednesday. It was a hot one today as well. Especially since my car's AC has been broken since the end of summer last year and I don't have the money to get it fixed. It feels more like June than mid April. The water will have plenty of time to warm up just in time for Hurricane Season here on the Gulf Coast. I can't even remember the last time we had rain here and none in sight. We only had a trace for the whole month of April so far.

I hit 99 at my house today!! The forecast was 92. Unbelievable!

104

It's unbelievible the situation we are in down here. There some places south of San Antonio that have not had rain for 9 months according to one of our TV Mets last night. Throw in the early record heat and I fear we are going to have a historic summer of extremes consisting of above normal temps and way below normal rainfall.

I have never seen it this dry down here. Some old timers that were around during the historic droughts of the 1950's are saying the same thing.

cctxhurricanewatcher wrote:It's unbelievible the situation we are in down here. There some places south of San Antonio that have not had rain for 9 months according to one of our TV Mets last night. Throw in the early record heat and I fear we are going to have a historic summer of extremes consisting of above normal temps and way below normal rainfall.

I have never seen it this dry down here. Some old timers that were around during the historic droughts of the 1950's are saying the same thing.

During all those previous drought cycles..the 30s, 50s and 80s...the Houston area was hit by many tropical systems:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/hurricanes/gifs/1930s.gif
^^30s^^

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/hurricanes/gifs/1950s.gif
^^50s^^

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/hurricanes/gifs/1980s.gif
^^80s^^

..And now add in the fact that we are in one of the most active cycles in recent history; and we could be in real trouble this hurricane season..

That's what concerns me as well EWG. Here's hoping for a tropical storm or depression this summer to help alleviate our drought because it doesn't look like we'll get much relief any other way. Hopefully we'll go hurricane free for many many years as the areas affected last year will need several more years to recover.

Extremeweatherguy wrote:

cctxhurricanewatcher wrote:It's unbelievible the situation we are in down here. There some places south of San Antonio that have not had rain for 9 months according to one of our TV Mets last night. Throw in the early record heat and I fear we are going to have a historic summer of extremes consisting of above normal temps and way below normal rainfall.

I have never seen it this dry down here. Some old timers that were around during the historic droughts of the 1950's are saying the same thing.

During all those previous drought cycles..the 30s, 50s and 80s...the Houston area was hit by many tropical systems:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/hurricanes/gifs/1930s.gif
^^30s^^

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/hurricanes/gifs/1950s.gif
^^50s^^

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/hurricanes/gifs/1980s.gif
^^80s^^

..And now add in the fact that we are in one of the most active cycles in recent history; and we could be in real trouble this hurricane season..

Yep, 1980 and Hurricane Allen come to mind....... At least for this part of the Texas coast.

A nice weak Tropical Storm that moves at a steady pace would be ok. No Allisons please.

PTrackerLA wrote:That's what concerns me as well EWG. Here's hoping for a tropical storm or depression this summer to help alleviate our drought because it doesn't look like we'll get much relief any other way.

That is what people in Louisiana and Florida were wishing last year, and look what happend.

I couldn't even imagine that type of heat in April. I can't ever recall our power company having to issue blackouts for extreme heat/electricity usage before, either.

Yeah, I am kinda confused about the electricity issues too... We had really never had a problem with blackouts here, so why now? It really doesnt make sence to me, we have hot weather all summer and we dont have problems like this... They said they were doing maintence on the plants... and they just so happened to pick the hottest days so far... Im not sold on it... Hope this doesnt become a problem again in the summer time... I would hate to see what would happen if they did with the heat...

maintenance on a power plant takes more than a day, it's not like changing the oil in your car. many of those plants on the maintenance schedule may be down for weeks or longer. they are rotated throughout the cooler months, but all should be online for the summer so we shouldn't have any worries. we are actually very lucky in TX becuase we have our own grid.