Cal ISO ends Emergency Alert 3, ending possibility of blackouts Tuesday night
UPDATE: Cal ISO says it has ended its Emergency Alert 3, meaning there will be no rolling blackouts Tuesday night.
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RANCHO CORDOVA - The state's electrical grid operator, Cal ISO, has announced that the state has reached Emergency Alert 3 on this day of record heat.
As a result of the alert, Cal ISO can now, by definition, begin rolling power outages in order to preserve minimum power reserve requirements. When the state hit stage 3, the state's office of emergency services sent out phone alerts urging people to turn off nonessential devices.
Two minutes after the alerts went out, power demand dropped by 1,000 megawatts. Two hours later, that number declined by another three megawatts.
BREAKING: Emergency alert messages have gone out to residents urging residents to reduce power consumption. We may begin to see rolling blackouts any moment. pic.twitter.com/tCZSZ0ts4B
— Nic Merianos (@NickMerianos) September 7, 2022
Downtown Sacramento hit a record high of 116 degrees Tuesday, two degrees higher than its previous all-time record.
Here are the other records set in our region, as of 5:44 p.m., according to the National Weather Service:
- Sacramento Executive Airport: 114, old 109 in 2020.
- Modesto 111, old 106 in 2020.
- Stockton 115, old 110 in 2020.
- Redding 115, old 111 in 2020.
- Red Bluff 114, old 113 in 2020.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom urged residents to conserve, warning in a video message that "the risk for outages is real and it's immediate."
"This heat wave is on track to be both the hottest and the longest on record for the state and many parts of the West for the month of September," Newsom said. "Everyone has to do their part to help step up for just a few more days."
California's state capital of Sacramento surpassed its 114-degree record Tuesday with its 41st day of temperatures reaching at least 100 degrees.
In San Francisco, temperatures hit 94 degrees (34 C) just before noon on Tuesday in a region known for its mild summer weather where most people don't have air conditioning. In Los Angeles, temperatures were in the upper 90s on Tuesday, prompting the nation's second-largest school district to limit the use of asphalt and concrete playgrounds.
Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. In the last five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in state history.