Soaring Memorial Day Temperatures Won't Threaten State's Power Grid
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Temperatures will soar into the triple digits in communities across the San Francisco Bay Area Monday, but state power grid officials are not anticipating energy supply outages over the next few days.
KPIX 5 Meteorologist Darren Peck was forecasting daytime highs to reach 104 degrees in Concord, 102 in Livermore, 101 in Santa Rosa and 100 in Sonoma on Memorial Day.
The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory covering a large portion of the North and East Bay on Memorial Day.
The advisory puts a majority of Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties as well as parts of Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara counties under the advisory on Monday, May 31, starting at noon until 9 p.m..
Above average heat with temperatures in the 90s and 100s is forecast, according to the weather service.
Additionally, Solano County will be under a more extreme excessive heat watch that will cover more counties to the east of the immediate Bay Area.
The warm weather and severe reduction of COVID-19 restrictions brought out crowds of visitors who were anxious to get out of their houses and enjoy places like San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.
"It feels good, it feels good," said Tee Moua, who was visiting the wharf from Fresno. "You forget what was out there."
The same was true for Wine Country where temperatures were forecast to be near or reach triple digits on Monday.
"Well, looks like we were in a cave for 12 months but now we are all vaccinated and out!" said Upasna Dixit, who was among those visiting Napa on Saturday.
"Just to see people, they are happy and they're out here," said her friend Lazli Srivastava, "that is nice. So we couldn't ask for anything more."
Blasts of extreme heat generally puts strains on the state power grid. Officials said that would not be the case on Memorial Day.
There's enough electricity to serve the expected spike in demand, California Independent System Operator said in a statement Saturday, but it will monitor the grid closely in case it needs to call on the public to conserve.
ISO has said the state is better prepared to avoid last summer's rotating blackouts. However, they cautioned the power grid of the nation's most populous state is still vulnerable to extreme heat waves that could force more outages.