Californians urged to conserve energy during heat wave in order to prevent blackouts
Californians are being asked to save energy on Wednesday to avoid power outages.
Forecasts for more scorching heat and monsoon moisture brought calls for Californians to conserve electricity and warnings that lightning, thunderstorm winds and parched vegetation were a recipe for wildfires.
The heat wave was expected to be most extreme in the state's interior, mainly the Central Valley where some locations hit 110 degrees (43.3 Celsius) on Tuesday, while the wildfire risk was focused on northern counties.
California ISO, the state's independent power grid operator, is asking that, between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., all Californians voluntarily cut back on electricity consumption due to the expectation that more people will use air conditioning. Late afternoon through the early evening is the period when the grid is most stressed due to high demand while solar energy production is decreasing.
They urge people to set their thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, Avoid using major appliances like dishwashers, dryers, and ovens and turn off and unplug all unnecessary lights and electrical devices.
The heat wave is affecting air quality as well. According to the area's air-monitoring website, today's Air Quality Index is expected to reach 101, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups.
The Sacramento air district says the combination of heat and vehicle exhaust is causing unhealthy smog or ozone accumulation across the region.
"Ground-level ozone is created from car emissions, basically cooking in the summer sun and creating...smog," said an agency spokesperson.
Air quality officials also say smoke from the Six Rivers Lightning Complex Fire burning and Trinity in Humboldt Counties is also affecting air quality as well.
Red flag warnings for fire danger were posted for the northern Coast Range, eastern Shasta County and the Mount Lassen area.
The National Weather Service warned of the possibility of "abundant lightning" and erratic gusts from thunderstorms.
"Lightning can create new fire starts and may combine with strong outflow winds to cause a fire to rapidly grow in size and intensity," the weather service said.