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Current Events assignment- physical geography 131...

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Weekly Current Events Chapter 4 The Document:

June 17, 20213:55 PM CDTLast Updated 5 hours ago

Energy

Temperatures soar again in U.S. Southwest heatwave, misery spreads east Peter SzekelyDan Whitcomb • • • • 4 minute read

1/3 Tricia Watts (R) sits in a floaty as she cool off in the water during a heat wave in Lake Havasu, Arizona, U.S. June 15, 2021. REUTERS/Bridget Bennett/File Photo

June 17 (Reuters) - A baking heatwave that has gripped the U.S. Southwest for three days spread eastward to Iowa and Missouri on Thursday, while punishing the hardesthit areas with record high temperatures that have strained power systems.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings for much of the Southwest, including Arizona, southern Nevada, much of California and southern Utah. Heat advisories were issued for parts of the Central Plains, including Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. "It's a pretty big impact with respect to where the record heat is," National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Oravec said from the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. A high-pressure system has been parked for three days over the Southwest, a region used to temperatures of around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) between now and September. "But now the temperatures in the last several days, especially today, are going anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees above average," Oravec said. Salt Lake City, Utah, on Tuesday tied its all-time high temperature since recordkeeping began in 1894, at 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius). Forecasters say more records could fall on Thursday, where by late-afternoon temperatures could hit 117 degrees (47 degrees Celsius) in Phoenix, and 113 (45 degrees Celsius) in Las Vegas. DEATH VALLEY HITS 129 California's Death Valley National Park, typically one of the hottest spots in the world, recorded 129 degrees Fahrenheit (54°C) on Wednesday. "Up to a certain temperature it's OK, like maybe 120, but once it gets above that is when it really gets hard," said Willo Alford, who runs a general store in Death Valley Village and has lived there most of her life. With air conditioners cranked up in homes and businesses, Texas and California urged consumers to conserve energy during peak times to avoid blackouts. "The public's help is essential when extreme weather or other factors beyond our control put undue stress on the electric grid," said Elliot Mainzer, chief executive of the California ISO, which operates the grid in most of California. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state's grid operator, expects Thursday's demand to break the June record set on Monday. Both states have previously imposed rotating or controlled outages to prevent more widespread collapses of their power systems - California during a heat wave in August 2020 and Texas during a brutal freeze in February 2021.

The National Weather Service has issued red flag warnings across the Southwest to warn of fire dangers and major blazes were burning across the region, although most of them were more than 50% contained as of Thursday afternoon. "Mother Nature, please bring on a productive monsoon. Be gone: #heat wave #wildfires," Monica Surfaro of Tuscan, Arizona, wrote on Twitter. A cold front is expected to bring relief to the midsection of the country on Sunday as temperatures in the Southwest slowly moderate as well. "The heat wave, at least the record portions of the heat wave, looks like it will be coming to them this weekend," Oravec said. Reporting by Scott DiSavino, Editing by Nick Zieminski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Link: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/texas-california-call-power-restraint-during-heatwave-202106-17/

Citation: Peter Szekely, Dan Whitcomb. “Temperatures Soar Again in U.S. Southwest Heatwave, Misery Spreads East.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 17 June 2021, www.reuters.com/business/energy/texas-california-call-power-restraint-during-heatwave2021-06-17/.

Opinion: High temperatures can be very dangerous and have a major impact on us and our environment. I think having such high temperatures isn’t a good thing as it can be detrimental to our health and cause severe dryness ultimately causing fires. However, it seems like it will be subsiding soon and becoming more moderate. Explanation: This week's chapter was related to atmosphere and surface energy balances. The article talks about the major heatwave happening in parts of the southwest of the United States. High temperature records are being tied or even close to beating

the area’s highest temperature. This heatwave is due to a high-pressure system in the atmosphere.

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