Major Phoenix heatwave coming, can the power grids handle it? (Surprise: neighborhood, purchase)

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by Finger Laker

Yeah, many places experienced temps North of 120. I know we've had this conversation many times around here, but I care less about an ambient air box at the airport versus the actual temps that register where my body is

I'm with you.

I know someone that sets their weather app on their phone to the airport, regardless of where they actually are, and insists that is the official temp, period. Well, I set mine to the zip code of my house, where I usually am, or set it to pick up the temp via GPS. If I am 25 miles from the airport, who cares what the temperature is THERE? I want to know what the temperature is of where I am at the moment.

The NWS only cares about PHX, though.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by Finger Laker

Yeah, many places experienced temps North of 120. I know we've had this conversation many times around here, but I care less about an ambient air box at the airport versus the actual temps that register where my body is

Yeah, I kind of agree, I could careless about the temperature at 4pm when I'm stuck inside at the office anyways. I really just care about the mornings and the evenings.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by Finger Laker

Yeah, many places experienced temps North of 120. I know we've had this conversation many times around here, but I care less about an ambient air box at the airport versus the actual temps that register where my body is

Exactly, 121 at our house.

[Java Jolt]

Originally Posted by Voebe

Just curious - if our verdict here is that the power grid can't handle it, were you planning to uproot yourself and move to Maine in the next few days?

So far the power grids are handling it just fine and they should with the better technology available these days.

It shouldn't be a repeat of the 1990 heatwave with the brownouts and all.

[Java Jolt]

Originally Posted by locolife

Minimal flights impacted and daily activities about the same as usual for mid/late June.... Can we move on to other news now?

I agree.

Some people are getting themselves too worked up over canceled flights. Which is worse, a few flights not taking off as scheduled or people stuck inside their homes without air-conditioning?

Priorities please!

[Java Jolt]

Originally Posted by Valley Native

Phoenix-area heat wave brings heavy power demand

Kind of interesting how APS & SRP are so good at double talk and hardly anybody blinks an eye. The article from yesterday's Republic indicated that the utility experts were stating they feel confident they can meet the demands of their customers. Just a few paragraphs down, this statement appears:



Obviously something went wrong somewhere to leave over 1,800 customers without power. As I said before, if SRP & APS are incapable of ensuring that the demand is met for all their subscribers, they shouldn't even be in the business. 1,800 customers is still 1,800 too many.

Did the utility company confirm what caused those customers to lose power?

It could have been anything from a bad transformer to a construction crew digging into some lines.

I agree with you though, 1,800 customers with no air-conditioning is 1,800 too many no matter what the cause.

[timothyaw]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

I'm with you.

I know someone that sets their weather app on their phone to the airport, regardless of where they actually are, and insists that is the official temp, period. Well, I set mine to the zip code of my house, where I usually am, or set it to pick up the temp via GPS. If I am 25 miles from the airport, who cares what the temperature is THERE? I want to know what the temperature is of where I am at the moment.

The NWS only cares about PHX, though.

Only the OFFICIAL airport temperature counts when it comes to keeping track of temps and records or whatnot.

[TempeAZnative]

We lost power here in Tempe on Tuesday which really sucked. SRP said a switch tripped what ever that means, but it took
2 1/2 hours to fix it.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by timothyaw

Only the OFFICIAL airport temperature counts when it comes to keeping track of temps and records or whatnot.

Right. But unless I am at the airport, I don't care what the temp is there. I want to know what it is where I am at the current time.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by ElleTea

Right. But unless I am at the airport, I don't care what the temp is there. I want to know what it is where I am at the current time.

Then you should get a backyard weather station assuming you are in your backyard all the time. There are significant differences within the cities and even down to neighborhoods, so no published number is going to be accurate for your microclimate.

This business of record highs and such is just entertainment. But we have to have a standard to agree upon and that is the NWS number that comes out. By that standard no new record high was reached. No tee shirts. We can try again next year.