Climate Adaptation
Two Million Californians Go Dark and the Heat Is Just Beginning
- Heat wave is forecast to last through the middle of next week
- Rolling blackouts were the first since the 2001 energy crisis
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As many as two million Californians were plunged into darkness over the course of four hours late Friday in the first rolling blackouts to hit the state since the 2001 energy crisis.
And that was only Day One. A relentless heat wave is expected to blanket California through the middle of next week, sending temperatures soaring past 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) in some parts. People blasting their air conditioners and fans to keep cool are straining the region’s power system and raising the specter of a repeat of Friday’s sudden and largely unannounced outages.