Rolling Blackouts

Rolling Blackouts occur whenever least expected. Having the 2020 August power outages in mind, California is cautious not to repeat the same mistakes, even though the state is better prepared than last year. Power Grid is still vulnerable to extreme weather conditions that are behind the electrical shutdowns.

California Drought Gets Worse

The problem here is that the California drought is getting worse. For two consecutive winters, the weather was dry, and as a result, reservoirs are shrinking. The thing is that California’s water supply entirely depends on atmospheric river storms, which arrived fewer in the last two years. The normal number of atmospheric storms that keep the water supply to the normal level is 50. Last winter, the number of storms occurring went down to 30, which were not as strong as they used to be. In addition, the fire danger is rising, and water supplies are less and less each year. 

Less Water More Fire 

Alaska was the first victim of droughts, widespread suffering floods that destroyed roads and homes this winter. As for Seattle and British Columbia, the states experienced major snowstorms. This similar pattern was seen in 1850 when the state experienced the most severe drought in the state history as many storms were diverted away from the state.

Moreover, the warming temperatures are making droughts worse and worse each year. This year scientists have discovered that soil is drier than ever within 50 years. What this means is that there is a high risk of wildfires that are usually causing the Rolling Blackouts. Two Fahrenheit higher temperatures means less water from melting Sierra snow that eventually should have ended up into rivers and reservoirs instead of soaking into the arid ground.

As UCLA climate scientist Swain mentioned, when you compare the amount of water falling from the sky now as in 1976, you can notice that a lot of it is evaporating. No wonder that Marin County, Santa Barbara and other urban areas nearly ran out of water. 

Using Solar Energy Is One Way To Go

Using Solar Energy will not only prevent climate change but also will ensure you always have lights on. Rolling Blackouts are always around as long as climate change is not stopped.