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US heatwave triggers 'load shedding' and buckles highways

Brian K Sullivan and Mark Chediak
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This rising heat in the US has pushed power and natural gas prices higher and even triggered rare power grid warnings for some Eastern states.
This rising heat in the US has pushed power and natural gas prices higher and even triggered rare power grid warnings for some Eastern states.
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The rare and powerful heat wave that's shattering records across the US Northwest is taking a bruising toll on the region’s infrastructure, causing highways to buckle, hobbling public transit and triggering rolling power outages.

Avista - which serves nearly 340 000 customers in eastern Washington, Idaho and Oregon - instituted rolling outages for the first time in the company’s history as temperatures soared. The blackouts, which were affecting about 9 300 customers late Monday, are expected to last into Tuesday. The heat also warped pavement on Seattle highways and scorched wires on Portland’s streetcar system, suspending service.

"I have never seen anything like this in my 40 years of forecasting," said Paul Walker, a meteorologist with AccuWeather in State College, Pennsylvania.

This rising heat has pushed power and natural gas prices higher and even triggered rare power grid warnings for some Eastern states. Operators of the largest US grid, stretching from Washington to Chicago, and another in the Midwest asked transmission and generation owners to suspend some maintenance Monday.

The mercury hit 47 degrees Celsius in Portland Monday, a third-straight record, while Seattle notched another all-time high at 42 degrees Celcius, the National Weather Service said. Lytton, British Columbia reached 47.4 degrees Celcius, a new record for Canada just one day after shattering a prior high since 1937.

The rolling blackouts may not be the last as officials across Western states brace for a brutal summer that started early and promises to bring more heat, fire, drought and power strain. In California, where the grid operator may request conservation to avoid outages, dried vegetation helped the Lava Fire near Mount Shasta explode in size overnight - another sign of multi-pronged threats confronting the most populous state and others in the West.

Meanwhile, another heat wave building from Pennsylvania to Maine could push New York into the upper 30s, the weather service said. Humidity will make temperatures feel even hotter, driving energy demand across the region that relies on air conditioners to beat summer heat.

- With assistance from Naureen S. Malik and Josh Saul.

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