It's Getting Hot Down Herre

Mrs. F and I thought we were gonna beat the blistering heat of Seattle (it was 95 yesterday and 97 the day before) with our trip to San Diego, but the heat is everywhere. And it has consequences. Last night we came back to the home we're staying at (Uncle Stevie's) and discovered the South Park area of San Diego was suffering a brown out, which soon turned into a full-scale blackout. The cause? Too much electricity being used to combat the heat. Here's a tidbit from the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Yesterday afternoon, 61 power outages across the county left 44,000 customers without service. By 10:45 p.m., 18,500 customers were without power, according to San Diego Gas & Electric spokesman Peter Hidalgo. The county's electricity usage hit an all-time high of 4,502 megawatts at 2:45 p.m., up from a peak of 4,163 megawatts Friday.

“It's kind of like if you had a toaster you used a lot and it shorted out,” Hidalgo said. “It's truly due to excessive heat.”

[...]

In Northern California, a major power plant tripped off line as temperatures climbed, trimming electricity reserves to below acceptable levels and prompting the state's grid manager to declare a Stage 1 emergency and urge conservation.

This is the shape (and temp) of things to come.

[UPDATE] And it's not just happening here on the West Coast; New York City is also experiencing areas of blackouts:

Residents faced another day in darkened, sweltering homes and apartments with spoiling food, no air-conditioning or elevators and no immediate relief in sight.

Mr. Bloomberg said at a news conference this morning that 12,000 Consolidated Edison customers in Queens, or an estimated 36,000 to 48,000 people, remained without power.

[...]

An American Red Cross official said the relief organization delivered 20,000 meals and 25,000 bottles of water today and planned to distributed another 22,000 meals.