The Oil Drum

Grin - well I have been remarkable quiet and well behaved for perhaps a bit too long! And it may be that the heat is getting to me, since the heat wave that struck California last week is now hitting the East Coast. Now in the process it is still passing the Great American Fly-over Zone, where all those ethanol producing corn crops are busily growing - or not, since many of the states are having a drought. But, as was pointed out in comments, this will have more effect next year, than this. However, my mischief button was pressed when I heard a reporter saying that it was hotter than it has been in the region since 1936, during the dust bowl days. So, being one of them curious folks, I went to take a look. If you have read my earlier post along these lines you might not want to look below the fold.

It has been suggested, given the demands for electricity around the country, and the outages that are occuring for various reasons (St Louis and NYC being the two most obvious, although neither were due directly to demand apparently), that we get all the information together in a single thread. (It also might help those of us planning to go somewhere if we know that there won't be power when we get there). So, gentle folk, can we collect the stories here ?

UPDATE: 10:18 pm EST Courtesy of step back the California ISO is predicting a peak demand tomorrow of 52,336 megawatts, which is higher than Friday’s record 49,036 megawatts, as cyclelicious tells us. And as our Alpha Male just noted, Santa Rosa just had a power loss. (From comments brought forward).