Olga Ospina's Forecast

She's a sweetie.

For KCBS Los Angeles:

Megan Parry's Mild Weather Forecast

My buddy up in Fresno emailed and mentioned it was up to 111 degrees up there, and of course we had the record-setting temperatures in Death Valley a few days back (130 degrees, yikes!). 

But here in the Southland it's been a truly mild summer, with temps actually below average for this time of years.

Here's the lovely Ms. Megan, who is expecting:

Unholy Heat! Temperature Hits 130 Degrees in Death Valley! (VIDEO)

We've all been inside --- and running the air condition literally all day long.

At the New York Times, "Death Valley Hits 130 Degrees as Heat Wave Sweeps the West":

FURNACE CREEK, Calif. — For Gary Bryant, the tenth-of-a-mile walk from his modular home to the air-conditioned restaurant where he was working on Saturday was “quite enough” time outside.

Mr. Bryant, 64, knows the risks of summer temperatures in Death Valley. He once collapsed under a palm tree from heat exhaustion and had to crawl toward a hose spigot to douse himself with water.

Mr. Bryant has lived and worked in Death Valley for 30 years, happy to balance the brutal summer heat with the soaring mountain vistas, but even he admits that the high temperatures in recent years were testing his limits. The temperature soared to 130 degrees on Friday and approached that again on Saturday. It was forecast to hit 130 again on Sunday.

“The first 20 summers were a breeze,” he said. “The last 10 have been a little bit tougher.”

The blistering weekend heat, one of the highest temperatures ever recorded on Earth, matched a similar level from August 2020. Those readings could set records if verified, as an earlier record of 134 degrees in 1913 has been disputed by scientists.

Much of the West is facing further record-breaking temperatures over the coming days, with over 31 million people in areas under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories. It is the third heat wave to sweep the region this summer.

The extreme temperatures that scorched the Pacific Northwest in late June led to nearly 200 deaths in Oregon and Washington State as people struggled to keep cool in poorly air-conditioned homes, on the street and in fields and warehouses.

The same “heat dome” effect that enveloped the Northwest — in which hot, dry ground traps heat and accelerates rising temperatures — has descended on California and parts of the Southwest this weekend.

Sarah Rogowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that daytime highs between 100 and 120 degrees were hitting parts of California. Most dangerously, temperatures will remain high into the night, hovering 15 to 25 degrees above average.

“When you start getting those warm temperatures overnight combined with those high temperatures during the day, it really starts to build the effect,” Ms. Rogowski said. “People aren’t able to cool off; it’s a lot harder to get relief.”

 

Memorial Day Holiday Weather with Meteorologist Leah Pezzetti

It's looking pretty overcast. It's the end of May, though, so folks can normally expect the June "gloom" anyway. 

Here's the lovely Ms. Leah, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

Ted Cruz's Cancún Blunder

Following-up from yesterday, "Ted Cruz Flew to Cancun with His Family Amid Power Crisis in Texas (VIDEO)."

I wanted to highlight this NYT piece on Senator Cruz, which is kinda shocking in its details. What's so interesting is the text messages Cruz's wife sent out before the trip, to some of her neighbors and friends in Houston, which were later leaked to the press, which I guess seems both naturally appropriate and gross and sleazy at the same time.

See, "Ted Cruz's Cancún Trip: Family Texts Detail His Political Blunder":

Like millions of his constituents across Texas, Senator Ted Cruz had a frigid home without electricity this week amid the state’s power crisis. But unlike most, Mr. Cruz got out, fleeing Houston and hopping a Wednesday afternoon flight to Cancún with his family for a respite at a luxury resort.

Photos of Mr. Cruz and his wife, Heidi, boarding the flight ricocheted quickly across social media and left both his political allies and rivals aghast at a tropical trip as a disaster unfolded at home. The blowback only intensified after Mr. Cruz, a Republican, released a statement saying he had flown to Mexico “to be a good dad” and accompany his daughters and their friends; he noted he was flying back Thursday afternoon, though he did not disclose how long he had originally intended to stay.

Text messages sent from Ms. Cruz to friends and Houston neighbors on Wednesday revealed a hastily planned trip. Their house was “FREEZING,” as Ms. Cruz put it — and she proposed a getaway until Sunday. Ms. Cruz invited others to join them at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún, where they had stayed “many times,” noting the room price this week ($309 per night) and its good security. The text messages were provided to The New York Times and confirmed by a second person on the thread, who declined to be identified because of the private nature of the texts.

For more than 12 hours after the airport departure photos first emerged, Mr. Cruz’s office declined to comment on his whereabouts. The Houston police confirmed that the senator’s office had sought their assistance for his airport trip on Wednesday, and eventually Mr. Cruz was spotted wheeling his suitcase in Mexico on Thursday as he returned to the state he represents in the Senate...

Now who was it who leaked those texts to the New York Times? I mean, if you can't trust your "friends and neighbors," who can you trust (that is, if you should be trusting these same "friends" and "neighbors" with this kind of bombshell "vacation" planning in the first place)?

That said, for the second day this story's headlining at Memeorandum, so you know hated-addled leftists can't get their fill of their hateful demonic schadenfreude. *Shrugs.*

ADDED: Via Ashley Parker on Twitter, and yes, it is funny. "Cancún-gate," lol. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

 

In Frigid Texas, Desperate Families Take Risks to Stay Warm

Very, very dangerous risks, as it turns out.

At WSJ, "Parents resort to gas stoves or build fires inside their homes during power outages, with no relief in sight":  

AUSTIN, Texas—The children played in front of four lighted gas burners in East Austin on Tuesday night as their family tried to warm up during days of subfreezing temperatures, no power, and no relief on the horizon.

One-year-old Alex Johnson Jr. toddled, his brother Gabriel Brewster, 3, played with a toy, and their cousin Desiah Fisher, 6, hugged them close, as eight other family members huddled around the light of a single candle. Charlene Brewster, the mother of the boys and a 4-month-old daughter, said she knows how dangerous it is to try to heat an apartment with a gas stove. She had no option but to try it for a little while, she said.

“I know carbon monoxide poisoning, but what else can we do?” said Ms. Brewster, a city of Austin crossing guard. “Is anyone going to help us? I have a baby in here.”

t was a level of desperation many others in Texas had reached, days into a power grid shutdown during one of the coldest weeks in a generation. Like others across the state, Ms. Brewster’s family lost electricity—and, with it, heat—late Sunday night, before a snowstorm closed most of the city and temperatures plunged to single digits. As of midday Wednesday, officials had no estimate of when power might return.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the power grid in the state, ordered blackouts to prevent damage to the electricity system after frozen power plants and a shortfall of natural gas required to run the plants limited power production.

In the public-housing complex where Ms. Brewster lives, help seemed far away. Those who risked driving were likely to meet blocked roadways or iced-over hills that many drivers couldn’t traverse. Those who called the city’s help line for transportation to an emergency warming shelter met only busy phone lines, they said. Many said they had no water or had run out of food. Most businesses had been closed all week.

Daylan Cook, 18, said he had built a fire inside a ceramic pot in his apartment living room, aided by hand sanitizer and gasoline. LaShay Thomas, 34, said she had developed a migraine headache from fumes and had begged neighbors to turn gas burners off, despite the vicious cold.

City officials urged residents not to resort to dangerous measures for heat. The Austin Fire Department reported responding to fires at several houses that likely began in fireplaces and to several toxic-exposure calls from residents using charcoal in their homes. The local emergency medical services department said it had responded to 63 carbon monoxide exposure calls in 2 1/2 days. In Houston, the local public health authority said the city was seeing record numbers of carbon monoxide poisonings, including at least two deaths.

Sharice Owens and Tosha Henderson, who are sisters, said they had tried to build a fire in Ms. Henderson’s home, but it quickly got too smoky for Ms. Owens’s three young children. They huddled instead under blankets in Ms. Owens’s apartment, where the kids, ages 4, 5, and 13, begged for warmth and food that the family had no way to cook.

“There’s only so much heat you can generate,” Ms. Henderson said. “It was 10 degrees. There’s only so many covers you can use. We were told there were supposed to be power rotations.”

This seems, how do you say? Criminal? 

I mean, Texas is a G.O.P. state, and the leadership there can't keep the lights on (or homes warm). 

And this related story is practically killing me, "Texas mayor resigns after telling residents without power ‘only the strong will survive’."

I get it: Buckle up, pull yourselves up by the bootstraps, blah, blah. I think the mayor might need a lesson in conservative principles: Government is supposed to be there when all else fails, as the protector of citizens who, through no fault of their own, are left literally powerless, hungry, and in some cases dead. 

Again, if this ain't criminality, I don't know what is. Save the "rugged individualism" for the days when the state government hasn't f*cked over the population so horribly.

California's Dumb Democrats Introduce Bill to Ban Fracking by 2027

Following-up, "Totally Predictable: Unlike the Texas Energy Grid, the Insane Left's Response to Power Outrage is Straight Outta the 'Climate Change' Playbook."

Officials in Texas obviously screwed up, and no doubt a lot of those official are dolts, and mindbogglingly, some of these ERCOT Einsteins live out of state!

But never fear! Here comes the dumbf*ck Democrats of California to the rescue, blasting out of the gate to claim the prize for the most idiotic response to the "climate emergency," and we're not even freezing here, in this once-"Golden State." *Eyes rolling out of my eye sockets!* 

And wouldn't you know it, the biggest stupidity prizewinner is Senator Scott Wiener, "Dolt" from San Francisco. Wiener, if you happen to know, is the author of state legislation a few years back that decriminalized deliberately infecting others with HIV, so if someone was a rampant and promiscuous gay sex addict, hey, buddy, you're off the hook! Infect and kill as many unsuspecting people as you can! We'll look the other way, and say, "It's all good!"

And Wiener has tried for years, and failed miserably, to get the state legislature to pass laws that would actually BAN housing developments outside of the big urban areas, like, you guessed it, San Francisco. Thank goodness brighter minds prevailed, or more powerful lobbying groups, or whatever, because the one thing this state needs to fix our problems --- like the state's exorbitant housing costs and the dearth of high-paying jobs OUTSIDE of the big coastal enclaves --- is MORE residential (and commercial) development in the more sparsely populated parts of California. Duh. 

So, no, I'm not letting up on Texas' stupid state leaders, but California's idiocy is truly hard to beat!

See, at the Sacramento Bee, "Citing climate emergency, California Democrats introduce a bill to ban fracking by 2027":

California would ban hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking, by 2027, under a bill introduced in the State Senate on Wednesday.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Sen. Monique Limón, D-Santa Barbara, also would prohibit the issuance of new permits for fracking, acid well stimulation treatments, cyclic steaming and water and steam flooding beginning in 2022.

In addition, the bill would prevent new or modified permits for oil and gas production from operating within 2,500 feet of homes, schools, health care facilities or long-term care institutions by 2022...

California's cult of Democrat warmists won't stop, of course, so even if yesterday's bill fails, one way or another these clueless leftists will indeed get more bans passed to limit the use of fossil fuels in the state. 

And sure, look at Texas and their rolling blackouts in the literally "once in a century" arctic freeze. But here in California, we're basically one big desert with some nice, Mediterranean weather on the coasts. (Santa Barbara is literally heavenly, but even back in the 1990s, "no-growth" leftists dominated the county's policy-making, and it wasn't until 1999 that local leaders approved permits for a Costco wholesales store to go ahead and build a warehouse.) *My eyes are still stuck in the back of my head from those eye-rolls back in the day.* 

Keep in mind, we very often get rolling blackouts in the SUMMER, because of course people want to pump their air-conditioners. So, just wait: Idiots like Scott Wiener will probably try to ban the "cooling stations" set up every summer, so folks --- especially elderly folks --- can go somewhere and get into the cool shade. *I can't even sometimes, sheesh.*

But what can you do? Move? I would, but I'm stuck here in this la-la land of loony leftists until I retire, which won't be for another 10 years or so. Then what, move to Texas? Oh brother, hopefully folks down in Austin get their act together. In fact, if folks like Ron DeSantis are still running things in the "Sunshine State," maybe I'll move to Tampa Bay, heh.

Totally Predictable: Unlike the Texas Energy Grid, the Insane Left's Response to Power Outrage is Straight Outta the 'Climate Change' Playbook

Everybody saw the first few days of reports, including at outlets like the Houston Chronicle and the Texas Tribune. 

But now these same outlets, and others on the left, like Vice and Yahoo, are pushing back against "internet memes" pointing the blame to Texas' screwed up decision to use "wind farms" to generate power. No doubt some of the natural gas producers also shut down due to the freeze, but c'mon! The idiot "warmists" need to get real. Alternative energy sources are not enough, ever, to keep a state running when extreme weather conditions hit. 

Of all places, CNN has a balanced take, from yesterday, "Frozen wind turbines, limited gas supplies and rolling blackouts: Behind Texas' energy woes":

Some of the warmest places in Texas, where rolling power outages are occurring across the chilly state, are inside cars and trucks parked in the driveway of a home without electricity.

Chey Louis of Irving told CNN his family in Grand Prairie had planned a small socially distanced gathering to celebrate his younger brother's birthday.

But instead of celebrating, they have spent the day trying to stay warm. "They have been in the car all day with the heater on," he said. "The inside of their home has dropped below 40 degrees."

Rolling power blackouts were ordered across Texas on Monday as a winter storm and frigid temperatures gripped the state and knocked out service to more than 4 million customers.

The rotating outages could continue until the state's weather emergency ends, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a major grid operator that controls about 90% of the state's electric load.

Gov. Gregg Abbott said in a Twitter post that the state's power grid has not been compromised.

"The ability of some companies that generate the power has been frozen. This includes the natural gas & coal generators," Abbott wrote, adding that ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas are working to get power back online and will give priority to residential consumers.

Frozen wind turbines and limited gas supplies have hampered the ability to generate enough power, according to a statement from ERCOT.

ERCOT is the "Electric Reliability Council of Texas." Those ERCOT dolts obviously messed up, but at least they're not outright lying about failed wind turbines, unlike the stupid progs pushing back against "internet memes" (apparently, especially the one above). 

Everything is so stupid. Especially everything having to do with stupid leftists. 

And to be honest, it's not just stupidity on the left. I watched Sean Hannity's interview with Texas Governor Greg Abbott the other night, and Hannity could get anything out other than a few softball questions. I mean, c'mon, this is the state's governor. Put the heat on the mofo, sheesh. 

I guess that's one reason I don't watch Hannity that much: While he's a great guy, sometimes it's okay to say the "home team" screwed up. That's called having some "integrity." Sheesh.

What Went Wrong With the Texas Power Grid?

If you read my previous post, and clicked through at the W.S.J., some folks were apparently roaming the streets, wrapped in blankets, looking for food like a scene from "The Road."

And again, it's Texas, for crying out loud! Tucker Carlson was saying last night that if you're out of power in Texas, and families are freezing (and some folks have died), it'd be like starving to death inside a grocery store. Man, I'm still shaking my head. 

At the Houston Chronicle:

Millions of Texans were without heat and electricity Monday as snow, ice and frigid temperatures caused a catastrophic failure of the state’s power grid.

The Texas power grid, powered largely by wind and natural gas, is relatively well equipped to handle the state’s hot and humid summers when demand for power soars. But unlike blistering summers, the severe winter weather delivered a crippling blow to power production, cutting supplies as the falling temperatures increased demand.

Natural gas shortages and frozen wind turbines were already curtailing power output when the Arctic blast began knocking generators offline early Monday morning.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which is responsible for scheduling power and ensuring the reliability of the electrical network, declared a statewide power generation shortfall emergency and asked electricity delivery companies to reduce load through controlled outages.

More than 4 million customers were without power in Texas, including 1.4 million in the Houston area, the worst power crisis in the state in a decade. The forced outages are expected to last at least through part of Tuesday, the state grid manager said.

CenterPoint Energy, the regulated utility that delivers electricity to Houston-area homes and provides natural gas service, started rolling blackouts in the Houston region at the order of state power regulators. It said customers experiencing outages should be prepared to be without power at least through Monday.

“How long is it going to be? I don’t know the answer,” said Kenny Mercado, executive vice president at the Houston utility. “The generators are doing everything they can to get back on. But their work takes time and I don’t know how long it will take. But for us to move forward, we have got to get generation back onto the grid. That is our primary need.”

Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations, said the rolling blackouts are taking more power offline for longer periods than ever before. An estimated 34,000 megawatts of power generation — more than a third of the system’s total generating capacity — had been knocked offline by the extreme winter weather amid soaring demand as residents crank up heating systems.

The U.S. Energy Department, in response to an ERCOT request, issued an order late Monday authorizing power plants throughout the state to run at maximum output levels, even if it results in exceeding pollution limits.

Ed Hirs, an energy fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, blamed the failures on the state’s deregulated power system, which doesn’t provide power generators with the returns needed to invest in maintaining and improving power plants.

“The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” said Hirs. “It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances.

Stunning Alex Biston's Saturday Forecast

She's a hottie!

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Jennifer Delacruz's Monday Forecast

Ms. Jennifer perhaps has some "comorbidities," as she continues to report her weather forecasts from her home (to be on the safe side?), while some of the network's other weather-hotties are back in the studio.

No matter. Ms. Jennifer's a treat, from home or the office.

At ABC News 10 San Deigo:

Evelyn Taft's Saturday Forecast

The two-day storm wasn't that bad in the O.C., compared to other parts of the state.

Here's the beautiful Ms. Evelyn with the weekend forecast, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Evelyn Taft's Weather Scorching Forecast

 It's hot out here today. Just the other night we needed extra blankets when going to sleep.

Weird. 

Here's the fantastic Ms. Evelyn, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Jennifer Delacruz's Sunday Forecast

She's back in her home studio, for ABC 10 News San Diego:

Jennifer Delacruz's Christmas Forecast

Well, I doubt Ms. Jennifer will be under your tree, but have a Merry Christmas in any case!

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

Jennifer Delacruz's Sunday Forecast

She's still at home, or she's back at home, amid the new state lockdown. When will this tyranny ever end, sheesh?

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

Jennifer Delacruz's Monday Forecast

 We ha some winter weather this weekend, and I think it's here to stay for a while.

Let's hear it from the fabulous Ms. Jennifer, for ABC News 10 San Diego:

Jennifer Delacruz's Monday Forecast

It's beautuful fall weather. Great for getting out to vote, not that it'll make any difference to the California G.O.P, despite the surge of open Trump support in the state. 

The lovely Ms. Jennifer is back in her home studio for this forecast, at ABC News 10 San Diego.

Evelyn Taft's Thursday Forecast

 It's been cool, overcast. Its' a nice break from the heat.

Here's the fabulous Ms. Evelyn, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Jennifer Delacruz's Thursday Forecast

She's broadcasting from home again. For ABC 10 News San Diego: