As Cold Fronts Hit America, Half a Million Lose Power (go.com) 127
More than 126,000 Californians are without electricity, reports ABC News. But Reuters notes that meanwhile "more than 400,000 customers of Detroit based DTE Energy remained without power on Saturday, the Detroit News reported," suffering through "a separate storm that clobbered the U.S. Plains, Midwest and Great Lakes regions earlier this week" that finally moved over the Atlantic.
And ABC News notes that as of Saturday morning, "more than 30 million Americans are under weather alerts in the West" — roughly 1 in 11 Americans — "ranging from blizzard warnings in the mountains near Los Angeles to wind chill alerts in the Northern Plains" near Wyoming. But California's problems came from its own major storm that delivered heavy snow, record rainfall, and damaging winds — a storm that "will be moving from southern California across the entire country over the next few days, eventually moving northeast by Tuesday." The Los Angeles area saw record rainfall on Friday, and it came along with 50- to 70-mile-per-hour winds. Burbank, California, saw 4.6 inches of rain Friday — stranding cars in floods and causing dozens of flight delays and cancellations. Records for daily rainfall were also set at the Los Angeles International Airport and the cities of Fresno, Bakersfield, Modesto and Oxnard.... Multiple stretches of I-5 in Los Angeles County were shuttered on Saturday due to rain and snow.
Snowflakes even fell around the "Hollywood" sign, reports Reuters. But bad weather wasn't just hitting southern California: In Northern California, San Francisco was expected to experience record cold temperatures on Saturday, and the National Weather Service warned residents of the state capital of Sacramento to avoid travel from Sunday through Wednesday as rain and snow started up again after a reprieve on Saturday. "Extreme impacts from heavy snow & winds will cause extremely dangerous to impossible driving conditions & likely widespread road closures & infrastructure impacts!" the agency said on Twitter. The next set of storms, expected to hit on Sunday, will bring wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour (80 kph) in the Sacramento Valley, and up to 70 miles per hour in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains....
A massive low-pressure system driven from the Arctic was responsible for the unusual conditions, said Bryan Jackson, a forecaster at the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
This week one political cartoonist suggested a connection between "crazy weather" and climate change.
And ABC News notes that as of Saturday morning, "more than 30 million Americans are under weather alerts in the West" — roughly 1 in 11 Americans — "ranging from blizzard warnings in the mountains near Los Angeles to wind chill alerts in the Northern Plains" near Wyoming. But California's problems came from its own major storm that delivered heavy snow, record rainfall, and damaging winds — a storm that "will be moving from southern California across the entire country over the next few days, eventually moving northeast by Tuesday." The Los Angeles area saw record rainfall on Friday, and it came along with 50- to 70-mile-per-hour winds. Burbank, California, saw 4.6 inches of rain Friday — stranding cars in floods and causing dozens of flight delays and cancellations. Records for daily rainfall were also set at the Los Angeles International Airport and the cities of Fresno, Bakersfield, Modesto and Oxnard.... Multiple stretches of I-5 in Los Angeles County were shuttered on Saturday due to rain and snow.
Snowflakes even fell around the "Hollywood" sign, reports Reuters. But bad weather wasn't just hitting southern California: In Northern California, San Francisco was expected to experience record cold temperatures on Saturday, and the National Weather Service warned residents of the state capital of Sacramento to avoid travel from Sunday through Wednesday as rain and snow started up again after a reprieve on Saturday. "Extreme impacts from heavy snow & winds will cause extremely dangerous to impossible driving conditions & likely widespread road closures & infrastructure impacts!" the agency said on Twitter. The next set of storms, expected to hit on Sunday, will bring wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour (80 kph) in the Sacramento Valley, and up to 70 miles per hour in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains....
A massive low-pressure system driven from the Arctic was responsible for the unusual conditions, said Bryan Jackson, a forecaster at the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
This week one political cartoonist suggested a connection between "crazy weather" and climate change.
Plug those cars in (Score:3, Insightful)
EVs to the rescue when the power grid keeps failing.
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not going much of anywhere when there's a eighth inch of ice in Detroit, snow is easy ice is glued down for a day or 2
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Won't help because the outages are from downed power lines. Sorry to spoil your gloat.
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Doesn't matter what the reason is, there was no power. People get it screwed up, it isn't about the efficiency of storing power, batteries over hydrogen. It is the reliability of delivering the power. We have reliable gas distribution, we don't have reliable power distribution and it is getting worse. And outside of North America and Europe, daily outages for 2/3 or more of the population is NORMAL; because the electrical power infrastructure is so bad. Something that will take decades to fix. That is 80% o
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That is 80% of the world's population.
Yeah, and it's also a significant portion of the world's population who don't own cars. When trying to solve the world's emissions problems it's best to focus on the countries which are the biggest source of emissions and have the largest per capita vehicle ownership. Incidentally they are countries you rightfully claim largely don't have any power issues.
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Power goes out and all the gas stations close around here. It's not like gas is better during a power outage, especially if cold enough that you need a block heater or battery charger to warm up the battery so the gas powered (diesel is worse) vehicle can start.
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We have unreliable gas distribution though. Or at least unsafe. We had explosions due to decades of neglect.
As for the rest of the world, yes, the power grid sucks, so much is jury rigged. A lot of countries focus only on the wealthy and the rest make do figuring out how to get power. America could have been like that but on occasions there were some in power that tried to give universal access.
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Won't help because the outages are from downed power lines. Sorry to spoil your gloat.
Wait, did you think the parent wanted to help others? The point was EVs in conjunction with an inverter can provide power to your house when external power is lost. People are already hacking together equipment to do that, and the idea is so prevalent that Ford offer this functionality off the shelf: https://www.ford.com/trucks/f1... [ford.com] (see the very first feature mentioned on their website).
California needs the rain (Score:5, Informative)
The drought they've been experiencing for years [latimes.com] is slowly being rolled back as a series of storms have hit the state over the past few months. Even the higher elevations are seeing significant snowfall which means a decent run off come spring/summer.
Considering how much food comes from California, anything short of a monsoon will be welcomed. The state has recently been working to ensure it gets what it needs [fastcompany.com] from the Colorado River to the detriment of closer populations.
Re:California needs the rain (Score:5, Insightful)
The drought they've been experiencing for years [latimes.com] is slowly being rolled back as a series of storms have hit the state over the past few months. Even the higher elevations are seeing significant snowfall which means a decent run off come spring/summer.
Unfortunately it's going to take years to replenish the water in the aquifers that have been heavily mined during the drought.
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Too much of that rainwater is washing out to sea.
Re:California needs the rain (Score:5, Informative)
Same as every state. When the rain falls near the coast there's not much to catch it. It needs to be inland and in quantities that allow it to soak into the ground and fill the aquifers. A storm with flooding all at once just causes things to drain off to the sea; part of the reason flooding even happens in the flat lands is because the ground saturates and won't hold more.
Re: California needs the rain (Score:1)
You do know that, at least in Los Angeles, they channel it directly into the ocean, right? The major exception is Marina del Rey, because they don't want all of the urban pollutants washing into an area that Hollywood celebrities often visit and/or live in, so they channel it around that to places like Venice, where even the houses are made out of tents.
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You can't really put a dam in Los Angeles. It's kind of flat...
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No one said put dams anywhere. You can however do something more sensible than channel it directly into the sea while cementing over the entire surface of the city.
Re: California needs the rain (Score:2)
Los Angeles definitely isn't flat. Not at all in fact. You know where the Hollywood sign is right? And you know what's west of Santa Monica right? In fact, Malibu sits right on the edge of a mountain.
Also even look at South Beach. Along most of it is a big ridge line. The particular house I'm in is near the beach, yet the beach isn't even visible because you have to go over a big hill to get to it. On the other side though, you can see for miles into the cityscape.
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Yes, but how do you dam it up over in the hills?
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Easy: You don't. It might interest you to know that California already has to pump a lot of water over mountains. Conceivably going the opposite direction wouldn't be a problem, but they really shouldn't even need to. The ideal way is to channel them into washes, lakes, and retention basins, treating for pollutants where necessary, and letting it replenish the groundwater. In fact, the natural landscape here in LA does that pretty well, but California fucked this up badly:
https://angeles.sierraclub.org... [sierraclub.org]
As
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The pumping is political. People up north complain that their water is pumped to the south, farmers complain that it's pumped past them, etc. But my point was that if it rains in LA, or San Franscisco, and it ends up in the ocean, then that's not something easily solved. To keep rain water from flowing to the sea you need to dam it or have collection poinds.
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In other words, storm basins. That's exactly what Phoenix has. Some thousand odd. They only turn into ponds when it rains, but outside of bad weather they're just ordinary recreational parks. They sometimes serve as recreational when they're full as well as I've seen some people kayak in them now and then.
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Or you know, they could use their channel system to fill their still-not-full reservoirs.
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The aquifers aren't going to be replenished.
That's what they told us the last time a drought was busted here in the Northeast. "These downpours aren't doing anything"
I was quite skeptical. Yes it makes a certain amount of sense that if there are downpours, there will be more runoff. But the ground has a pretty good ability to absorb water. be it a gentle kissing from god to the earth of light drizzle, or deluges reminiscent of the great flood.
And remarkably, the groundwater recharged nicely.Drought went away, and we've been pretty damp ever sinc
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That's what they told us the last time a drought was busted here in the Northeast. "These downpours aren't doing anything"
The Northeast gets a lot more rain than most of California.
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That's what they told us the last time a drought was busted here in the Northeast. "These downpours aren't doing anything"
The Northeast gets a lot more rain than most of California.
I'm not certain that was to be taken from my comment. Yes it rains more here in the Northeast - but water and gravity and soil and rock permeability is pretty similar here to California if not exactly the same. due to local geology. And people trot out some tired memes like It's raining too hard - this won't work. If it keeps raining this hard all the time - we're going to be a desert." 8) I was replying to:
"The aquifers aren't going to be replenished." which you wrote.
It is pretty difficult to believ
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It is pretty difficult to believe that precipitation is not going to replenish aquifers - the water in them got there somehow before the drought. Can you explain how that will not happen?
The main issue is that we're pulling more water out of them than is going into them. This is different than the east coast, because you get enough rain to fill them up, faster than they are being exhausted (presumably). In California, people have been digging deeper and deeper wells...The area around Bakersfield has also seen some land subsidence.
Historically, along the coast, wells have removed fresh water, allowing ocean water to seep in. I don't know if that's happening now.
Your comment did make me g
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The drought they've been experiencing for years [latimes.com] is slowly being rolled back as a series of storms have hit the state over the past few months. Even the higher elevations are seeing significant snowfall which means a decent run off come spring/summer.
Unfortunately it's going to take years to replenish the water in the aquifers that have been heavily mined during the drought.
That is true, but ya gotta start somewhere when breaking a drought. Your statement reminds me of the last drought we had in the Northeast. Maybe 15 years ago. Droughts break like they do, often quickly and with a lot of rain.
The weather people were whining about how with the torrential rain, almost none of it soaks into the ground. It's almost all runoff that goes to the oceans. So don't get happy about these downpours people - that aren't doing any good. What is needed is several years of constant light
Was it really drought? (Score:5, Interesting)
From what I've read, what really happened is that we moved into California and started recording rainfall during an unusually wet period, and thus set "drought conditions" to be more "normal weather", than what a real Californian drought would be.
IE the land is dryer, on average, then what they figured on. Of course, they still set water usage rights to 110% of the already inflated rainfall estimates.
In addition, you have a problem with the farmers using the most wasteful forms of irrigation because they weren't being charged for the water at all, nor limited in its use.
From what I've read, the farmers could drastically cut water use for their crops - but that would cost a good deal of money to update irrigation systems and methods.
Re:Was it really drought? (Score:5, Interesting)
Farmers do pay for the use of water, but it's usually a flat rate. But the biggest issue is the use it or lose it part that's enshrined in law. Farmers are by nature very conservative people (in the literal sense), so saving water is actually something most farmers really want to do. But if irrigation districts reduce their consumption, they will lose rights to that water permanently. It's way more nuanced than you make it. The laws need to change, no doubt about it. Farmers need to be able to lease or sell their water rights and even be rewarded for reducing their consumption on a long-term basis.
Of course there are farmers (I use the word loosely because they aren't farmers at all) such as the crazy wealthy guy who lives in Vegas who have accumulated huge tracts of land in California and amassed water rights, some legit and some not, to the detriment of everyone around them.
Yes modern low-pressure pivot systems are expensive, and they require electricity that flooding does not. I'm in favor of government efficiency incentives, but I can understand opposition to them. Not sure what the answer is. Food is everyone's business really, and the huge gap between the majority of the population and where the food comes from is a big problem. I remember hearing a woman being interviewed on TV about a water dispute saying, "I don't understand why farmers need all that water. Why can't they buy their food at a grocery store like everyone else." That kind of ignorance is pretty hard to overcome.
Re:Was it really drought? (Score:5, Insightful)
Much of the San Joaquin valley was a lake for several months a year even as recently as 100 years ago. Draining it for farms means it doesn't go into aquifers. Then the irrigation and town water came from pumping out of the aquifers - enough so that the average elevation dropped dozens of feet and caused damage to roads, buildings, canals, over the decades. The aquifer can't recover to original levels even if people leave because the ground compacted and compressed.
Many farmers are changing irrigation methods. The problem is that many also are not. They'll keep farming the way their grandparents did, why change? If there's a water shortage the most common response is to blame the governor (which is weird because we've never had a dictator as governor, and it's always supposedly the current governor at fault never the ones in the past). Politics gets in the way of many things. Smaller farms seem to do much better in this regard, the big corporatized farms with good water rights don't care as much.
When it comes to water usage, water meters are rare. Not just in California but across America. You pay a rate and you use as much as you want in many places. Only when there's a drought or the town pays for dam rights is there a concern about actual usage. The meters don't stop water usage or necessarily cause conservation just by themselves, but it's a good start to actually know where water is used and how much.
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That would be nice. In my area of North Carolina, our waste fee is 2x (or more) the water fee. Last month, I only used $40 in water, but was billed for $145, the rest was sewage fee and other fees. However, our sewer system was built for a military base back pre-WWII, and we live in the watershed for the lake the large city nearby uses (but we dont), so they have to meet certain requirements for discharge, meaning its barely keeping up. The water company is trying to secure a 30 million dollar loan (f
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Depending on (or at least, strongly correlated with) the phases of various ocean mean temperature fluctuations, the US west experiences either wetter weather (early/late 1900s) or drier weather (late 1800s, mid 20 century, 21st century so far). And it's absolutely correct that current water agreements were signed early in the 20th century, during an era of significantly higher rainfall than currently prevails on average.
The problem is bei
Re:California needs the rain (Score:5, Insightful)
Unsure here. The reservoirs are not filling up. Getting 50% more rain that normal in one month does not erase 8 years of drought. It's nice in the mountains but it's had very low snow pack over the last several years also. We'd need another good month of rain, and also not a drought in 2024, then we can stop holding our breaths.
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Considering how much food comes from California, anything short of a monsoon will be welcomed.
That's not how anything works. The land and water infrastructure can only absorb so much, and after that you just get flooding and runoff. What we need is extended periods of light to moderate rain, not any amount of heavy rain.
As a Floridian who has been through several storms (Score:2, Informative)
I was going to recommend a portable generator, and one of those Chinese diesel heaters if you live in a place where there's a possibility of freezing to death if your power goes out. You're looking at between $250 to $800 (depending on brand and features) for a portable generator that'll run all your small electronics and keep the lights and fridge going, and around $120 or so for the diesel heater.
But then I remembered California is banning ICE-powered generators in 2028. Not sure how California feels ab
Re:As a Floridian who has been through several sto (Score:5, Informative)
Well, some quick review says that you'll really want to buy one now then, because the ban is on SALES not USE.
That said, at least some solar(even if not enough to run HVAC) + at least a small battery and the necessary functionality to disconnect from the grid would work.
As for the diesel heaters - probably not on their scope, plus it's easy to not have them produce excessive NOx and such.
Finally, it only affects gasoline generators - if you really need one, diesel and propane are still an option. Given my experience with other bans involving California, I fully expect that stores will sell "repair" and "conversion" kits, depending on what the law states, that will "repair" a new propane generator to be able to use gasoline. Given that propane generators are really gasoline ones with different carburetors and fuel source on them. Though you might not have the nice integrated tank.
Or you'll just have to run propane tanks more.
I'll also note that due to medical use by at least some, they'll probably sneak in an exemption in the next 5 years or so if longer term battery backups + solar doesn't address the problem - even if it ends up being a smaller solar install that is JUST for the medical devices.
Re:As a Floridian who has been through several sto (Score:4, Informative)
During the pandemic, I bought a portable Honda generator and immediately converted it to Propane without putting a single drop of gasoline through it. Because when the gasoline in your generator has turned to varnish through lack of use, your generator isn't going to work when you need it.
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Finally, it only affects gasoline generators - if you really need one, diesel and propane are still an option.
Yes, stationary generators that are typically installed for a whole-house backup solution are exempt. I have doubts propane is truly a loophole for portable generators, because as you said, it is trivial to run a small gasoline engine from propane and there'd probably be a big market for propane powered lawn equipment if that was an acceptable workaround. Here in Florida though, propane is kind of expensive and it's more cost effective to just stock up on gas prior to an approaching storm, then dump it in
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Banning the SALE and not USE of something only postpones the problem by the roughly 2 years it takes until the thing craps out on you because of its prospective "lifetime".
Remember, we need our appliances to be cheap and that means that they are built to be replaced soon because, well, profit is in selling, not in you using it forever.
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Banning the SALE and not USE of something only postpones the problem by the roughly 2 years it takes until the thing craps out on you because of its prospective "lifetime".
If you can go to a neighboring state and buy it, then not only is this a suitable workaround, but a whole industry will appear around making this as easy as possible. There will be a generator store just across the state border on all the major highways. This is exactly how liquor prohibition works with dry counties, too. Liquor stores just open up as near as possible. You'll still be able to buy parts, and nine times out of ten what goes wrong on a small engine is in the carburetor... and you replace the w
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So technically, just like the internet treats censorship like damage and routes around it, citizens treat silly laws like damage and route around it.
Can't say I don't like it.
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Are you made of fucking money? Time to fucking share.
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I don't need to tell them that, people already do that. They buy expensive shit, and since manufacturers know that their shit has to work for 2 years according to EU warranty laws, this is as long as these things will work.
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On the other hand, I have a standby generator that is over a decade old and still starts on the first pull because, well, I take care of the damn thing.
If the generator is crapping out on you after only two years, odds are you're not doing the required maintenance:
1. Fuel Stabilizer
2. Actually start it monthly or so.
3. Change the oil as required.
Etc...
Most people who have them crap out use crappy old gasoline without stabilizer, so you end up with varnish clogging the carb, don't start it until they need
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Given that propane stores better than gasoline why would you convert a propane generator to gas?
I've gotten through wintertime power outages with an inverter connected to a trolling motor battery to power the fan in the wood stove.
In summer I have used a larger inverter connected to the trucks alternator to run the refrigerator and the freezer to keep the food from spoiling. It takes about 45 minutes of run time every 6 hours to maintain temperatures.
Obviously in winter keeping the food from spoiling is no
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Given that propane stores better than gasoline why would you convert a propane generator to gas?
Probably longer run times, easier extra fuel storage, and maybe easier/cheaper availability of gasoline over propane.
That said, it'll require careful assessment of the economics of the time.
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Oh yeah, and forgot the most important reason: Screwing "the man!" who told them they couldn't do something. They immediately decide that gasoline is obviously superior because it was banned.
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and maybe easier/cheaper availability of gasoline over propane.
Actually specifically in an emergency it is not. When the power is out petrol station pumps don't work. When an emergency is happening, petrol stations usually run dry from the panic buying by people.
Propane generators are specifically recommended in emergencies precisely because of the availability and easy portability of a propane cylinder vs petrol, and it's shelf life as well.
Have you actually done the math? (Score:3)
Have you actually worked through this? Okay, I know my family tends to be a bit better prepared than most. We were slightly prepper before prepping was a thing.
Anyways, the standard 20 lb propane tank carries 4.5 gallons of propane. It's $60 to buy an empty one. It costs $22 to do an exchange, $18 to refill at the local $4/gallon rate.
A 5 gallon can is $27. Gasoline near me is $3/gallon.
So the container is half the price, and the fuel is 25% cheaper.
There's more energy in a gallon of gasoline. [learnmetrics.com]
According
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You're adding a lot of math to a situation that needs none. If you're a prepper, propane stores. Gasoline and diesel doesn't. That's really the end of it unless you have a system of cycling through fuel for continued use.
If you min-max it on cost alone without thinking through the practicalities of what is available, what is the shelf life and when you will need it, you're going to have a bad time.
Again, propane generators are specifically recommended for emergencies. Diesel generators on the other hand are
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You're adding a lot of math to a situation that needs none. If you're a prepper, propane stores. Gasoline and diesel doesn't. That's really the end of it unless you have a system of cycling through fuel for continued use.
Gasoline and diesel store just fine. You know, you can just reread my post above to see that I addressed every single one of your arguments? Plus, trying the no true scotsman argument, are we?
Plus, if that's your only argument, it's a pretty lousy one. Spending less money on the generator allows a prepper to spend more on other things. Min-maxing, yes.
Minmaxing on cost alone: Note how I mentioned shit like rotating my stock, and using the gasoline in my vehicles as well. Hell, there's a prepper thing
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But then I remembered California is banning ICE-powered generators in 2028.
As has been already brought up, this is false. It's a ban on sales, not use. On the other hand, it's already illegal to use a generator in most California cities of any significant size, and also illegal to store any meaningful amount of fuel for them. Even propane tanks are limited in size in many cases.
However, if you live in the sticks, it's generally legal to store a drum of diesel, or big propane tanks, so the people who are most likely to need a generator can have one. (Gasoline generators are the dum
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As has been already brought up, this is false. It's a ban on sales, not use.
That's quibbling over semantics. A sales ban is still a form of ban, and making it so you have to travel to another state to buy a portable generator is ultimately just another "don't be poor in California" law, masquerading as an environmental initiative.
On the other hand, it's already illegal to use a generator in most California cities of any significant size, and also illegal to store any meaningful amount of fuel for them.
There's certainly practical limitations to being able to use a portable generator in an urban environment, since it's unlikely you'd have the physical space outdoors to safely operate the machine. In the suburbs though, space shouldn't be an issue, and w
politico (Score:2)
>"This week one political cartoonist suggested a connection between "crazy weather" and climate change."
Like that is any surprise.
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Sorry I don't understand your post. Are you saying something about Politico ignoring the fact that satirical comics for news agencies the world over have been posting similar comics for the past 5 years?
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> are you saying something about Politico
That seems likely. Politico is just a club for neeredowell reporters who suck up to power to get a 'scoop'. It never is - just a made up narrative.
And that linked cartoon isn't even a little bit clever. It's the same meme that's been circulating for two decades.
The midwits get off on this kind of content, so they're writing for their audience, which is one business model. This editor seems happy, for instance.
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^ Bingo, on all counts
Nuclear for the win (Score:2)
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> hideously expensive to build and operate
Sometimes saving human lives is worth expense.
Not everybody thinks so.
RIP all those solar and wind installers falling to their deaths.
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RIP all those solar and wind installers falling to their deaths.
Also RIP all the nuclear plant construction workers who have died during construction and all the workers who have died around the plants from falling off things, electrocution, etc. Not to mention all the uranium miners who have died in mining accidents and from lung cancer. Then all the people who have died directly from nuclear accidents. Then all the people who have died indirectly from nuclear accidents.
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Nuclear's need for copious amounts of cool water is its Achilles heel. If their water source gets too warm, freezes, or dries up, nuclear plants have to cut their power output or shut down to avoid overheating. We saw that during Europe's heat wave last year.
So nuclear actually struggles with the same weather events that cause problems for everything else, on top of being hideously expensive to build and operate.
They are all Carnot Cycle [wikipedia.org] heat engines, Coal, Gas or Nuclear, what affects one, affects all.
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Only when it's cold. When it's hot it sucks arse which is why Germany was exporting wind and solar power to France last summer.
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What about Texas? (Score:1, Troll)
As a die-hard Slashdot Liberal, I insist that power is restored to California and Detroit immediately, so that I can continue to complain about how Texas power infrastructure is more broken even though there were vastly fewer people in Texas that lost power in 2023 ice storms than in California.
Re:What about Texas? (Score:4, Informative)
I'm in Houston, we haven't had an ice storm in 2023. Today it was about 80 degrees.
There was an ice storm before Christmas 2022, that mostly caused water main breaks.
If you're thinking of the 2021 storm, there were 10 million out of power, so about 100x the figure of 126,000 in California cited in the article.
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My apologies, after reading your post I thought this was about picking the best cherries of data. So I went for the best cherries.
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As a die-hard Slashdot Liberal, I insist that power is restored to California and Detroit immediately, so that I can continue to complain about how Texas power infrastructure is more broken even though there were vastly fewer people in Texas that lost power in 2023 ice storms than in California.
That sure is a nice first world country you got there!
Power delivery, grids, infrastructure, and unsexy (Score:2)
The reasons people in the US lose power after storms come in two varieties.
1. "Last mile" downage of above ground powerlines or infrastructure due to the elements. Rotting older wooden power poles and substations and generators that can't handle being "buried" in snow or pooling water have been this way for the last century. More modern countries either use underground facilities, or facilities hardened against the elements. It's not as political as one might think -- neither of the two parties find fun
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Surely the decay of US infrastructure must be due to communist infiltrators from Russia, China or North Korea? Maybe even Islamic extremists? They come to the USA and deliberately make you spend zero money on your infrastructure, FORCING America to, instead, spend its money on global military domination!
How dare they! You must build MORE nuclear aircraft carriers with squadrons of F35's!
Remember, Americans, it isn't your fault! Its those Chinese and other foreign powers that are threatening your way of life
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"while pandering to the isolationism of the central Texas grid"
The Texas grid isn't going to do California much good. The economics of moving significant amounts of power over these distances just to keep SoCal's Jacuzzis running during the occasional storm just isn't there. Stop expecting the rest of the country to send you stuff.
Snowflakes in Hollywood
Yeah. I lived near there for a year as a kid. I walked to school one October day in shirt sleeves. Teacher called my parents and asked if they were too poor to buy me a jacket. M
Snowflakes (Score:3, Funny)
Snowflakes fell around the Hollywood sign.
I see what you did there
Re: (Score:2)
Well, you have to admit, this is unusual, if not to say, special.
This was definitely unusual (Score:2)
California gets lots of snow, just not at such low altitudes. I just got back online after a couple days and here's what I saw directly: roughly a foot (30cm) of heavy, wet "Sierra Cement" and this is at about 1600 ft. elevation in the *coast ranges*, not even the foot hills where might be a bit more expected.
The vegetation here hasn't seen anything like this in decades. There are some species of oak that lose their leaves like back east, but there are others that hold leaves all year long. The snow st
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I'm curious what kind of damage may have occurred to their sprinkler systems. In Idaho (parents are there) they will hire a person to blow all the water out of the sprinkler system, then cap it off so that it doesn't damage the lines. Their neighbor was nice enough to tell them this as it wasn't something that occurred to them having lived in southern states their whole lives up until a few years ago. I certainly wouldn't of thought to do so.
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Probably not a big issue. For home gardeners like myself, irrigation is Summer-only and the lines are drained in the Fall. Owners of vineyards and such are professionals and will be on top of it. The weather has been cold, but not Idaho cold. The ground is not frozen to any appreciable depth in areas where it doesn't usually freeze.
Wobbly blue dot (Score:1)
As it has been every year (Score:2)
German Rail is as surprised as US Energy that Winter is cold and there might be snow.
Just the early, benign beginnings... (Score:1)
This will get progressively worse for the next 100 years or so. Has been reliably predicted for something like 40 years now and anybody surprised is just ignorant.
Re: (Score:1)
No, what's ignorant is thinking this hasn't happened before. The claims of "records" in this article are false. LAX for example received 2.04 inches of water yet received 5.71 inches on January 26, 1956.
Stop the hysteria. Calm your tits. It's called "weather."
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Nope. Seriously. Stop pushing uninformed garbage.
Solar Power is the Solution (Score:1)
It will definitely keep you home warm in a Blizzard
Re: (Score:2)
Based on actual numbers divide the official power rating by 14 and you will be close to heavy gloom performance. Since this is in CA the winter days don't get as short as they further north. Day time here runs 8 hours in December,
We are back up to 11 hours now, on our way to 16 in the summer.
Carrington Event (Score:2)
These little outages make news whist a Carrington would take out power in many parts of the country for years.
We could have upgraded our power grid to handle it for the cost of the Ukraine War to date, but that would be actual infrastructure spending, and not graft for the blowing-shit-up companies.
"Representative Democracy" is a total scam.
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Carrington wouldn't have the same effect as in ye olden days, communication and monitoring is far better.
It's not an EMP, it's just a tiny bit of DC power in an AC system ... ohh it can generate enough voltage to jump a telegraph key, so can my piezo lighter. A black start would still be a huge disruption, but only truly retarded operators would let the transformers blow.
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Given we have thousand mile antennas it it might be quite a lot of DC power on the AC system, but otherwise you are correct. They will see it coming and can open the breakers. A power outage for a day will be much better than letting the transformers arc out.
Re: (Score:2)
Wouldn't we have to react in like under 8 minutes or so. That's a very tiny window for everyone to magically turn off the system before the flare gets to Earth. Shielded systems would probably be okay, such as the military but I couldn't see how the average civilian systems could possibly be shut down in that time frame to avoid a catastrophe.
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The charged particles that make up the event do not travel at the speed of light. We'd get the same warning we get for any other coronal mass ejection.
Don't confuse a nuclear pumped EMP with a Carrington event. They work by different mechanisms. Gamma rays Compton scattering in the upper atmosphere for the first, displacement of earth's magnetic field lines for the second.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://www.dhs.gov/science-an... [dhs.gov]
By the way (Score:2)
Here in the Northeast where I am, (PA) we really had no winter to speak of. The few cold snaps we got weren't long enough to freeze the ground, a lot of mid 50's to low 60's, and even a 75 degree day tossed in.
Californians (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
handy graphic for the feeble minded. https://xkcd.com/1732/ [xkcd.com]
Re: The Wrath of the Awakened Saxon (Score:1, Offtopic)