Amid a heat wave and record temperatures, thousands in Fresno are experiencing power outages
Amid an intense summer heat wave with temperatures soaring to record highs, thousands in the Fresno area were dealing with a power outage.
And that doesn’t make for just uncomfortable conditions — it could be dangerous for those impacted who aren’t able to move to a cooler spot.
As of about 6 p.m., at least 12 power outages had been reported around the Fresno area, according to the Pacific Gas & Electric outage map.
The number of households dealing with no power ranged as high as about 5,500, with the majority of those in northwest Fresno.
“If people don’t have an AC or their AC unit can’t keep up, heat waves aren’t just hot — they can become deadly,” said Colin McKellar, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hanford.
PG&E had not posted an estimated time that power would be restored.
After Fresno a day earlier set a record for the hottest temperature on any previous June 18, another record was established Saturday as the city hit 111 degrees.
The old record for June 19 was 108, set in 2017.
Many daily record highs were set across the central San Joaquin Valley on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service:
- Madera hit a record 108 degrees
- Merced tied its all-time high of 107
- Hanford reached a record 111
- Porterville logged a record 110 degrees
- Bakersfield posted a record of 110 and appeared to be on track to set another daily record — wiith temperatures never dropping below 82 degrees.
Even typically cooler areas were dealing with major heat. Shaver Lake reached 88; the average temperature is 75 degrees.
“When you get this hot, it stays hot at night and things don’t cool down,” McKellar said. “Heat waves happen in this area. Highs like this, it’s more common to get in July and August. But record temperatures do happen this early sometimes.
“And it looks like it’s going to be warm the rest of June and the rest of this summer.”
This story was originally published June 19, 2021 at 7:35 PM.