URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGENATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE - LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA - 230 PM PDT WED AUG 15, 2001

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URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA 230 PM PDT WED AUG 15 2001

...AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS AFTERNOON AND THURSDAY FOR THE VALLEYS OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY... AND FOR THE INTERIOR VALLEYS OF SAN LUIS OBISPO...SANTA BARBARA...AND VENTURA COUNTIES...

.HOT CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT INLAND PORTIONS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THROUGH THURSDAY...AS A STRONG UPPER HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE PREVAILS ACROSS THE AREA. SEVERAL VALLEY LOCATIONS HAVE ALREADY BROKEN THE CENTURY MARK TODAY...AND SOME OF THE WARMER VALLEY LOCATIONS ARE EXPECTED TO REACH MAXIMUM TEMPERATURES AS HIGH AS 107 DEGREES. SWELTERING CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE ON THURSDAY...WHERE HEAT INDICES WILL ONCE AGAIN BE AROUND 105 DEGREES FOR A FEW HOURS. THE HEAT WAVE IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE INTO FRIDAY...AND THE EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING MAY NEED TO BE EXTENDED.

PEOPLE SHOULD SLOW DOWN...DRINK PLENTY OF NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES AND FIND RELIEF IN AIR-CONDITIONED BUILDINGS WHEN POSSIBLE. IF YOU MUST BE OUTDOORS...AVOID EXCESSIVE EXPOSURE TO THE HEAT AND TAKE BREAKS WHEN NECESSARY. BE SURE NOT TO LEAVE CHILDREN OR PETS IN ENCLOSED OR EVEN PARTIALLY VENTILATED AUTOMOBILES AS INTERIOR TEMPERATURES CAN QUICKLY RISE TO DANGEROUS OR LIFE-THREATENING LEVELS.

CAZ037-038-044-047-088-160430- SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY INTERIOR VALLEYS- CUYAMA VALLEY- VENTURA COUNTY INTERIOR VALLEYS- LOS ANGELES COUNTY VALLEYS- SANTA CLARITA VALLEY-

...AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE REMAINDER OF THIS AFTERNOON AND THURSDAY... FOR HEAT INDEX VALUES OF AROUND 105 DEGREES DURING THE AFTERNOON HOURS.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), August 15, 2001

Answers

Health warnings issued as heat wave hits Southern California

MASON STOCKSTILL, Associated Press Writer Wednesday, August 15, 2001

(08-15) 17:16 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --

Temperatures soared to triple-digit levels across much of inland Southern California on Wednesday, triggering warnings from health authorities.

"We cannot emphasize enough the need to stay cool," said Dr. James Haughton, the Los Angeles County Health Department's medical director for public health.

The mercury moved beyond 100 degrees in the San Fernando Valley, the Riverside-San Bernardino region east of Los Angeles and in the deserts.

The high temperatures this week marked a significant change from the relatively cool weather that much of California experienced so far this summer, but it wasn't unexpected.

"Hotter than usual? I wouldn't say that. These are some of the hottest days we've had this summer," said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist in the National Weather Service's Oxnard office.

The weather service issued an excessive heat warning for the inland valleys of Riverside and San Bernardino counties covering Wednesday and Thursday. Heat advisories were also issued for the inland areas of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties. Highs were moderate in areas close to the coast.

The heat wave stemmed from a high-pressure system over Southern California that was keeping cool sea breezes from reaching inland areas, Seto said.

"The coastal areas will be pretty warm but still tolerable," he said. "The inland areas and valleys will feel it more."

The hot weather increases the risk of heat stroke or heat exhaustion, and authorities warned people in hot areas to drink plenty of fluids and stay in air-conditioned buildings.

Higher temperatures could also mean blackouts, as energy-hungry air conditioners run for longer periods of time. But Gregg Fishman, a spokesman with the state's power grid, said California's power supplies should hold out.

"We expect to be able to get through this week OK," he said. "Certainly we're keeping an eye on things, and the load is climbing higher than it might have."

Key to the state power supply's ability to weather the heat are consumers' conservation efforts, which Fishman said can decrease electricity demand by as much as 8 percent.

The milder temperatures experienced during much of the summer have meant less power usage, Fishman said. "We've been really lucky."

That luck has also extended to the national forests in Southern California, which have experienced a relatively quiet fire season, said David Kerr, U.S. Forest Service division chief at Angeles National Forest.

But the heat wave has wiped out the advantages of the cool summer -- like higher moisture levels in the forest's plant life -- worsening the fire risk.

"What little bit of available moisture there is in the plants is getting evaporated out. Our live fuels are basically reaching critical live fuel moisture, where they burn just like they were dead fuel," he said. "Our fire danger indices are either very high or extreme."

Fires have burned over thousands of acres in Northern California, where the weather was not quite as hot as in the south.

In the country's hottest point, however, the heat was just business as usual.

"We haven't had any patients," said Chris Pyzyna, a receptionist at the Death Valley Health Center in Shoshone.

Pyzyna said the heat doesn't really get to people in Death Valley.

"There's people out here who've been out here for years with no air conditioning," she said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? file=/news/archive/2001/08/15/state2016EDT0188.DTL&type=ne

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi? file=/news/archive/2001/08/15/state2016EDT0188.DTL&type=news

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), August 16, 2001.


If the CA I.S.O. grid makes it through such an intense heatwave without so much as a potential blackout notice, or even a "system warning" level alert; it is strong evidence that either power generators were withholding power deliberately at the beginning of 2001, or that the "Y2K+1" variant of the Leap Year Date Bug, occurring 2001/12/31 (day 366 of year 00 to some embedded computers) was the primary factor behind California's electricity crisis.

-- Robert Riggs (rxr.999@worldnet.att.net), August 16, 2001.

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