[sfba] Spare the Air & Flex Your Power
Aug. 29th, 2007 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lwood[sfba--only of interest to locals, although the rest of you are welcome to point and laugh and say things like, "You think that's hot!?"]
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAMQD) has issued Spare the Air advisories for today and tomorrow, 29 and 30 August 2007. Pace yourself when outdoors and, because today and tomorrow are only the first and second StA days of the season, all public transit will be free until 1:00 PM, and all buses will be free all day. See transit.511.org for more information.
The California Independent System Operators (California ISO) have declared a Stage One Power Emergency until 6:00 PM tonight. This means that they're down to less than 10% of electrical generation reserves, and they would like to politely-but-firmly request the voluntary reduction of power usage. Power usage isn't expected to be much less tomorrow, so you may expect another Stage One Emergency to be declared, at the very least--Stage Two means 5% of reserves remain, and if it goes past that there's a one-hour warning before Stage Three and rolling blackouts. For those of you who like numbers and graphs for all this, they are only too happy to provide.
In all cases, expect a run on the ice cream. ;)
Looking at the weather forecast and news reports, it seems likely that the rest of the week will be just as warm; please plan accordingly. Also, if you commute to San Francisco by BART and don't want to be on a sardine can tomorrow morning, I can confidently report that AC Transit's Transbay Service don't acquire too many new people on Spare the Air days--and will be free in both directions if you'd care to give it a whirl! The Alameda/Oakland Ferry is also fun, but runs far less frequently.
Information on all Bay Area public transit options is available through transit.511.org.
Oh, yeah, and I heard a rumor* that the Bay Bridge was closed this weekend. Public transit schedules will be altered to compensate--check out transit.511.org and Emperor Norton Bridge Project for more on that.
-- Lorrie
* - If by "I heard a rumor" I mean "I have been buried in news tribbles"
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAMQD) has issued Spare the Air advisories for today and tomorrow, 29 and 30 August 2007. Pace yourself when outdoors and, because today and tomorrow are only the first and second StA days of the season, all public transit will be free until 1:00 PM, and all buses will be free all day. See transit.511.org for more information.
The California Independent System Operators (California ISO) have declared a Stage One Power Emergency until 6:00 PM tonight. This means that they're down to less than 10% of electrical generation reserves, and they would like to politely-but-firmly request the voluntary reduction of power usage. Power usage isn't expected to be much less tomorrow, so you may expect another Stage One Emergency to be declared, at the very least--Stage Two means 5% of reserves remain, and if it goes past that there's a one-hour warning before Stage Three and rolling blackouts. For those of you who like numbers and graphs for all this, they are only too happy to provide.
In all cases, expect a run on the ice cream. ;)
Looking at the weather forecast and news reports, it seems likely that the rest of the week will be just as warm; please plan accordingly. Also, if you commute to San Francisco by BART and don't want to be on a sardine can tomorrow morning, I can confidently report that AC Transit's Transbay Service don't acquire too many new people on Spare the Air days--and will be free in both directions if you'd care to give it a whirl! The Alameda/Oakland Ferry is also fun, but runs far less frequently.
Information on all Bay Area public transit options is available through transit.511.org.
Oh, yeah, and I heard a rumor* that the Bay Bridge was closed this weekend. Public transit schedules will be altered to compensate--check out transit.511.org and Emperor Norton Bridge Project for more on that.
-- Lorrie
* - If by "I heard a rumor" I mean "I have been buried in news tribbles"
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 01:43 am (UTC)The Bay Bridge closes at 8:00PM this Friday, reopens sometime around 4AM next Tuesday.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 04:40 pm (UTC)However, the underlying issue isn't, actually, the heat--the heat is a byproduct.
In the normal course of events, the heat of the sun pulls water from the sea. The sea temperature in these parts is primarily governed by the fact that we're on the cold side of the ocean, but it's fairly consistent, so this sea fog keeps us cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than our latitude would otherwise warrant.
Typically, in the summer, the warming of the inland valleys causes hot air to rise and pull the cold mist off the sea as simple convection. This is why there's a goodly wind most afternoons, especially in the narrow throats of valleys that feed cooler air inland--the largest of these being the Golden Gate. Air whips through here pretty quickly, leaving our pollution to get dumped in the Central Valley and at the feet of the Sierras.
That's the typical summer pattern.
The "bad air" pattern is when this convection is disrupted, typically by a big fat high pressure system over the North Pacific. Then the marine layer doesn't flow inland, and all our carbon-based sins sit over our heads in a thick blanket of smog. Eventually, the imbalance is righted, and the normal convection resumes.
It's worse in LA, of course, because they're in a basin surrounded by rather higher mountains. Their smog just stays.
-- Lorrie
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 09:51 pm (UTC)Well, almost. You're actually in a gigantic basin too, just that the mountains that stop YOUR smog (and you produce just about as much of it as we do, all those cute little Berkeley crunchy-earth-mother type notwithstanding) are, y'know... the Sierra Nevada. Ever been to Bakersfield in August?
Here, by the way, along with changes in the marine layer, we get winds off the desert. The Santa Ana winds come whistling out of the northeast off the high desert, hot and furious (70 mph gusts in canyons is perfectly normal), and blows the marine layer -- and all the smog -- out toward the ocean, where it gives the beach communities a taste of what everyone else has to live with. The result is that you can see for tens of miles -- yes, really! -- in the interior valleys, if you dare venture outside in the 110°F heat.
This also is when we get the worst fog. We don't get anywhere near the fog that SF does, but when the Santa Anas blow during the day and the marine layer creeps back in at night, the result is absolutely pea soup.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 10:11 pm (UTC)I knew that--did I delete the paragraph where I said it washes up against the Sierra and leaves the Central Valley to atone for our sins as well as their own?
Er, well...I wrote one...
This also is when we get the worst fog. We don't get anywhere near the fog that SF does, but when the Santa Anas blow during the day and the marine layer creeps back in at night, the result is absolutely pea soup.
Whee!
-- Lorrie
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 04:47 am (UTC)Not to say that here (southern AZ for advertent readers -- 2R already knows this :-)) is *nicer* than the bay area on such days, just that we have different atmospheric conditions. And they declare Spare the Air days here too, plus we get "Its really Too Hot to go outside today" days, which are a slightly different thing.
:: Sends cooling breezes ::
no subject
Date: 2007-08-30 04:43 pm (UTC)I know Too Hot--Florida has all that and humidity too, causing more limpy wilt than I would ever like to see again, which makes me wonder about the wisdom of a summer festival circuit...
And they declare Spare the Air days here too, plus we get "Its really Too Hot to go outside today" days, which are a slightly different thing.
*nodnod*
-- Lorrie