The west is suffering through a major drought that is causing fear that the 2021 California wildfire season will be more intense.

The drought is killing trees and causing riverbeds in the western region of the country to dry up. The water level of Lake Mead has dropped to its lowest point in history. Things are so desperate, the governor of Utah has asked residents to pray for rain.

As much as 72 percent of the region is in “severe” drought and 26 percent is in “exceptional drought and the area is booming on population.

Devastating Drought Has Lasted For More Than 20 Years

Lack of a sufficient monsoon rainy season last summer a long with lower snow packs during the winter months have left Arizona, Utah and Nevada without the water they need and it doesn’t look like rain is going to be coming soon.

The drought just didn’t pop up this year. In fact, there has been a drought of some kind or another in the western region of the U.S. for 20 consecutive years. The past two decades has been the driest or second dries time in the last 1,200 years. The conditions have caused many to wonder if it’s possible to actually sustain life in the region for the future.

Some are questioning that the conditions go beyond a drought and is exhibiting the way the hydrology of the Colorado River is going to be.

The situation doesn’t bode well for Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s one of the fastest growing cities in the country with a population of more than 2.2 million people. The rainfall residents can expect in a good year is more than 4-inches.

About 90 percent of Las Vegas’ water comes from Lake Mead, a man-made lake on the Colorado River caused by the construction of the Hoover Dam. Lake Mead is currently 36 percent full.

It’s been so bad during recent years that the Southern Nevada Water Authority as well as other groups has been preparing for the last 20 years for a very dry future. Since 2002, the population of Las Vegas has grown about 50 percent to about 750,000 people. During the same period of time the water level of the Colorado River has dropped 23 percent.

Phoenix, Arizona, with a population of about 5 million, is suffering through the drought as much as Las Vegas is. And it is expected that the city will have a population boom of another 2 million during the next 30 years.

The conditions in Utah are the same. The state’s population has grown as much as 18.4 percent during the past decade and it is the fastest growing state in the U.S., according to the latest census.

The state government recently apportioned $280 million for water projects. $100 million of that $280 million has been assigned to conservation. Farmers consume the most water in the state. They have been forced to stop flooding their fields for irrigation. They have opted for more targeted and less wasteful irrigation methods. Things are so bad in the state; officials are considering banning fireworks for fear that they may start wildfires.

California Residents Expect More Blackouts

Meanwhile, in California, executives of Pacific Gas and Electric said that they have been preparing for wildfire season weeks earlier than in previous years. The company is anticipating more public safety power outages.

California governor Gavin Newsom has declared that 41 of the state’s 58 counties are officially suffering a drought.

The drought, along with the influence of climate change, has made the state highly vulnerable to a very bade wildfire season. Last year was the worst in the modern history of the state for most burned acres. More than 4 million acres were destroyed in 2020 due to wildfires. Governor Newsome has authorized the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars to new funding to prevent and fight fires this year.

As a result of all this, Pacific Gas and Electric has been pressed to reduce fire risks this summer. It recently handed out $43 million to local governments to cover costs of the 2019 Kincade Fire in Sonoma County and last year’s Zogg Fire in Shasta County. The company expects to pay an additional $600 million in damage compensation to homeowners and others. In addition, PG&E is being prosecuted in Sonoma and is the subject of a criminal investigation in Shasta.

In response, Pacific Gas & Electric is warning of more blackouts. Executives of the company have said that they will require more power outages to customers in Northern California to avoid wildfires.

California authorities have purchased an additional 3,500 megawatts of capacity with hopes of stemming the worst possible scenarios. The 3,500 megawatts include 2,000 megawatts of batteries designed to store energy generated by renewable energy from such sources as solar. Typically, in a normal year, one megawatt of energy is enough to power hundreds of homes, depending on how it is generated.

According to the president of the California Public Utilities Commission, Marybel Batjer, plans are afoot to purchase power from “not clean resources” to attempt to get the state to survive the catastrophe.

Despite the attempts, more blackouts are expected. Blackouts are becoming common during the summer months because the utility companies are purposely turning off power when it gets too windy to prevent toppled power lines from starting fires.

Energy demand commonly peaks in the late afternoon when residents turn up their air conditioners during the hottest portion of the day. Demand usually drops at night when outside temperatures cool.

Texas Power Authorities Encourage Conservation

In Texas, the manager of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has asked Texans for the second time to conserve energy. The plea comes in the wake of devastating blackouts in February due to a severe cold period in the state. The council admits that many forced generation outages and a record demand for power in June has put a squeeze on the state’s power supply. Texans have been urged to lower thermostats to 78 degrees and avoid using electric appliances until after the demand peak that occurs late in the day.

ERCOT forecasted a spike in demand load on its system of 73,000 megawatts. That’s much larger than demand usually is in June. The June record is currently 69,123 megawatts, which occurred between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on June 27, 2018.

However, on Monday, June 14^th, at 2:30 p.m. 12,178 megawatts of the grid’s 86,862 megawatts of generating capacity was actually offline, ERCOT admitted. Thus causing a very thin margin of reserve capacity.

On the same day, wind-powered generator output was 3,500 to 6,000 megawatts between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., which is nearly 1,500 megawatts less than a typical peak situation. On Monday, June 14^th, temperatures exceeded 100 degrees in much of Texas.

The situation now being experienced in the western states and Texas shows that areas where there is extreme heat during the summer may some day suffer similar power outages and rolling blackouts that are occurring in California and threaten to happen in Texas and other states in the west.

This scenario can be prevented if you purchase a standby generator. APElectric has a wide range of generators from which to choose from some of the most popular brands in the country. The staff is available to answer any question you may have about generators and how they can ensure comfort for you and your family during severe weather whether it is hurricanes, winter storms, or extreme summer temperatures all of which can cause power outages. Visit the APElectric website and learn about the generators they have in stock and how to go about selecting the proper generator for your situation.