Major West US Heat Wave in the Making

Temperatures will be at full throttle later this week over the interior West, reaching dangerous levels, challenging records and elevating the wildfire threat.

While many folks over the interior West are accustomed to and expect hot weather during the summer the developing pattern will take the heat to the extreme. In some cities record highs for any date throughout the year could be equaled or breached.

The weather this week will favor an expanding area of sunshine and building heat over the West. As temperatures soar to record-challenging levels, dry fuel and the potential for spotty dry thunderstorms will push the wildfire threat to new areas and raise the risk in other locations. Read more >>

Extreme conditions threaten power grid

Extreme weather is putting America's power grid to the test, with a yearlong run of violent storms and record heat battering a system built for fairer skies.

As the eastern United States struggles to recover from yet another weather shock, energy officials are acknowledging climate change as a force that finally has to be reckoned with -- even as concern grows about other threats that can set off catastrophic blackouts.

Winter storms, chains of heat waves and late June's "super derecho" -- a thunderstorm with straight-line winds that snapped electrical transmission towers and shredded power poles -- have forced the climate change issue and electric supply vulnerability to the top of an already-daunting list of blackout triggers. Those threats range from computer-hacking cyber terrorists to solar flares, utility mistakes and plain bad luck. Read more >>