When is this heat gonna let up?!

Temperatures throughout the week will come "pretty darn close" to triple-digit numbers, but will settle in just below that in the high 90s, according to a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"Oh yes, the (high temps) will continue," said Brian Brong of the National Weather Service in Reno. "Down in Carson, we'll see upper 90s through at least Saturday. That means the high temperatures will be above at least 96 degrees. Sunday and Monday, it will drop to 94 degrees."

Carson City did reach 100 degrees on Sunday, according to Brong. In Reno, the high was 104 degrees Saturday. In Lovelock, a high of 109 degrees was posted Friday.

The average temperature in the area is 93 degrees for this time of year, according to Brong.

"Right now, we have an area of large pressure over Nevada," he said. "It's helping push the temperatures above the normal level to what we're seeing now - pretty much the 100-degree level."

Sunday's high temperatures caused several small scattered power outages in Carson City as lines were pushed to their limits, said Faye Anderson, spokeswoman for Sierra Pacific.

The largest outage affected about 40 homes in the Ash Canyon and Wellington West area, beginning about 3:20 p.m. Electricity went out for about 20 minutes, came back on for another 40 minutes then went out again for more than five hours until just after 10 p.m.

About 8:20 p.m., that outage caused 80 more customers on the line to lose power. Everyone had regained power after 10 p.m., when the fuses were replaced.

"There were other (areas that lost power), but that was probably the biggest and longest one in the Carson City area," she said.

Blown fuses cause the lines to go dead, but prevent the heavy electricity usage from moving elsewhere and causing a larger outage, according to Anderson.

Kathi and John Guirlani were among those affected by the five-hour outage. The couple lives on Waterford Place Street near the Longview Ranch Estates.

"As I understand it, it was due to overusage, and I finally got ahold of the power company last night about 10," Kathi said. "They said part of the area was out, but I don't know why it took so long" to come back on.

She said, except for a time in the 1960s when power was out for three days due to a fire along Interstate 80, they've never had their power stay off for so many hours.

"This is the longest we've had our power out since we can remember," Kathi said.

She was concerned that people on oxygen machines did not have alternative sources of energy, although she said she knew people who use the batteries in their RVs to keep their machines running.

"You wonder about people who don't have that resource," she said.

Any time a fuse is blown, Sierra Pacific investigates to see what can be done to keep a circuit from overloading.

"We follow up every one of our outage reports," Anderson said.

At 4 p.m. Monday, the company reported another record electrical-use peak - its fourth record in seven days.

n Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.