Little relief in sight from 90s temps

The temperatures are dropping - a degree at a time.

After reaching a high temperature of 100 degrees on Sunday in Carson City, the mercury did fall one degree to 99 Tuesday and Monday. Temperatures are expected to continue in the upper 90s throughout the week because of a high-pressure system hanging over the area.

"It's going to be mostly high in the 90s through Friday," said National Weather Service Meteorologist Ray Collins. "And then into the mid-90s and maybe even the lower 90s possibly by Monday. But it stays very warm right on into next week."

A "small" potential for thunderstorms exists today with a better chance for a storm with rain Thursday, Collins said. The high-pressure area has kept the rain high up in the system, but some of that could burst through. The opportunity for rain dries up Friday, but lightning is expected to continue in the afternoons and evenings throughout the week.

"That's fairly common around here, basically because we're in the desert," Collins said. "The lightning will hit the ground, but the rain is in the median level, and that's why we get a lot of fire starts and that sort of thing."

Though no power outages or record-breaking usage were reported Tuesday, Sierra Pacific Power Co. crews have been dealing with continuous outages since Thursday.

The longest outage started after 3 p.m. Sunday. Power was restored after 10 p.m., and the cause was blown fuses.

Carson City has six substations in the area to handle the flow of power. They are the Brunswick Substation, east of town; the Carson substation on Long Street; the Curry Street substation downtown; the Emerson substation in North Carson; the Overland substation in South Carson, which is the process of being expanded for better reliability in that area; and a new substation in the Fairview area.

Bonnie Bullis of Carson City lives in west Carson City on Chaparral Drive. She said she and her husband lost their power for about six hours Sunday evening after returning home from a vacation. She said they lost it again Monday, beginning about 6:15 p.m., with the electricity coming back on after 8 p.m. The outage affected 60 customers.

"They're going to have take a look into that and see what's going on out there," Bullis said.

Tuesday, power company spokesman Karl Walquist said residents should not be concerned about blackouts.

"What we've done over the past couple of years is improved the reliability of the system that serves Carson City as well as Minden and Gardnerville," he said.

"I guess it's just a matter of where you live and what grid you're on," Bullis said. "It's a touchy thing. I think my biggest concern is that we be concerned about growth in our area and that we can keep up with that in our utilities."

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