Many deny global warming, much less the effect it has on the atmosphere. With the production of fossil fuels and consumption, we produce more gas and waste, which contributes to the problem. Here are a few examples of how global warming is affecting the power grid today to give you a better picture.
Droughts and Extreme Heat
In the summertime, most people enjoy the heat and sunshine after being cooped up all winter long. Getting out in the sun has always been a tradition worldwide, where there are winter seasons. However, if you have tracked the process of global warming over the last few decades, you will notice that the temperatures have gradually increased by one degree with each passing year since roughly the 1970s.
With this being said, the effect it has left behind is causing catastrophic events. Excessive heat that climbs effortlessly without a chance of rain is currently the state of events in most areas of the world during the summer months.
Without global warming, there is ample water for storms and summer rain to cool things off periodically, so the heat doesn’t become too unbearable. With extreme heat, sometimes transformers can fry, and so can the power lines.
Polar Vortex Shifting
When the weather suddenly changes, it changes hard and fast, with huge fronts that come through almost overnight. If you’re paying close enough attention to weather patterns and what is happening, the polar vortices are shifting, causing all these problems to come about.
This is due to the atmosphere’s state and the global climate’s overall change. Due to the sudden and extreme change, the polar vortices are trying to find a place where they belong.
In the past, polar vortices formed opposite from one another with little light and heat. Currently, they are shifting more often due to excess light and heat, which is also causing problems with the climate. Extreme temperatures can cause outages to last from shorter to longer periods depending on how badly the lines of communication are damaged and how long repairs last.
Amplified Natural Disasters
With the extreme shifts in climate and polar vortices come natural disasters unparalleled to anything that the earth has experienced within recorded history. Massive floods and hurricanes are expected annually, along with huge tornadoes, and sometimes in succession of one another, taking everything with them in their paths.
There was a season for most of these natural disasters in recent years where you could almost always predict when a flood, tornado, or hurricane might strike, and now they are year-round disasters. These events take out power grids from the moment they touch down, without fail, which is why investing in a natural gas generator is never a bad idea due to its environmental benefits, especially with weather events such as these increasing annually.
As you can see, the extreme effect of global warming on the power grid is causing massive disturbances and increased occurrences of power outages. As long as this goes on, and unless we act now to better preserve the earth, it will only worsen.
