Category: Heat_CN TEXAS_CN

Texas’ power grid management agency has extended its warning of possible emergency conditions as residents turn to air-conditioning to cope with above normal temperatures. While temperatures are expected to remain high throughout the state, the agency overseeing the state’s power supply said there will be enough to meet demand.

During heavy storms, water overflows the dirt drainage ditch fronting his yard and the bayou at the end of his block — flooding the street, creeping up his front steps, pooling beneath the house, and trapping his family inside.

Heat records in Texas were toppled when temperatures reached as high as 112F (44C), setting off a heatwave that will engulf much of the central US.
The record-setting temperatures occurred on Saturday in Texas, but similar heat records may be felt in other US locales, including an

One major flood can bring an entire community to its knees. Three devastating floods in three years is almost unfathomable, but that’s what some parts of Houston went through between the Memorial Day flood of May 2015, the Tax Day flood of April 2016, and the mind-numbing Hurricane Harvey floods of August 2017. Harvey dumped more rain on the contiguous United States than any other hurricane on record.

Tesla will build a vehicle dedicated for use as a robotaxi, and it will start making three new vehicles next year, CEO Elon Musk told fans at a party celebrating the opening of a Texas factory.

Until last summer, China led the world in crypto mining — thanks in part to its hydroelectric infrastructure. Then, the Chinese government cracked down on crypto and many mining companies moved to countries wherever they could find cheap power, like Kazakhstan, Iran and … Texas.

Climate scientist Flavio Lehner studies ways to improve climate change projections, and is an author on a new paper showing increases in both extremely wet and dry years. Lehner says the part of Texas where this fire has spread sits geographically near a dividing line between regions of the country that will experience either more or less winter precipitation in the future — making it hard to anticipate what future fire risk will be.

Texas really wants to protect its fossil fuel industry. First, in September, 2021, the state voted Senate Bill 13 into law, which prohibits any active Texas firm from contracting with or investing in companies that divest from oil, natural gas, and coal. In essence: the Texas law prohibits anyone from boycotting fossil fuel companies financially.

The new work led by environmental engineer Daniel Cohan and senior computer science major Richard Morse of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering uses optimization modeling to identify the least-cost combinations of proposed wind and solar projects with the potential to replace coal-fired power generation in Texas.

On Wednesday, Rep. Lizzie Fletcher testified in front of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and urged the committee to include the Coastal Texas Study’s recommendations in the Water Resource Development Act of 2022 (WRDA) and to consider additional expansions of the Port of Houston.