Thousands of people in Los Angeles are without power as of Friday morning, Sept. 11, amid a recent stretch of brutal heat and humidity blanketing the region.
Approximately 5,000 customers are without power this morning, according to Pamela Workman, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. In an email, Workman said the outage numbers "remain fluid" as service is restored and as new outages are reported.
In South Los Angeles, over 2,600 people are without power, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s outage map. In Exposition Park, home to popular attractions like the California Science Center and the new George Lucas art museum, an outage is affecting several hundred people. Other areas, including
Panorama City and Westchester, are reporting outages as well, according to LADWP’s map.
LADWP acknowledged its customers were experiencing outages on Sept. 9-10, saying the outages were due to “overloaded electric equipment due to extreme heat and humidity.”
It’s not immediately clear whether the outages captured on the map as of the morning of Sept. 11 are because of the extreme weather. LADWP did not immediately respond to the USA TODAY Network’s inquiry about current outages.
The day before, LADWP urged customers to conserve energy as extreme heat and humidity caused “high electricity demand.” The utility provider said it deployed more than 90 field crews across Los Angeles to respond to power outages.
The power outage map shows that crews are working and assigned to address outages across the city.
How humid is it in Los Angeles?
The outages come as swaths of Southern California, including parts of Los Angeles County, are under a heat advisory as of Sept. 11. Two days prior, the region broke temperature records for the day, with triple-digit temps recorded in places such as downtown Los Angeles, Long Beach and Woodland Hills, according to the National Weather Service Los Angeles.
The dew point, a measure of moisture in the air, helps people understand how muggy and humid it feels outside, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Tom Kines, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather.
Typically, dew points in the 50s mean it feels comfortable. People start feeling uncomfortable when the dew point creeps into the 60s, especially the mid- and upper-60s.
“When you start talking about 70 and higher, most, if not everybody, feels uncomfortable,” Kines said.
Preliminary weather data for the Los Angeles International Airport shows the dew point has remained at 70 degrees as of the morning of Sept. 11. The day before, it reached 72 degrees, and in downtown, the dew point reached the high 60s, according to preliminary data.
Paris Barraza is a reporter covering Los Angeles and Southern California for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at pbarraza@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amid sweltering heat, humidity, Los Angeles faces power outages
