https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/scorching-heat-rolling-blackouts-the-west-is-changing-how-it-does-summer/ >This June, we received a letter from a reader asking why it seemed like there are fewer summer blackouts, especially in the western US, than there used to be. >This resonated with me. When I was a kid growing up in Southern California, summer always seemed to bring with it a couple of electrical blackouts. By 2001, the term "rolling blackouts" was a household phrase. The morning news would warn of a heatwave. My sister and I would head out to a friend’s house or some local summer camp, and when we returned home from pool-bleached adventures the power would go dead. Sometimes the blackouts lasted just a few minutes. But occasionally, hours passed and my parents would get cranky, sweating miserably with no way to know when we could get the air conditioner back on.