Texans Could Face Power Outages This Summer

The heat we’re experiencing here in June has increased the demand for electricity, and you know it's only going to get hotter. This is Texas, after all.

After that cold snowy episode we went through back in February, hearing things like that makes me nervous, but I'll continue.

On Monday, ERCOT (The Electric Reliability Council Of Texas) asked residents of the Lone Star State to reduce their electricity usage through Friday as a precaution. That included setting our thermostats at 78. How many people are going to do that?

Well, maybe if they knew what's going on.

According to KWTX and the Texas Tribune, a number of power plants are currently off-line.

There were reportedly around 12,000 Megawatts of power unavailable, which would equal about 2.4 million homes affected to some extent.

While a fraction of it was replaced by yesterday, the Texas Power Grid must balance supply and demand at all times.

ERCOT officials say it’s unlikely they would need to implement outages as we had in February, but what's unclear is if we will experience widespread electricity blackouts this summer when things really get hot.

As I mentioned earlier, ERCOT is suggesting that Texans reduce electricity by setting the thermostat to 78° or a comfortable temperature, turning off pool pumps and lights, and unplugging appliances not being used. Also stay away from using large appliances like ovens, washing machines, and dryers as much as possible.

We’ll keep you updated on this.

Test Your Texas: How Many of These Jeopardy! Questions Can You Answer?

Jeopardy! as we know it has been on the air since 1984, but the show got its start way back 1964.

Over the decades, the writers have managed to keep coming up with challenging questions to test the intellectual might of America's best and brightest (and sometimes softball questions for celebrities).

Texas is a place packed with personality, culture, and history, and there've been hundreds of questions/answers about the Lone Star State. Let's take a look at a few recent ones, and keep an eye out because we'll add more soon to test your Texas trivia skills and challenge newcomers.

How many of these can you get right without Googling?

Why do cats have whiskers? Why do they meow? Why do they nap so much? And answers to 47 other kitty questions:

Why do they meow? Why do they nap so much? Why do they have whiskers? Cats, and their undeniably adorable babies known as kittens, are mysterious creatures. Their larger relatives, after all, are some of the most mystical and lethal animals on the planet. Many questions related to domestic felines, however, have perfectly logical answers. Here’s a look at some of the most common questions related to kittens and cats, and the answers cat lovers are looking for.