Thousands of lightning strikes sparked across the Bay Area and Central Coast Wednesday and Thursday as a low pressure system passed through, bringing with it a spattering of rain and a cooldown that is set to end as Friday and Saturday's temperatures heat up again. Over a 24-hour period from Wednesday to Thursday morning, approximately 5,000 lightning strikes touched down across the regions, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Nicole Sarment.
The map works by tracking when Ting-connected devices lose power. It promises instant notifications when the power goes out and when it comes back on, down to the neighborhood. It's true that most power companies offer alerts, but at least for mine, alerts can be delayed. My outage notifications come within 10 minutes, but my restoration alerts sometimes come more than an hour after the lights are back on.
There's a new, free tool to help Americans monitor power outages in real time. Compiling data from its vast network of home sensors, startup Whisker Labs is launching the feature today in its Ting app. You don't actually need to have one of these sensors in your home to use the Ting app to track a power outage. Whisker Labs, which shared the announcement first with The Verge, says it is the only app to offer immediate outage alerts at such a hyperlocal level.
The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to allow Southern California Edison to hike customer bills by nearly 10% next month, and there may be more increases to come. Edison's plan would boost the average residential bill by $17 a month or about $200 a year, the commission said. The monthly bill for a customer using 500 kilowatts would jump from $171 to $188 on Oct. 1. The five commissioners are scheduled to vote Thursday on the PUC administrative law judge's proposal. It's just one of multiple rate hikes Edison has asked the commission to approve in the coming year.
Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least five people on Monday, including two in Kherson, one in Zaporizhia, and two in Donetsk, according to regional governors. The attacks wounded dozens more. In the Zaporizhia region alone, Russian forces launched 286 drone attacks, 10 missile attacks and five air strikes on 16 settlements in one day, Governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine's capital Kyiv has come under a large-scale night-time attack by Russia, officials said early on Thursday, with at least one dead, four injured and damage to buildings in several districts of the city, including a kindergarten. Russian troops have entered the villages of Novoheorhiivka and Zaporizke in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, a major Ukrainian industrial centre next to the Donetsk region, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported, citing a local commander.