New record ... or not?

Record hot temperatures are always a tough call, and today's up and down at SeaTac shows why.

The temperature has been as high as 95 degrees this morning, and then dipping back to 90 degrees and now up to 93 degrees again here at the noon hour -- with the slightest variations in the wind making all the difference.

An east wind, gaining a little heat as it comes down off the Cascades, sent us up to a toasty 95 degrees for a short time, then a west wind, off the cool waters of Puget Sound, sent temperatures down to a frosty 90 degrees. All of which means that whether we break the all-time record of 100 at SeaTac (set on June 20, 1994) a tough call. I'd say yes, but the slightest shift in the wind will make the difference. And, if it's going to be this hot, let's get into the record books. KOMO's Scott Sistek and Paul Deanno have a nice rundown of all this.

On the utility front, it's a demanding day on our electrical system, but we do have the capacity to meet energy needs. The larger issue is the stress on the infrastructure, and so far we have seen a few small outages in Bellevue, Olympia and Redmond. Some were from what appeared to be small animals causing a short-circuit, others from equipment failures. Was it the heat? That's hard to say. It's easy to know if the weather caused an outage when a tree is blown over in a storm, but tougher when equipment fails in hot weather. No doubt, extreme heat puts stress on any kind of mechanical device, from your car radiator to our infrastructure. So far, though, the response from PSE crews has been quick and most customers who have been out are back in service within a few hours.

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How can you help ease the load? Energy efficiency is always a winner, and a way to save money while helping the environment. Here are some tips at PSE.com, although I am not sure there's any great way to stay cool with temperatures pushing 100 degress today.