Austin temperatures are forecast to reach as high as 107 by midweek, continuing a streak of triple-digits days that ran through all of last week. The dangerous heat in the region comes after a relatively cooler July and has officials warning people to stay hydrated and out of the sun at least through Wednesday and possibly longer.
“If you are outdoors, try to take breaks as often as you can and get yourself in the AC. If you don't have AC yourself definitely look up cooling centers,” said Emily Heller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in New Braunfels. “Also, just wear light-colored clothing, loose clothing, and stay hydrated. That's very important in these temperatures.”
As of Sunday, Austin has had 25 triple-digit days this year, Heller said. Since 2000, she said, Austin averages about 37 triple-digit days annually. That’s a massive increase from the 1900s, when Austinites could expect only about 11 triple-digit days a year on average.
That increased heat is due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels and the buildout of urban infrastructure, which absorbs and radiates heat.
It's being felt at night, too.
A recent New York Times analysis of nighttime low temperatures in America’s fastest growing cities, found that the number of abnormally hot nights in Austin has increased by 137% since the late 1900s. Austin now experiences 60 nights a year, on average, when the temperature never drops below 76 degrees.
Cooling centers open
In response to this week’s high temperatures, the City of Austin is urging people without access to AC to go to one of the city's designated cooling centers, including public libraries and recreation centers. You can find a map of those here.
Saint David’s Episcopal Church also announced last week that the Trinity Center at 304 East Seventh St. will serve as a cooling center in partnership with the city from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays through the end of September.
Since May 1, 688 people have been admitted to hospital emergency departments in Travis, Hays and Williamson counties with heat-related illnesses, according to the City of Austin Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Despite the intense August heat, the number of emergency room visits is actually down from the previous two years, likely because last month was significantly cooler than July was in 2022 and 2023.
“Last year, we hit over 100 degrees 80 times. That was our hottest summer on record,” Heller said. “So we're doing much better than last year.”
Power grid prepares
The heat will have an impact on electricity use in Austin and beyond.
On Friday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas issued an “operational conditions notice” to Texas power producers and consumers that essentially warns extreme weather could prompt the grid operator to take special actions, like asking for conservation or bringing reserved power onto the system, to protect grid reliability.
Last week Austin officials urged conservation and warned people of potential heat impacts on local and state power grids as energy demand increases.
“We need to get ready and we need to stay ready because outages can come along for a variety of reasons whether it’s an ERCOT-wide problem or a local problem from a storm or anything on the system,” Stuart Riley, Austin Energy’s deputy general manager, said.
