BENEFICIAL STORMS LAST NIGHT

After another searingly hot afternoon on Wednesday with a new all-time heat index record of 118 degrees in Austin, the skies opened up with intense storms. While prolific lightning led to power outages, severe weather reports were few and far between, and those storms knocked our temperatures down to the low 70s and dropped as much as 1-2” of rain. Really, really good stuff!

We are still rain-cooled this morning with all of Central Texas waking up to the mid-70s, our “coolest” morning in a week and a half.

STORM CHANCES DWINDLING

Early morning rain has cleared out, and we’ll be back to a mostly sunny sky through the day. Once again though, the late evening hours could come with an isolated storm, but nothing nearly as widespread or intense as what blew through last night.

I have just a 20% chance for a storm in the forecast tonight and another tomorrow night & early Saturday morning. After that, our rain chances are gone for a long while to come.

STILL HOT AND GETTING HOTTER

While it won’t be as extremely hot the next couple of days as it has been in previous days, it will still be dangerously warm and humid. High temperatures in the upper 90s will come with heat index temperatures between 105 and 112 degrees. Heat advisories are in effect as a result.

We’ll slowly crawl back to square one by late this weekend and next week. The summer ridge comes back stronger than ever and turns the blowtorch back on especially through the first half of next week. Highs will settle in between 105-110 degrees with higher heat index temperatures possible. Another round of excessive heat warnings will be possible.

LAKE LEVELS

Lake Travis is falling quickly with an elevation of 638.15 feet (45% full, 30 feet below average)

Lake Buchanan is falling slowly with an elevation of 1002.13 feet (63% full, 11 feet below average)