Austin's summer heats up
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A burn ban sign outside a fire station near Austin in 2023. Travis County commissioners this week issued a burn ban for the next two weeks in unincorporated areas of the county. Photo: Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Triple-digit temperatures aren't behind us yet.
Why it matters: Beyond extreme heat's role in droughts and wildfires, it raises questions about how the state's power grid and local utility operators will manage in our increasingly hot summers.
Driving the news: More than 7,000 East Austin customers were without power for four hours yesterday as temperatures climbed to 107 in the area.
- The outage was related to high energy use, which caused "substation equipment to trip offline," Mayor Kirk Watson wrote on X.
- Austin Energy crews restored power around 9pm.
Unseasonably hot temperatures with heat index values as high as 113 are expected to continue through today, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
- Yesterday's reported high of 108 at Camp Mabry was a record high for Aug. 21 and marked the hottest day of 2024.
- Temperatures will dip into the much cooler upper 90s heading into the weekend.
The big picture: A dangerous combination of heat and humidity enveloped much of central and southeastern Texas this week, leading to Wednesday's peak temperature.
- Heat warnings are in effect for Austin and San Antonio on Thursday, with relief in the form of less humid and searing heat toward the end of the week.
- "There's only so many ways a forecaster can write 'it's going to be hot.' … and I have run out of ways," an NWS forecaster said, referencing the duration of the extreme heat.
Zoom in: Local officials have opened cooling centers for residents seeking relief, and some Central Texas cities have imposed more stringent watering restrictions as drought conditions intensify across the state.
- Burn bans are in effect for 117 of the state's 254 counties, including Travis County, and Gov. Greg Abbott this week designated more firefighting resources toward the growing threat of wildfires across the state.
Between the lines: The heat is the latest test of the state's power grid, but grid officials say they expect to have adequate supply to meet demand this week.
- The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the state's electrical grid, asked residents to conserve electricity 11 times last summer to ensure the stability of the grid.
- ERCOT hasn't asked Texans to conserve energy yet this summer with added power generation — mostly solar and wind power — as well as battery storage.
- Tuesday set a record for energy use, narrowly surpassing the previous record set in August 2023.
⭐️ On the bright side: It's the coolest summer of the rest of your life.