Monday
August 24, 2026
Today at a glance
- Weather 106° / 78°An Extreme Heat Warning is on. Early errands, lots of water, check on the neighbors.
- Air quality 42 · GoodClear air. A great day to be outside.
- Lake Travis 97.1% fullThe lake is close to full — good for boats and for the summer water supply. Down a touch from last week.
- Allergies LowA little grasses and ragweed around — most noses won't notice.
- Power grid91,400 megawattsA busy grid this afternoon, but ERCOT expects enough to go around.
- Sunrise 7:03 a.m.The sun is up for 13 hours and 0 minutes today, and down by 8:03 p.m.
Good morning, Austin. It is a first-day-of-school Monday twice over — the University of Texas and Austin Community College both started fall classes today — and the city is handing the students a high near 106 to walk to class in. The Extreme Heat Warning runs until 7 tonight and the Red Line is closed for track work, so give yourself extra time and carry water. Be patient with the eighteen-year-old reading a campus map in the crosswalk; everybody has been that person. There is a rain chance on this week's forecast. It is Thursday, but it is there.
The Big Story
Austin starts writing rules for the data centers it does not have yet
Austin Energy supplies power to 10 data centers today. Each needs between 1 and 20 megawatts, and the city says a single megawatt is enough to power about 250 homes. A hyperscale artificial-intelligence facility of the kind now going up across Texas is a different animal: more than 100 megawatts, sometimes more than 1,000 acres, and hundreds of millions of gallons of water a year. Austin has no land-use classification for either kind, which leaves city leaders with limited authority over one if it arrives.
Five City Council members are trying to close that gap first. The council is scheduled to debate and vote Thursday on a resolution aimed at creating regulations for large-load data centers before one is proposed inside the city. Planning staff has proposed defining "high-impact" data centers, creating a review process that could require developers to seek additional city approval, and setting requirements for water use, noise, heat and lighting. Staff also recommends stating in Austin's economic development policy that the city will not incentivize data center construction.
"I don't want any data center to come here without receiving approval and without showing that they're not going to be sucking us dry from a water perspective, using our electricity when others need it," said Council Member Ryan Alter, one of the five. Council Member Vanessa Fuentes wrote in a message board post that she would support a moratorium on construction until the city decides on rules: "It's clear that data centers present real risks to our people, environment, and local resources."
Not everyone studying the problem wants the door closed. Navid Saleh, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin, agreed that getting complete information out of operators has been difficult, and said researchers are working on cooling technologies that would cut the water a data center needs. He cautioned political leaders against blocking development altogether while that work continues.
The state is moving the other way this month. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an audit of data centers seeking to connect to the grid, which forced ERCOT to pause its effort to rework the queue for facilities awaiting power. Dozens of legislators have called for scrapping the West Texas transmission buildout entirely. ERCOT has said West Texas is at risk of rolling blackouts if those lines are not built, and the oil and gas industry says its expansion will be hamstrung without them. "Whatever the complexities of the policies engaged here — and the degree to which the deployment of these high-capacity power lines and the construction of data centers are distinct issues — in this moment, it's the politics that matter at least as much as the policy," said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin.
The water side of the ledger is being reopened too. A report from the nonprofit Texas 2036 says the state's water planning process, created nearly 30 years ago, did not project the shortage that brought Corpus Christi within months of a water emergency this year, when officials there were planning surcharges and use reductions that would have affected roughly 500,000 people and the region's energy industry. Jeremy Mazur, the group's director of infrastructure and natural resources policy, said the plans lean on the "drought of record" and that the data behind them needs to be reevaluated. He presents the report today at a field hearing of the Texas House Natural Resources Committee.
All of this is being argued in a week when Austin is under an Extreme Heat Warning and ERCOT expects a peak of about 91,400 megawatts against roughly 112,300 available.
Overheard on X
Monday will be another dangerous heat day. An Extreme Heat Warning is now in effect for parts of the Hill Country including the Austin metro area on Monday. The San Antonio area and portions of the I-35 corridor and Coastal Plains are under Heat Advisory. #txwx pic.twitter.com/xYaL0dwFTV
What's next: The City Council is scheduled to debate and vote on the data center resolution Thursday.
Sources: KUT and Austin Current, The Texas Tribune, KXAN, ERCOT, National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio
The River
23 items · grouped by beat
Roads & transit
CapMetro suspended Red Line rail service Monday through Thursday while crews build the new North Burnet/Uptown Station, which will sit north of the current Kramer Station and which CapMetro expects to become the line's second-busiest stop after downtown. Replacement service runs from Leander and Lakeline on Shuttle Route 454, Route 985 and Pickup Leander; Kramer and McKalla riders can connect at Braker and Burnet or The Domain on Routes 3 and 803. CBS Austin
KVUE reported that a "middle gap" project on the Shoal Creek Trail has brought a smoother ride to North Lamar. KVUE
KVUE reported that the City of Austin is seeking 35 new crossing guards for the 2026-2027 school year. KVUE
Public safety & courts
Two people were treated for minor injuries after a fire at the Austin Country Flea Market at 9500 E. U.S. 290 on Sunday evening. The Austin Fire Department said crews were called just after 6 p.m., that one large structure set off a multi-acre brush fire involving a tire pile, and that wind carried embers into a grassy area and started a grass fire. The brush fire was contained around 7:47 p.m. The Travis County Fire Marshal's office is investigating and the cause is not yet known. KXAN
Reported violent crime in Austin fell in the first half of 2026 to 1,992 cases, from 2,172 in 2025 and 2,243 in 2024, according to preliminary Major Cities Chiefs Association data covering homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. The decline was driven largely by fewer aggravated assaults. Violent crime in Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio dropped more sharply from 2024 to 2025 than Austin's did, particularly for homicides, rape and robberies. KXAN
Visitors to Austin's Central Library will see more police and security staff under an Austin Police Department "Library Initiative" launched in June. APD said drug-offense reports at the library have more than doubled since June and trespassing reports have nearly tripled, partly because officers are working with staff to issue and enforce criminal trespass notices; officers conducted 63 directed patrols there in July, up from 48 in June. The Austin Public Library said it has added security staffing, upgraded incident-reporting technology and arranged on-site personnel through the Travis County Sheriff's Office. KXAN
City Hall & county
Community Impact published candidate questionnaires Monday for four races on Central Texas ballots in November: Texas House District 49, State Senate District 5, U.S. House District 35 and Williamson County clerk. Candidates answered in up to 50 words per question. Community Impact
Schools
Of the 31 Austin ISD campuses open in 2025-26 that received a D or F in the state's latest accountability ratings, 30 are Title I schools, which receive federal money because they serve large numbers of low-income families. District data also shows the number of Title I campuses rated D or F fell 36 percent between 2024 and 2026, and 16 Title I schools earned an A or B this year, double the number two years ago. Dobie Middle School, rated F four times, rose to a D. "Should we have done more? I would have loved to have done more," said Trustee Candace Hunter, who represents District 1. "Could we have done more? I don't know that we could have." Austin Current
The University of Texas began fall classes Monday after receiving more than 100,000 undergraduate applications for this fall's class, up from last year's record of nearly 91,000 freshman applications. UT estimates an in-state undergraduate will spend about $32,500 to $35,500 this school year including tuition, housing, food, transportation and books, and says nearly 150 new faculty members are joining this year. A proposed new core curriculum would raise the number of requirements to 12 from 10 while cutting total core credits to 36 from 42. CBS Austin
Austin Community College also started fall classes Monday, with enrollment just over 6 percent higher than 2025 at about 44,000 students. Advanced manufacturing enrollment is up about 21 percent, public and social service about 14 percent, applied technologies about 9 percent and business about 8 percent. More than 14,000 students are enrolled in ACC's free tuition pilot for high school and homeschool graduates, up more than 40 percent from last fall. "They're full and I'm really excited because I know these classes train folks for jobs that are hiring," said Troy Defrates, dean of the School of Applied Technologies. CBS Austin
UT revised its sexual misconduct policy Monday, adding language covering artificial-intelligence-generated sexual content, expanding the definition of fondling and setting consequences for failing to comply with resolution agreements. A university Title IX official said the changes apply only to cases processed in the 2026-2027 academic year and drew on feedback gathered during the UT System's model policy review; state law requires a review every two years. The Daily Texan
Two 10-month McCombs School of Business graduate programs are being renamed to name artificial intelligence directly: the Master of Science in Business Analytics becomes Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, and the Master of Science in Information Technology and Management becomes Business Technology and Artificial Intelligence. The College of Liberal Arts added a certificate in geospatial artificial intelligence this semester. The Daily Texan
Health
Jonestown was placed under a boil water notice Sunday after low water pressure and outages. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality required the Jonestown Water Supply Corporation to tell customers to boil water at a rolling boil for two minutes before drinking, cooking, making ice, brushing teeth or washing hands and face, or to buy bottled water; the system will notify customers when the notice is lifted. CBS Austin
The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians subsidizes the monthly premiums of local musicians who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace, a model KUT reports other cities and sectors are now studying. "Maybe this is my sign to try the full-time music thing," one musician, Morgan, recalled thinking. "Step one in that was: Get health insurance again." KUT
Overheard on Bluesky
A nonprofit in Austin, Texas, helps musicians sustain an unpredictable career in an expensive city by subsidizing their health insurance. Other cities and sectors are learning from the model.
Business & tech
COTALAND, the theme park at Circuit of the Americas, will open Sept. 26 with more than 30 attractions, including Circuit Breaker, which the park says is the first tilt roller coaster in Texas, plus karting, mini golf and a zip line. "COTALAND was created to be far more than a traditional amusement park," COTA founder Bobby Epstein said in a news release. Community Impact
A UT finance senior, Elijah Wang Chen, built RateMyRentUT after finding a gap between the rents listed on housing websites and what West Campus students actually pay. Students report their rent anonymously and compare parking costs and amenities; the site has drawn more than 1,600 users since launching in February and puts the average monthly rent it collects at about $1,200. He has since launched a second site, FindMyLease, which compares that data against leasing websites and Google reviews. The Daily Texan
Around town
Two of the six dog runs at the Austin Animal Center have lost air conditioning, Austin Animal Services said in a Monday post. The affected runs house medium and large dogs, and the department said temporary cooling units "can't keep up with the daytime heat." It asked people to adopt or foster the affected dogs. The city has cooling centers open for people. KXAN
Overheard on Bluesky
If you're in the Austin TX metro area and can give a newly spayed or neutered dog a break from recovering in an outdoor kennel during an extreme heat advisory, I have a list of 10 dogs to ask about. These are easy pups who just want to rest for a few days.
(Next post)
New educational signs and films have been installed near the Congress Avenue Bridge, where thousands of people gather each evening to watch the bats emerge. The signs, installed by The Trail Conservancy, use QR codes to link to films about the colony and the conservation work that protected it. "We've got the largest urban colony of bats in the world, and it can look spectacular to come watch them," said wildlife filmmaker Skip Hobbie, who made the films. KXAN
Make-A-Wish Central & South Texas has granted 58 wishes so far in its Summer of Wishes campaign, which aims to grant 100 wishes in 100 days for local children facing critical illnesses. The organization highlighted Eden, a Central Texas teenager who has an ultra-rare cancer and significant vision loss and is now choosing her wish. CBS Austin
A partial lunar eclipse will be visible from Texas on Aug. 27, with about 93 percent of the Moon turning reddish inside Earth's shadow, according to NASA. The partial eclipse begins at 9:33 p.m. Central, peaks at 11:12 p.m. and ends at 12:51 a.m. on Aug. 28. It is safe to watch without eye protection. FOX 7 Austin
Texas
Counties across Texas are facing public pushback over Flock Safety's license plate cameras, and officials say the contracts are hard to unwind because most networks are bought by retailers, homeowners associations and municipal utility districts rather than by the county. Austin and San Marcos have moved on from the cameras; Guadalupe and Hood counties have ended their contracts, as have Bandera, Lago Vista and Magnolia. Advocacy groups that track camera placements estimate more than 13,000 cameras in Texas. The Texas Tribune
A Texas Tribune and ProPublica investigation published in May found Texas lawmakers missed dozens of chances over nearly 60 years to restrict building in flood-prone places; in July, intense rain hit the Kerr County area again, flooding some of the same spots and killing one person. Lawmakers did require youth camp cabins to be moved away from flood-prone riverside spots after last year's Guadalupe River flood, which killed at least 119 people in Kerr County, but did not change the rules for homes or RV parks. The Texas Tribune
Sports
Texas junior Colin Simmons enters the season as a preseason first-team All-American from Walter Camp and Phil Steele after leading the SEC with 12 sacks in 2025, adding a team-high 15.5 tackles for loss. He anchors a defensive front that also returns Hero Kanu, Maraad Watson and sophomore Lance Jackson under first-year defensive coordinator Will Muschamp. "I think Muschamp puts his best players in a position to go make a play," Simmons said. KXAN
River sources: CBS Austin (CapMetro) · KVUE (Shoal Creek Trail) · KVUE (crossing guards) · KXAN (flea market fire) · KXAN (violent crime) · KXAN (Central Library) · Community Impact (House District 49) · Austin Current (AISD ratings) · CBS Austin (UT classes) · CBS Austin (ACC enrollment) · The Daily Texan (misconduct policy) · The Daily Texan (program changes) · CBS Austin (Jonestown) · KUT (HAAM) · Community Impact (COTALAND) · The Daily Texan (rent reporting app) · KXAN (Animal Center) · KXAN (bat bridge) · CBS Austin (Make-A-Wish) · FOX 7 (lunar eclipse) · The Texas Tribune (Flock) · The Texas Tribune (Hill Country floods) · KXAN (Colin Simmons)
Weather
Today: sunny, with a high near 106 and heat index values as high as 104, on a south-southwest wind around 5 mph. Alerts: an Extreme Heat Warning for Travis County runs until 7 p.m. Monday, and a Heat Advisory follows from 7 p.m. Monday until 7 p.m. Wednesday. Tonight: mostly clear, with a low around 78. Next few days: sunny and near 105 Tuesday, near 104 Wednesday, then a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1 p.m. Thursday with a high near 102. National Weather Service
Monday is Austin's tenth consecutive triple-digit day and the 27th of the summer, with the afternoon high near the Aug. 24 record of 107. FOX 7 says the heat dome will weaken enough to drop the area below heat-alert criteria and open low rain chances, with a weak front sagging into Texas Thursday and Friday. FOX 7 Austin
Complete temperature records for Camp Mabry, Austin's official reporting site, go back to 1898, and Austin has reached 100 degrees more than 2,000 times since. The average across 1898 to 2024 is about 16 triple-digit days a year, but the figure is rising: across 1991 to 2020, the period the National Weather Service currently uses to calculate normals, the average was 29. KXAN
Overheard on X
South Congress Beers with my boy FZ Shawn cause it’s a million degrees out. #108ing #WhatsinArtiesMouth #ModeloMan pic.twitter.com/CxRdSlMSon
Weather sources: National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio · FOX 7 (heat) · KXAN (100-degree records)
12 days until Texas football · Texas State at DKR, Sept. 5, 2:30 p.m.
The bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge have new signs, and the signs are aimed at the hour before the bats come out — the hour everybody spends looking at their phone. "So often people are waiting an hour or more to see the bats," the filmmaker who made the films said. Now there is something to read while you wait for the largest urban bat colony in the world to get going.