Sunday
September 13, 2026
Today at a glance
- Weather 101° / 79°Heat Advisory today. Take the shade and the water bottle with you.
- Air quality 31 · GoodClear air. A great day to be outside.
- Lake Travis 92.8% fullThe lake is close to full — good for boats and for the summer water supply. Down a touch from last week.
- Power grid NormalA busy afternoon: demand near 86,900 megawatts, with 113,900 on hand.
- Sunrise 7:14 a.m.The sun is up for 12 hours and 24 minutes today, and down by 7:38 p.m.
Good morning, Austin. Another Heat Advisory, another 101, and a heat index that should sit near 109 by mid-afternoon, so shade is the whole strategy today. The sun came up at 7:14 and goes down at 7:38. Yesterday afternoon it rained on parts of South Austin for a few minutes and people went outside to photograph it, and by dinner there was a double rainbow east of downtown. Somebody on Reddit is planning a wedding here in November and wants to know whether it will be cool by then, which is the most Austin question of the week. The lake is 93 percent full. Drink more water than you think you need.
The Briefing
Austin has never had a six weeks this hot
From Aug. 1 through Saturday, Camp Mabry recorded 39 days of 100 degrees or hotter out of 43. No year on record has done that over the same six weeks. The closest are 2023 and 2019, at 38 days each, and the summer of 2011, at 36. The coolest high in the entire run was 94 degrees, and that was Aug. 1 itself. KXAN's meteorologists put the streak down to a high-pressure ridge that is also keeping the rain away, and they expect it to hold through the end of next week.
Saturday showed the cost. The University of Texas at Austin expected more than 100,000 people at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (DKR) and set out 19 free water stations for them. Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services (ATCEMS) added units, a week after it carried 13 people to hospitals from the season's first game, at least three of them with heat illness. Off East Dean Keeton Street, a graduate student's heat stress tracker read between 119 and 121 degrees in the sun.
What's next: A Heat Advisory runs until 7 p.m. today, and the National Weather Service forecasts 101 again on Monday and Tuesday.
Sources: KXAN (the Camp Mabry record and the ridge), KXAN (the heat stress tracker downtown), CBS Austin (the water stations and the EMS units), National Weather Service (the forecast)
City Desk
Money & bills
The city adds $200,000 to the contract of a nonprofit that ran out of money
City Council approved a one-time $200,000 addition on Thursday to SAFE Alliance's contract to run the city-owned domestic violence shelter, bringing the agreement to $12.4 million. The nonprofit warned in April that it was running short, and closed Eloise House, its Southeast Austin clinic, on June 8. That clinic had performed most of the forensic exams for sexual assault survivors in Travis County. Austin American-Statesman
Also
Travis County now has one community-based forensic exam center. BRAVE Alliance handles most of that work under an agreement with Ascension Seton, Baylor Scott & White Health and St. David's HealthCare. Austin American-Statesman
Public safety & courts
A three-and-a-half-week police push against drunk driving ends with eight arrests
Austin police ran a driving while intoxicated (DWI) enforcement and no-refusal initiative between Aug. 14 and Sept. 7. Officers made eight arrests, issued 83 citations and gave 132 warnings. The department said the no-refusal part of it meant applying for blood search warrants when a driver arrested for DWI declined to give a breath or blood sample. KXAN
Also
KVUE reported that a South Austin house fire on Stoneoak Lane near William Cannon Drive, which firefighters were called to just after 10:30 p.m., has been ruled accidental. KVUE
Overheard on Reddit
flyovers are a little weird
Even though I know that it’s jets doing a flyover for the game it’s still so wild to hear, and unfortunately to hot to go outside and check them out. I wonder how many of yall are weirded out by them too??
Growth & infrastructure
The city's Roadway Work Zones dataset (qyfh-gwei) lists Thornton Road closed in all lanes for water, wastewater and storm drain work, on a permit that runs to Oct. 6. City of Austin open data
The same dataset has southbound North Lamar Boulevard with some lanes closed under a temporary right-of-way permit listed through Jan. 18, 2027. City of Austin open data
Overheard on Reddit
My Cybercab held me hostage for an hour today 🙃
Was supposed to be a quick 10 minute hop from 99 Ranch to the Domain. The car had other plans and took me on a massive south detour through East Austin. Guess the Cybercab wanted the scenic route today. Total ride time was 70 minutes.
City Hall & county
East Austin's Millennium moves under city governance
Council voted Thursday to draft an ordinance creating a city advisory board for the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex, the East Austin bowling and skating center run since 1995 by the Rosewood Community Development Corporation. The corporation handed day-to-day management to city staff in October 2025 and its own board asked for the change in March. Austin American-Statesman
Also
Dewi Smith, the corporation's vice chair, told Council she hoped the center's mission and history would not be forgotten. Council Member Natasha Harper-Madison thanked the volunteers who had kept it running. Austin American-Statesman
Council also extended funding for a program that helps Asian American residents in Austin find their way through the health care system. Austin American-Statesman
Schools
The University of Texas at Austin has hired more than 20 national security faculty across its public affairs and liberal arts schools and the Clements Center for National Security. The Daily Texan
It has also opened a Defense Technology Fellowship, and two majors announced in January, Great Books and Strategy and Statecraft, are taking effect this term. The Daily Texan
Business & street life
Die Spitz came home to the Far Out Lounge on Levitation's biggest night
The Austin punk band played Levitation's main stage at the Far Out Lounge on Friday, its first hometown show since November 2025 after nearly a year on the road. Die Spitz formed in 2022 and has since opened for Amyl and the Sniffers and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. It went on ahead of Bikini Kill, with Sweeping Promises between them. KXAN
Also
The Austin Chronicle sent four writers to Levitation's first two nights, among them Arlo Parks at the Mohawk on Thursday and the Oakland trio Spacemoth at 13th Floor. Austin Chronicle
Overheard on Reddit
It’s raining, it’s raining! (,:
Smells so good! 💗
Around San Jacinto Boulevard on Saturday afternoon, one pedicab driver told KXAN he planned to work until four in the morning and write off the two days after that. KXAN
Saturday's game at DKR sold out, the first time the two teams have met in Austin since 2006. CBS Austin found one seat listed on SeatGeek for more than $42,000 the Wednesday before. CBS Austin
Overheard on Reddit
Outdoor Wedding in November?
Hi everyone I’m engaged and planning a wedding in Texas my fiancé is from there. We were thinking early spring but are considering October or November to give us a year to plan everything. My question is if November should still be comfortable weather? Ik normally in other places November is pretty cold but we visited late August and it was HOT. Just dont know how the weather is here in the later
Roccito's Garden, a wine garden from the owners of Rocco's Neighborhood Joint, opened in August at 5001 Airport Blvd. and serves Thursday through Sunday. Community Impact
Austin Flower Co. on West 35th Street marked 30 years in August. Thomas Gay, its owner, has run the shop since 1996. Community Impact
Peoples Pharmacy on North Lamar Boulevard has been sold to Kimberli Wiley, who owns CPRx Pharmacy, and will add nurse practitioners in store through a tie-up with Victory Medical Center. Community Impact
Neko Yubu, a Dallas-born Korean shop selling fried tofu skins stuffed with rice, opened Aug. 1 at 1910 Guadalupe St. in West Campus. Community Impact
Material Bespoke Stone + Tile moved from Westlake to 3010 W. Anderson Lane on Aug. 3. Community Impact
Weather
Today: sunny, with a high near 101 and heat index values as high as 109. South wind 5 to 10 miles per hour. A Heat Advisory is in effect until 7 p.m. Tonight: partly cloudy, low around 79, with the heat index still near 105. Monday and Tuesday both reach 101. National Weather Service
The hottest readings of the current streak were 107 degrees on Aug. 22 and Aug. 23. Camp Mabry has been Austin's official reporting site since 1898. KXAN
The 2026 Atlantic season has set a record for the latest first hurricane since satellite records began in 1966, passing the old mark of Sept. 11, set by Gustav in 2002 and tied by Humberto in 2013. Five named storms have formed, all of them tropical storms. KXAN
The National Hurricane Center expects no tropical activity in the Atlantic over the next seven days. An average season has its first hurricane by Aug. 11. KXAN
The Back Page
22 days until the voter registration deadline · Texans must be registered by Oct. 5 to vote in the Nov. 3 election; early voting runs Oct. 19 through Oct. 30.
Sunday Paper: Three pieces from this week worth the long read. KUT asked Austin Independent School District parents what they made of the mayor's suggestion that closing failing schools might head off a state takeover. It also reported on the Red River Cultural District's letter to the city asking for help as venues keep closing. And it went agency by agency through which police departments around Austin still run Flock Safety cameras after several of their neighbors dropped them.
Most of the people who follow Alveus Sanctuary have never stood on it. The 40-acre refuge near Austin was started in 2021 by Maya Higa, who was rehabilitating a red-tailed hawk at the time and showed it to her Twitch audience one night. The clip got away from her. "People wanted to see the bird that I was rehabilitating, then the clips of that went viral on Reddit," Higa said. "I figured out pretty quickly that I could do my zookeeping outreach education job virtually." That is more or less the whole model: the sanctuary has grown from 10 acres to 40 since it opened, its animals are on camera around the clock, and the audience does the rest. Higa says the aim is "to teach as many people as possible about conservation. We're trying to bring young people into the fold. So our newest voters, new consumers, new decision makers." There is an emu, and there is a sign warning you about the emu. KXAN