Thursday
September 24, 2026
Today at a glance
- Weather 99° / 77°Ninety-nine again, heat index near 106. Go early or go after supper.
- Air quality 60 · ModerateFine for most of us. If your lungs are touchy, take it a little easy.
- Lake Travis 90.3% fullClose to full, which is good for boats and for the water supply. Down a touch.
- Allergies HighElm and ragweed and grasses are heavy today. Windows closed, meds early.
- Power grid NormalA busy afternoon: demand near 81,600 megawatts, with 106,300 on hand.
- Sunrise 7:20 a.m.The sun is up for 12 hours and 4 minutes today, and down by 7:24 p.m.
Good morning, Austin. Ninety-nine again today, with a heat index near 106, and KXAN's weather team says this is the hottest September we have on record so far. Sun up at 7:20, down at 7:24. Somebody in 78758 watched rain fall last night and posted about it the way you would post a rare bird. Elm and ragweed and the grasses are all running high, so take the medicine before you open the door. Lake Travis is still near full. The good news comes with a date on it: the first front of the season is on the maps for the middle of next week.
The Briefing
Four campuses lost their cooling in a month, in the hottest September on record
Kealing Middle School's chiller quit again on Sept. 22. It was the fourth Austin Independent School District (ISD) campus since late August to write home and say the building would not cool, after McCallum, Anderson and Lamar Middle School. Two of them sent students home early. At Anderson the principal said the system was cooling 40% of the building and classrooms had reached the mid-80s.
The heat did not help. KXAN's forecast team called this the hottest September on record to date, after the fifth-hottest August, and the National Weather Service put today's heat index at 106.
The district has been spending on this. Austin ISD finished bond-funded air conditioning work at 15 campuses over the summer and opened four fully modernized schools in August.
Kealing is on a second list too. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) moved six closed schools' rating histories onto the campuses that took their students, and Kealing became one of nine Austin ISD campuses carrying four consecutive failing years. Two district middle schools drew a fifth failing rating this year. Under state law that requires the education commissioner to close them or replace the elected board.
What's next: KXAN's forecast team expects the season's first cold front to reach Central Texas early next week, with Wednesday's high possibly held in the 80s; more in Weather, and the campus reports are in Schools.
Sources: KXAN (the campus letters, the bond work), KXAN First Warning (the September record, the front), Austin Current (the reassigned ratings), National Weather Service (today's heat index)
City Desk
Money & bills
Austin Community College set its tax rate, and the average bill drops about five dollars
Trustees approved $0.103643 per $100 of valuation on Sept. 14, a hair above last year's $0.1034. Because taxable values fell further than the rate rose, the college said the owner of an average home will pay about $557 this year, down from $562. Officials tied the increase to debt on the $770 million bond voters approved in 2022. Community Impact
City staff read 133 social service contracts and recommended cutting none of them
The city's budget director told a council work session Tuesday that the office reviewed $48.2 million across eight departments and proposed keeping 106 agreements and modifying 27. The budget year opened with $16.8 million in proposed reductions before council restored $4.7 million. Twenty-six of the evaluations flagged compliance concerns. KXAN
Also
The city's whole social services portfolio runs about $101.4 million this budget year, with the largest shares going to homelessness services and public health. Community Impact
Property taxes fund about 67% of Austin Community College's $583 million budget, and that revenue fell this year for the first time in 17 years. Community Impact
Public safety & courts
Almost every Travis County arrestee now has a lawyer standing beside them at the bail hearing
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas said this month that 99% of eligible arrestees have had an attorney at their first court appearance since January, seven months into the settlement it and VOCAL-TX reached with the county in December 2025. The gap is the overnight shift: 20 people from April through July went without counsel because of the hour. Austin Chronicle
Federal officers have not said whether a body camera was recording in North Austin
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy requires officers to record most enforcement actions and to explain afterward any failure to switch a camera on. KXAN asked the agency Tuesday whether the officers who stopped Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez were wearing them and has had no answer. U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett said the agency should release whatever footage exists. KXAN
Also
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar said a specialist told Garcés Pérez he needs surgery to remove the bullet, and that he left the hospital for detention within four hours of being shot. KXAN
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said a vehicle pursuit followed the roadside stop; Garcés Pérez's attorney said he told her he was not trying to flee. CBS Austin
Council Member Vanessa Fuentes called for an independent investigation and said she wants residents told what their options are if federal officers stop them. CBS Austin
A person died after a crash in the 1700 block of South Lamar Boulevard on Wednesday, Austin police said; the department has not released a name or a description of what happened. KXAN
One person was seriously hurt in a two-vehicle crash at 5:35 a.m. Thursday on the southbound frontage road of the 183 toll road at 51st Street, closing every lane there. CBS Austin
Jazmine Wright, found malnourished and handcuffed outside a South Austin home last October, told FOX 7 Austin she did it to herself and wants to clear the five people charged. FOX 7 Austin
Growth & infrastructure
The Lower Colorado River Authority will drop Lake Austin 10 feet this fall
The drawdown runs Oct. 12 through Nov. 30, letting property owners work on docks while the agency deals with hydrilla. Business owners along the lake told KXAN's Student News Now that the low water will take their customers with it. KXAN
Tesla has been running its Robotaxi service on a Texas license that expired last month
The Transportation Network Company (TNC) permit a ride-hailing service needs here lapsed in August, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) told KXAN, whose reporters hailed a Cybercab on Wednesday. Tesla has since applied to renew. Filing late costs it $11,250. KXAN
Also
Council members consider a $1.27 million contract Thursday with Cedar Hill Construction to pipe leachate from the closed FM 812 landfill straight into the wastewater line. KXAN
Overheard on Reddit
Anyone know how to get the city to improve a crosswalk?
I have nearly been hit by cars at least a dozen times in two years crossing the street from my job to my car in the crosswalk. I’m definitely not the only one this is happening to. It’s a T shaped intersection and the people turning left from the leg of the T never ever look where they’re going, only to the right as they turn left. Anyone know how to request some of those flashing lights or better
The Austin Transit Partnership (ATP) approved a $13.5 million four-year lease at 203 and 201 Colorado St. and $6 million for finish-out, expecting to grow from about 200 staff to 280. Community Impact
City Hall & county
Travis County is working through about 32,000 late voter registration records
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) said certain online records were incomplete and were never fully transmitted, some going back to October 2025, and it pushed them to counties this week. Voter Registrar Celia Israel said her office has taken an all-hands-on-deck approach and that she is deeply disappointed in the state agency. Registration closes Oct. 5. KXAN
Also
Nexstar asked two dozen Texas counties for their figures and six answered; the state has not said how many records were affected statewide. KXAN
The secretary of state's office said the registrations will be backdated to when they were submitted and that they reached counties in time for the November election. KXAN
Overheard on Reddit
Texas DPS failed to send voter registration applications to county election officials
https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-dps-failed-to-send-voter-registration-applications-to-county-election-officials/ This happened to my kid when they renewed their license in June. They registered to vote, but they are not showing up as registered. Anyone know where to get registered this weekend?
Schools
Kealing Middle School has lost its air conditioning three times since classes began
The unit could not cool the building in early September, and the district's maintenance team put in a temporary chiller, then a new pump when the water feeding it failed. Principal Timothy Estes wrote to families twice that week. The district said the chiller had trouble again on Sept. 22 and was repaired. KXAN
Also
McCallum High School classrooms went without cooling in late August, Anderson High School sent students home early on Sept. 1, and Lamar Middle School did the same on Sept. 8. KXAN
Austin ISD finished bond-funded air conditioning work at 15 campuses over the summer and opened four fully modernized schools for the start of the year. KXAN
The University of Texas at Austin added $7 million to its police budget to raise salaries for officers and other department employees. The Daily Texan
Business & street life
P. Terry's Burger Stand will give all of Saturday's profits from its Austin locations to Integral Care, which provides mental health and disability services across Travis County. KXAN
Overheard on Reddit
Looking for the good samaritans who pulled me out of a car crash at 2nd and chalmers
I was T- boned by a speeding driver tonight on the east side. Someone named Kyle pulled me out of my car and sat with me and consoled me while I was in shock. Someone else brought water and neosporin for my cut. They were A MILLION TIMES MORE COMFORTING AND HELPFUL THAN APD and I’d like to personally thank them. If this sounds like someone you know please comment below or DM so I can reach them.
Komé, the Japanese restaurant Takehiro and Kayo Asazu opened on Airport Boulevard in October 2011, turns 15 this fall and is planning an anniversary celebration in October. Community Impact
Austin Sports Club opened downtown on Sept. 10 from Lobos Hospitality and Boardroom Hospitality, whose owners include Kevin Durant and Joe Gebbia, and held its ribbon cutting Wednesday. Community Impact
Overheard on Reddit
Wow, we've got wet stuff falling from the sky in 78758
I think we used to call it brain or drain or grain or something that rhymed with that. Been so long I really don't remember. Wet stuff will have to suffice for now.
Weather
Today: partly sunny, with a high near 99 and heat index values as high as 106. East northeast wind 0 to 5 miles per hour. Tonight: mostly cloudy, low around 77. No weather alerts are active this morning. National Weather Service
KXAN's forecast team called this the hottest September on record to date, following the fifth-hottest August on record. KXAN
Rain chances stay under 10% for the next several days, though drier air mixing in Friday should take some of the stickiness out of the mornings through the weekend. KXAN
KXAN's forecast team is watching the season's first cold front for early next week, with the highest rain chances Wednesday, highs that day possibly held in the 80s and Wednesday night's low in the 60s. KXAN
The Back Page
8 days until the Austin City Limits (ACL) Festival's first weekend · The Great Lawn at Zilker Park closed Tuesday for build-out; the festival runs Oct. 2-4 and Oct. 9-11.
Athena's surviving owlet went home Wednesday evening. The great horned owl hatched at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in April, days after its sibling died and its mother left the nest, and it was found alive the next morning only because a camera caught it moving. Austin Wildlife Rescue took it in and raised it. On Wednesday a crowd gathered at the Wildflower Center to watch the cage open, and cheered quietly so as not to rush the bird, which sat a moment getting its bearings before it went. "We always say our best goodbyes for us here at the Wildlife Center are the ones that never look back," said Jules Maron, executive director at Austin Wildlife Rescue. "That was a perfect example of a healthy animal taking off in flight." KXAN