High temperatures continue to blast Austin this week, but lower humidity levels expected

This coming week is shaping up to be just like last week: hot, but luckily with a little less humidity that won't cause those heat indexes to get as high as it was this last week.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service placed Austin and all of Central Texas under a heat advisory through Monday at 8 p.m., but they said those advisories are likely to persist through the week.

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Weather service meteorologist Emily Heller said she expects Austin to have heat advisories through the week, with Tuesday and Wednesday forecast to be the hottest days.

A look at predictions taken from Camp Mabry shows that the heat index — the "feels like temperature" — could be slightly above 110 degrees several days this week. High temperatures are expected to stay within the low 100s throughout the week.

Austin broke its heat index record at 118 degrees on Wednesday, and so far the city has seen nine days in June get up to 100 degrees, according to the weather service.

While it may seem like typical hot summer temperatures for Austin, this year's wetter-than-average spring led to high levels of humidity. This moisture leads to the oppressive heat indexes Austin has experienced over the past week.

However, Austin is forecast to have more normal dew point levels this week — and therefore more normal heat indexes — since the heat has started to dry out the soil, and changing winds from the southeast to southwest means less moisture from the Gulf, Heller said.

Even with more typical humidity, Heller said people should continue to remain vigilant and stay safe when going outside during this heat wave.

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"It's still gonna be hot and we're still seeing warm lows," Heller said. "These are not too atypical for this time of year. But normally if we can't drop out of like 80 degrees or higher, (then) a lot of people that are prone to heat illnesses are more susceptible because they don't have time to recover from those hot temperatures."

Last week's dangerous conditions prompted local leaders to urge residents to stay hydrated, cool and indoors as much as possible. Officials are expected to hold a news conference addressing the heat at 10 a.m. Monday. The conference will be streamed on the city's live broadcast feed, ATXN1.

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The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state agency that runs the power grid, issued a weather watch this week due to the high temperatures across the state. ERCOT said it expects grid conditions to be normal this week.

ERCOT issues a weather watch when forecast high temperatures will have homes and businesses cranking up their AC to cool down during the heat of the day. A weather watch is not a voluntary conservation notice, like the one issued last week, but ERCOT does suggest cutting back energy use during a weather watch and monitoring grid conditions.

As June seems poised to go out in a blaze, Heller said the first week of July could offer some relief, but it's still too early to determine.

Extended weather forecast

Monday

• High: 102

• Low: 79

• Heat index: 108

Tuesday

• High: 104

• Low: 78

• Heat index: 112

Wednesday

• High: 105

• Low: 76

• Heat index: 111

Thursday

• High: 103

• Low: 77

• Heat index: 112

Friday

• High: 103

• Low: 77

• Heat index: 114

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin's blazing temps continue, but humidity is going back to normal