The Austin area will see cooler temperatures this week. But it’s not as ‘crazy’ as you think.

Temperatures in Central Texas will trend below average with highs only in the 80s in most areas this week, according to the National Weather Service. Normally, high temperatures this time of year range in the high 90s.

The cooler weather is not as “crazy” as this one Reddit user would have you think, though.

“Our perception, I think, is really being skewed by how drastic the drought and the summers have been the last couple of summers,” Paul Yura, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said. “We’re actually kind of right around where we’re supposed to be with our average temperature so far this month and rainfall.”

As for how long the cooler temperatures will last, well, that depends.

Much of our triple-digit temperatures last summer were triggered by a stationary high-pressure system. Many might remember this system being referred to as a “heat dome.”

So far this summer (knock on wood), the Austin area has managed to avoid this type of pressure system.

“Basically, the way it works is that if the ridge of high pressure is not over us … well, then that allows us to have more of the normal summer type of temperatures,” Yura said.

The good news, he said, is that right now, none of the weather models show the area getting back into that high-pressure system pattern.

This week’s forecast also includes rounds of rain and thunderstorms, which Yura said will hopefully bring some relief to local lake levels.

Lakes Travis and Buchanan, the area’s main water supply sources, are just over half full combined because of years of severe drought. According to the Lower Colorado River Authority, the last time they were full was the summer of 2019.

“We still need a lot in the Hill Country. We’re still inches and inches behind,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of rain to make that up.”

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.

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