City and county officials are urging Austinites to hunker down as a potentially dangerous cold front bears down on Texas.
Travis County Judge Andy Brown issued a disaster declaration Friday in anticipation of the forecasted severe winter weather.
Brown joined Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and other local officials to urge Austinites to avoid venturing out onto roads during the front that will bring freezing temperatures to Central Texas over the weekend.
“If you don’t need to be out over the weekend, please don’t be out,” Watson said. “Don’t be on the streets and get your home ready for what might be.”
Jason Runyen with the National Weather Service said this “dangerously cold” weather system could bring up to a quarter-inch of ice accumulation starting Saturday, when freezing rain and sleet are expected to hit the Hill Country. Runyen added that the forecast is changing, and he urged residents to keep up to date on the forecast.
“This forecast is still evolving even over the next 24 to 36 hours,” Runyen said. “While our confidence is increasing on the overall impacts, fluctuations in the ice forecast are still possible and likely.”
Among a growing list of closures and cancellations, H-E-B said its Central Texas stores would close Saturday at 5 p.m. and not reopen until Sunday at 9 a.m.
UT-Austin announced it would close and cancel all events from Saturday at 5 p.m. until Sunday at noon.
While ERCOT, the state’s electrical grid operator, said it does not anticipate large-scale power outages, local concern about Austin Energy’s grid is very real. Ice weighed down tree limbs across the city in 2023, causing outages for hundreds of thousands of Austinites.
General Manager Stuart Reilly said the city-owned utility has spent the years since retooling and improving its responses to winter weather. Austin Energy is fully staffed and is prepared to reach out to other utilities, if need be.
“Our crews are ready. Our staffing plans are in place,” he said. “We are the most prepared that we have ever been for a winter storm.”
Cap Metro CEO Dottie Watkins also announced the city’s transit agency is halting service tomorrow evening in light of the freeze starting Saturday. Watkins said service could restart as soon as Sunday or Monday, but that the agency would make a decision on that tomorrow by noon.
“We understand the important role that we play in our community, but ultimately, the safety of our customers and frontline staff is important.”
Watkins advised transit-dependent Austinites to “take their last trips by 4 p.m.” tomorrow, but said CapMetro buses will still be shuttling people to the city’s cold weather shelters.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning that starts Saturday at 6 a.m. and lasts until Sunday morning. The service expects the massive cold front to roll into Texas tonight.
Temperatures in Austin are expected to reach freezing tomorrow afternoon, and some stretches of Central Texas and the Hill Country could see a glaze of ice as a result of freezing rain or sleet coming in along with that front.
Freezing temperatures will last through at least Monday evening, when we will get just above freezing briefly before another overnight freeze. Temperatures are expected to get above freezing Tuesday morning.
Watch the city news conference below: