KVUE
Author: Jeff Bell
Published: 6:40 PM CDT August 27, 2023
Updated: 11:19 PM CDT August 27, 2023

AUSTIN, Texas — Thousands of Central Texans lost power on Sunday evening after a cold front moved through, bringing high wind gusts to the area.

As of 11:09 p.m., Austin Energy had 25 outages affecting 376 customers – down from more than 8,200 customers earlier in the evening. Meanwhile, PEC had five outages affecting seven customers – down from more than 3,400.

Austin Energy said Sunday's outages were likely due to tree branches making contact with wires.

Just after 6 p.m., storms were beginning to slowly weaken, with some Central Texans still seeing light rain showers. The cooler air pushing south dropped the temperature at Camp Mabry from 106 to 82 in one hour.

For Sunday, Austin was under a marginal risk for severe weather – a level 1 out of 5.

The KVUE Weather Team will be tracking rain and storm chances Sunday through Tuesday, with pockets of 1 inch of rain or more possible for some areas. Sunday rains will favor northern portions of Central Texas, while central and southern areas get a better chance throughout Monday.

Sunday’s outages come as ERCOT calls for conservation for the fourth straight day due to tight grid conditions. Texans are asked to conserve power from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday due to low wind and potential low solar generation and high demand.

Austin Energy said Sunday's outages were local and not grid-related.