Austin weather: Record-breaking lows hit city due to arctic blast

City officials respond to winter weather

Austin city officials are asking residents to stay inside while they continue to keep everything running smoothly as the freezing temperatures are forecasted to stick around until Wednesday.

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin experienced record-breaking low temperatures just one day into this multi-day cold snap. Officials want residents to stay inside while they continue to keep everything running smoothly.

"The temperature in Austin, Camp Mabry, reached 16 degrees, which broke the previous record of 19 degrees that was set in 1944," said Mayor Kirk Watson.

Austin-Travis County remains under a hard freeze warning through Wednesday, Jan. 17. Because of that, six cold weather shelters will stay open overnight until then.

Texas winter weather: Officials give update

Austin and Travis County officials talk about the cold temperatures and provide information about what they're doing.

To sign up to stay in a cold weather shelter, go to the One Texas Center at 505 Barton Springs Road between 5-8 p.m. Austinites can also call 311 or 512-974-2000 if they are unable to go there during that time slot.

Three warming shelters are also available between the hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at three Austin Public Library locations:

Little Walnut Creek Branch: 835 W. Rundberg Ln.
Ruiz Branch: 1600 Grove Blvd.
Terrazas Branch: 1105 E. Cesar Chavez St.

So far, officials say 400 people and seven dogs have stayed overnight in one of the shelters.

"We encourage people to consider getting to a shelter early. Please don't wait. The temperatures and wind chills are low enough to make hypothermia and frostbite a real threat," said Ken Snipes, Director of Austin Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

Austin weather: Will the power stay on?

Texans are under a power conservation request, but will that be enough to keep the lights on? Matt Mitchell from Austin Energy joins us with more.

General Manager for Austin Energy Bob Kahn says the utility has set a new winter peak.

"Our previous peak was 2630mw and right now we're hovering at about 2760," he said.

Kahn says everything on Austin Energy’s end looks good, but the utility remains in constant contact with ERCOT in case that changes.

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ERCOT says the tightest times for power availability will be in the morning hours of Tuesday, Jan. 16 and Wednesday, Jan. 17. The decision will be up to ERCOT if Austin Energy has to conduct controlled blackouts. Currently, that is not anticipated, but the city has a plan if that turns out to be the case.

"We've identified non-critical load areas, and what we will do is, to make this where nobody has more burden than someone else in our city, we will try to roll those outages in such a way that you will not have any one area have more than 40 minutes," said Mayor Watson.

As for the roads, Austin Transportation and Public Work crews have pre-treated and retreated 36 high priority bridges with 500 gallons of brine solution. Crews will remain on 12-hour rotating shifts.