Update at 2:00 p.m. – Tuesday evening thunderstorms amounted to an average of about .18 inches of rainfall on campus, saving UT about 313,043 gallons of water. The Tower’s rain gauge recorded .16 inches, the Jesse H. Jones Communication Center recorded 1.01 inches and the Facilities Complex’s recorded .2 inches. As of Wednesday there has been an average of 1.1 inches of rain on campus.
With precipitation and cooler temperatures to combat the scorching sun, students can break out the umbrellas and rejoice — the rain isn’t going anywhere for another day or two.
The UT campus received rain late Monday afternoon that continued into the evening. The campus got almost an inch of rain, which resulted in temperatures below 90 degrees. Markus Hogue, program coordinator of UT’s Irrigation and Water Conservation, said the campus saved approximately a week’s worth of water, or 1.6 million gallons, due to Monday’s rainfall. UT’s central irrigation system automatically shuts off its sprinklers when it rains, allowing it to detect whether it needs any more watering after precipitation.
Prior to midnight, UT’s central irrigation system, an advanced system that monitors and waters the campus’ landscape while reporting many different types of data, recorded an average of .92 inches of rain on Monday from its three different rain gauges. The one at the Tower reported .93 inches, Jesse H. Jones Communication Center’s gauge reported 1.01 inches and the Facilities Complex’s gauge reported .82 inches of rain.
Geography lecturer and KEYE meteorologist Troy Kimmel said he expected the weather to be rainy until Thursday due to a moist stable air mass that is working with a weak front.
“We could see another couple of inches of rain,” Kimmel said. “But by the time we get to the end of the week and the weekend, it is showing signs of drying out. I think the rain chances will be diminishing as we get into the weekend.”
Kimmel said he expects Travis County to experience temperatures lower than 90 degrees on Wednesday and temperatures in the mid-90s this Saturday.
“But as the rain chances go down and the sunshine kind of picks up late in the week and into the weekend, temperatures will get back up into middle 90s again,” Kimmel said.
