The United States experienced its first taste of autumn this year as an expected cold front drifted throughout the country; this is good news for the state of Texas, which has suffered some of the hottest summers on record over the past two years.

“The period between May and July of this year was the eighth warmest in Texas history since 1895,” Troy Kimmel, geography and environment lecturer, said. “Although August ended up being a bit cooler than in the previous months.”

Despite the notion of cooling down as the summer gradually concludes, last week’s weather forecast ranged in the triple digits, from 100 to 103 F. Kimmel also pointed out that the temperatures were so high over the last week that two temperature records in Austin (at the Bergstrom International Airport and Camp Mabry) were broken (102 and 103, respectively).

Then the cold front moved in and made a significant impact Saturday on the local temperature, bringing it down from a high of 102 Friday to a high of 89 Saturday, along with the humidity dropping to around 13 percent. However, despite the recent cold front, concerns about some stronger-than-expected wind gusts remain.

“There will be a problem when gusty winds come through,” Kimmel said. “And with dry vegetation from the dry summer, there may be a possible fire problem.” Several Hill Country counties were under a red flag warning for most of Saturday.

Kimmel also said that the cold front may not last as long as the city of Austin hopes, as he expects highs to be back to the mid-90s by the middle of this week.