Expected Monday storms could cool area off a bit

But while rain may drop temperatures down from triple digits, humidity will still make it steamy.

Austin could see as much as a quarter-inch of rain Monday, which could ease a summer swelter that has been sending temperatures above 100 degrees for more than a week, according to the National Weather Service.

Forecasters are calling for a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms with temperatures peaking around 95 degrees, which is about normal for this time of year.

Winds from the east and southeast are expected to bring additional humidity from the Gulf of Mexico, which means a jump in the heat index: Those temperatures in the upper 90s could actually “feel” more like 103.

As commuters start the work week, the increasing clouds are likely to drop anywhere from a tenth to a quarter of an inch of rain across the Austin area, with higher rainfall amounts generated by stronger storms.

By Monday night, rain chances will taper off to around 30 percent, the weather service says, with precipitation likely in the form of scattered showers.

Warm southerly winds at night will keep temperatures above a balmy 75 degrees.

Storms doused the Austin metro area over the weekend, leaving hundreds without power Saturday afternoon, but also cooling temperatures briefly in the region.

Between 4 and 6 p.m., Doppler radar indicated multiple storm cells moving across Austin from the northeast to the southwest, delivering damaging wind gusts of up to 50 mph to communities in Hutto, Round Rock, Bastrop and Northwest Austin.

Austin Energy reported outages affecting as many as 1,200 customers, and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative officials said as many as 470 of its customers lost power Saturday.

The rains, though, did cool Austin by about 25 degrees in three hours. Before the Saturday storms passed through Camp Mabry, Austin’s main weather

station, temperatures at 3 p.m. had reached at least 101 degrees.

By 6 p.m., the thunderstorms over the city plunged temperatures to around 75 degrees.

Looking ahead to the rest of the work week, forecasters say daytime temperatures will likely flirt with the 100-degree mark as they have been for much of July.

The warmest day of July so far was Saturday, when Camp Mabry’s thermometer hit 103 degrees — five degrees shy of the daily record but typical for the month this year.

The month has recorded triple-digit temperatures on 11 of its first 15 days, according to National Weather Service data.

Tuesday’s forecast calls for dwindling rain chances of 20 percent under partly sunny skies and temperatures reaching 96.

By Wednesday, summer heat returns in full force as temperatures start climbing closer to 100.

High heat index values also are likely as those prevailing moisture-rich winds from the south and southeast will make it feel stickier.