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More than 300,000 school-aged children continue to return to school this week and next amid scorching temperatures, including those in Texas’ fourth-largest school district, Northside Independent School District.
More than 100,000 students will return on Monday with the forecast high of 103 degrees by the time the final bell of the day rings. Even the morning school bus wait will be miserable in the coming days, with temperatures around 80 degrees and humidities in the 80% range by 7 a.m.
Highs of 100 or higher are forecast every day through at least Monday with heat indices as high as 105 to 112 degrees on some of those afternoons.
The National Weather Service reports a subtropical weather pattern is keeping skies mostly sunny and winds low.
After showing some improvement in drought with July rains, this heat wave is taking a toll on grass and water levels in the Edward Aquifer, which can drop a foot a day due to weather like this, as occurred between Monday and Tuesday of this week.
The water level in the aquifer, the area’s main source of water, stood at 631 feet on Tuesday, or 19 feet below the mark where water conservation levels are first activated.
San Antonio Water System customers remain under Stage 3 water restrictions and can only water once a week using automatic sprinklers based on street address.
Large water users will see a new surcharge in August to encourage residential and commercial water conservation.
SAWS officials said earlier this summer that only five percent of major water users will be affected by the surcharge. For single-family accounts, the Stage 3 surcharge of $10.37 per thousand gallons will go into effect for water use above 20,000 gallons a month. In Stage 4, that threshold is reduced to 12,000 gallons.
Commercial surcharge amounts will vary depending on meter size.
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