Austin weather: Severe storms in May recorded as Austin Energy's 3rd worst in history

Austin Energy speaks on severe storms

A severe storm in May was recorded as Austin Energy's third worst in the utility's history.

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin Energy says a severe storm last month was the third worst in the utility's history.

Thousands without power across Austin

What they're saying:

"It really was something that was much more impactful than was forecast and that we were expecting," says Austin Energy spokesperson Matt Mitchell.

Wind gusts and rainfall left thousands in the dark on May 28 and a second round of storms overnight doubled those outages.

"72,500 without power at our peak," says Mitchell.

There were a total of 124,000 outages in the span of nearly four days, with temperatures rising.

"We had crews in the field immediately," says Mitchell.

Austin Energy says the utility called in mutual aid crews from across the state to pitch in and restore service to residents.

"The challenges were numerous. It wasn't just lightning, rain, or wind. It was all of those things. Those winds, that lightning, that rain, certainly impacting our tree canopy was unlike anything that we've seen in quite some time," says Mitchell.

The microburst storm ranked as the third worst in the utility's history, he said.

"The scale of that damage was really remarkable. In certain areas of town, along Shoal Creek, certainly in east Austin, the far west area was hit especially hard," says Mitchell.

Sunday, June 15, brought more storms to the City of Austin, causing outages for close to 13,000 Austin Energy customers. By 9 p.m. there were about 300 customers still in the dark.

"These severe storms will be more severe, they will be frequent, so make sure that you have a plan in the event of an outage that takes several days. We don't anticipate it, we plan for it. As a learning organization, we'll go back and do an after-action report for this as well. We'll learn even more as we continue to dig into the data about what we can do to make our lines more resilient and keep that power on to more of our customers," says Mitchell.