Last checked: the morning of Tuesday, July 28, 2026. This page tracks the three things that actually decide what you can do in an Austin yard this week: the city’s watering rules, the heat, and the rain outlook. We check the official sources and update as conditions change.
Austin watering rules right now
Austin is under Conservation Stage water restrictions, the city’s baseline year-round rules, and has been since September 2, 2025. That means automatic sprinkler systems get one watering day per week, and hose-end sprinklers get two. Watering is only allowed before 10 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on your day.
| Your address | Automatic irrigation (1 day) | Hose-end sprinkler or drip (2 days) |
|---|---|---|
| Even house number | Thursday | Thursday and Sunday |
| Odd house number | Wednesday | Wednesday and Saturday |
Hand watering with a hose or bucket is treated differently than sprinklers under city rules, and drip irrigation follows the hose-end schedule. The official schedule and any stage changes are posted on Austin Water’s watering day page. If lake storage in the Highland Lakes falls far enough, the city moves to Stage 1 and the rules tighten, so it’s worth a glance before you reprogram a controller.
Heat and rain this week
It’s hot, even by Austin standards. The National Weather Service has no heat alerts in effect for the Austin area right now. At the 6:24 a.m. reading on Tuesday, Camp Mabry sat at 77°F with 90% humidity and mostly cloudy skies.
The forecast for the rest of the week, from the National Weather Service:
- Wednesday: mostly sunny, high near 98°F, overnight low around 77
- Thursday: sunny, high near 100°F, overnight low around 77
- Friday: sunny, high near 100°F, overnight low around 80
- Saturday: mostly sunny, high near 102°F, overnight low around 81
Rain chances stay very low through the weekend, in the single digits most days. Whatever moisture your lawn gets this week, it gets from you, on your watering day.
What this means for your lawn
One watering day plus 100-degree afternoons is a survival week, not a growth week. Water deeply on your assigned day, early in the morning window, so moisture soaks in before the heat pulls it back out. Bermuda and zoysia will handle this week fine. St. Augustine in full sun is the lawn to watch, and a little browning under this kind of heat is dormancy, not death.
Mow high right now. Taller grass shades the soil and holds moisture longer between waterings. Skip fertilizer this week entirely; once temperatures pass 95°F, nitrogen pushes growth the lawn can’t support on one watering day, and fertilizing drought-stressed turf does more harm than good. Our Austin summer lawn care guide covers the full heat-wave playbook.
Can you plant right now?
Late July is the wrong window for almost everything except warm-season sod, and even that comes with a caveat: new sod needs frequent water to root, and the current one-day-a-week schedule applies to established landscapes. Sodding bermuda or zoysia is workable if you can hand water within the allowed hours while it establishes. Hold new trees, shrubs, and St. Augustine until temperatures break, and plan fall plantings for late September into October.
Our month-by-month Austin landscaping calendar lays out what fits each window, and the Austin frost dates guide covers the other end of the season. Not sure what’s in your yard? Start with our Austin grass types guide.
Where this data comes from
Watering stage and schedule: Austin Water’s official drought response and watering day pages at austintexas.gov, checked July 21, 2026. Temperature, humidity, forecast, and any active heat alerts: the National Weather Service Austin/San Antonio forecast office (weather.gov), observation station Camp Mabry, pulled July 28, 2026. We don’t estimate or backfill any figure on this page; if we couldn’t verify it, it isn’t here.