Austin Evening Weather: Friday's Heavy Rain Is Downgraded to Rain at 70 Degrees, and Election Day's Storm Chance Rises to 54 Percent

The heaviest label in Austin's week came off Thursday evening. The station's live feed, read at about 4:05 p.m., shows the city at 73.1 degrees and overcast, feeling like 76.3, with Thursday closing on a light-drizzle code and a high of 73.8 - the day's third successive downward revision, after the morning's 81-degree read and the midday 74.

Friday's change is the headline. Where the afternoon feed coded the day 65 - heavy rain - with a high of 74.2, the evening feed codes it 61, plain rain, with a high of 70.7 degrees, a low of 63.4 and a 50 percent chance of precipitation. Rain remains the expectation for the last day of Travis County early voting, and the seven extended-hours sites still face a wet close - but the heavy-rain framing the day carried at midday is gone from the current feed. Saturday backs off further behind it: moderate drizzle at a 34 percent chance, down from 50, with a high of 78.5.

The dry stretch then returns in full. Sunday is overcast and dry at 84.5 degrees with a 3 percent chance, and Monday runs warm at 86.9 with a 22 percent chance - the calmest two days on the board, and the last quiet weather before the election.

Election Day Tuesday keeps its thunderstorms and raises their likelihood: code 95, a high of 77.8 and a low of 64.8, with the chance of precipitation now at 54 percent, up from 47 in the afternoon read. Wednesday behind the front is mostly clear at 72.8 with a 2 percent chance. The Friday downgrade and the Tuesday upgrade are both single-feed reads this cycle and will be re-read every cycle; voters planning Friday should still carry the rain gear - 50 percent is a coin flip the wet way on a day the polls close the early file.