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Thunderstorms with lightning can be expected all weekend in Central Texas. (Pexels)
It might be time to adjust any outdoor weekend plans- it seems like thunderstorms are here to stay into Monday.
There will be at least a 50% chance of storms over the next few days. The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for Travis and surrounding Central Texas counties.
Thankfully we aren't expecting any more severe weather today. But some locations will still see a few scattered showers and storms, with cooler temperatures as well. The forecast remains wet Friday but especially Saturday, then we warm up into Monday. pic.twitter.com/KPFGECfh3M
— NWS Austin/San Antonio (@NWSSanAntonio) April 29, 2021
Hail, like those seen in Hays County Wednesday night, could be possible into the weekend, but the weather service doesn't anticipate any more large hail.
Scattered showers will bring cooler temperatures with lows in the 60s and highs in the 70s. On Saturday and Sunday, isolated severe storms are expected east of I-35.
Come Monday, we should see sunny skies and 90-degree weather just in time for the first week of May.
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A $6,000 cockatoo named Lemon Grab was stolen from a pet store Sunday afternoon, owner Kelsey Fernandez said. (Kelsey Fernandez)
A big-money bird has been stolen from a northwest Austin pet store.
Kelsey Fernandez, the owner of a $6,000 sulphur and citron-crested cockatoo named Lemon Grab, said the emotional support animal was taken from the Gallery of Pets store, around closing time on Sunday.
"I've struggled with mental illness my entire life, and ever since I got him I've been doing so much better," Fernandez told Austonia.
The $6k cockatoo is young and will starve unless he is fed by hand, Fernandez said.
In a surveillance video, a man appears to have something under his shirt as he and two others exit the business around the same time the store believes that Lemon Grab was stolen.
Fernandez said a report has been filed with the Austin Police Department with an $1,000 reward for his return.
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(Pexels)
Introverts and personal space lovers may not want to make the move to Austin anytime soon: The Texas capital saw a bigger increase in one-bedroom rent prices than almost any other U.S. city in April, according to a Rent.com report.
Austin's one-bedroom rent has more than doubled—a 112% increase—from April 2021 to 2022, the report said. Only Oklahoma City saw a higher year-over-year increase with a 133% jump.
Austin also had the fourth-highest increase in two-bedroom rent, with a 50% increase in the past year. The city joined a nationwide trend where rents were up 8.3% year-over-year across the U.S, a trend exacerbated by a 6.2% increase in inflation in the same time period.
But "not everyone is experiencing inflation the same way," Redfin Deputy Chief Economist Taylor Marr said in the report, and a brunt of the load has gone to cities with more move-ins. While over 90% of state rental markets increased in the last year, that jump was seen most in Sun Belt states, including Texas, Arizona and Florida.
Even with breakneck increases in rent, however, Austin's rent prices still haven't cracked the top 10: the city's one-bedroom apartments are the 12th most expensive in the nation with an average price of $2,918. Meanwhile, its two-bedrooms fall behind Texas cities Frisco, Dallas and Plano and come out 34th on the list with a $2,302 average monthly rent.
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