Incoming weather: SXSW and Rodeo Austin prepare

AUSTIN (KXAN) — People in Austin for South by Southwest are in for a real Texas surprise overnight Thursday into Friday as a front moves through the metro bringing behind it a dramatic drop in temperatures.

Though visitors were out in T-shirts and shorts on Thursday, flip-flops will need to go back in the suitcase.

"The latest that we've heard is that the front will be moving through around 10 to 2 a.m., so we'll be looking at that as sort of our area of concentration, but we're also going to be looking at the drop in the weather, the wind gusts," Tami Richter, a native Austinite and the vice president of event operations with SXSW, said.

South by has already moved some of its Thursday events, including its concert scheduled at Lady Bird Lake which will move to the Austin Convention Center.

They also say they're keeping an eye out for any events that need to shuffle on Friday due to the cold and wind that comes behind the front.

Rodeo Austin is also monitoring the weather heading into the weekend. They went over protocols Thursday morning to make sure everyone was ready for severe weather, should it happen while folks are at the rodeo.

They're also making arrangements for the equipment out at the rodeo while folks aren't there.

"There's different rides that they either lower, they don't have to completely dismantle them, but they have processes in places where they may lower some rides and then we're prepared to secure and tents and trashcans and those kinds of things that we need to do," said Glen Alan Phillips, CEO of Rodeo Austin.

You can find the latest forecast from KXAN's First Warning Weather team here.