Mostly cloudy skies and isolated showers will characterize today, but the sun will come out again by tomorrow.

Yesterday’s warmth

But first, a quick look at yesterday’s warm temperatures:

• It reached 83° at the airport on Sunday. That’s warm! But, incredibly, not the warmest March 10th ever — that honor goes to March 10, 1974, when it reached 90°.
• Closer to the water in downtown Charleston, temperatures topped out at 76° — a far cry from the record of 87° measured on March 10, 1974.
• As for the beaches, it was a very different story — Folly Beach and Isle of Palms both barely scraped 70°. Water temperatures around 60° will do that to you.

Scattered showers possible today

Today will be characterized by mostly cloudy skies as a weak front moves slowly south of the area. A shower can’t be ruled out at any time, but chances will be relatively low during the day. There’s a slightly better chance of showers this evening as an upper-level disturbance ripples through the area. Long story short: No washout, but be ready to have rain gear nearby just in case.

Mostly quiet work week ahead

Drier air will punch into the area overnight, leading to a rather normal March day for Tuesday and an overall fairly quiet work week. Temperatures will sink back into the upper 60s to low 70s for Tuesday and Wednesday before high pressure at the surface shifts northeast of the area, bringing winds back around to the south and allowing temperatures to reach near 80° for Thursday. Rain chances re-enter the weather picture on Friday afternoon and evening as a cold front is forecast to sweep through the area during that time, leaving behind below-normal temperatures as we head into the weekend.

Severe Weather and Flood Preparedness Week

This week marks South Carolina’s annual Severe Weather and Flood Preparedness Week. During this week, NWS offices around the state along with emergency management will be sharing various tips to help you prepare for severe thunderstorms and floods. We are no stranger to both; flooding is something we deal with when the tide is high enough (much less when it rains heavily), and severe thunderstorms can and often do knock down trees and power lines, particularly in the summertime. Take this week to take stock of your severe weather plan. Here are a few questions to consider:

• How do you receive warning information? Is it reliable and redundant?
• Do you know where to go in your home or business if severe weather threatens?
• Do you know your susceptibility to flooding? What is your flood insurance policy?

Statewide Tornado Drill: Wednesday, 9:00 am

On Wednesday morning, NWS offices throughout the state will be issuing Test Tornado Warnings to announce the start of the statewide tornado drill. At that time, NOAA Weather Radio will send a tone much like an actual tornado warning. (Don’t worry, your phones won’t go off!)

Use the drill as an opportunity to practice your tornado safety plan. Hopefully you’ll never need it, but if you do, you’ll be glad you practiced!

A note on Twitter automation

You may have noticed that automated forecast tweets have started again on Twitter as of this weekend. I’m going to be spending a little less time on Twitter as I work to beef up the tools that make all of this go over the next few weeks. $5 or higher patrons will get early access to the fruits of this labor, too — not too shabby.

The automated tweets are powered by IFTTT (If This, Then That)’s Weather Underground integration. (I use a similar integration on the homepage of this site, so the data should be at least consistent.)

As always, during events, I’ll be keeping an eye on things. If a forecast strikes me as out of whack, I’ll clarify that, too. (One of the projects I’ll be undertaking is to migrate everything back to a National Weather Service-based integration with the National Digital Forecast Database, which will allay some of my data quality concerns.)

Thank you all for following, and especially to my patrons, whose support makes all of this possible!