Temperatures will head back above normal this week with shower chances coming back into the picture starting Tuesday. Showers will be isolated to scattered at best for most of the week as a coastal trough persists. Onshore flow will keep dewpoints up, making for a warm and humid mid-to-late October week. Expect highs in the 80s just about every day with lows in the mid-60s. (Closer to the coast, take a couple degrees off the high and add it to the low.)

Coastal flooding threat persists

Persistent northeasterly winds and lingering astronomical influences will continue the threat for coastal flooding for much of the upcoming week. We may see another 8′ water level — major coastal flooding — with the mid-morning high tide on Monday, which would close numerous roads and cause significant problems in parts of Mt. Pleasant and the barrier islands in addition to downtown Charleston.

As the astronomical influences wane, we will see gradually lower tides as the week goes on, but it may be late Tuesday before we get a high tide that doesn’t flood us, and perhaps Friday before we are totally out of the woods as northeast winds look to persist for much of the week.

A note on this morning’s high tide

This morning’s high tide topped out at 8.19′ mean lower low water. According to the National Weather Service, this is the ninth-highest non-tropical tide on record and the 14th highest overall. This tide is the highest so far in 2020, and the fifth major coastal flooding event this year. If Monday’s high tide reaches 8′, we will tie 2015’s record of six major coastal flooding events with plenty of time left to potentially break that record. (Yikes.)

Stay dry, my friends.

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