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Weekend forecast: Rain-free, but turning from cool to cold

/ December 16, 2022 at 8:08 PM

Not too much to write home about in the weather department this weekend except make sure you’ve got your hoodies and sweaters freshened up and ready to go. Saturday will be the “warmest” day of the weekend, with highs topping out around 60° after lows in the low 40s start the day. (West winds around 5 MPH will make it feel like the upper 30s.) Clouds will be on the increase as a relatively moisture-starved cold front approaches the area during the day.

Said front will pass through overnight, which will scour out cloud cover in time for Sunday. Temperatures will start a few degrees cooler — generally in the upper 30s with wind chills in the mid-30s — Sunday morning, but cold air advecting in from the northwest will keep high temperatures in the low 50s despite full sunshine.

Looking ahead at the elephant on the apps

Sunday night into Monday morning could feature subfreezing temperatures particularly inland before temperatures top out in the low-to-mid-50s. Next rain chance arrives Tuesday, with temperatures running comfortably warm enough to keep all precipitation liquid through Thursday. There have been flashes of the snowflake on some automated weather apps as we approach Christmas, but this looks highly unlikely both from a climatological and forecast standpoint as it appears right now that the cold air will be too late to catch the moisture. Cold air chasing moisture is a surefire recipe for disappointment for snow in the South, especially for those of us here in the Lowcountry, and right now guidance is on board with this. Plenty of time to watch it and for some things to change, but right now, it’s best to keep expectations firmly in check. 1989 remains the only white Christmas on record, and there’s a good reason for that!


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