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Weekend forecast: Improving Saturday, cooler Sunday

/ October 13, 2023 at 9:14 PM

Low pressure will move northward across the area overnight Friday into Saturday morning, keeping shower chances (and maybe a rumble of thunder) in the forecast through roughly mid-morning. It’ll be a mild start, with lows bottoming out in the upper 60s to around 70°. Highs will warm into the low 80s, and it’ll generally be a muggy low 80s as dewpoints remain elevated in the upper 60s. Cloud cover will steadily decrease as the day goes on as low pressure continues to move further away.

A reinforcing cold front arrives overnight Saturday into early Sunday morning, and this will bring a much more noticeable change to the airmass. Dewpoints will drop into the 50s, and highs will only top out in the mid-70s in the afternoon. Cloud cover will increase as we get into the evening as a trough approaches the area, but we should still get plenty of sunshine in.

Annular eclipse viewing: Iffy

A rendering of the maximum solar eclipse we’d theoretically see in Charleston on Saturday. Source: NASA/SDO/LRO/Rice

An annular (“ring of fire”) solar eclipse will move across the continental United States on Saturday, with full annularity passing through Oregon southeastward into parts of Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Texas. Here in Charleston, a partial eclipse will take place, with about 44.4% of the sun covered up around 1:22 PM. It’s going to be very questionable if cloud cover will scour out enough to give us a good view of the eclipse; I wouldn’t get too hyped. However, if you’ve still got your eclipse glasses from 2017, those will be effective in helping you to view the eclipse safely if clouds should break up a bit.

Programming note

I’m turning a corner and expect to be back up and running with podcasts again Sunday evening. Thank you all for your well wishes and your patience as I recover from this bout of illness — it’s been a gnarly week and a half, that’s for sure.


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