Jared Smith founded @chswx on Twitter in 2008 as an experiment in disseminating weather data through social media. In the ensuing decade-and-a-half, @chswx has provided live coverage of tropical cyclones, tornadoes, severe weather, and even a couple bouts of winter weather to the good people of Charleston, SC.
We’ll see a few more clouds on Thursday as a shortwave trough swings through aloft, but other than a slight downtick in temperatures compared to Wednesday’s highs in the low 80s, we’ll remain seasonably warm as surface high pressure remains anchored in the Atlantic for one more day. We’ll keep an eye on the moisture profiles to make sure that no showers try to overachieve with the upper-level energy moving by, but the expectation is that it’ll just be too dry for much more than the enhanced cloud cover.
We’ll continue this benign stretch of weather for the rest of the work week, but as we head into the weekend, we’ll need to keep an eye on a storm system that could bring another round of rain and thunderstorms for Sunday.
Much more sunshine is in store for Tuesday as low pressure pulls away from the area at the surface and aloft. This will help warm things up, too — after a mid-40s start, downslope winds out of the northwest and the aforementioned sunshine will push highs to the low 70s in the afternoon, a couple degrees above normal for March 11. Overall, a much nicer day than Monday (weather-wise, anyway).
The week ahead starts on an unsettled note, but turns fairly quiet for a few days with a warm stretch of weather featuring temperatures several degrees above normal.
The weekend’s forecast will revolve around a cold front that’ll backdoor into the area, bringing very different weather each day. Ahead of that front, it’s going to turn much warmer — expect to start Saturday near 50°, warming to near 80° in the afternoon under partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies. As the front gets closer, we will start to see cloud cover tick up, with rain chances following early Sunday morning — quite possibly after we all spring forward an hour back into Daylight Saving Time. The front will cross through the area Sunday morning, and cooler air filtering in behind it will keep high temperatures 15-20° cooler than Saturday. We should see primarily cloud cover and periods of showers and maybe even a few thunderstorms as the front stalls to our south. There’s some disagreement in the models over just how wet of a Sunday we might have, so don’t totally write it off as a washout. However, it’s pretty clear that Saturday will be the pick day for outdoor activities with more sunshine and warmer temperatures.
The temperature rollercoaster heads for a dip overnight tonight into Friday morning as temperatures bottom out in the mid-30s across much of the area. This could lead to some frost formation especially in rural, inland areas; a Frost Advisory is up for inland Berkeley and Dorchester as a result. We’ll warm to the mid-60s in the afternoon under partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies, though we should see a little uptick in cloud cover in the evening.
After a windy and occasionally rainy Wednesday that, thankfully, didn’t result in any severe weather, we will turn much cooler and sunnier for Thursday. Temperatures start in the low 40s, warming to just the low 60s in the afternoon with breezy conditions featuring gusts 25-30 MPH at times, particularly in the morning through the early afternoon as high pressure builds in. We’ll see that high pressure settle in a little more later Thursday night, and that will help winds go a little calmer and start to cool us off for potential frost and freeze issues inland for Thursday overnight into Friday morning.
After a sunny but chilly Monday, temperatures begin to warm up ahead of Wednesday’s cold front as we get into Tuesday. We’ll also see cloud cover begin to thicken up as well, and there could even be a few showers at times as Atlantic moisture builds in. We start the day in the low 40s — about 10° warmer than the frosty start we felt on Monday morning — and head back to the low 70s in the afternoon. It’s going to be breezy as well — winds will generally run between 10-15 MPH, but could gust to 20-25 MPH at times.
The first full week of March will have a little of everything, from some frost and freeze to start followed by a round of springtime storms — a few of which could be severe — followed by another dip below normal. Monday starts with a Freeze Warning inland and a Frost Advisory closer to the coast as lows drop to around freezing across much of the area. We’ll warm back into the low 60s in the afternoon under generally partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies; this will still run a few degrees below normal for early March.