We begin the final week of 2022 with Arctic air continuing to make its presence felt across the area. We’ll start Monday in the upper teens to low 20s, with freezing temperatures all the way to the coast once again. It’ll be another night to make sure that pets, plants, and people are well accounted for, and that pipes are protected with extra insulation and a dripping faucet. Highs will top out again in the low-to-mid-40s under predominantly sunny skies.

After record-breaking cold on Christmas Eve, we have another round of cold — but perhaps not quite as cold — weather for Christmas Day.

We begin the day with another Wind Chill Advisory as another round of low teens wind chills is forecast across the area. Air temperatures will drop to around 20°, with another dip into the teens possible further inland as well as in more rural areas. The good news is that after what should amount to about 40 consecutive hours below freezing, we will finally exceed the melting point by early afternoon, which will give us some much-needed thaw time. Skies will be mostly clear throughout the day, and at least some unfiltered sunshine will help it feel not as bitterly cold as it was on Saturday, though wind chills will still, at best, run in the low 30s.

Christmas weekend has arrived, and so has that unreal shot of Arctic air. Temperatures peaked around 56° at 8:49am just before the front passed by the airport. From there, temperatures have been steadily dropping throughout the day as dewpoints headed into the low single digits, making for a very dry feel to the air.

A very potent cold front will be coming through early Friday, bringing strong, gusty winds, dangerous wind chills, and several mornings in a row of pipe-busting cold for the Christmas holiday weekend.

Thursday will bring somewhat complex weather to the Lowcountry with a very soggy start to the day as low pressure moves across the area, followed by a dry slot moving into the area in the afternoon to shut off the rain. Of course, we continue to monitor the progress of an incredibly potent Arctic cold front as it progresses across the country, with it expected to clear our area on Friday.

Wet weather will continue on and off through early Friday before an outbreak of Arctic air brings much colder air and strong winds to the area for Christmas weekend.

Tomorrow’s forecast, personally speaking, gives me the ick. High pressure wedging southward and moisture running atop of it thanks to low pressure to our south will help generate a chilly, cloudy, and at times rainy day in the Lowcountry tomorrow. We are already starting to see cloud cover thicken tonight primarily in the mid- and upper levels as of this writing with rain encroaching into southeast Georgia. Expect showers to build as the day goes on, with maybe ¾-1″ of rain possible before it’s all said and done.

Rain falling into the wedge will keep temperatures quite chilly tomorrow. Lows in the low 40s will struggle to the upper 40s in the afternoon at best, with the immediate coast maybe touching 50°. The northeasterly breeze will make it feel even cooler at times, with wind chills in the upper 30s falling to the mid-30s by evening. Overall, Tuesday’s a good day for soup, chili, or whatever else comforts you when the weather outside is gray and rainy.

The week ahead will be primarily unsettled before an outbreak of Arctic air overspreads the area for Christmas weekend, bringing the coldest temperatures so far this season with potentially hazardous wind chills on Saturday morning.

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.

We have a rain-free Friday and the weekend on tap as high pressure generally takes control. It’ll be noticeably cooler as we start Friday in the low 40s on our way to highs in the upper 50s to around 60° with mostly sunny skies. Expect similar temperatures for Saturday with increasing cloud cover in the afternoon as a reinforcing shot of cold air pushes through the area. (There will be too much dry air for precipitation with this front, though.) That’ll lead us to a rather chilly Sunday by any measure — lows in the upper 30s run on the cold side of normal for this point in the year, but the expected high of 51° is cold for our neck of the woods by any measure, and even moreso when you consider that we’ll have almost full sunshine! Suffice to say, it’ll be an excellent weekend for hoodies and sweaters of varying degrees of ugliness.