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 get off to a warm start this week as temperatures return to the 70s for a few days (albeit with showers, especially Tuesday into Wednesday), followed by another cooldown that sends temperatures back below normal for the second half of the week, though not to the extent we saw last week.
We are off to another frigid start on Saturday. Many spots in the metro will dip into the low 20s, with upper teens expected further inland. A Cold Weather Advisory is in effect for inland Berkeley and Dorchester counties, with the expected window of coldest air between 3-9am. Temperatures will moderate throughout the day, and we should get back above 50° once again, with highs topping out about in the low to mid-50s under sunny skies.
Temperatures will take another plunge toward freezing on Sunday morning, though we can expect lows to generally run some 10-12° above where they were on Saturday morning. This will mean that some spots inland will likely dip back into the low 30s once again, but much of the metro should stay just above freezing, especially the closer to the coast you are. We’ll see a few more clouds as high pressure starts to move offshore, and the resulting return flow will allow highs to peak in the mid-60s — much closer to normal for this point in December and some 20° warmer than we felt on Friday!
The warming trend continues for the first part of the week as the next storm system works into the area, with rain chances starting Tuesday and peaking Wednesday. The end of next week looks to close out below normal once more, though not to the advisory-level cold we’ve had recently.
We have a few more chilly days in store this week, especially on Friday, as another shot of cool air works its way through the area. (At least it won’t rain!)
A warmer day is on tap Thursday as we sit between one Arctic-sourced high pressure system moving away and another approaching the area that’ll chill us right back out for Friday. We start the day in the upper 30s to around 40°, which will run much warmer than we ran on Wednesday morning after lows in the 20s for much of the area (and even some upper teens in northern Berkeley County!). Temperatures will top out in the low 60s in the afternoon as gusty southwest to westerly winds (perhaps approaching 30 MPH at times) ahead of the next front keep us a little warmer. We should see the front come through with little fanfare other than an uptick in cloud cover, especially in the first part of the day.
We’ll add a little amplitude to the temperature rollercoaster as we get into the second half of the work week as one high pressure departs and another builds back in.
A shot of cold air will drive temperatures back below freezing for Tuesday morning, with some upper 20s likely inland. The metro area should stay closer to the low 30s, but tomato, tomahto — it’s just gonna be cold. A decent northerly breeze will drive wind chills down into the mid-20s, too. Make sure you’ve got pets and plants in a safe and warm place overnight. Temperatures will struggle to the upper 40s at best in the afternoon despite plenty of sunshine, indicative of just how frigid of an airmass we’ve got to work with on Tuesday. Bundle up!
Seemingly on cue for climatological winter, temperatures will remain below normal pretty much all week, with a couple reinforcing shots of cool air to keep us honest interspersed throughout. We stay mostly rain-free, with the possible exception of later Saturday night into Sunday as another front with a few showers looks to move by.
Bring in your pets and sensitive plants (or cover them if you can’t bring them in) as the first freeze of the season is expected tonight into Saturday morning to close out climatological fall and welcome in climatological winter on December 1. Temperatures will fall into the low 30s across much of the metro by morning, and a Freeze Warning is in effect for the entire Tri-County area as a result. Despite several days of cold air ahead, including even colder air next week, this will be the only Freeze Warning of the season as the growing season will come to an end on December 1, regardless of how far to the east freezing temperatures penetrate. Frost and freeze alerts resume on March 1, 2025.
After that very chilly start, we’re warming to only the mid-50s in the afternoon despite mostly sunny skies. Northerly winds 5-10 MPH will keep temperatures feeling like the mid-40s through early afternoon.
Winds go calm overnight Saturday into Sunday morning, and we’ll see another very chilly morning as a result, with the potential for widespread frost particularly inland. Lows should bottom out in the low 30s once more. (If it doesn’t freeze again, it’ll be close.) Highs will recover a bit to the upper 50s on Sunday afternoon, but that’s still well below normal for the first of December.
We have another shot of even colder air in store for early next week, with lows in the 20s across the metro possible Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Tuesday may not even get out of the 40s! Colder-than-normal temperatures and rain-free conditions look to continue through next Friday.
We won’t have the best weather on Thanksgiving Day, unfortunately, as a strong cold front moves through the area. It’ll bring with it some gusty winds and eventually some showers and even a few thunderstorms as we get into the afternoon and evening hours. It’ll be a warm and humid day by late November standards, with lows in the upper 50s to around 60° yielding to the mid-70s in the afternoon. This could help provide sufficient instability within a fairly well-sheared airmass to produce a strong to severe thunderstorm or two as the front approaches, with damaging straight-line wind gusts the main concern. The timing for storms appears to be generally between about 2pm-9pm, progressing west-to-east. It’s possible not everyone will see a storm or even any rain, but we just need to keep an eye on the storms that do fire to make sure they behave.
We have quite the weather rollercoaster in store for the Thanksgiving 2024 holiday period. First, Wednesday will run much warmer than normal despite a frontal passage Tuesday night; expect lows in the mid-50s to yield to highs in the low 70s under partly cloudy skies as the front lingers just to the south. We’ll stay rain-free on Wednesday, though showers will be approaching from the west with another, stronger frontal system.