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 will close a bone-dry April out with a couple more chances for showers and thunderstorms as another cold front approaches the area with disturbances riding along it. One such disturbance fell apart as it reached the Lowcountry today, giving us another trace of rain at the airport. Officially, though, rainfall totals for the month of April remain at 0.01”, which currently ties 1972 as the driest April on record. With any luck, though, we should not end up there, though a top-five driest April on record certainly appears to be in the cards.
One of the driest Aprils on record will come to a somewhat unsettled end this week as the pattern starts to finally flip toward something a little more favorable for rain chances. We’ll run a little cooler, too, especially as we start May.
The main weather story for the weekend will be a cold front that’ll move into the area later Saturday, which will help to bring about the first significant rain chance in weeks. A few short-lived seabreeze thunderstorms got close enough to produce a trace of rain at the airport today — the first non-zero rainfall recording at the airport since April 6 — but the unmeasurable sprinkles have kept April 2026’s rainfall total at 0.01″ as we head into the month’s final week, currently in a tie with 1972 for the driest April on record.
After one more mostly sunny and dry day Friday, the pattern finally turns a little more unsettled starting Saturday as a cold front advances toward the area. This front will help stir up some showers and maybe some thunderstorms later Saturday into Sunday. Rainfall amounts will generally be light — a quarter-inch may be awfully generous from this setup — but everything helps.
Temperatures Friday and Saturday run in the mid-to-upper 80s in the afternoons after starting in the upper 50s Friday and the low-to-mid-60s on Saturday. From there, a backdoor cold front looks to sink southward across the area on Sunday, which will take temperatures down a few degrees with highs in the low-to-mid-80s expected. With the exception of Monday, though, generally expect warmer-than-normal temperatures to close out April.
High pressure will remain in control on Thursday, keeping mostly sunny skies in place. It won’t be all sunshine, though, as smoke from nearby wildfires in Georgia drifts into the area, which could have negative impacts on air quality. An Air Quality Alert is in effect for the Lowcountry through Thursday evening as a result; people who have sensitivities to poor air quality should limit time outdoors. Temperatures will take another step up as southwesterly winds help pump in warmer air; expect lows in the mid-50s to warm to the mid-to-upper 80s in the afternoon.
High temperatures return to the 80s on Wednesday as high pressure begins to move out into the Atlantic. This is the continuation of a warming trend that will last into the weekend, which will feature temperatures returning to the mid-to-upper 80s ahead of a front that will bring the first decent chance of rain in a couple weeks.
High pressure remains in control for Tuesday (and for the next few days), yielding plenty of sunshine and comfortably warm temperatures. We start the day in the low 50s and will head to the mid-to-upper 70s in the afternoon away from the locally cooler coastline. Overall, it should be a nice day to get out and about if you are able.
Dry weather continues for the next few days, but we may start to see the pattern begin to flip this weekend to something a little wetter to close out April.
