We’ll get 2026 off to a slightly chilly but seasonable start with surface high pressure in control. Temperatures will fall to the mid-30s by morning, with some freezing temperatures possible closer to I-95. With plenty of sunshine, though, temperatures will rebound right to where they should be for the beginning of the year, with highs peaking around 60° in the afternoon. It’ll be a bit breezy, especially in the morning, but those winds will slacken some as we head into the evening.

I hope everyone celebrating had a very Merry Christmas! It was certainly a warm one as the high reached 78° today, just two degrees off the record of 80° last set in 2015 and cementing itself ahead of Christmas 2016 for the second-warmest Christmas high temperature on record at the airport.

A backdoor cold front stalling nearby will drive more cloud cover into the area for Friday as well as a bit more in the way of onshore flow, which will make for a cooler day (though temperatures will remain above normal). Lows in the low-to-mid-50s will warm to the upper 60s to around 70°. Model guidance keeps the core of the cold air damming regime to the north of the area, but some spots further north in the Tri-County could see temperatures come in a little cooler than that depending on how far south the front penetrates.

A front will sweep away the dreary and damp Thursday, yielding a much nicer Friday with much more sunshine. We’ll start the day in the mid-50s with some cloud cover still hanging around, but that should depart by midday. Temperatures will warm to the mid-to-upper 60s with breezy westerly winds, which will be gusty early in the day, peaking in the 20-25 MPH range. Winds will gradually slacken some as the day goes on, though.

A brief warmup is in the cards for Friday and again on Saturday before a front moves by with some showers Sunday. This front will usher in a bitterly cold Arctic airmass that’ll plunge temperatures into the low 20s by Monday morning.

Another dry front will come through overnight with a reinforcing shot of cooler air for our neck of the woods, but at least we won’t be starting the day with freezing fog like we did this morning. Freezing fog occurs when fog develops at temperatures below freezing, producing a glaze of ice on surfaces it comes into contact with (generally elevated surfaces). This morning, temperatures fell to the dewpoint of 28°, which aided in its formation and caused quite a few problems on bridges and overpasses, with numerous traffic accidents and closure of both the Don Holt and North Bridges. Freezing fog is incredibly, incredibly rare for this part of the world — in fact, this morning’s Freezing Fog Advisory was the first ever issued for the Charleston metro area, and only the second issued by NWS Charleston, SC (the first one was issued in 2022).

Thankfully, we will not deal with this Thursday morning as temperatures are expected to stay above freezing, generally running in the upper 30s to around 40°. The aforementioned dry front comes through early in the day, and this helps usher in another shot of cooler air that’ll keep things breezy and chilly Thursday afternoon, with highs only reaching the low 50s despite partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies. Morning wind chills may bottom out in the low 30s, so layer appropriately.

One front has come through as of this writing Wednesday evening, with another front hot on its heels to pass through overnight into early Thanksgiving morning. This second front is going to bring in quite the cooldown for the next few days, especially as we get into Friday and Saturday, but Thanksgiving will certainly illustrate the contrast from the past few days: expect lows in the mid-40s to warm to just about 60° in the afternoon, which is just a hair warmer than Wednesday’s morning low! We’ll have plenty of sunshine, though, with no weather worries for the holiday.

After a slightly cooler and more cloudy day courtesy of a backdoor cold front, temperatures will head back into the upper 70s on Friday as the aforementioned front washes out with high pressure moving offshore. We start the day in the mid-50s and perhaps with some fog. Cloud cover will gradually diminish as the day goes on, and we should have a pleasant close to the day as we head into the weekend.

Warm temperatures continue for Thursday, though a nearby front and some more cloud cover will likely preclude temperatures from getting too out of hand. Wednesday’s highs were close to records for the date: 82° at the airport was just a degree shy of the record of 83° set in 1942, while 80° downtown missed the record of 82° set there in 1958. Depending on where the front hangs up, we may yet make another run at records, but the preponderance of the evidence suggests that we’re going to stay in the mid-to-upper 70s on Thursday. The front won’t come with much moisture, so an uptick in cloud cover is about it.

Quiet weather continues for Friday and the weekend as reinforcing high pressure arrives overnight. Friday will feel a touch cooler than Thursday did, with winds going back around to the north in the wake of a dry cold front. Lows Friday bottom out in the mid-40s, with highs peaking in the upper 60s in the afternoon under uninterrupted sunshine.

Halloween may be full of frights, but the weather won’t be one of them — seasonable and quiet weather is in store heading into Sunday with high pressure in control. Lows Friday bottom out in the mid-40s in the metro, with perhaps even lower temperatures further inland and in rural areas. We’ll warm to the mid-to-upper 60s in the afternoon with predominantly sunny skies and a gentle breeze out of the west. Saturday is essentially a carbon copy of Friday, though winds will be a little calmer and shifting direction out of the northeast and east. Don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour Saturday night as we fall back to Standard Time.

We’ll start to see dewpoints to climb back up and cloud cover begin to thicken as Sunday goes on in advance of the next storm system advancing out of the Gulf. Rain should hold off for the vast majority of the day, though a shower or two can’t be ruled out in the late evening. Temperatures on Sunday run a little warmer, with lows in the mid-to-upper 40s and highs approaching 70° despite the increasing cloud cover.