April gets off to a seasonably warm start with temperatures running in the low 80s and lows in the upper 50s to low 60s each morning. High pressure at the surface and aloft remain the main weather drivers, which will keep things generally on the quiet side for the next few days. The only notable rain chance for the rest of the work week arrives Thursday with a bit of upper-level energy working through, but even then the chance for a shower is fairly slight at this point, so don’t look to it for any widespread drought relief.
We may see an uptick in shower chances especially heading into Sunday, but there still doesn’t seem to be much on the horizon right now to tamp down on the ongoing (and worsening) drought.
After a couple cooler days, the 80s return to the Lowcountry starting Tuesday and lasting well into the beginning of April. High pressure remains the main weather feature, keeping us generally on the quiet side. A southerly breeze around 5-10 MPH will be common, especially as we get into the afternoon. Thankfully, some higher dewpoints will also continue to put a dent in the fire danger.
As expected, Tuesday was quite the dreary, cool day. We set the daily highs at both downtown and North Charleston after midnight, with the preliminary daily low of 53° being set in the afternoon as of the 5PM climate report. (This will get cooler — as of this writing, it’s 52° at the airport.) We begin to see signs of recovery on Wednesday, though, as the high pressure wedge weakens and scours out, allowing progressively more sunshine through during the day. Expect lows in the mid-40s to warm to the low 70s in the afternoon — basically right on target for this point in the year.
Tuesday could be quite a shock to the system after Monday’s record warmth. We’ll go from a high of 90° on Monday, which was not only a daily record high but the fourth earliest 90° day on record, to a high in the low 60s on Tuesday with mostly cloudy skies in the wake of a cold front that is entering the Tri-County area as of this writing. No rain is expected, but we can expect breezy northeasterly winds as a cold air damming regime takes hold, at least briefly.
Quiet weather continues for the rest of the work week with high pressure in control. Wednesday gets off to a very chilly start with Freeze Warnings in effect as temperatures fall into the low 30s in the metro with perhaps some upper 20s further inland. Where temperatures don’t fall below freezing, frost will be a concern with mostly clear skies, so everyone should protect plants. Wednesday will remain much cooler than normal for mid-March with highs only peaking in the upper 50s. Clouds will be on the increase throughout the day but there are no concerns for any precipitation.
Thankfully, the atmosphere did not live up to its potential on Monday, leaving us to get some much-needed rain without any of the shenanigans that we thought might come with. The cold front is through now, and temperatures will be falling into the mid-30s overnight in the metro, with subfreezing temperatures expected further inland, perhaps in parts of Berkeley and Dorchester counties. Elsewhere, frost shouldn’t be much of a factor given elevated winds continuing overnight.
Temperatures will only peak in the mid-50s on Tuesday despite plenty of sunshine, owing to the potency of the cold airmass.
Another very warm day is on tap for Wednesday on the heels of the warmest day thus far in 2026. Wednesday’s forecast high of 87°, if it verifies, would break the daily record high for March 11 of 85° set in 2015. We’ll have plenty of sunshine for a good bit of the day, though cloud cover will tick up in the evening ahead of a cold front that will begin to restore a little order to a spring preview that’s gotten a bit out of hand.
Generally quiet and rather warm weather continues for the rest of the work week. Wednesday morning will likely get off to a foggy start, with dense fog potentially reducing visibility to less than a quarter-mile at times. Use low beams and plenty of following distance in case you do encounter fog. Fog should erode by mid-morning, and we’ll head into the mid-70s under mostly sunny skies in the afternoon.
After a fairly warm day (away from the coast, anyway, where temperatures ran some 10°+ cooler), we’ll turn even warmer on Wednesday as high pressure slips offshore, pumping in warmer air from the south and southwest. Wednesday starts around 50° with perhaps a few patches of fog, and we’ll warm well into the low-to-mid-70s under a mix of sun and clouds. Winds will be a bit breezy out of the southwest, generally around 10-15 MPH during the afternoon as mixing from daytime heating taps into 25-30 MPH winds a few thousand feet off the deck.
A warming trend kicks off Tuesday as high pressure moves overhead and eventually offshore. It’ll be quite a nice day after we start around 40° in the morning; temperatures will head well into the 60s by afternoon with plenty of sunshine to be had and comfortable relative humidity values. Winds won’t be quite as strong as they were on Monday, either, with speeds generally around 5 MPH. Winds will shift around to the southeast as high pressure slips into the Atlantic, a harbinger of warmer air to come.
