High cloud cover will factor in somewhat prominently on Wednesday, but we’ll still get plenty warm with the filtered sunshine. Expect highs in the mid-80s after a low 60s start.
The heat turns back up to levels closer to Monday’s upper 80s with another couple runs at the 90° mark for the first time in 2024 coming up Thursday and Friday. High clouds will clear, leaving behind a mostly sunny sky on Thursday. A surface trough will move into the area Friday, which could act as an instigator for a few showers or thunderstorms in the afternoon (though most will stay dry). If we don’t hit 90° Thursday, we should do it Friday.
The above-normal warmth carries into Saturday before a front knocks temperatures back down to more seasonable levels for Sunday into next week. (Alas, the aforementioned front will also keep shower and thunderstorm chances in the forecast over the weekend as well, though it won’t be a washout.)
Tuesday will turn a little warmer as winds continue to blow southerly on the backside of high pressure. We start the day in the mid-50s, warming to around 80° in the afternoon as clouds mix in more prominently into the sky character. No rain, though we will likely see some evening coastal flooding once again with high tide around 9:34 PM thanks to the recent new moon and continued onshore flow.
This stretch of warmer-than-normal temperatures comes to an end on Wednesday as a cold front moves through the area. Showers and thunderstorms will be ongoing ahead of the front, and there will be a risk for a few of those storms to be on the strong to severe side. Damaging wind gusts will be the main concern, but a tornado or two can’t be totally ruled out as the line pushes eastward. If storms take a little longer to get here, that could increase the severe weather threat as well. I’d be prepared for a somewhat stormy morning commute. The good news is that the front should clear the area by evening, sweeping showers and storms offshore and allowing cooler and drier air to work into the area. Windy conditions will be expected so be careful on the bridges.
From there, temperatures run several degrees below normal for the next few days, including Bridge Run weekend. Thursday will be a much sunnier day than Wednesday, but will run almost 10° cooler in the wake of the front. Expect highs to top out in the upper 60s to around 70° in the afternoon. Friday will start even cooler, with lows in the mid-40s yielding to highs in the upper 60s once again under mostly sunny skies.
We’ll start the Bridge Run in the mid-40s and warm to the mid-60s in the afternoon under mostly sunny skies. Dewpoints will run in the low 30s in the morning, dropping to the upper 20s in the afternoon as daytime heating mixes down even drier air. All in all, sweat should be a rather efficient cooling mechanism, and there are otherwise no weather concerns.
Rain chances peak on Wednesday as a front stalls nearby before moving through overnight. Showers and a few thunderstorms will generally be the rule for much of the day, though it may not rain all day at any one spot. Cloud cover will be prevalent, which will keep lows in the low 60s in the morning. Warm air pumping in ahead of the front will allow temperatures to top out in the mid-70s despite the thick cloud cover and rain in the area. The best chance of any heavier rain looks to be later Wednesday evening into the overnight as the front presses in. Right now, a major flooding threat doesn’t seem to be in the cards, but some ponding of water is certainly possible in spots.
Showers diminish as we head through Thursday, and we should be mostly clear by the end of the day. Post-cold front, temperatures will peak just in the upper 60s, a few degrees below normal for late March. This yields an absolutely beautiful Good Friday across the Lowcountry — we start in the mid-40s and warm to the low 70s in the afternoon under full sunshine. A warming trend follows into Easter weekend, and we should be in the low 80s for a spell starting Easter Sunday.
After the past couple weeks of warmth, Tuesday might come as a bit of a shock as lows dip into the upper 30s across a good bit of the metro to start the day as cool high pressure builds in throughout the day. Temperatures will only get into the low 60s, far below normal for mid-March (the normal high for March 19 is 71°). At least the sun will be out, and the March sun angle should make these cooler-than-normal temperatures feel pretty decent.
The rest of the work week will be much warmer than mid-March normals as high pressure ridges across the area at the surface and aloft. Temperatures on Wednesday will start in the upper 40s, warming to near 80° in the afternoon under partly cloudy skies as a weak disturbance ripples across the area, bringing only an uptick in cloud cover and little else given such a dry atmosphere at the surface. Thursday will see us solidly back in the 80s once again with just a cloud or two at times as high pressure will be strongest that day. We’ll start to see cloud cover come back up for Friday as high pressure gets shunted offshore by the next storm system, though it’ll still be a very warm day by mid-March standards as lows bottom out in the mid-50s with highs warming to the low 80s in the afternoon. We should get much of the day in rain-free, though a shower or two will be possible as we get into the late afternoon and evening hours.
After one more somewhat chilly night — expect low 40s across much of the metro, with mid-to-upper 30s possible further inland — we start a warming trend that’ll get us into the 80s by the end of the week. Tuesday looks rather delightful: expect highs to top out in the low 70s away from the locally cooler coastline. Comfortably dry air will be in place with relative humidity bottoming out around 30% in the afternoon, and we’ll keep a solid amount of sunshine throughout the day. Winds will start to swing more southwesterly in the afternoon and kick up to around 5-10 MPH. Not bad!
Unseasonable warmth continues for one more day before it is blunted by a sharp cold front that will bring a few late showers Wednesday followed by much cooler weather on Thursday.
First, though, we start Wednesday with low temperatures approaching 60°, warming to the upper 70s to maybe even 80° in the afternoon ahead of the aforementioned front. It’ll be breezy, too, as the pressure gradient tightens ahead of the front. We should stay rain-free through the daylight hours; from there, a thin line of showers, which has been depicted on models for the past several days, should move by and produce a little rain, but nothing too impactful.
The impacts from the front will come in the form of a sharp cooldown for Leap Day. We start Thursday in the mid-40s, only warming to the low 60s in the afternoon with more clouds than not and breezy northeasterly winds. Winds will slacken a little bit Thursday night into early Friday, though low pressure developing offshore as high pressure wedges southwestward into the area should help to tighten the gradient a bit more as we go through Friday. Shower chances increase throughout the day Friday as moisture overruns the wedge and the aforementioned low pressure develops, with rain chances peaking Friday night into Saturday morning. Temperatures are currently forecast in the mid-60s, but downward revisions to that forecast certainly seem possible as we learn more about the strength of the wedge.
We turn even warmer on Tuesday as high pressure moves further offshore and more warmer air is drawn northward. Temperatures start several degrees above normal, generally in the low 50s (and even warmer closer to the coast). From there, we’ll head well into the mid-70s in the afternoon despite an uptick in cloud cover compared to Monday as a disturbance moves by to the north. We’ll stay out of the rain, though. Winds will run a little on the breezy side as well, but nothing too crazy.
