The week ahead gets off to a warm start, but some seasonably cool weather featuring temperatures a few clicks below normal sets in for the second half of the week.
Monday starts with temperatures in the upper 40s. As high pressure begins to shift offshore, we’ll start to see temperatures warm back to the mid-70s in the afternoon under mostly sunny skies. We’ll have one more round of coastal flooding in the morning, but it will not be nearly as severe as what we’ve seen the past few mornings as water levels should only peak around 7.2′ with the 9:31am high tide. Still, expect a few road closures in the more vulnerable trouble spots downtown for a few hours during the commute. From there, winds go more unfavorable and the astronomical impacts from the recent full moon continue to lessen.
The only period of unsettled weather looks to take place later Tuesday through Wednesday as a front comes through (the impetus for our cooldown beginning Thursday). Much of Tuesday should get in rain-free, but will be well on the warmer side of normal with lows in the low 50s yielding to highs in the mid-70s in the afternoon. Shower chances increase around and after sunset, and hang around through midday Wednesday. We’ll see cloud cover diminish as Wednesday goes on, but lagging cooler air will let temperatures back to the mid-70s for one more afternoon after an abnormally mild start in the low 60s.
Cool air begins to kick in overnight Wednesday, and we’ll start Thursday in the upper 40s. Highs on Thursday, though, will struggle above 60° despite considerable sunshine. We’ll repeat this performance on Friday, with an even cooler start in the low 40s. A slow warming trend begins over the weekend, but expect temperatures to remain below normal with highs in the low to mid-60s and lows in the low 40s each day with plenty of sunshine throughout.
A couple fronts this week will finally restore some order to temperatures that have been well above normal to start November. But first, we’ll get one more day in the 80s on Veterans Day with scattered showers to start the day, which will gradually taper by evening as a cold front moves through the area. This front helps knock temperatures back down to the low 60s Tuesday morning, warming to about the mid-70s in the afternoon under mostly sunny skies.
High pressure to the north will then shift a little eastward, allowing for a wedge pattern with northeasterly winds to start to take shape. This will drive temperatures down to — if not slightly below — normal for Wednesday. We’ll start the day sharply cooler — think upper 40s to around 50° — before warming to the upper 60s, once again under mostly sunny skies.
Another front swings through on Thursday. We’ll turn a little warmer ahead of it, and there may be a few showers associated with it. We start Thursday in the low 50s, warming to the low 70s in the afternoon.
Cooler and drier air behind the front moves in for Friday, and we see highs once again running a touch below normal (upper 60s). The airmass moderates a bit heading into the weekend, which looks quite seasonable and nice with lows in the upper 40s yielding to highs in the low 70s each afternoon under mostly sunny skies.
The main story of the upcoming week of weather will be the potential for some actually measurable rainfall especially as we get into midweek. Temperatures will remain above normal, though, in a blow to sweater weather fans across the Lowcountry.
A cool wedge of high pressure knocked temperatures down into the 60s on Sunday afternoon, but we should see temperatures begin to recover starting Monday, with above-normal temperatures favored for much of the upcoming week.
Cloud cover will scour out throughout the day Monday as ridging builds back in aloft. We’ll still be under the influence of the cool wedge of high pressure, which will keep highs right around the normal mark of 75° for late October after a mid-50s start.
Rain chances remain essentially nil this week, save for Tuesday, when a coastal trough could spread some light showers ashore. Much of us should stay dry, with measurable rainfall not looking like a great bet given the antecedent dry conditions. Highs on Tuesday head a few degrees above normal, back into the upper 70s after an upper 50s start.
The weather remains dry and much warmer than normal as we close October and start November. Expect highs in the 80s each afternoon starting Wednesday through at least Saturday with seasonably mild starts in the low 60s each morning as high pressure continues to be the primary weather feature. Skies will generally be partly cloudy each day. Suffice to say, we’ve got no weather concerns for trick-or-treaters this year. A front slips by over the weekend with a slight cooldown, but moisture appears to remain at a premium, keeping rain chances virtually nil.
Finally, we fall back to Standard Time this weekend. The morning daylight will be a little more in whack with sunrises before 7am until late November, but we’re back to “dark when we leave work” season once again. We’ll go from a 6:27 PM sunset on Saturday to a 5:26 PM sunset on Sunday. We continue to lose daylight until the winter solstice on December 21.
Not a whole lot to discuss this week, weather-wise. Our winning streak of quiet weather continues for next week as high pressure remains the dominant feature across the eastern US. Temperatures will generally run a little above normal each afternoon, heading into the upper 70s to low 80s each day, while clear skies at night and reasonably calm winds will help temperatures fall back toward about normal, which for this point in the year is in the mid-50s. Monday will start off a little cooler, but will rebound to near 80° in the afternoon with very few, if any, clouds to be found. A dry front brings a slightly cooler airmass to the area for the weekend, but this will only knock temperatures down a couple degrees.
Looking for rain? Not much to be found in the seven-day, as you can see. Offshore shower activity mid-week should stay there with high pressure in place on land. It may be next week before we get some showers back into the picture based on some of the longer-range models, but even then it doesn’t look like we will get much, if any. We are getting into a climatologically drier period of the year — in fact, November is typically the driest month of the year. Still, we’re running about a 2″+ surplus thanks to Debby back in August.
Finally, this most recent round of coastal flooding concludes with Monday’s midday high tide, when water levels should peak around 7.1-7.3′ in the harbor, causing some salt water flooding a couple hours on each side of the 11:47 AM high tide. From there, expect high tides to stay below flood stage for at least the rest of this week as we head into the third quarter phase on Thursday.
We’re back on the temperature rollercoaster this week as a front moves by on Tuesday, which will usher in the coolest airmass thus far this season for mid-week. (Certainly a far cry from watching another tropical system, that’s for sure.)
First, though, we have one more day in the 80s before the front gets through. It’ll be the warmest day of the week, starting around 60° and warming to the mid-80s in the afternoon. We’ll get within spitting distance of the record high of 88° set in 1943 and 1990, but we should stay below that mark. Much like Sunday, expect another day of unfettered sunshine on Monday.
The front moves by Tuesday with a little more in the way of cloud cover but little else. That will cool highs off to the mid-70s, roughly 10° or so cooler than Monday. We really feel the cooler airmass on Wednesday, though, as temperatures fall to the upper 40s in the morning, only reaching the mid-60s in the afternoon. Thursday runs even cooler in the morning, with mid-40s reaching back to the mid-60s once again. No rain’s expected with this frontal passage, and we’ll see primarily sunshine more than anything else.
After one more start in the mid-40s, a warming trend commences Friday as highs climb back to the low 70s. Saturday will run a little warmer, with highs in the mid-70s, and we’ll run even a click warmer on Sunday as well, with plenty of sunshine throughout.
A cold front brings a shot of Fall to the area as we get into the meat of the new week with a possible brief appearance by Hurricane Milton as it departs into the Atlantic and turns extratropical.
Monday will be the warmest day of the week ahead of the aforementioned cold front. We’ll start the day in the low to mid-60s, which is right around where we should be at this point in the year. Temperatures will warm to the mid-80s in the afternoon under mostly sunny skies.
The front gets through Tuesday morning. We’ll start Tuesday in the mid-60s, but will only warm to the low 80s in the afternoon with a bit more in the way of cloud cover as the front stalls out to our south. Cloud cover and northeasterly winds increase Wednesday as Milton draws closer. This will keep highs only in the mid-to-upper 70s in the afternoon.
On the current forecast track, we can expect peripheral effects from Milton starting Wednesday night and peaking on Thursday. Showers will be possible near the coast, but the main concerns will be gusty winds as the gradient pinches between Milton to the south and high pressure to the north, rough surf and rip currents, maybe some beach erosion, and coastal flooding, which may be significant come Thursday. It’s too early to know the extent of those impacts, but it’ll be worth watching for travel troubles downtown around times of high tide.
The good news is that Milton departs quickly, and the weekend looks excellent, with the first solid stretch of lows in the 50s of the season expected through Sunday. Temperatures warm from the mid-70s on Friday to the low 80s on Sunday with plenty of sunshine expected.
There’s not too terribly much to write home about in this week’s forecast so far, which is a fine departure from this point last week when we were looking at the genesis of what would become Hurricane Helene. We close September on a warm note, but a cooling trend begins to kick in by mid-week, with a few showers and thunderstorms — and much cooler conditions — possible by the weekend.
Well, it might be fall, but our local weather will continue to betray the calendar for a few more days as Atlantic high pressure to our east and ridging aloft keeps things warmer than normal as we head into the last week of September (already?). Then, things turn a little more interesting as we watch for the potential for a tropical cyclone to move northward through the Gulf of Mexico. Depending on how far east the storm develops and tracks, it’s possible we may see some impacts here at home, but it’s very tough to say exactly what that will look like just yet.
The area of disturbed weather along the lingering stationary front we’ve been watching for a few days off the coast has been tagged as Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight this evening, prompting a Tropical Storm Warning from Edisto Beach to Ocracoke Inlet, NC, including the Charleston metro area. It brings with it some breezy rain and an increased coastal flood risk for Monday, but is not expected to be a high-end event for the Lowcountry. Its stay will be brief, with warming and generally quiet weather in the offing for the rest of the week.
