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.
Below-normal temperatures will continue this week as we remain under in the influence of high pressure anchored to the northeast, with showers taking a break for a few days before returning to the forecast for the weekend.
A few lingering showers will be possible Monday morning with a stationary front nearby, though high pressure will continue to nudge that front further and further south, clearing us out for a couple nice days. Mostly cloudy skies keep highs capped to the low 80s on Monday after a mid-60s start, but we should see gradual reduction in cloud cover throughout the day. Tuesday looks to be rather nice, with lows in the mid-60s yielding to highs in the mid-80s under partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies. We’ll start to see the front to our south buckle a little more as low pressure — which is forecast to become Hurricane Francine — moves toward the Louisiana Gulf Coast during the middle of the week. This will net us an uptick in cloud cover and dewpoints for Wednesday, but we’ll get one more rain-free day in.
The high pressure center to our northeast that’ll give us a relatively quiet start to the week will be nudged eastward, which will allow the persistent stationary front to retreat a bit northward. This will bring an uptick in shower chances beginning Thursday and lasting into at least Saturday. It won’t rain all the time, but you’ll want to consider indoor plans as a backup to any outdoor plans. High temperatures will head down a bit with the uptick in cloud cover and showers, with highs in the low 80s expected Thursday and Friday before winds get a little more due-east, bringing some warmer temperatures back to the area for the weekend. Still, though, we stay below mid-September norms, generally running in the mid-80s Saturday and Sunday.
The final week of August will end on a warm and more humid note than the past 7-10 days have offered across the area. Storms will take a pause, though, as high pressure aloft puts a lid on widespread cloud cover, much less thunderstorm development, for much of the week.
The stationary front that’s kept shower chances in the neighborhood over the weekend still lingers nearby, and a shower or two will be possible (though unlikely) on Monday. Dewpoints will continue their steady climb, peaking in the mid-70s, which will make the upper 80s feel more like the mid-90s.
High pressure aloft will become more entrenched across the area starting Tuesday, setting us up for a rain-free stretch through Friday that will feature warmer-than-normal temperatures for late August. We should see highs peak in the low-to-mid-90s each afternoon, and with dewpoints peaking in the mid-70s, heat indices should head back into the 100s especially Wednesday-Friday. We’ll fall short of the Heat Advisory threshold of 108°, but it’ll still be plenty warm with just a few clouds to hide the sun from time to time. The high pressure pattern will keep winds generally light, too, so there won’t be much of a breeze, either.
As we head into Labor Day weekend, the high pressure ridge aloft gets shunted south and west as a trough digs in a bit to our north. This will kick up the chance for a few afternoon thunderstorms and take some of the bite out of the heat, but it’ll still be plenty warm as we bid farewell to summer as meteorological fall begins on Sunday.