A cold front will be working its way eastward into the metro area throughout the day Saturday, but its associated rainfall will arrive in the late afternoon and early evening, sparing the Bridge Run. It’ll be windy; gusts 30-35 MPH will be possible especially heading into the early afternoon, and this may contribute a bit of a headwind at times during the race. After starting in the mid-60s, temperatures should head into the low 80s in the afternoon ahead of the cold front.
A line of showers and thunderstorms will precede the cold front. It should be losing some steam with the bulk of the energy staying well north, but there is ample wind shear and should be enough instability for a few of these storms to be on the stronger side with wind damage the main concern. Some hail and even a tornado can’t be totally discounted, either, so you’ll want to make sure you have ways to get warnings tomorrow. These look to get into western parts of the Tri-County in the 3-5 PM timeframe, pressing off the coast by 6-7 PM with showers to fall for a little while afterward.
Once the front is through, cooler and drier air works its way into the area. Overall, Sunday should run about 10° cooler than Saturday with a lot more sunshine. It’ll be the pick day of the weekend for outdoor activities with comfortable warmth and low humidity.
We stay warm this weekend despite a weak front that’ll move in Saturday and stall out across the area. Highs each afternoon will peak in the low to mid-80s, with lows solidly in the low-to-mid-60s.
The aforementioned front will be the focal point for increasingly unsettled weather. As the front approaches Saturday, scattered showers and thunderstorms — a couple of which may be on the strong side — will be possible primarily in the afternoon through early evening. Outside of thunderstorms, winds will be gusty at times, with gusts approaching 30 MPH especially on higher bridges.
Sunday starts on a dry note, but as the afternoon progresses, the lingering front will act as a focal point for developing additional showers and maybe a few thunderstorms. Rain chances will last well into Monday and Tuesday before the front is shoved out of here by high pressure. Still, expect highs to climb into the mid-80s.
Bottom line for this weekend: No total washout expected, but you’ll want to keep an eye to the sky if you’re outdoors.
Follow my Charleston Weather updates using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, micro.blog, Mastodon, or even good old-fashioned RSS. Do you like what you see here? Please consider supporting my independent, hype-averse weather journalism and become a supporter on Patreonfor a broader look at all things #chswx!
First off: If you’re heading out tonight, expect the rain to stay away from Charleston proper until around midnight. It may begin to rain earlier the further inland you are, though, so keep rain gear handy just in case.
A cold front will come through the area early Saturday, putting an end to the brief warmup that closed out the work week. Lows will run in the mid-50s, but highs will only top out in the low to mid-60s in the afternoon. The bulk of the rain falls overnight, but scattered showers — and perhaps an embedded downpour or two — will remain possible through mid-afternoon, it looks like. A shower may not be completely out of the picture into the evening hours. With that in mind, I don’t see tomorrow as a total rainout — suspect most of us will get a fair bit of rain-free time in.
Sunday will be much cooler as high pressure continues to build in from the west. Despite more sunshine, highs will struggle to 60° as cool air continues to blow into the area from the north, with wind speeds generally around 5-10 MPH.
If it weren’t for the pollen, I’d unequivocally endorse this weekend as a great one to get out and about. Once a cold front and its associated thin line of showers clears the area overnight, skies will clear and give us a brilliant couple days. We start Saturday in the mid-60s as some of the slightly cooler and drier air lags a bit, but we’ll see dewpoints mix out nicely as the day goes on, allowing for a comfortably warm day as temperatures approach 80° but with less humidity than the past few days.
A secondary cold front will come through overnight Saturday into early Sunday morning. It will be starved of moisture, so a dry passage is expected. The airmass behind this front is more noticeably cooler and drier. You’ll certainly feel the difference when we start Sunday around 50° — the coolest start to a day since the temperature bottomed out at 48° on February 20 — and only see temperatures rise into the low-to-mid 70s in the afternoon despite pristine skies. We’ll see some occasionally breezy conditions both days, but other than that, really nice weather is in store with a little more seasonable feel on the way.
Our recent string of record warmth, punctuated by a high of 86° today that breaks last year’s record of 84°, takes a pause this weekend as a backdoor cold front stalls out near the area. Showers filling in tonight will peak overnight as low pressure develops along the coast. As this low pressure pulls away during the day Saturday, so will the chance for rain. Bottom line for precipitation: Keep rain gear handy, but you may not end up needing it. Cloud cover and high pressure wedging in from the north will keep temperatures well below where they have been recently, but still above normal, peaking in the low 70s.
Said front lifts back north of the area on Sunday, bringing in a little more in the way of sunshine and warming temperatures back into the mid-70s. This is roughly 10° above normal for this point in the year, but the record books will remain intact as the record high of 83° set in 1996 looks to remain safe. By Monday, we should be back into the 80s as ridging re-establishes itself aloft.
We get off to a very chilly start on Saturday, with many of us dipping into the upper 20s to around 30° in the morning under clear skies. Northeast winds around 10 mph or so will make it feel closer to the low 20s, so you’ll definitely want those layers if you’ve got plans Saturday morning. Despite full sunshine, highs will only top out around 50° given the very chilly airmass in place.
The really chilly weather will not stick around, though. Clouds will start to increase overnight Saturday into Sunday as high pressure slips offshore and a coastal trough sharpens. This trough could trigger some scattered showers for a decent bit of the day on Sunday, though it won’t rain all day in any one location, and showers should come to an end by evening. Temperatures on Sunday will bottom out in the mid-to-upper 30s before warming into the low 60s in the afternoon as some warmer maritime air makes it ashore.
From there, we’ll be back into a warming trend with 70s possible by Wednesday, and our next shower chances look to arrive later Thursday into Friday.
Despite thickening cloud cover and a cool wedge of high pressure building in Saturday, it’ll be the day to do anything outside as Sunday looks more active with some heavy rain at times and maybe some coastal flooding in the morning to boot.
The weather turns quieter but much cooler this weekend as we get the first real taste of January weather almost mid-way through the month. After showers depart overnight, clouds will break up and temperatures will bottom out generally in the mid-30s; northwest winds 10-15 MPH will make it feel closer to the upper 20s. Despite clearing skies, the high will struggle to about 50° on Saturday with breezy northwest winds ongoing.
Winds slacken some, but not completely, Saturday evening into Sunday. We should see freezing temperatures in the metro for at least a few hours Sunday morning as lows drop to around 30-31°. The continued cool advection from the northwest will help bring these colder temperatures to the coast, though we should stay just above freezing there. This isn’t a December 2022 freeze by any stretch, but be sure to have your pets inside and loved ones accounted for. A little ridging begins to nose in aloft, which will allow highs to head a little more north of 50° than we will see on Saturday.
Monday will start in the mid-30s once again, with calm to light winds expected, taking the bite off the wind chill. Continued mostly sunny skies will allow the high to reach up around 60°, making for fairly nice conditions for outdoors Martin Luther King, Jr. commemorations.
The first weekend of 2023 is here, and the weather overall looks pretty good across the area, particularly Saturday. Morning cloud cover and lows in the upper 30s will give way to more sunshine and highs in the low-to-mid-60s, still above normal for this point in the year. Sunday will feature more in the way of cloud cover throughout the day as some energy aloft approaches from the west. Despite the cloud cover, expect highs to still reach into the mid-60s in the afternoon. The aforementioned energy could lead toward some isolated to scattered showers breaking out after sunset Sunday into early Monday. Significant rainfall is not expected, though. All in all, not a bad weekend to get out and about!