Charleston Weather » snow

Winter weather event well underway

Jared Smith — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:27:52 +0000

Winter weather reports overlaid on RADAR from 6:15PM.

No doubt about it — the forecast has verified and the Charleston area is well-encompassed in a winter weather event. Reports of snow are coming in from all over the place, primarily from inland locations (particularly in Berkeley County and Summerville). Accumulations of 1″ have been observed in Goose Creek. Snow will continue to push toward the coast — as I write this, there are fresh reports of snow in Shadowmoss in West Ashley — making for quite a fun winter weather Friday for the Lowcountry.

I strongly discourage travel this evening, as snow will make visibilities very low at times. Also, there was quite a bit of rain that fell today ahead of this event, and there’s a good chance that could refreeze and create very slick spots on the roadways. This is also a concern for Saturday.

Hopefully I’ll have snow pictures of my own soon!

Winter Storm Warning begins at noon

Jared Smith — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:19:11 +0000

snOMG! Charleston is looking at its first appreciable snowfall in over ten years this evening as a low pressure system develops and moves northeast, paralleling the coast and drawing in the necessary cold air to create what could be a potentially significant snow event (significant, at least, for our area — this will be no DC blizzard). NWS is forecasting up to 6″ inland — up from the 4″ expected yesterday. It’s very likely the wintry precipitation will reach the coast, so we do expect to see at least a rain/snow mix downtown. Confidence is very high in the forecast, as the forecast models have excellent agreement for a snow event across most of the state.

While we don’t expect this event to snow people in, it is anticipated that travel will be hairy starting this afternoon through tomorrow. NWS released a safety statement a little while ago with some winter weather safety tips.

We’ll be watching as the storm approaches throughout the day. Tag your photos and posts with #chswx and they’ll show up in the Collecta widget in the sidebar.

NWS: Wintry mix after midnight, to end by daybreak; road impact minimal

Jared Smith — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:43:32 +0000

While the expected wintry precipitation early Friday morning has already put some schools on a delay, the forecast is shaping up to be such that the biggest risk on the road tomorrow in the Charleston metro are drivers who are distracted by the snow. The key: Temperatures will not fall below freezing here, so no snow is expected to stick to the ground, nor will any of the wintry mix refreeze. Precipitation is expected to be fairly light so the roads shouldn’t even get terribly slick, and after the front comes through, things will dry out very quickly. Things will also stay pretty chilly; we’ll be lucky to get over 40 tomorrow.

If you get cool pictures, post them to the service of your choice using the #chswx tag so they’ll show up in this search.

Winter weather possible overnight into Friday morning

Jared Smith — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:15:37 +0000

NWS has us pegged for a slight chance of wintry precipitation tonight — and as you can imagine, that’s generated a bit of buzz in the area. The best chance for wintry precipitation is primarily inland, as the latest forecast models expect that it will be warmer over the coastal areas than previously thought, and may be warm enough that any precipitation there is all rain. It won’t be much, and it certainly won’t be cold enough for any snow to stick in most places. There is some concern for black ice inland — probably not in the Charleston metro area, but possibly further inland into Dorchester and Berkeley counties.

From the NWS:

…A LIGHT MIX OF RAIN/ICE PELLETS. THEN LIGHT SNOW LATE
FROM W TO E WITH MAINLY RAIN ALONG THE NEAR COASTAL AREAS OUTSIDE
OF ANY SLEET MIX AT TIMES. TOWARD DAWN ON FRI…WHATEVER MOISTURE
LEFT IN LOCATIONS BORDERING E CENTRAL GEORGIA AND THE SOUTHERN
MIDLANDS APPEARS TO FALL AS SOME FLURRIES BUT WE CONTINUE TO LOOK
FOR A LIGHT NON-ACCUMULATING BRIEF WINTRY MIX EVENT AHEAD OF THE
ARCTIC FRONT. DESPITE THE LIGHT AMOUNTS EXPECTED…A FEW PATCHES OF
ICE/BLACK ICE ON AREA ROADWAYS…MAINLY INLAND STILL MAY BE POSSIBLE
TOWARD DAWN ON FRI. THIS TREND SHOULD BECOME CLEARER AS THE PRECIP
TIMING BECOMES MORE EVIDENT LATER TODAY OR EARLY THIS EVENING.

I’ll update this thread as things become clearer throughout the day.