Charleston Weather » spring

Quiet for the next several days

Jared Smith — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 05:26:44 +0000

Expect a nice, quiet several days ahead (including the weekend). We’ll be getting a touch of May here in the first couple days of April with temperatures hitting the mid-80s inland with few clouds in the sky, making for a fantastic early beach weekend. We’ll have a cold front come through on Sunday to moderate things a bit, but not seeing much in the way of a precipitation chance from it so far. Otherwise, the only real nuisance is the pollen — pollen counts are extremely high right now, making your cars yellow and a lot of you not feel great. With this nice weather hanging around, don’t expect to get much relief.

More later on this week. Enjoy it, Charleston!

Welcome to Spring: Slight risk of severe weather today

Jared Smith — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:19:11 +0000

The Storm Prediction Center has the area in a slight risk for severe weather this afternoon. Dewpoints are headed well into the 60s across the area, and we’ve gotten more sunshine than first anticipated today, which will aid convection throughout the area. Current timing shows that the bulk of the activity is expected around and after midnight; an overnight severe threat currently cannot be ruled out and must be watched closely.

I’m currently seeing some isolated moderate showers move quickly northward over Moncks Corner, Lake Moultrie, and surrounding areas. A line of storms has kicked up in Georgia and is about to cross 95 into southern SC (Colleton, Beaufort, and Jasper counties). There’s also a cluster of thunderstorms moving eastward that might bring some rain/thunder to Summerville and North Charleston if it keeps it together.

Look for increasing winds tonight as high pressure is forced out by the cold front causing all this fun. A strong onshore flow is expected which may push tides near the 7′ mark, which is the threshold for shallow coastal flooding in beach communities and downtown Charleston.

Running conversation about today’s potential for rough storms is happening on Twitter at @chswxextra. Watch for any severe weather watches and warnings, as well as periodic conditions updates, on @chswx on Twitter and @chswx on Identi.ca.

Fun with the Forecastronic — but a severe threat looms

Jared Smith — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:45:34 +0000

I’m pretty sure it was obvious, but yes, the Forecastronic was, in fact, an April Fool’s joke. I hope you enjoyed it. It was a fun introduction to this blog for a lot of folks — kind of a kickoff as we get going here. While the main page has reverted, the Forecastronic page will live on for posterity (though it won’t be updated).

I’ve reverted the site a bit early, though, because we might have trouble tomorrow. Here’s the Day 2 convective outlook from the Storm Prediction Center:

While a majority of the action is going to be concentrated in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia (where a moderate risk of severe weather is forecast, which is pretty significant), the bulk of the energy which could foster severe storms may move into the Carolinas — and the Charleston metro — after midnight. This is something we’ll want to keep a watch on, as large hail, damaging winds, and a tornado threat all come packaged with this system. Expect rain and some embedded thunderstorms during most of the day Thursday, with a gradual worsening of the weather into the night. RADAR already indicates some shower and thunderstorm activity to our southwest moving eastward, so there’s a fairly decent chance of some thunderstorms tonight.

These nighttime systems are especially dangerous because most people are sleeping, so it behooves you today to make sure that you are prepared for the possibility of severe weather. A NOAA Weather Radio is always a good choice. Have that severe weather action plan ready, too.

I know that there have been a couple instances this year where severe scenarios haven’t panned out the way they were expected — and this one could be no different hence the “slight” rating (which we’ve had several times this year). However, the nighttime threat does prompt the need for a little more caution and watchfulness tomorrow night.