Wednesday's forecast: Highs in the 90s give way to afternoon thunderstorms
Hello everyone, Jared Smith here with your Charleston weather forecast for Wednesday, May 17th, 2023, taking a look at Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, as well as the weekend.
So two weather stories for Wednesday that we’ll be paying attention to.
The first is a summer-like heat.
We’re going to start the day around 70 degrees and we’ll warm into the low 90s in the afternoon ahead of the second weather story, which will be thunderstorms, possibly packing some heavy rain and maybe even some strong wind gusts.
We expect those storms to fire up about 2 to 3 p.m.
They’ll be moving from west to east as the front moves from north to south.
So there’s a possibility that we could see maybe a little bit of backbuilding at times and that could lead to some flooding concerns.
We’ll keep an eye on that.
The atmosphere will be, as we in the meteorological community put it, juicy, with precipitable water values around two inches.
And if you think about what that means, pretend like you’re wringing out a towel, that’s a column of air in the atmosphere, and you get two inches of water.
That’s a good bit of water.
So something we’ll keep an eye on for that potential for heavy rain and maybe even some isolated flooding on Wednesday.
Now that backdoor front is going to push southward across the area and stall out to our west on Thursday with a wedge of high pressure that’ll be kind of driving it in there.
It’s going to build back in in its wake.
That’s going to bring some northeasterly winds.
It’s going to bring some clouds, shower chances, and temperatures that’ll be at least 10 degrees or more cooler.
10, 15, maybe even 20 degrees cooler.
We might not get very far into the 70s on Thursday.
So a very big difference in air mass there.
And those northeasterly winds are going to be on the breezy side too, especially as low pressure begins to spin up off the coast.
That northeasterly wind combined with a new moon may lead to some coastal flooding issues with the evening high tide, which will be roughly a little after 8pm.
So we’re going to need to keep an eye on that.
And you know, there may be coastal flood advisories that are issued for Thursday evening.
So if you have any downtown travel plans in particular, that’s something you might want to keep an eye on.
Friday will turn warmer.
The wedge is going to start to break down again.
That doesn’t tend to last very long this time of year, just with sun angle being what it is.
We still can’t discount a shower or two completely, especially if that low pressure takes a little bit longer to depart.
Highs will get into the low 80s as that northeasterly wind starts to back off.
Overall, not too bad.
We’ll just be dodging a few showers possibly on Friday.
And taking a look at the weekend, I like Saturday as the pick day.
Highs will be in the mid to upper 80s.
May have a slight chance of an evening shower or storm, but nothing too out of the ordinary, especially as we get into the warmer months here.
Should be a pretty decent day.
We should get most of it in rain free, as opposed to Sunday, where another front is going to start to make inroads and we may see some more widespread precipitation.
Still need to work out the timing on that, timing intensity and all that.
But Sunday is not looking as good as Saturday right now.
So do with that what you will with your weekend plans, and stay tuned for updates.
Unfortunately, our search for the rain free weekend, that elusive rain free weekend in 2023, will continue.
This has been Charleston Weather Daily for May 17th, 2023.
I’m Jared Smith.
You can find Charleston weather forecasts online at chswx.com, on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at chswx, and in the Fediverse at chswx at chswx.social.
For transcripts or to learn more about the show, visit daily.chswx.com.
If you like what you heard today, please tell a friend.
We’re an Apple podcast now.
We’re on the Jam app.
Just search for Charleston Weather Daily.
We’ll be in the Google podcast directory before too long, hopefully, and in more directories over the next few weeks as well.
So you’re just not going to be able to escape it.
Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll talk to you again tomorrow.