Sunday's forecast: More heat, more humidity, and possibly some torrential downpours
Hello everyone, Jared Smith here with your Charleston weather forecast for Sunday, July 16th, 2023.
First a little climatological anecdote about how warm it’s been.
So it’s yet to get below 82 degrees downtown over the last couple days.
We set a record warm low temperature there on Friday, and we might be working on another one again for Saturday as well.
Afternoon record highs get all the attention, but it’s the record warm lows that contribute just as much to cumulative heat stress over time.
And Sunday will be another hot and humid day.
We’ll start in the upper 70s away from the coast, and again, may not get below 80 there, with highs soaring into the low to mid 90s by early afternoon.
Mix in humidity and it’ll feel like the low 100s once more, with heat indices possibly approaching and maybe even exceeding 105 degrees near the coast, especially as that sea breeze begins its inland trek.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms will again be possible in the afternoon and evening hours.
That’ll cool some of us off, but we’ll have to keep an eye on slow moving or training thunderstorms as well for the potential for some flooding.
If Saturday was any indication, storms will be very capable of being efficient rainfall producers.
We had a couple reports of nearly 2 inches of rain in under an hour in a couple spots in Dorchester County Saturday evening, generally near Ridgeville, and if that’s any indication of what Sunday’s storms could bring, a few of us could be in for a real drencher.
Frequent lightning and some strong winds can’t be ruled out either.
And finally a quick heads up for an uptick in the heat during the upcoming week as the Bermuda High slides a little west and the subtropical ridge builds in aloft.
This will gradually tamp down thunderstorm chances each afternoon, generally after Monday, and help air temperatures reach the mid to upper 90s as the week goes on.
Heat index values near 110 will become more and more possible as we get later into next week, particularly near the coast, so stay tuned for possible heat advisories.
And that was Charleston Weather Daily for July 16th, 2023.
I’m Jared Smith.
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Thanks for listening and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.