Hello everyone! Jared Smith here with your Charleston weather forecast for Saturday, December 16th, 2023.

Well, as we’ve been talking about for much of this week, a coastal storm looks to affect the area starting as early as Saturday afternoon and lasting through Sunday.

It’ll pack gusty winds, heavy rain, and the potential for moderate coastal flooding with Sunday morning’s high tide.

But first, Saturday.

Starts off fairly quiet.

We’ll certainly feel a little bit of a breeze, and temperatures will run noticeably warmer than they did on Friday morning, but the rain looks to hold off until afternoon.

The Friday night guidance package seems to indicate that we could even stay largely dry through about 6-7pm before showers encroach on the area from the south.

There’s still a good bit of dry air aloft noted on the Friday evening sounding, which may delay the onset of rain for a good bit of Saturday, but we’ll see.

Still though, the National Weather Service forecast does indicate the potential for showers may be as early as noon, so you’ll want to keep rain gear nearby just in case.

Showers on Saturday should top out in the mid 60s, owing to the warmer and more moisture laden air mass that will be moving in.

It still appears that the bulk of the weather from this storm will take place overnight Saturday into Sunday morning.

A heavy rain band should set up across the area a little before daybreak, hanging around through about midday Sunday before starting to lift off to the north with the surface low.

Before it’s all said and done, many spots should end up with 2-3 inches of rain, with locally higher amounts possible.

Thankfully, widespread freshwater flooding will not be a concern for the most part, though we will need to watch for heavy rain coinciding with high tide around 11-17am, and this should be high enough to produce moderate saltwater flooding in parts of downtown Charleston.

So any heavy rain on top could prove problematic for more widespread issues downtown, but we’ll need to wait and see as a dry slot should punch into the area around midday or so, very close to when this high tide should peak.

Timing is key here, and it’s still a little tough to pinpoint a day or so out, so stay tuned.

Winds will be the other major concern overnight Saturday and especially on Sunday.

We should easily get 20-30mph gusts across much of the metro, with gusts pushing 40mph and perhaps beyond as you get east of Highway 17.

I wouldn’t be shocked to see some 50mph readings show up on some anemometers near the beaches either, and I won’t rule out a few power outages due to the wind, so be ready for that possibility as well.

If bridges and overpasses are in your travel plans on Sunday, take it easy, grip that wheel a little bit tighter, because winds are going to be enhanced up there, particularly on the Ravenel, Don Holt, and Wando bridges.

And while incredibly unlikely, we will want to see if any instability can develop ahead of the low Sunday morning as well.

Some of the convection-allowing models are showing some embedded thunderstorms, and sheer will be such where a severe storm can’t be totally discounted.

For its part, the Storm Prediction Center has the area in a marginal risk for severe weather on Sunday.

We’ll keep an eye on this, but for now, severe thunderstorms aren’t really expected to be a factor.

The low pressure and its associated heavy rain will be moving north of the area as we get into Sunday afternoon and evening, and some rain could hang around until late Sunday, but the worst of it looks like it’ll be over before 1-2pm or so.

Again, stay tuned on that timing, things can change.

Winds will shift from the east and southeast to the northwest, and this will help bring cooler and drier air into the area, and in fact it looks like we’ll be in for a pretty good cold snap for a few days beginning next Tuesday, so get ready for that.

All in all, this weekend is not going to be a banner weekend for weather here in the Low Country, but we have gone through much worse.

You’ll all be fine, just make sure your inflatable and loose holiday decorations are inside until Monday.

And that was Charleston Weather Daily for December 16th, 2023.

I’m Jared Smith.

You can find Charleston weather forecasts online at chswx.com, on Mastodon at chswx.chswx.social, on Instagram and Facebook at chswx, and on BlueSky at chswx.com.

Thanks for listening, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.