Hello everyone, Jared Smith here with your Charleston weather forecast for Sunday, December 17th, 2023.

An increasingly powerful nor’easter will bring high-impact weather to the Lowcountry on Sunday.

We’ll likely wake up to moderate to occasionally heavy rain at times, with wind gusts 25-30 mph fairly common, especially along and east of 17A.

As the low draws more northward throughout the morning, those gusts will get even stronger, with 35-45 mph gusts a distinct possibility across much of the metro.

Those speeds could go even higher on bridges, overpasses, and at the coast, so be very careful if you’re going to be traveling on the bridges.

High-profile vehicles may be particularly susceptible to the wind as well, so keep that in mind, and a wind advisory will be in effect for Charleston County from 6am to 2pm, which is when the strongest winds are expected.

However, it will likely stay windy for much of the day, and sporadic power outages can’t be ruled out as a result.

Steady moderate to occasionally heavy rain will continue into early Sunday afternoon, and this will become particularly concerning as water levels in the harbor rise to a potentially major flood stage, with high tide around 11-17am.

Heavy rain ahead of this already exceptionally high tide will almost certainly cause travel to become difficult, if not downright hazardous, in parts of downtown Charleston due to flooding.

As of this recording on Saturday evening, a coastal flood watch is in effect for Sunday morning, and if confidence improves and major flooding in the harbor, a coastal flood warning will be issued, and may be in effect by the time you listen to this podcast.

I’d be prepared for downtown to be extremely difficult to navigate for a fair bit of the morning and early afternoon, and I would only travel if it’s absolutely necessary.

Flooding will also be a concern as we head further inland, with trouble spots in Somerville and North Charleston, for example, potentially impacted by freshwater flooding from excessive rainfall.

A flood watch is in effect for the entire Tri-County area to account for this concern, and will be in effect from 1am to 1pm Sunday, though some model trends suggest scattered heavy rains could persist for a few hours after the initial expiration of this flood watch, so I wouldn’t be shocked to see it extended if that scenario pans out.

There will be the potential for a few severe thunderstorms near the coast on Sunday, particularly as we get into late morning and early afternoon.

All this depends on how much instability can develop, though.

If thunderstorms do become severe, locally damaging wind gusts will be the main concern, though shear will be more than sufficient for a tornado, too.

You’ll want to keep the weather radio handy just in case, though the vast majority of us shouldn’t see a severe thunderstorm.

As we get into the evening hours, there is the potential for another episode of strong and gusty winds to develop as rapidly drying and descending air, in what’s known as a sting jet, could possibly form in the wake of the low pressure system.

Confidence isn’t terribly high right now, but we’ll need to keep an eye on this potential just in case, as sting jets can often produce respectable amounts of wind damage.

Now we should see rain gradually taper off as the evening goes on, and by Monday morning we’re drying out nicely, leading into what should be a downright cold few days beginning on Tuesday.

But I’ll have more on that tomorrow.

And that was Charleston Weather Daily for December 17th, 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.