Hello everyone, Jared Smith here with your Charleston weather forecast for Tuesday, January 9th, 2024.

A high-impact weather day is expected across the Charleston metro as an abnormally potent storm system drives a cold front into the area during the day on Tuesday.

Moderate tidal flooding in the morning will give way to strong and gusty non-thunderstorm winds by midday, followed by a squall line which may produce severe weather as it moves by in the afternoon and early evening hours.

We’ll wake up to an unusually warm and humid air mass for early January.

Temperatures will be rising into the 60s in the wake of a warm front Tuesday morning, and winds will be coming up along with it.

Expect to start the day with sustained winds around 20-25 mph with gusts getting into the 30 mph range.

We’ll also be dealing with some moderate coastal flooding on Tuesday morning.

High tide around 5.57am should top out around 7.6-7.8 feet, which is high enough to close some roads.

Models continue to put rain in the area during the morning hours, but it looks generally light in nature and shouldn’t be enough to make the tidal flooding issue worse.

We could see the tide slowly move out though, as strong southerly and southeasterly winds continue to get stronger throughout the morning.

This may prolong the saltwater incursion, so be alert to traffic delays due to road closures throughout the Tuesday morning commute.

For its part, the National Weather Service has issued a coastal flood advisory.

It’ll start at 4am and last until about 10am to cover the coastal flood threat.

Winds will be strengthening throughout the day, and will be climbing towards 30-35 mph sustained by midday.

Gusts inland will generally run 40-50 mph, while they could approach 50-60 mph near the coast and on bridges and overpasses.

These non-thunderstorm winds will be capable of downing some trees and power lines, and could cause some power outages well ahead of the expected squall line in the afternoon.

This is a big reason why we want you to keep your phones charged when you have power, and you’ll want to make sure that your flashlights and weather radios have fresh batteries too.

The best risk for severe weather arrives with the squall line, which as of this recording is timed to arrive in the tri-county around mid-afternoon, moving through the area and off the coast by early evening.

Damaging wind gusts, perhaps in excess of 70 mph, will be possible with the line as it moves by.

There could also be a tornado or two embedded within the leading edge of the line, and a strong tornado can’t be ruled out.

Individual cells within the line will be absolutely racing, with storm motions on the order of 60-70 mph, so if a severe thunderstorm or tornado warning is issued for your area, you’ll want to take action immediately as lead time is going to be at a premium.

Make sure you have your severe weather safety plan in place and are ready to execute it at a moment’s notice.

The timing of the line will continue to be refined some, but for now, plan on evening commute impacts across the metro area, including a wind-driven heavy rain, with the potential for very strong winds on bridges and overpasses.

If you can skip driving through it, I would do so, that is for sure.

The other bit of uncertainty with the squall line is how much instability can develop ahead of it.

Models do show a plume of instability of varying degrees developing ahead of the line, so we’ll want to keep an eye on that trend.

If breaks in the clouds develop, so could additional instability, and that could potentially increase the severe weather risk.

Alternatively, if rain continues to develop and hang around throughout the day, that could stamp out some of the higher instability, putting more of a governor on the severe threat.

Suffice to say, we’ll be rooting for showers throughout the day, that’s for sure.

After the squall line gets through, we’ll cool down into the low 40s for Wednesday morning.

Breezy conditions with gusts to 30 mph will continue as cool air on the backside of the storm moves into the area, limiting our daytime highs to around 55 degrees on Wednesday afternoon under partly cloudy skies.

Winds calmed down a bit on Thursday before another storm system, still strong but appearing less impactful so far, moves across the area for Friday.

And that was Charleston Weather Daily for January 9th, 2024.

I’m Jared Smith.

Visit CHSWX.com anytime for your latest Charleston weather, conditions, alerts, and forecast updates.

Thanks for listening! Stay weather alert throughout the day, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.