Saturday: Snow is falling in Beaufort and Port Royal. Here’s what it looks like on the ground
Snow fell in Beaufort, Port Royal and Hilton Head Island Saturday evening in an extremely rare weather event for coastal South Carolina, with the accumulation a treat for the uninitiated but potentially treacherous for drivers.
As temperatures fell, the unusual winter storm initially produced a mix of rain and specks of snow and ice in the early afternoon. By 4:30 p.m., as darkness approached, that flurry had turned to fluffy white snowflakes that floated from the gray skies like aliens in a region better known for its palmetto and live oak trees, beaches and balmy wintertime temperatures in the 60s, not its snowscapes.
By 5:30 p.m., popular landmarks like The Henry Robinson Boardwalk in Port Royal had a layer of white frosting. Snow accumulated on palmetto fronds. Residents tossed salt on sidewalks to keep ice from forming.
“I grew up in Charleston just up the road and I can count on one hand how much I’ve seen snow in my lifetime,” Beaufort Mayor Phil Cromer said Saturday morning, as the city prepared for uncommonly cold weather and snow.
To be sure, snowfall as of early evening was still just a dusting. But any snow in these parts is exceptional — there’s a 9% chance of seeing snow each year, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
In the last 127 years, Beaufort has seen measurable snowfall only 11 times, according to the Beaufort History Museum: 1899, 1914, 1943, 1948, 1958, 1973, 1989, 2006, 2010, 2018 and 2025.
While a curiosity for locals, the danger heading into Saturday night and Sunday evening was that the extreme cold would turn area roads, especially bridges, into ice rinks. Usually when it snows, Cromer said, it just melts. Not this time.
Saturday evening, the National Weather Service was forecasting potentially record-breaking temperatures and dangerous windchills Sunday morning. Lows could be in the upper teens to lower 20s with “feels like” temps in the single digits.
Also in the forecast was an additional 1 to 2 inches of snow.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation had snowplows on standby just in case more snow accumulated.
One was parked near William Hilton Parkway and Squire Pope Road on Hilton Head Island Saturday afternoon.
Heavy Machine Operator Trey Woods said he was on standby in case any plowing was needed Saturday night.
Even rarer than snow falling in Beaufort County is a snow two years in a row. Last January, in 2025, 3 inches was recorded in Beaufort and 2.5 inches in Port Royal.
“We’re talking an extremely rare event if this were to happen — especially considering we just had snow last year,” Brian Haines, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, said prior to the snowfall.
The last time the area saw snow prior to 2025 was in 2018, when 3.5 inches was recorded in Beaufort and 3 inches in Port Royal.
The last time it snowed two years in a row?
In Charleston, it was 1988 and 1989, the Weather Service’s Haines said, and Savannah saw consecutive years of snow in 1917 and 1918.
The last big, memorable snowfall in the Lowcountry was the record-breaker that happened in December 1989, when more than 6 inches was recorded and the Lowcountry experienced a rare white Christmas.
Authorities urged residents to stay off the roads unless they absolutely had to venture out and to bundle up in layers.
Saturday afternoon, Gabriela Almeyda, wearing mittens and a stocking cap, scraped snow together that had accumulated on a bench in downtown Beaufort, attempting to form a snowball. The visiting girl from Florida had never seen snow before.
It was nice, she said. Her first impression: “It’s soft.”
When the snow flurries stopped late Saturday evening, 2-4 inches had accumulated across the region, according to the National Weather Service in Charleston.
Island Packet reporter Li Khan contributed to this story.
This story was originally published January 31, 2026 at 5:58 PM.
