Rain, thunderstorms likely Friday. What’s up with winter in Beaufort Co. this year?
It may not be a picture-perfect weekend in Beaufort County, according to the National Weather Service in Charleston.
Rain will barrel into the coastal county Friday afternoon, with a risk of severe thunderstorms ahead of a cold front pushing eastward, the weather service said in a news release.
The worst weather will be between 6 p.m. and midnight Friday, where Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head and Port Royal will see heavy rain and damaging wind, with gusts up to 60 mph, the release said.
Isolated tornadoes are possible Friday night, according to the release.
The severe weather comes after roller-coaster temperatures in Beaufort County in the first month of the new year.
While the county saw several consecutive days of sunny, 70-degree weather the week of Jan. 12, temperatures have taken a sharp dip in recent days, with average highs in the mid-to-upper 40s.
At this time last year, Beaufort County held a more consistent average temperature of around 60 degrees. But the erratic temperature changes appear to be typical of January in South Carolina.
“This is somewhat common, especially in recent times,” according to Peter Mohlin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service.
Mohlin said that while downtown Charleston has not reached freezing in nearly two years, the wide variety of temperatures is becoming signature to Lowcountry winters.
So far in January 2020, the average temperature at the Savannah/ Hilton Head International Airport (the closest NWS data collection point) has been 9.4 degrees above normal.
That’s up from December, when the average temperature was 5.2 degrees above normal.
But the winter months aren’t behaving in the way some expect. At the airport, the average temperature in January was 2 degrees higher than the average temperature in November.
January, typically considered the coldest month in the Lowcountry, has had an average temperature of 58.6 degrees so far in 2020, Mohlin said.
That tracks with temperatures in 2019, when January was 2.9 degrees above average temperature and November was 0.6 degrees below its normal weather.
“That January was not quite as warm,” Mohlin said. “There have been in recent years some wild fluctuations in temperature, but this year has been quite a bit above average.”
Weekend weather forecast
Friday: Showers likely before 1 p.m., then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 1 and 5 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 66. East wind 6 to 11 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Friday night: Showers and thunderstorms before 2 a.m., then a slight chance of showers between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Low around 47. South wind around 10 mph becoming west after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 60. West wind 8 to 11 mph.
Saturday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 38. West wind around 8 mph.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 59. West wind 6 to 8 mph.
Sunday night: A 30 percent chance of showers after 2 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 44.
Monday: A 30 percent chance of showers, mainly before 2 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 59.
Monday night: A 20 percent chance of showers before 8 p.m. Mostly clear, with a low around 40.
Source: National Weather Service Charleston
