What a difference a week makes! After days upon days of bitterly cold temperatures and a major snowfall, South Carolina’s weather is (finally) back to normal.
Back to our regularly scheduled weather after last week's snow! It's sunny and 70 degrees today ☀️ pic.twitter.com/J042exoTGZ
— University of South Carolina (@UofSC) January 29, 2025
For the Upstate, temperatures will continue to increase into the high 60s throughout the week, hitting as high as the mid 60s on Friday. Slightly cooler weather is expected by the weekend. The Midlands will see temperatures in the 70s throughout the week, with some southern spots seeing highs in the 60s into the weekend. In the Low Country highs will be in the upper 70s then fall to mid 60s throughout the weekend. And in the Pee Dee, mid to upper 70s on Friday with mid to upper 60s by the weekend.
Sunny and warm today with high temperatures near 70F in the afternoon - warmest day of the year (so far). Low temperatures tonight in the mid to upper 30s. #ncwx #scwx pic.twitter.com/Jqy5ZnqGDm
— NWS Wilmington, NC (@NWSWilmingtonNC) January 29, 2025
On Jan. 16, the Climate Prediction Center released its outlook for February across the U.S. The agency's goal is to predict the temperature and precipitation trend for each month and season.

The extended forecast shows a trend of near-normal temperatures as well. In February, the average high temperature for most of the state is generally in the 60s. And morning lows range between the low 40s for the Upstate, to upper 40s for the Low Country. In addition to our temperatures, South Carolina looks to have a drier trend for February as well.

The reason for this prediction is due to La Niña conditions that are currently present and predicted to persist through April 2025. La Niña would mean a warmer and drier winter for South Carolina. La Niña pushes storms into the Pacific Northwest on a more northerly and inland track, holding the jet stream at higher latitudes longer where it traps cold air to its north. This typically means dry weather, warmer conditions and drought for the southern U.S. and cooler temperatures for the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest.

For the fourth time in five years, La Niña is expected to be a factor in this winter's weather and climate across South Carolina. Two of the past three La Niña winters brought below-normal rainfall across the coastal Carolinas. A normal winter sees 9.5” to 11.0” of rain across the area, but rainfall during the La Niña winters of 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 ran about 25 percent below normal, leading the National Drought Monitor to declare "abnormally dry" conditions in February 2023 and "moderate drought" conditions in February 2022.

Given the moderate drought already in place over portions of the coastal and eastern Carolinas, an outlook of increased chances for below normal rainfall is concerning and could lead to increasing severity of drought over the next several months.

One of the most important weather patterns that influences our winter temperatures is called the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In its positive phase, a fast west-to-east jet stream keeps cold arctic air bottled up across Canada and the Carolinas tend toward warm weather. However during the negative phase of the NAO the jet stream is free to undulate north and south, often allowing cold arctic air to more easily spread across the eastern United States. Cold winter weather can result across the Carolinas during the NAO's negative phase.

For now, the weather forecast looks more like a typical winter. While we expect to see some more cold snaps in February, we don’t expect them to be as frequent or as powerful.