Pool season · South Carolina
Charleston Pool Season: the Year on One Bar
Last updated: July 15, 2026 · dates · water temp
Charleston's whole pool calendar, condensed: when the water warms, when it cools, and where today falls between those edges. Use the opening guide and closing guide for the step-by-step work; keep this page for the dates.
Reading it takes ten seconds: 52 dots, one per week. Solid teal is Charleston's swim season; the hollow teal run before it (March 6 to March 27) is when to open; the hollow amber run after is when to close, with November 21 as the deadline; gray is the covered season. Today's marker shows where you stand in that cycle right now.
The Charleston pool calendar
Opening — target March 13
Target March 13; the practical window runs March 6–March 27, and the 7-day mean crosses the 61°F threshold around March 27. Cold-water starts are the cheap ones.
Closing — deadline November 21
The window opens November 11 once water leaves the algae zone; the model deadline is November 21, a week ahead of the December 30 freeze normal.
Estimated water temperature by month
Monthly averages of the site's water model run on Charleston's own normals — the shape of a typical year, not a forecast. The widget above shows where the current year actually sits.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52° | 52° | 56° | 63° | 70° | 77° | 81° | 82° | 80° | 74° | 64° | 57° |
Warmest water typically July–September (peaking near 82°F); heaters and covers shift any month up.
Email me when Charleston hits the closing window
Data: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals via Charleston City (3.3 mi); live outlook by Open-Meteo. Attribution: sources · assumptions: methodology.