Pool season · South Carolina
Columbia Pool Season: the Year on One Bar
Last updated: July 15, 2026 · dates · water temp
Columbia'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 Columbia's swim season; the hollow teal run before it (March 18 to April 8) is when to open; the hollow amber run after is when to close, with November 4 as the deadline; gray is the covered season. Today's marker shows where you stand in that cycle right now.
The Columbia pool calendar
Opening — target March 25
Open by March 25 — a two-week head start on the April 8 crossing keeps startup chemistry small and beats the local service rush.
Closing — deadline November 4
Hold the cover until October 25, then winterize by November 4, a week ahead of the November 15 freeze normal. Late and cold beats early and warm.
Estimated water temperature by month
This is Columbia's typical-year water curve: the same EWMA model as the live widget, run on the 1991–2020 normals instead of this week's weather.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46° | 46° | 52° | 59° | 68° | 75° | 81° | 81° | 78° | 70° | 59° | 50° |
Warmest water typically July–September (peaking near 82°F); heaters and covers shift any month up.
Email me when Columbia hits the closing window
Data: NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals via Sandhill Rsch - Elgin (6.8 mi); live outlook by Open-Meteo. Attribution: sources · assumptions: methodology.