Temperatures in the Charleston area should be cooling off with the arrival of autumn, but rain is still not in the forecast.

The rain that fell on Saturday was the first precipitation for the month of September, while the Charleston area should have logged 2.5 inches of rain by this time, local weather observer Dalias Price said Sunday.

Instead, the area received .26 inches on Saturday, Price said. Before that, the last rainfall was on Aug. 27, amounting to less than a tenth of an inch.

With last Wednesday marking the beginning of autumn, Price said temperatures will cool off. Sunday’s high was 80 degrees, while the high on Saturday was 93 degrees.

“We will have more fall-like weather from now on,” he said. “We just hope we get more rain, though. I’m afraid its not very promising.”

A high pressure air mass is in place right now, and there are no fronts. Low pressure is what causes rainfall, Price said. Saturday’s precipitation was the result of a weak front that went through in the evening.

While the Charleston area has seen only 5 inches of rain since June 1, the area should have had 15 to 17 inches in that time frame. Comparatively, the area saw 20 inchesof rain in April and May, Price said.

“That’s the way the weather goes,” he said.

The small amount of precipitation may have been helpful, but not enough, Price said, and the area’s lawns and crops are feeling it.

“That doesn’t do much good really,” he said. “We do need (the rain) badly.”

When winter arrives, it will not be too cold or snowy, Price said.

“The long-range forecast calls for us to have a mild winter,” he said.