WEEKLY SOUTH CAROLINA WEATHER 2012

May 21 - May 27, 2012

WEATHER SUMMARY:

The third week of May began with mostly sunny and warm weather. Saluda and Kingstree reached 88 degrees on Monday afternoon. While most of the state was rain free, a late evening thunderstorm over Florence left 0.70 inches of rain. On Tuesday morning, Lake City and Georgetown cooled to 62 degrees. A few coastal thunderstorms developed during the middle of the day. One-inch hail fell for almost thirty minutes near the Sampit community. At 6:41 p.m., National Weather Service instruments at Pineville measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 59 mph. Scattered storms over the Upstate produced rainfall amounts of 0.81 inches at Ninety Nine Islands and 0.78 inches at Sandy Springs. Thunder showers formed along the coastal plain on Wednesday and drifted westward. Darlington received a localized soaking of 2.00 inches. Pinopolis and Bamberg reported Wednesday afternoon high temperatures of 91 degrees. Summerville and Orangeburg reported 91 degrees on Thursday, and Clemson and Clinton noted Friday afternoon high temperatures of 92 degrees. At 11:00 p.m. on Friday night, Subtropical Storm Beryl formed 305 miles east of Charleston. Although the feature traveled southwest and well offshore towards the northern Florida coast, a few light showers brushed the central coastal counties. McClellanville measured just 0.06 inches. Sunny weather on Saturday pushed the mercury to 93 degrees at Calhoun Falls and Clemson. A strengthening and upgraded Tropical Storm Beryl caused pressure gradient winds on Sunday to reach 44 mph on the Charleston Ravenel Bridge and 36 mph at the C-MAN station on Folly Beach. During the day, the outermost rain bands of Tropical Storm Beryl began rotating northward into the Lowcountry. The Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station measured 0.48 inches in a passing shower. The state average temperature for the seven-day period was four degrees above normal.

The highest official temperature reported was 95 degrees at McCormick on May 26. The lowest official temperature reported was 52 degrees at Pickens on May 21. The heaviest official 24-hour rainfall reported was 2.20 inches at Jamestown ending at 7:00 a.m. on May 23. The state average rainfall for the period was 0.4 inches.

PRECIPITATION:

                                  Precipitation
                            Weekly   Jan 1   Departure     
                            Total    Total    from Avg
         Greer AP            0.74    14.78     -4.2
      Anderson AP            0.36    12.75     -5.2
      Columbia Metro AP      0.04    12.34     -3.7
    Orangeburg AP            0.00    12.15     -4.8
 Charlotte, NC AP            0.41    15.03     -1.5
   Augusta, GA Bush AP       0.35     9.14     -7.9
      Florence AP            0.98    16.68      1.8
N Myrtle Beach AP            0.06    10.90     -5.9
    Charleston AP            0.07    11.24     -4.6
  Savannah, GA AP            0.34    14.28     -1.5
                                                                                                                           
Weekly rainfall totals ending midnight Sunday.  

SOIL:

4-inch depth soil temperature: Columbia 78 degrees, Charleston 82 degrees.

RIVERS AND SURF:

South Carolina river stages were near to below normal. Ocean water temperatures at nearby Johnny Mercer Pier in Wrightsville Beach, NC were reported at 79 degrees.