The summer's only stretch of hot weather continued its three-day run on Monday into Tuesday. Saluda and Sullivan's Island reported 97 degrees on Monday and Darlington and Beaufort reached 97 degrees on Tuesday. Storms developed on Wednesday for much of the Lowcountry. The Early Branch community in Hampton County reported one-inch diameter hail and the 3.20 inches of rain measured at the College of Charleston caused widespread street flooding on the Charleston peninsula. A CoCoRaHS volunteer on Mt. Pleasant measured 6.21 inches. Much cooler air dropped into the state on Thursday behind a southward moving boundary along the eastern seaboard. At 11:00 a.m., the late morning temperature at Orangeburg and Myrtle Beach was a chilling 64 degrees. Bamberg's high of only 66 degrees was their "lowest maximum" ever observed for any August. The 75 degrees at Charleston set a date record "lowest maximum". Heavy rains at Summerville left 2.50 inches. Friday started cool and rainy. The 5:06 a.m., surf water temperature at Springmaid Pier fell to a more "first week of October" reading of 76.1 degrees. At 10:00 a.m., heavy rain was falling at Columbia and Orangeburg. A belt of drenching rains set up from Aiken County eastward into Chesterfield County for most of the day. Monetta measured a 24-hour total of 4.63 inches and the Columbia Metro AP received 4.38 inches. Longtown in eastern Fairfield County recorded 3.32 inches and Chesterfield was soaked with 2.99 inches. Chester, Bishopville and Sandhill reported a Friday afternoon maximum temperature of just 65 degrees. For Sandhill, the 65-degree high temperature was the "lowest maximum" ever observed for August in 56 years of recordkeeping. The Saturday high temperature, under a day of cloudy skies, only made it to 70 degrees at Clarks Hill and Shaw AFB and was twenty degrees cooler than the date's long term average. Breaks for sunshine were observed on Sunday, allowing for modest warming at Conway and Charleston and a high temperature of 90 degrees for each. Thundershowers began forming for the west central counties during the afternoon hours and continued expanding south and east into midnight. The state average temperature for the seven-day period was five degrees below the long-term average.
The highest official temperature reported was 98 degrees at Cades on August 12 and at Dillon on August 13. The lowest official temperature reported was 54 degrees at Caesars Head on August 17. The heaviest official 24-hour rainfall reported was 5.00 inches at Edisto Beach State Park ending at 7:00 a.m. on August 15. The state average rainfall for the seven-day period was 2.4 inches.
PRECIPITATION:
Precipitation
Weekly Jan 1 Departure
Anderson AP 1.09 49.29 21.3
Greer AP 0.64 50.91 20.2
Charlotte, NC AP 0.67 34.75 7.9
Columbia Metro AP 5.57 42.53 12.7
Orangeburg AP 3.04 41.16 9.9
Augusta, GA Bush AP 4.02 44.72 15.6
Florence AP 1.36 43.48 15.1
N Myrtle Beach AP 2.87 40.38 8.5
Charleston AP 3.00 45.12 12.7
Savannah, GA AP 5.39 45.53 13.9
Weekly rainfall totals ending midnight Sunday.
SOIL:
4-inch depth soil temperature: Columbia 76 degrees, Charleston 81 degrees.
RIVERS AND SURF:
South Carolina river stages were near to above normal. Ocean water temperatures at Springmaid Pier Myrtle Beach were reported at 78 degrees.
