SOUTH CAROLINA WEATHER AND CLIMATE

December 29 - January 4, 2004

WEATHER SUMMARY

Mild weather was observed on Monday with high temperatures in the 60's. A slow moving boundary approached late in the day and scattered light showers developed into Tuesday morning. On Wednesday, early morning lows were below freezing with frost. A wind shift to a more southwesterly direction helped raise afternoon high temperatures back into the mid-60's under mostly sunny skies New Year's Day, Thursday. More warming continued through the weekend with 70 degree readings on both Saturday and Sunday. Increasing cloudiness and widely scattered, light showers ended the period. The statewide average temperature for the period was eight degrees above normal.

Numerous sites, from the midlands to the coast, recorded a high temperature on January 4 of 78 degrees. The lowest temperature was 20 degrees at Chester on morning of December 31. The heaviest 24-hour rainfall reported was 0.50" at Salem ending at 7:00 a.m. on December 30. The average statewide rainfall for the period was 0.0”.

PRECIPITATION AND TEMPERATURE DATA

                             Precipitation                 
                       Weekly   Jan 1  Deviation     
                        Total   Total   From Avg
         Greer           0.08    0.00       -0.5          
      Columbia           0.01    0.00       -0.6
   Augusta, GA           0.02    0.00       -0.5           
      Florence           0.00    0.00       -0.5  
  Myrtle Beach           0.00    0.00       -0.4            
    Charleston           0.01    0.00       -0.5  
             
   
                

Note: Weekly rainfall amounts are for the 24-hour period ending midnight Sunday.

SOIL

4 inch depth average soil temperature: Columbia 47 degrees.

RIVERS AND SURF

South Carolina river stages were near to below normal. Surf temperatures at Myrtle Beach
and Savannah will average around 50 degrees.