The period started on Monday, January 4, with high pressure over the region, providing seasonable conditions through mid-week. Minimum and maximum temperatures were slightly above normal, with morning temperatures in the 30s and 40s and afternoon highs reaching the upper 50s to lower 60s across the state. On Tuesday, a weak system brought a few rain showers into the state, but rainfall amounts were limited, with most locations reporting less than a quarter of an inch. On Wednesday, high pressure and a drier air mass kept skies clear and temperatures near normal.
Unsettled weather returned late Thursday and Friday, as a robust storm system moving across the Tennessee Valley brought a mix of rain and snow to the Carolinas. The National Weather Service (NWS) Office in Greer issued Winter Weather Advisories for parts of the Upstate due to forecasted snowfall accumulations, mainly in the mountains and foothills. By Friday morning, snowfall totals in the Upstate ranged from a trace to two inches reported by the station in Caesar’s Head in Greenville County. A CoCoRaHS observer reported half an inch near Inman in Spartanburg County. Late Friday, as cold air funneled in behind the storm system, some locations in the northern Midlands saw snow mixing in with rain, and there were reports of snow dusting elevated surfaces.
Behind the storm system, Canadian higher pressure settled into the region and provided drier and cooler than normal temperatures for the remainder of the weekend.
(Note: The highest and lowest official temperatures and highest precipitation totals provided below are based on observations from the National Weather Service (NWS) Cooperative Observer network and the National Weather Service's Forecast Offices.)| Weekly* | Since Jan 1 | Departure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson Airport | 0.68 | 2.30 | 1.0 |
| Greer Airport | 0.72 | 2.00 | 0.8 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.75 | 1.48 | 0.4 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.62 | 3.55 | 2.4 |
| Orangeburg Airport | 0.49 | 2.34 | 1.1 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.58 | 2.55 | 1.3 |
| Florence Airport | 1.16 | 3.18 | 2.1 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.81 | 1.72 | 0.6 |
| Charleston Air Force Base | 0.85 | 1.09 | -0.1 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 0.08 | 0.51 | -0.6 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 41 degrees. Columbia: 49 degrees. Barnwell: 42 degrees. Mullins: 37 degrees.
During the period, widespread totals of at least half an inch of rain fell across the Palmetto State, with portions of the northern Midlands recording up to an inch and a half of rain. Unfortunately, much of the Lowcountry received less than half an inch of rain. While there were some improvement to the abnormally dry conditions in the region, they continued to persist in Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, and Jasper counties.
With the additional rainfall across the Pee Dee and Santee river basins, streamflow gauges in the regions continued to report much above normal values. Elsewhere across the state, most of the gauges measured normal flow, though many in the Upstate recorded streamflow values above normal. The rain contributed to the rise of river heights south of the Fall Line, and some rivers reached the minor and moderate flood stage. The Waccamaw River gauge near Conway reached minor flood stage (11 ft) and was forecasted to crest at moderate flood stage (12 ft.), while other river heights within the Pee Dee Basin continued to drop as water moved through the system slowly.
