On Monday, March 6, a dry high pressure over the region provided fair weather and partly cloudy skies. A weak, dry front moved through Tuesday morning, bringing breezy conditions to area lakes late Tuesday into Wednesday morning. High temperatures were up to twenty degrees above average despite the frontal passage. A few locations set new daily record high temperatures, including 87 degrees recorded at the National Weather Service (NWS) stations at Charleston International Airport and Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station.
Behind the front, an extremely dry air mass on Wednesday afternoon contributed to elevated fire danger conditions. While high temperatures were cooler than earlier in the week, in the 60s, they were closer to seasonable values for the beginning of March. The beautiful weather lasted until late on Thursday when increasing cloudiness developed overnight, bringing a return to unsettled weather. A cold front on Friday triggered some scattered showers and a few thunderstorms in the Lowcountry.
After the frontal passage, there was a brief reprieve as drier air filtered back into the region. On Saturday, a cooler air mass arrived with temperatures about five degrees below normal, starting in the 40s and only rising into the upper 50s to low 60s. Seasonable conditions continued overnight before a low-pressure system brought moisture back to the region, and widespread rain developed by late morning. A cold air wedge also set up across the state, and temperatures in the Upstate struggled to get out of the upper 40s, while closer to the coast, temperatures reached the upper 60s. Rain tapered off by the early evening as drier air filtered back into the region for the beginning of the work week.
(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 | 1.00 | 12.74 | 3.0 |
| Greer Airport | 0.92 | 12.83 | 3.0 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.64 | 9.89 | 1.7 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.91 | 10.29 | 1.9 |
| Orangeburg 2 (COOP) | 0.70 | 10.31 | 0.9 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 1.50 | 13.43 | 4.3 |
| Florence Airport | 0.55 | 8.76 | 1.4 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.70 | 6.66 | -0.9 | Charleston Air Force Base | 0.75 | 8.67 | 1.0 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 1.56 | 8.97 | 1.5 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. s - denotes total with suspect data. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 47 degrees. Columbia: 60 degrees. Barnwell: 52 degrees. Mullins: 49 degrees.
Most of the state recorded at least half an inch of rainfall, though some areas received more and less. Parts of Oconee and Pickens counties, along with most of the lower Savannah River basin, measured more than an inch, with few isolated locations reporting close to an inch and a half. Elsewhere, rainfall was sparse in interior portions of the Pee Dee, especially near Darlington and Marlboro counties.
During the past few weeks, the 14-day averages for stream flow values across much of the state started to decline due to the lack of consistent rainfall across the region. Most stream flow gauges in the major river basins across the state reported values slightly below normal conditions, with more gauges dropping to much below normal flows. However, rain toward the end of the period improved a few streamflow values, though those in the Pee Dee region remained below average. Most river heights returned to levels below the action stage.
