After a rather active start to the year, this was the second week in a row with a somewhat quiet weather pattern, and no severe or significant weather reported. A weak wedge, also known as a cold air damming event, was in place over the region, keeping daytime temperatures cool. Temperatures only reached the mid-50s in parts of the Upstate and Midlands, while temperatures closer to the coast rose into the low-60s. Rain chances remained high through most of the work week, with much of the total rainfall for the period being measured on Tuesday, tapering off by Wednesday morning. All the rain was the result of an upper level disturbance and a frontal boundary. Despite the rain, temperatures climbed from the upper 40s and lower 50s to reach the upper 60s to low 70s across the state. The National Weather Service (NWS) station at the Anderson County Airport measured 0.88 inches of rain on Tuesday, and the NWS station in Myrtle Beach recorded 0.85 inches. CoCoRaHS observers reported 24-hour rainfall totals up to an inch and a half of rain on Wednesday morning.
The warm front moved north of the area by Thursday, creating an environment for scattered showers to develop. With southwesterly flow over the area, both minimum and maximum temperatures were unseasonably warm for the middle of March. The NWS station at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport reported a low temperature of 63 degrees, which broke the daily record high minimum temperature for the day of 60 degrees set back in 1963. Maximum temperatures reached the upper 70s in the Upstate, and a record high temperature of 87 degrees was recorded at the Florence Regional Airport, breaking the previous record of 85 degrees set in 2012. The warmer than normal temperatures continued into the first part of the weekend.
On Saturday, March 21, minimum temperatures were over twenty degrees above normal (in the mid-60s) and maximum temperatures reached the mid-80s across the state, over fifteen degrees above normal. Late Saturday, a cold front moved through the area, setting up a cool and dreary end to the weekend across South Carolina, with high temperatures in the low to mid-60s, with scattered showers by Sunday.
(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 | 1.03 | 18.50 | 7.7 |
| Greer Airport | 0.38 | 18.53 | 7.5 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.64 | 12.23 | 2.6 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.18 | 13.76 | 3.9 |
| Orangeburg Airport | 0.38 | 11.48 | 1.1 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.38 | 14.49 | 4.0 |
| Florence Airport | 0.95 | 11.94 | 3.4 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.89 | 10.85 | 1.0 |
| Charleston Air Force Base | 0.16 | 9.36 | 0.1 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 0.00 | 11.79 | 2.7 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 57 degrees. Columbia: 62 degrees. Barnwell: Not Available. Mullins: 50 degrees.
Limited rain fell across the state during the period, with many locations recording less than half an inch of rain. The exception was a swath of over an inch of rain that fell from Anderson County to Horry County, with nearly an inch and a half reported in localized areas of Kershaw County. With little to no rainfall measured over the headwaters of the state’s watersheds in North Carolina, river and stream gauges reported lower values of streamflow across portions of the Pee Dee and Santee Basins. However, streamflow levels were still higher than normal due to the multiple weeks of rain that fell during the previous months. Most of the river gauges across the state continued to drop back out of flood stage, with gauges along portions of the Santee and Savannah river near the coast at major and minor flood stage. The few gauges that reported flood stage or higher streamflow values were expected to continue to fall.
