Sunny, cool, and dry conditions would persist through the first part of the week as high pressure built in from the west on Monday, March 20. Morning low temperatures were up to fifteen degrees below average, with the mid-20s in the Upstate and mid-30s at the coast. The National Weather Service (NWS) station at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport tied the daily low record temperature of 26 degrees in 1965. Maximum temperatures were in the 50s, nearly ten degrees below normal. The NWS offices issued another round of freeze watches for Tuesday morning. Low temperatures dropped into the 20s across much of the state, with temperatures up to twenty degrees below normal. With the high pressure still in control of the weather, daytime temperatures were slightly warmer than Monday, thanks to the clear skies and abundant sunshine, but still slightly below normal.
The Charleston Harbor Tidal Gauge recorded astronomical tides ranging between 7.09 feet and 7.24 feet MLLW on Monday and Tuesday. The higher tides caused shallow flooding in low-lying coastal areas and closed roads in the Charleston area due to saltwater flooding.
On Wednesday, the high pressure shifted offshore and increased moisture, with a few light showers developing over the state. Cloud cover over most of the state kept high and low temperatures below normal. On Thursday, southerly winds help drive warmer and humid air back into the region. The warmer-than-normal overnight temperatures and increased moisture across the region produced widespread dense fog, with visibilities of less than half a mile reported at the NWS stations at the Anderson County Airport and Charleston International Airport. After the fog burned off, temperatures soared into the 80s, with breezy conditions.
Southwest winds gusted up to 25 mph ahead of an intense weather system on Friday that produced devastating tornadoes across portions of Mississippi late Friday night. Temperatures climbed into the mid-to-upper 80s. The maximum temperature at the NWS station at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport tied for the daily record high of 86 degrees in 1949. Unsettled weather moved into the area on Saturday as a front brought showers and a few storms to parts of the state. The threat of severe weather increased on Sunday, and thunderstorms during the mid-morning caused wind damage in Clarendon County. Late on Sunday, a severe thunderstorm produced heavy rain and penny to golf-ball-sized hail as it pushed through Aiken, Calhoun, Lexington, and Sumter counties.
(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 | 1.96 | 15.14 | 3.5 |
| Greer Airport | 1.00 | 14.34 | 2.6 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.33 | 10.60 | 0.7 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 1.88 | 12.84 | 2.9 |
| Orangeburg 2 (COOP) | 0.68 | 11.40 | 0.3 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.96 | 15.03 | 4.0 |
| Florence Airport | 0.92 | 9.76 | 1.0 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.04 | 6.95 | -2.2 | Charleston Air Force Base | 0.15 | 9.22 | 0.0 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | Trace | 9.95 | 1.0 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. s - denotes total with suspect data. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 61 degrees. Columbia: 64 degrees. Barnwell: 59 degrees. Mullins: 65 degrees.
Most of the state recorded less than a quarter of an inch of rainfall before the storm system that moved through late Saturday through Sunday night. Heavy rain fell across parts of the Central Savannah River Area and Midlands, with totals ranging between one and four inches of rain. Isolated parts of the Richland and Sumter counties recorded up to six inches by the morning of Monday, March 27. Rainfall was sparse in the Lowcountry and Pee Dee. The continued lack of consistent rain in the Pee Dee prompted the expansion of abnormally dry (D0) conditions in the Pee Dee on the most recent United States Drought Monitor map.
The 14-day averages for stream flow values across much of the state continued to decline due to the lack of widespread substantial rainfall across the region. Most stream flow gauges in the major river basins across the state reported values slightly below normal conditions. Additional gauges in the Pee Dee water basin dropped to much below normal flows. However, rain at the end of the period caused rapid increases in flows in small creeks and tributaries. Most river heights reported levels below the action stage, except a few gauges that received heavy rain late on Sunday.
