The period started with morning temperatures up to ten degrees cooler than normal on Monday, April 8, with lows in the lower to mid-40s. High pressure over the region provided pleasant weather and mostly clear skies, allowing excellent conditions to observe the partial solar eclipse across most of the state. Temperatures started to warm on Tuesday, a trend that continued throughout the period. Morning temperatures climbed from the mid-50s to the low 70s, and while the weather was mainly dry, clouds increased during the day, and a few light showers developed in the Upstate and portions of the northern Midlands.
A strong cold front approached the area late Wednesday and into Thursday, increasing moisture and showers, and thunderstorm activity throughout the day on Wednesday. Widespread rain moved across the state, with some thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the Lowcountry. As the cold front pushed through the region, non-thunderstorm wind damage was reported across the state early Thursday morning due to the strong pressure gradient and low-level jet. Wind gusts up to 55 mph were measured in the Midlands and Lowcountry, and powerlines and trees were downed in portions of Aiken, Barnwell, Beaufort, Charleston, Cherokee, Chesterfield, Colleton, Fairfield, Lancaster, Lexington, Newberry, Orangeburg, Richland, Saluda, Spartanburg and Sumter counties. The roof of a home near Dreher Island State Park was blown off, and the roof of the Summer Wind Oceanfront Hotel in Myrtle Beach was damaged. In Richland County, occupants of a car were hurt when a tree fell on their vehicle.
Conditions were breezy ahead of a reinforcing cold front that moved through the state on Friday, prompting wind advisories for the Midlands. High pressure built across the region over the weekend, providing dry conditions and another warming trend, with temperatures reaching the mid-80s across the Midlands by Sunday afternoon.
At the beginning of the week, the tidal levels at the Charleston Harbor gauge ranged between 7.09 and 7.18 feet MLLW Monday through Wednesday evening, causing shallow saltwater flooding in low-lying coastal areas
(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 | 0.47 | 19.36 | 5.4 |
| Greer Airport | 0.78 | 21.49 | 7.1 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.57 | 14.29 | 2.0 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.50 | 14.71 | 2.9 |
| Orangeburg 2 (COOP) | 1.12 | 13.62 | 0.4 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.62 | 11.52 | -1.6 |
| Florence Airport | 0.51 | 10.98 | 0.3 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.89 | 8.52 | -2.6 | Charleston Air Force Base | 1.91 | 16.80 | 5.5 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 3.42 | 13.81 | 2.6 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. s - denotes total with suspect data. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 57 degrees. Columbia: 65 degrees. Barnwell: 56 degrees. Mullins: 61 degrees.
Most of the state recorded measurable rain during the period, with the Upstate, central and southern Midlands, and Pee Dee regions reporting more than half an inch of rain. Most of the Lowcountry recorded over an inch of rain, with a few locations in Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, and Jasper counties reporting over three inches of rain. A few CoCoRaHS observers in the Lowcountry measured more than four inches of rain during the period. Locations near the Fall Line, from Abbeville to the Charlotte Metropolitan Area, recorded the least amount of rain during the period, with totals less than half an inch of rain.
Most of the 14-day average streamflow values across the state recorded normal flows; however, some gauges across the northern Midlands and along the Fall Line reported below-normal streamflow values due to the lack of rainfall from the previous periods. River height gauges along portions of the Lower Savannah remained at the minor flood stage. While the river height gauges across the state reported levels below flood stage, tidal gauges reached minor flood heights early in the period due to astronomically high tides.
