Unlike some of the recent periods, an active weather pattern started the week as two rounds of severe weather impacted the state on Monday, May 3, and Tuesday, May 4. On Monday, a line of storms moved through the state during the afternoon and late evening hours, producing strong winds, heavy rain, and hail, including golf-ball-sized hail in Florence, Lexington, and Saluda counties. The National Weather Service (NWS) Office confirmed two tornadoes on Monday. One was a short-lived EF1 tornado that destroyed a farm and outbuildings near Smyrna in York County. The second was an EF2, with winds up to 125 mph, which caused significant tree damage and damage to a few homes along its 30-mile path from Lowndesville in Abbeville County to near Greenwood. The NWS station at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport recorded a wind gust of 65 mph on Tuesday as severe weather spread across the state. An EF1 tornado touched down in Fairfield County, near the towns of Rion and Winnsboro, snapped and uprooted numerous trees, caused damage to aircraft and a hanger at the Fairfield County Airport, and damaged a couple of homes. After the tornado dissipated, straight-line winds caused additional damage along Highway 34 and downed trees on Interstate 77. A nearby storm spotter in Ridgeway reported a 72-mph wind gust at their location. Pea- to quarter-sized hail was reported in Berkeley County and additional thunderstorm wind damage occurred across the same areas that experienced severe weather on Monday.
As a cold front moved across the state on Wednesday, May 5, it triggered some rain and thunderstorms but no severe weather. Behind the front, high pressure built into the region on Thursday bringing cooler, dry weather through the remainder of the period. High temperatures were slightly below normal, with temperatures ranging from the lower 60s to the mid-to-upper 70s. Minimum temperatures were up to fifteen degrees below normal, dropping into the 40s, with some locations reporting upper 30s, including NWS sites in Cedar Creek, Lugoff, Spartanburg, and Wagener on Saturday morning. Temperatures were warmer on Sunday, and moisture increased across the region as the high pressure moved offshore, setting up an unsettled pattern headed into the next period.
(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.) The highest temperature reported was 92 degrees on May 4 at the NWS station at Beaufort MCAS and the station in Jamestown in Berkeley County. The lowest temperature reported was 33 degrees at the NWS station near Jocassee in Oconee County on May 8. The maximum 24-hour precipitation reported was 3.60 inches at the NWS station near Travelers Rest in Greenville County, ending the morning of May 5. The CoCoRaHS station Aiken 4.3 SSW (SC-AK-47) reported a 24-hour precipitation total of 2.57 inches, ending on the morning of May 5.| Weekly* | Since Jan 1 | Departure | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson Airport | 1.32 | 14.12 | -2.8 |
| Greer Airport | 2.75 | 19.22 | 1.6 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 1.00 | 16.14 | 0.8 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 1.75 | 17.96 | 3.5 |
| Orangeburg Airport | 1.11 | 11.49M | -2.8M |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 1.69 | 19.42 | 4.2 |
| Florence Airport | 0.65 | 15.58 | 2.4 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 1.18 | 16.33 | 3.0 |
| Charleston Air Force Base | 0.63 | 14.02 | 0.2 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | Trace | 14.14 | 0.3 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 64 degrees. Columbia: 68 degrees. Barnwell: 60 degrees. Mullins: 64 degrees.
Most of the rain that fell occurred during the first part of the period. Totals over the seven days amounted to less than a tenth of an inch in parts of coastal Beaufort and Jasper counties to over three inches in Colleton and Greenville counties. Despite the rain, the United States Drought Monitor continued to reflect the abnormally dry conditions (D0) across the region during April. Many locations in the state recorded more rain from Monday through Wednesday than they had reported during the entire month of April. After Wednesday, only scattered rainfall amounts were observed across the state.
Most of the streamflow values across the state remained near normal values. Due to the continued lack of rainfall across the region over the recent periods in the Pee Dee, streamflow gauges on the Little Pee Dee and the Waccamaw reported below normal streamflow values and river height levels around the state were below flood stage.
