On Monday, May 27, morning temperatures only dropped into the mid-70s in some locations across the Midlands, which were more than ten degrees above normal. The National Weather Service station on the University of South Carolina campus in Richland County set a new daily record high minimum temperatures of 77 degrees. A cold front moved through the area on Monday, triggering scattered strong-severe thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. A few storms across the Coastal Plain produced wind gusts up to 40 mph.
Dry high-pressure built into the region behind the front, keeping conditions dry through the remainder of the week. High and low temperatures were more seasonable, within a few degrees of normal. Minimum temperatures ranged from the upper 50s to low 60s, with daily daytime highs in the low to mid-80s. There was plenty of sunshine with high pressure overhead on Thursday, with high temperatures within a few degrees of average for late May, generally in the mid-80s.
There was an increased chance of isolated afternoon storms on Friday, but overall, drier-than-normal conditions persisted through this weekend. The dry air mass helped provide good radiational cooling conditions overnight on Friday, and some locations reported lows in the upper 40s on Saturday morning, including 49 degrees recorded by the NWS station at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. After a period of below-normal temperatures through Saturday night, temperatures returned to more seasonable values on Sunday as the high pressure moved offshore.
(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 | 0.48 | 25.10 | 5.2 |
| Greer Airport | 0.16 | 27.26 | 6.4 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.08 | 22.33 | 4.4 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | Trace | 20.34 | 3.2 |
| Orangeburg 2 (COOP) | 0.01 | 15.11 | -4.3 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.08 | 15.27 | -2.6 |
| Florence Airport | 0.00 | 16.90 | 0.62 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | Trace | 15.26 | -0.5 | Charleston Air Force Base | Trace | 18.95 | 2.4 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | Trace | 19.52 | 2.5 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. s - denotes total with suspect data. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 72 degrees. Columbia: 75 degrees. Barnwell: 70 degrees. Mullins: 69 degrees.
Most of the rainfall reported during the period came from showers and thunderstorms that lingered from Sunday evening through Monday morning. Locations south of the Fall Line received less than a quarter of an inch of rain, while portions of the Upstate received higher totals that ranged from half an inch to over an inch. Due to the drier weather, abnormally dry conditions (D0) were introduced in portions of the state in the latest release of the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Despite rainfall from scattered showers and thunderstorms over the past two periods, the 14-day average streamflow values across much of the state dropped to typical flow values. However, some northern Midlands and Coastal Plain gauges recorded flows that were much above average. A few gauges in the Santee River Basin reported flows slightly below normal. River height gauges across the state remained below the action stage, and gauges within the Coastal Plain fell below the action stage due to the relatively dry week.
