High pressure carried over from the holiday weekend to start the period with drier air and clear skies. Because of the dry air, overnight temperatures were up to ten degrees below normal in some locations, with minimum temperatures dropping into the upper 50s to low 60s on Monday and Tuesday. Daytime high temperatures were slightly below normal on both days, reaching the upper 80s to low 90s. Late Tuesday evening southerly flow returned, bringing tropical moisture back into the area as Tropical Storm Elsa approached the Florida Gulf Coast.
On Wednesday, July 7, Tropical Storm Elsa made landfall with 65-mph winds near Steinhatchee in Taylor County, FL. The storm’s impacts started well before the center moved into the Palmetto State. Thunderstorms in Elsa’s outer rainbands spawned two tornadoes shortly before midnight on Wednesday in Beaufort County. A short-lived EF1, with estimated maximum winds of 95 mph, touched down on Parris Island, causing damage to trees on the MCAS property. The same parent storm spawned another EF1 tornado in Port Royal, snapping hardwood trees and knocking down trees and powerlines on a few homes and buildings. After midnight, three additional tornadoes touched down in the state. An EF1 on Edisto Island snapped and uprooted many hard and softwood trees. In Awendaw, an EF1 tornado caused damage in the Wando Farms Community, snapping trees and causing minor structural damage to a residence. A high-end EF0 tornado, with estimated peak winds of 85 mph, touched down south of New Zion, SC, in Clarendon County. The tornado snapped trees, overturned an empty trailer and moved it 20 yards, knocked over a grain auger, and twisted the top of a metal silo.
Rainfall totals ending Thursday morning in Beaufort and Colleton counties ranged between six and eight inches and up to five inches in portions of the Charleston area. Tropical Storm Elsa continued to move through South Carolina on Thursday, impacting the Grand Strand and Pee Dee before the storm tracked into North Carolina. The rainfall totals reported in Georgetown and Horry counties on Friday morning were between two and four inches. The maximum wind gust measured on land was 54 mph at the National Weather Service (NWS) station at the Myrtle Beach International Airport. Other recorded wind gusts from across the state ranged from 51 mph at Beaufort MCAS, 47 mph at the Charleston International Airport, and 42 mph at the Georgetown Airport.
Behind Elsa, typical summertime weather returned in time for the weekend. Showers and thunderstorms developed during the late afternoon and early evening, and more seasonable temperatures arrived, with overnight lows in the 70s and afternoon highs in the low to mid-90s.
(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 | 0.92 | 21.88 | -3.4 |
| Greer Airport | 0.39 | 28.72 | 2.7 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.67 | 21.64 | -1.4 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 1.40 | 24.65 | 1.1 |
| Orangeburg Airport | 2.55 | 21.41M | -1.8 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.78 | 29.40 | 5.5 |
| Florence Airport | 2.35 | 25.20 | 2.6 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 2.18 | 27.98 | 6.6 |
| Charleston Air Force Base | 4.21 | 28.26 | 3.4 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 3.58 | 25.59M | 0.3M |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: Not Available. Columbia: 79 degrees. Barnwell: 74 degrees. Mullins: 72 degrees.
For the second week in a row, portions of the state were impacted by heavy rains associated with a tropical cyclone. Tropical Storm Elsa dumped copious amounts of rainfall in the Lowcountry, with some CoCoRaHS observers reporting over six inches of rain. Between Tropical Storm Danny, the week before, and TS Elsa these stations have measured between eight and fifteen inches of rainfall. Parts of the Pee Dee recorded up to four inches of rain, which continued to combat the lingering dry conditions in the area. Elsewhere in the state, rainfall totals ranged from half an inch to three inches.
Stream gauges in areas with higher rainfall totals measured slightly above normal flows, including the Black River near Hartsville. With little rain falling in parts of the Midlands and the Upstate, some streamflow values dropped somewhat during the period but were still within normal ranges for this time of year. All rivers across the state continued to record river heights below flood stage.
