With weak high pressure over the Southeast, hot and humid conditions persisted on Monday, August 14, with minimum and maximum temperatures up to ten degrees above normal. New daily high minimum temperatures were set at the National Weather Service (NWS) stations in Florence and North Myrtle Beach, with the stations reporting 80 and 82 degrees, respectively. Maximum temperatures were in the mid- to upper-90s, and heat index values reached 105 in the Upstate and over 110 degrees across the remainder of the state. Ahead of a cold front, several stations broke or tied their maximum temperature on Tuesday, including the NWS station at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, which set a new daily record high temperature of 101 degrees. Heat indices reached 110 degrees at many locations before a cold front moved through the area Tuesday afternoon. It triggered severe thunderstorms across the Midlands and Pee Dee regions. A microburst caused damage to aircraft at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, and the station recorded an 88-mph wind gust during the event; the highest wind gust ever recorded at the station. Numerous reports of trees were down in portions of the Midlands, especially in Lexington and Richland counties.
A break from the high temperatures and heat indices happened around midweek, as the front stalled near the Coastal Plain. Heavy rain in the Lowcountry Wednesday night was due to the sea breeze colliding with the stalled frontal boundary over the area. A CoCoRaHS observer in Colleton County reported a 24-hour total of 8.37 inches ending Thursday morning. However, most of that total fell within six hours on Wednesday. Ireland Creek, which runs through Walterboro, rose to 10.51 ft on Thursday, and several roads in the county were either closed or washed out, and water approached several businesses and residential areas. By Thursday afternoon, drier conditions filtered into most of the region, and temperatures were slightly cooler than average in the Upstate and near normal elsewhere.
The stalled front finally weakened as another cold front entered the state, bringing dry conditions to the Southeast for the weekend. Saturday morning temperatures in areas behind the front were cool, especially in the Upstate. The temperature dropped to 62 degrees on Saturday morning at the NWS station at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, and some stations in the mountains recorded lows in the mid-to-upper 50s. However, by Sunday temperatures were back to warmer-than-normal.
After a quiet period during the 2023 Hurricane Season, the National Hurricane Center began monitoring multiple disturbances across the Tropical Atlantic, including three systems named Emily, Franklin, and Gert.
(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 | 0.00 | 36.87 | 6.8 |
| Greer Airport | Trace | 42.04 | 9.6 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.18 | 31.58 | 3.2 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.20 | 37.42 | 7.3 |
| Orangeburg 2 (COOP) | 0.07 | 40.74 | 6.9 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.02 | 41.51 | 11.7 |
| Florence Airport | 0.47 | 31.62 | 2.0 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.57 | 25.32 | -3.5 | Charleston Air Force Base | 1.14 | 32.55 | -1.1 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 0.57 | 31.37 | -1.1 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. s - denotes total with suspect data. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 78 degrees. Columbia: 82 degrees. Barnwell: 76 degrees. Mullins: 72 degrees.
Much of the state north and west of the Interstate 95 corridor recorded less than half an inch of rain during the period, with a few isolated areas of the Midlands reporting up to an inch of rain. Areas along and east of the I-95 corridor measured between half an inch to two inches of rain; however, stationary storms on Wednesday dropped four to nine inches of rainfall in portions of Colleton, Dorchester, and Hampton counties. On the August 15 release of the US Drought Monitor (USDM), abnormally dry conditions (D0) expanded across Lexington, Newberry, Richland, and Saluda counties. The USDM introduced D0 conditions in Fairfield and Sumter counties in the Midlands and Darlington, Florence, Kershaw, Lee, and Marlboro counties in the Pee Dee region.
Most streamflow gauges reported average value, though the lack of rainfall contributed to some gauges reporting flows on the lower end of the normal range. Gauges in the Pee Dee River Basin continued to record values below average, including those along Black Creek, the Lynches River, and the Wateree River. The gauges in areas that received the isolated heavy rainfall in the Lowcountry recorded above-average values. The river height values remained below action and minor flood stage, and tidal gauges reported normal tides.
