The main story for the period was the above-normal temperatures and humid airmass that would dominate the weather for the entire workweek.
On Monday, August 31, an upper-level disturbance moved across the state and triggered scattered thunderstorms in portions of the northern Midlands and Pee Dee regions. Some CoCoRaHS observers in York and Dillon reported over two inches of rain, while other locations picked up less than an inch. The minimum temperatures through Friday morning were up to fifteen degrees above normal, with many stations reporting morning lows in the mid to upper 70s. The National Weather Service (NWS) at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport tied the daily low of 76 degrees on Monday. On Tuesday morning, the NWS station at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport recorded a low of 73 degrees, which broke the high minimum temperature record for the day of 72 degrees, set back in 2012.
By Wednesday, September 2, the hot and humid airmass prompted the National Weather Service Offices in Charleston to issue heat advisories for portions of the Lowcountry as heat index values of 115 degrees were reported in Beaufort County, and 116 degrees were recorded in Berkeley and Charleston counties. The heat index values in the Upstate were near 100 degrees in the Upstate and were over 105 degrees in parts of the Midlands. The NWS station located at the Beaufort MCAS reported a maximum temperature of 96 degrees on Wednesday, breaking the previous daily record of 95 degrees set back in 2014. These above-normal temperatures continued Thursday and Friday. The minimum temperature at Charleston International Airport dropped only to 81 degrees on Thursday morning, breaking the previous high minimum temperature record for the day of 78 degrees established in 1993.
In total, during the period, twenty high minimum temperature records were tied, and twenty-eight were broken. A cold front pushed through the state on Friday evening and stalled near the coast through the weekend, with slightly lower temperatures and drier air for most of the state for the weekend. Low temperatures on Saturday ranged from the lower 60s in the Piedmont and Upstate to the mid-70s in the Midlands to the coast, and high temperatures moderated from the mid- to upper-90s into the mid-80s. By Sunday, lows dropped into the upper-50s to low-60s, though areas at the coast still measured minimum temperatures in the 70s.
(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 | 0.41 | 45.92 | 15.6 |
| Greer Airport | 0.34 | 53.83 | 20.6 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 1.67 | 38.86 | 9.6 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.00 | 43.92 | 11.2 |
| Orangeburg Airport | 0.00 | 31.22 | -3.0 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.00 | 44.51 | 13.0 |
| Florence Airport | 0.19 | 46.55 | 15.3 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.01 | 37.14 | 0.3 |
| Charleston Air Force Base | Trace | 39.82 | 2.8 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 0.65 | 37.70 | 2.9 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 80 degrees. Columbia: 79 degrees. Barnwell: 75 degrees. Mullins: 64 degrees.
Only a few portions of the state received measurable rainfall during the period, including much of the northern Midlands and coastal Beaufort and Jasper counties. Locations in Beaufort and Kershaw counties reported over two inches of rain, and areas that were already showing some signs of dryness deteriorated quickly due to the lack of rain and warmer than normal temperatures. The year-to-date rainfall totals across the state continued to be near- to above-normal values across much of the state.
Despite the drier than normal conditions, the USGS streamflow data across the state showed most of the gauges are reporting normal to much-above-normal values at 14- and 28-days. However, the flow levels continued to drop and were lower than the data from the previous week due to lack of widespread rainfall over the region.
