SOUTH CAROLINA WEATHER AND CLIMATE

September 4-10, 2000

WEATHER SUMMARY

Periods of rain, some heavy, covered the state on Labor Day Monday. Moist, southerly winds on the eastern side of a nearly stationary low pressure system over in Georgia were responsible for the wet weather and reports of flash flooding into Tuesday. On Wednesday a boundary of cooler air from Canada positioned across the South Carolina-North Carolina border with a wind shift to the northeast. Cloudy skies, along with the cooler air, held temperatures Wednesday afternoon in the 60's. A slow and dry warming trend followed through the weekend with mostly sunny, blue skies. Statewide temperatures for the period averaged three degrees below normal.

PRECIPITATION AND TEMPERATURE DATA

The maximum observed temperature was 91 degrees at Orangeburg on September 10. The minimum observed temperature was 55 degrees at Lake Bowen on September 7. The heaviest 24-hour rainfall was reported by the Myrtle Beach Fire Department with 4.52" ending at 7:00 a.m on September 6. Statewide average rainfall for the period was 1.4".

                                        Precipitation
                                   Period     2000     Deviation*            Temperature
Location                           Total      Total    From Avg.          Maximum       Minimum	
Greer                              0.11        26.3     10.5B               86            60
Columbia                           1.61        28.9      9.3B               88            61            
Florence                           0.12        28.1      5.5B               87            NA 	        
Charleston                         3.72        37.8      2.4B               86            65
N Myrtle Beach                     1.66        39.3      2.6A               85            64 
Augusta, Ga.                       1.71        28.8      5.3B               88            62
                                          

Note: Weekly rainfall amounts are for the prior 24-hrs ending 7 am Monday through ending 7 am Sunday.

SOIL

4 inch depth average soil temperature: Columbia 78 degrees.

RIVERS AND SURF

South Carolina rivers stages are slowly rising. Surf temperatures at Myrtle Beach and Savannah will average around 79 degrees.