After a period of active weather, things turned cooler and dry on Monday, October 3, and remained that way through most of the workweek. The skies continued to clear in the wake of Hurricane Ian. However, temperatures under the thick clouds and a northerly wind struggled to reach the mid-60s, an example being the National Weather Service (NWS) station at North Myrtle Beach, which recorded a high of 61 degrees. By Tuesday, the sunshine returned as high pressure built into the area, controlling the weather through Wednesday. Temperatures were still slightly cooler than average, with overnight lows in the upper 40s to low 50s and daytime highs in the 70s.
Morning temperatures on Thursday dropped into the upper 30s and lower 40s in parts of the Upstate, while daytime temperatures were closer to normal. The high pressure shifted offshore but still provided dry conditions across the region. The warming trend continued into Friday as high temperatures rose to the mid-to-upper 80s ahead of a dry cold front that moved through late Friday evening. Fall-like weather returned to the region in time for the weekend, with no rain and temperatures slightly cooler than normal.
The Charleston Harbor Tidal Gauge recorded high astronomical tides ranging between 7.09 feet and 7.52 feet MLLW starting on Tuesday, which lasted through Sunday. The higher tides caused shallow to moderate flooding in low-lying coastal areas.
(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 | Trace | 26.73 | -9.4 |
| Greer Airport | 0.00 | 41.18 | 2.3 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.00 | 33.41 | -1.2 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.00 | 33.39 | -3.4 |
| Orangeburg 2 (COOP) | 0.00 | 43.93s | 2.5s |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.00 | 39.32 | 3.4 |
| Florence Airport | 0.00 | 33.16 | -3.9 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.00 | 41.03 | 1.7 | Charleston Air Force Base | Trace | 44.64 | 0.8 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 0.00 | 32.27 | -7.9 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. s - denotes total with suspect data. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 60 degrees. Columbia: 70 degrees. Barnwell: 66 degrees. Mullins: 60 degrees.
Behind Hurricane Ian, a dry airmass moved into the region, and little to no rain fell across the state. A few CoCoRaHS observers across the state reported less than a tenth of an inch, mainly due to a stray shower early in the period. Rainfall from the previous period helped alleviate some of the drought conditions in the Upstate; however, these areas are still reporting lingering dry conditions.
With the lack of rainfall in the period, the 14-day averages for streamflow gauges dropped across most of the state. Gauges in the headwaters of the Santee Watershed in Greenville and Spartanburg counties continued to report below-normal values. Gauges in the Pee Dee watershed that reported low values last week returned to normal, thanks to rainfall in portions of North Carolina. Elsewhere, most of the gauges in the ACE basin and the Pee Dee watershed measured average streamflow values. The river heights on all the state’s rivers were observed below the flood stage.
