The cool and dry weather trend continued through the first part of the period, with maximum temperatures on Monday, October 16, with values up to fifteen degrees below normal. Despite sunny skies, high temperatures only reached the low to mid-60s. The National Weather Service station at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport tied its daily lowest maximum temperature with a high of 61 degrees, set in 1997. Strong radiational cooling overnight allowed temperatures to drop into the upper 30s to low 40s across the state by Tuesday morning. Some locations in the Piedmont and Upstate reported a light frost, with a few mountainous locations recording temperatures at freezing. Also, at the beginning of the week, the tidal levels at the Charleston Harbor gauge ranged between 7.14 and 7.28 feet MLLW on Monday and Tuesday, causing shallow saltwater flooding in low-lying coastal areas.
By mid-week, temperatures started to warm, though they were still slightly below average for the middle of October, with highs on Wednesday and Thursday in the low 70s and overnight lows in the 40s. Some showers developed in the Upstate, and portions of Anderson, Oconee, Pickens, Greenville, and Laurens counties reported a quarter of an inch to a half an inch of rain.
A cold front moved into the region on Friday, October 20, triggering isolated severe thunderstorms, which produced hail and strong winds across the state. Pea-sized hail was observed in Charleston and Columbia Metropolitan Areas, while storm spotters in Greenville, Mauldin, and Rock Hill saw quarter-sized hail, and ping-pong ball-sized hail was reported in Gaffney and Fort Mill. Thunderstorm winds caused minor damage in Anderson, Berkeley, Charleston, Cherokee, Colleton, Georgetown, Hampton, Lexington, and York counties. Breezy conditions followed behind the front as high pressure built into the region, providing dry weather and near-normal temperatures for the weekend.
(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 | 0.28 | 41.22 | 3.8 |
| Greer Airport | 0.07 | 45.94 | 5.6 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | Trace | 37.37 | 1.5 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.09 | 47.55 | 9.5 |
| Orangeburg 2 (COOP) | 0.94 | 52.12 | 9.2 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.38 | 56.38 | 19.4 |
| Florence Airport | 0.11 | 40.68 | 2.2 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.61 | 36.12 | -5.0 | Charleston Air Force Base | 0.71 | 45.94 | 0.3 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 0.03 | 36.33 | -5.5 |
| *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: 65 degrees. Barnwell: 58 degrees. Mullins: 62 degrees.
Precipitation was limited during the period, with most National Weather Service and CoCoRaHS stations recording between a quarter and half an inch of rain over the seven days. CoCoRaHS observers in Charleston, Georgetown, Horry, Orangeburg, and York counties recorded over an inch of rain as storms associated with the cold front moved through the state on Friday. However, the rainfall did not help current precipitation deficits, and the moderate drought (D1) conditions were still present across most of the Upstate on the US Drought Monitor (USDM) map released on October 19. The lack of rainfall led to abnormally dry (D0) conditions expanding into Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Kershaw, and Marion counties.
Gauges in the Broad, Catawba, Pee Dee, Saluda, and Upper Savannah River basins dropped to much below normal values, while additional gauges in the watersheds reported below-normal flows. The gauges in the ACE River basin reported 14-day average streamflow values within the normal range and had slightly increased due to rainfall from the previous period. While the river height gauges across the state reported levels below flood stage, tidal gauges reached moderate heights on Monday due to the astronomically high tides.
