On Monday, October 26, Tropical Storm Zeta was located off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. It strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall and impacting the state later during the week.
The period started with a high pressure aloft, providing dry weather with above-normal temperatures across much of the region. Both maximum and minimum temperatures ranged from ten to twenty degrees above normal through Thursday afternoon. Multiple National Weather Service (NWS) stations either tied or broke their previous high minimum temperature records on Wednesday and Thursday, as overnight temperatures only dropped into the upper 60s and lower 70s. On Thursday, the NWS station at Santuck in Union County tied a daily maximum temperature record of 84 degrees established in 1927. New record maximum temperatures also were set in the Columbia area. The NWS station on the University of South Carolina campus in Richland County reported 87 degrees as a high, and the station at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport measured a high of 86 degrees. These warm temperatures broke the previous daily records set back in 2016 at both stations.
Hurricane Zeta quickly approached the Central Gulf Coast, making landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana, late Wednesday evening. As post-Tropical Storm Zeta raced off to the northeast, its interaction with an approaching cold front caused severe weather and localized flash flooding across parts of the state during the early morning and afternoon of October 29. The heaviest rainfall associated with the storm remained in the Upstate, with locations reporting 24-hour totals of up to five inches of rain. Besides the rainfall, wind gusts were the other significant hazard associated with the storm. Gusts in the Midlands and portions of the Upstate ranged from 35 mph to 50mph. However, stronger gusts were reported, including a gust of 59 mph recorded at the Anderson Airport and a gust of 54 mph observed at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport. The combination of the rainfall and strong winds caused downed trees and powerlines across much of the Upstate. The National Weather Service Offices in Columbia and Greer issued wind and lake wind advisories across the Upstate and Midlands due to sustained winds up to 25 mph, with higher gusts.
By the morning of Friday, October 30, the cold front that helped push Zeta quickly out of the region moved through the area and Canadian surface high pressure built into the Southeast. The cool high pressure dominated the weather pattern, providing dry and cooler temperatures through the weekend. Some breezy conditions continued on Saturday and Sunday, as another reinforcing cold front moved through the Southeast on Sunday. The front produced some isolated rainfall before sunrise but ushered in another round of drier and colder air for the beginning of the new work week.
(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 | 1.13 | 53.58 | 16.5 |
| Greer Airport | 1.35 | 65.08 | 25.6 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 2.22 | 49.55 | 14.2 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.13 | 49.47 | 10.8 |
| Orangeburg Airport | 0.04 | 35.83 | -4.8 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.10 | 51.31 | 13.9 |
| Florence Airport | 0.01 | 54.99 | 17.7 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 0.46 | 46.80 | 1.2 |
| Charleston Air Force Base | 0.28 | 49.15 | 3.6 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 0.72 | 45.95 | 3.2 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 55 degrees. Columbia: 68 degrees. Barnwell: 62 degrees. Mullins: 47 degrees.
The period started with limited rainfall and a dry and quiet weather pattern, with small amounts of rain across the state. The main precipitation event occurred at the end of the period from the passage of Tropical Storm Zeta and a cold front that pushed through the region. CoCoRaHS observers in the Upstate, mainly north of the Interstate 85 corridor, recorded between two and five inches. The rest of the state received less than half an inch. Radar estimates show another band of higher rainfall amounts fell in Beaufort, Colleton, and Jasper counties. Despite the recent dryness, most of the year-to-date rainfall totals across the state continued to be above-normal values. However, annual rainfall totals in parts of the Central Savannah River Area, Lowcountry, and southern Midlands were slightly drier and closer to normal.
The drier conditions allowed the streamflow values and stage heights to drop slowly through much of the week. However, for the second week in a row, most of the rain fell in the Upstate. With the additional heavy rain, the streamflow values rose above normal, with some of the gauges in the higher elevations near the state line reporting high streamflow.
