On Monday, November 6, with clear skies, high pressure controlled the weather. Morning temperatures were slightly below normal, with lows in the upper 30s to mid-40s. With dry air in place, high temperatures rose into the mid to upper 70s, slightly above normal for the beginning of November. The unusually warm temperatures continued through most of the week, with maximum temperatures reaching the mid-80s by Wednesday and Thursday, up to twenty degrees above normal, feeling more like mid-September. Multiple locations observed high temperatures that tied or broke daily records, including the National Weather Service (NWS) station in Santuck, which broke the daily maximum temperature record of 81 set in 1934 with a high of 83 degrees on Wednesday. A high of 84 degrees on Thursday at the NWS station at the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport set a new daily record maximum temperature, breaking the previous record of 81 degrees set in 2005.
A front approached the region on Thursday and started to push through the state on Friday, November 10. Light rain was reported across the northern tier of the state during the mid-morning as temperatures started to drop, with some stations reporting their high temperatures around noon. Rain overspread the state late Friday and into Saturday. By Saturday morning, many CoCoRaHS observers reported between a tenth and a third of an inch, with some in Aiken and Berkeley counties receiving over half an inch of rain, breaking a nearly three-week stretch of no precipitation. Rain chances remained high on Saturday and Sunday as the front became stationary off the coast. Strong ridging in the Mid-Atlantic and down the eastern side of the Appalachians set up a cold air ‘wedge’ pattern, leading to high temperatures that were ten to fifteen degrees colder than normal on Saturday and Sunday. Highs both days were in the upper 50s to low 60s.
(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 | 0.21 | 41.43 | 1.8 |
| Greer Airport | 0.21 | 46.15 | 3.5 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 0.09 | 37.46 | -0.6 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 0.64 | 48.19 | 8.3 |
| Orangeburg 2 (COOP) | 0.97 | 53.09 | 8.3 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 0.85 | 57.23 | 18.6 |
| Florence Airport | 0.83 | 41.51 | 1.3 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 1.09 | 37.21 | -6.2 | Charleston Air Force Base | 0.19 | 46.13 | -1.4 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 0.01 | 36.35 | -7.1 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. s - denotes total with suspect data. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 55 degrees. Columbia: 62 degrees. Barnwell: 56 degrees. Mullins: 55 degrees.
After nearly three weeks with little to no rain falling across the state, some portions of the Lowcountry, Midlands, and Pee Dee regions reported measurable rain. Rainfall totals in the Upstate were less than a quarter of an inch, while up to two inches of rain fell in portions of Allendale, Bamberg, and Colleton counties. The US Drought Monitor (USDM) map released on November 9 showed the continued degradation of conditions across the state from insufficient rainfall. The spatial extent of severe drought (D2) conditions was expanded across the Upstate, into the northern Midlands and portions of the interior Pee Dee region. Extreme (D3) conditions were introduced into Cherokee, Greenville, and Spartanburg counties based on current precipitation deficits and other indicators, including soil moisture and streamflow. Moderate drought (D1) and abnormally dry (D0) conditions expanded across the Midlands and the Pee Dee, and D0 conditions expanded into most of the Lowcountry.
Due to the lack of precipitation, the 14-day average streamflow values showed decreased flows, as most of the gauges in the Broad, Catawba, Pee Dee, Saluda, and Upper Savannah river basins dropped to much below-normal values. A few of the gauges in the ACE River Basin reported 14-day average streamflow values within the normal range due to rainfall over the weekend. The river height and tidal gauges across the state reported levels below flood stage during the period.
