WEATHER SUMMARY
High pressure covered the state on Monday and remained the dominant feature into Wednesday. Skies were generally clear with afternoon temperatures reported in the 80's. A boundary dropped south late Wednesday and stalled over the state. Thursday saw the beginning of showers and strong thunderstorms lasted through the weekend. On Friday afternoon, severe weather in the form of hail, high winds, and flash flooding was observed from Greenville County through the Midlands and all the way to the coast. On both Saturday and Sunday most of the state lay under a blanket of clouds and drizzle with isolated thunderstorms into Sunday night. The average statewide temperature for the period was two degrees below normal.
PRECIPITATION AND TEMPERATURE DATA
The highest temperature reported was 89 degrees at St. George on May 16. The lowest temperature was 43 degrees at Hunts Bridge on the morning of May 14. The heaviest official 24-hour rainfall reported was 3.29" at Walterboro ending at 7:00 a.m. on May 17. The average statewide rainfall for the period was 0.7".
Precipitation
Period 2003 Deviation* Temperature
Location Total Total From Avg. Maximum Minimum
Greer 1.05 23.81 3.7A 79 48
Columbia 2.08 22.44 4.7A 81 53
Florence 0.15 18.50 2.9A 81 50
Charleston 1.66 18.45 2.7A 86 56
N Myrtle Beach 0.12 19.68 5.0A 84 52
Augusta, Ga 2.78 22.93 5.1A 85 51
A=Above, B=Below
Note: Weekly rainfall amounts are for the 24-hour period ending midnight Sunday.
SOIL
4 inch depth average soil temperature: Columbia 73 degrees.
RIVERS AND SURF
South Carolina river stages were reported near to above normal.
Surf temperatures at Myrtle Beach and Savannah will average around 71 degrees.
sco@water.dnr.state.sc.us http://water.dnr.state.sc.us/climate/sco/weekly/wk051803.html