The main weather story for the week was the cooler than normal temperatures, and the passage of two fronts and Tropical Storm Nestor, bringing much-needed rainfall across the Palmetto State.
On Monday, October 14, the warm and dry conditions from the weekend continued as a result of another diffuse front in the region. Morning temperatures rose from the 50s to the 80s across much of the state. The National Weather Service (NWS) station at the Beaufort MCAS reported a maximum temperature of 88 degrees, breaking the previous daily record of 87, set back in 1985. A warm front, associated with an approaching storm system, lifted across the area on Tuesday, bringing increased moisture back into the region. Showers produced up to an inch of rainfall in some portions of the Midlands and Pee Dee, and over two inches of rain in the coastal Lowcountry. By Wednesday, the cold front began to push through the state, triggering some scattered showers in the Upstate, with most of the observed rainfall totals less than half an inch. High temperatures in the Upstate were near normal, while the maximum temperatures from the Midlands to the coast were five to ten degrees above normal.
High pressure built in behind the cold front and brought drier and cooler conditions to the Palmetto State on Thursday and Friday. Minimum temperatures during the two days were up to ten degrees below normal, with lows in the upper 40s to low 50s, with some isolated locations reporting temperatures in the 30s. Daytime high temperatures were slightly cooler than the seasonal averages, reaching the upper 60s to low 70s as the tranquil conditions prevailed ahead of Tropical Storm Nestor, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, and was forecasted to bring rain across portions of the Southeast.
At 2:00 PM EDT on Saturday, October 19, Tropical Storm Nestor made landfall along the north Florida coast and continued to move across the region. The expansive rain shield caused widespread rainfall of one to three inches across the state. Under cloudy skies, temperatures in the Upstate did not move from the 50s throughout the day, and high temperatures were nearly 20 degrees below normal. The daily lowest maximum temperature records were broken at the NWS stations in Anderson (54 degrees) and Greenville-Spartanburg Area (55 degrees). Overnight, as the storm continued to move off to the northeast, strong thunderstorms produced wind gusts of 40 mph in the Charleston area, and a tornado was reported in the North Myrtle Beach area at 1:52 AM EDT on October 20. The NWS Wilmington Office confirmed that an EF0 tornado, with estimated maximum wind speed of 85 mph, skipped across ground for about a mile after touching down near 8th Avenue. The tornado caused damage to mobile homes in the Shady Grove Mobile Home Park, snapped trees in the KOA Campground, and downed trees near Highway 15. Once the clouds from Nestor cleared the state, temperatures warmed to the mid to upper 70s for the remainder of Sunday.
(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 | 2.14 | 29.40 | -5.5 |
| Greer Airport | 1.48 | 38.56 | 0.3 |
| Charlotte, NC Airport | 1.99 | 42.40 | 8.3 |
| Columbia Metro Airport | 1.19 | 28.95 | -8.7 |
| Orangeburg Airport | 1.91 | 21.08 | -18.6 |
| Augusta, GA Airport | 2.37 | 38.80 | 2.4 |
| Florence Airport | 1.36 | 35.07 | -1.2 |
| North Myrtle Beach Airport | 4.00 | 46.60 | 2.2 |
| Charleston Air Force Base | 3.14 | 39.22 | -5.2 |
| Savannah, GA Airport | 3.94 | 37.65 | -4.0 |
| *Weekly precipitation totals ending midnight Sunday. M - denotes total with missing values. |
4-inch depth soil temperature: Clinton: 60 degrees. Columbia: 77 degrees. Barnwell: 63 degrees. Mullins: 66 degrees. RIVER STAGES:
Some much-needed rain came from a warm front lifting north on Tuesday afternoon, Tropical Storm Nestor on Saturday, October 19. Most of the National Weather Service stations and CoCoRaHS observers across the state had over an inch of rain during the period. However, some areas along the CSRA and Pee Dee reported less than an inch. Up to five inches of rain was reported in the Lowcountry, and three to four inches fell along a swath in the state between I-77 and I-95. Streamflow values rose slightly due to the rainfall, but many of the state's streams and rivers were still below normal for this time of year. The USGS river gauges show below-normal flows on their 14-day flow product along much of the Savannah (despite being regulated) and in portions of the ACE and Santee Basins. Elsewhere in the state, many gauges are reporting below-normal flows, and those that are reporting ‘normal’ flows are in the lower range of the percentile bracket.
Charleston Harbor (CHTS1): 73.4 degrees.
Capers Nearshore Buoy (Station 41029): 73.9 degrees.
Fripps Nearshore Buoy (Station 41033): 74.3 degrees.
