COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Columbia Metropolitan Airport has gone several weeks without any rainfall, but that dry streak ended after heavy rainfall moved trough the Midlands Wednesday night into early Thursday morning.
Some areas received over a foot of rain by early Thursday morning. This led to flooding and numerous road closures due to washed out roads and bridges, especially in Orangeburg County.
The Columbia area went 38 days without any measurable rainfall. This came close to the 40 day record set in 1961 of consecutive days without rainfall. The month of October 2024 ties for the driest October on record, tying with October 1963 and 2000.
How much rainfall did the Midlands get Wednesday and Thursday?
- North: 12.45 inches
- Orangeburg: 10.95 inches
- Congaree National Park: 9.36 inches
- Hopkins: 7.01 inches
- Eastover: 5.88 inches
- Manning: 3.70 inches
- Pelion: 3.11 inches
- Columbia Metro Airport: 2.47 inches
- Saint Matthews: 1.05 inches
- Winnsboro: 0.98 inches
What caused so much rain to move into our area?
Hurricane Rafael, now a tropical storm, in the Gulf of Mexico steered large amounts of saturated air into our region. This created rainfall that lasted through the overnight hours.
Will the rain our area saw this week help with the most recent drought?
Yes, this weeks rain event will bring improvement to the drought conditions that have recently returned to the midlands. The most recent drought monitor was updated on Thursday morning, but the numbers were calculated before Wednesday night, just before the rain event started.
The drought monitor will be updated again next Thursday November 14th. This update will reflect the rainfall the Midlands received this week.
