COLUMBIA, S.C. — Meteorological summer begins on June 1st and lasts through the end of August. This period of the year is by-far the hottest stretch that we go through.
Before we get into the summer let's talk about the Spring and what we saw here in the Midlands. Overall, temperatures ran above normal. The average temperature for the season ran right around 2 degrees above where it should have been. Looking at our rainfall, the Midlands saw right around the average amount.
The Spring season did see some active weather. Of course the highlight of this was the tornado event on April 5th. There were 14 tornadoes across the Palmetto State with 2 EF3 tornadoes on that day.
One thing we look at going into the summer is drought. Thankfully with close to average rainfall in the Midlands, we are not looking at widespread drought. This is important because a drier setup going into summer would potentially lead towards hotter weather towards June and July.
Looking towards the next few weeks, summer-like weather looks to be prevalent in the forecast. The Climate Prediction Center has kept the chance of above average temperatures in the lower part of the country (including the Midlands) through the middle of the month. Along with that, rainfall looks to be close-to if not slightly above normal over the coming weeks.
