COLUMBIA, S.C. — October has been abnormally dry.
Three weeks of this month has been rain free.
Since the afternoon of October 23, 2024, not a drop of measurable rainfall has fallen at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport.
Although October is climatologically the third month for the least amount of total rainfall, this month as been exceptionally dry.
Based on climate data from the National Weather Service in Columbia, the total amount of measured precipitation by now, should be in the neighborhood of two and a half inches.
This lack of any rainfall is unusual, and well below the average for the end of October.
All 23 days of the month, so far, have been rain free, but there has been 26 consecutive days of dry weather conditions in Columbia that spans from the last days of September.
The last time measurable rainfall occurred at Columbia Metropolitan Airport was on September 27, 2024 and that was directly from the showers and storms associated from Hurricane Helene.
Rainfall accumulations in the upstate of South Carolina were considerably high, but not to extent that North Carolina experienced. The mountains to the foothills of western North Carolina received reached, and in many locations surpassed, record levels leading to massive flooding through several communities.
Although the lack of rainfall in Columbia is not a record stretch, the last time the city experienced this little precipitation was the fall of 1973.
The U.S. drought monitor is updated every Thursday with the National Drought Mitigation Center, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As of near a week ago, Eastern and Southeastern Central South Carolina were under abnormally dry drought conditions.
With no measurable rainfall since last Thursday, parts of Lee, Sumter, Calhoun, Orangeburg and Bamberg counties will likely be increased to moderate drought status, if not higher.
The rest of the adjacent counties will likely have each of their drought levels brought up to least abnormally dry conditions.
And, the rainfall forecast appears bleak as no rain is expected over the next seven days.
If that happens, that would make 33 straight days of no rainfall.
The record for the most consecutive days without any rainfall in Columbia is 40 and that occurred from October 4 through November 12 of 1961.
