Here at WxOrNotBG, we have begun to implement a new post every Sunday evening previewing the week ahead. In light of that, I am going to begin posting a review of the previous week each Saturday night, highlighting the major events that occurred, etc. So, with that being said, here is your *cue awesome music* WxOrNotBG Week in review for September 28th through October 4th.
Last week can basically be described as very, very cloudy. We had like one day of sunshine, and maybe that doesn’t even count.
I was actually really nice to have the weather that we had last week, because we were starting to get sucked into a drought across the region. And the rainfall that we had last week was very nice, as the ground soaked it right up.
However, it made for some downright awful weather, especially Thursday night- Saturday night. It was just bad. We had record cold highs, drizzly weather, temps in the low 50s, and no sun for what felt like forever. It was the first real weekend of fall weather, only it was the bad side of fall weather.
This was in response to a large upper level system that slowed down significantly across the southeastern states, and directed a stream of moisture right over our region. This led to extended cloud cover, and additional rainfall over the region.
Nationwide, the past week was insane. California got rainfall, and South Carolina had a 1000 year flood. ONE THOUSAND YEAR FLOOD. Just let those words sink in. The atmospheric conditions that set up over the southeastern US led to an even that is estimated to happen once in one thousand years across that one portion of the US.
This, as you could infer, led to ridiculous flooding across the state. There were multiple reports of 24″ rainfall reports, and the majority of the state saw at least 10″ of rainfall. The sights were unbelievable.
MT @NWS: NOAA Environmental Visualization Lab: “Fire hose” sets aim on SE US. More imagery: http://t.co/FCI3AuXsJj pic.twitter.com/zZeGBLo389
— NWS GSP (@NWSGSP) October 5, 2015
MT @NWSColumbia: Lake Murray Dam. Floodgates have not been used since 1969. Photos courtesy of Ebben Aley. #SEflood pic.twitter.com/vH09pwVjEY
— NWS GSP (@NWSGSP) October 5, 2015
Lake Conestee Dam flowing over 1000 times the normal rate in South Carolina pic.twitter.com/p9lr6BSn0U
— Dwaine Scott (@nbcnewscrew) October 4, 2015
What an incredible water vapor loop. Massive forcing for ascent. pic.twitter.com/7kymxn5Fb9
— Mark Miller (@mark_wx) October 3, 2015
Old Pee Dee rd in northern Georgetown Co. via Mitch Rivers Why you should NOT drive right now! #scwx pic.twitter.com/TzxnILdNXc
— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) October 5, 2015
Serious issues in #BerkeleyCounty: Wadboo Creek is normally a 3-foot stagnant creek; it is now a 25-foot white rapid pic.twitter.com/qKVvBsFr4V
— Berkeley County SC (@BerkeleySCGov) October 4, 2015
This was handled incredibly by the weather models, as they were accurately predicting this event, even in the shadow of the Joaquin craziness. Multiple rivers broke, or even shattered their record high levels.
Joaquin, luckily, moved off to the east after scaring the collective east coast out of their minds.
So thats a wrap on last week. Who knows what will happen this week….