All of South Carolina declared drought free in early January

The S.C. Drought Response Committee declared last Thursday the entire state is now drought free.

Because of significant rainfall since mid-December, the committee removed the incipient drought status of 16 counties and the moderate drought status of seven counties.

The committee tries to avoid changing the drought status by two levels unless there is substantial support across all drought indicators, which is the case currently, S.C. State Climatologist Hope Mizzell said.

The time of year was also a factor, since water use and evaporation are low during the winter months. Most stations across the state reported 7 to 14 inches of rain since Dec. 1, with a few reporting 15 to 20 inches.

Elliot Wickham, water resources climatologist with the State Climatology Office, said the Upstate had higher precipitation accumulation during the last 40 days than it did during the 91-day period of Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, 2023, the period of climatological fall.

During that time, precipitation totals in the Upstate ranged from 4 to 6 inches. Contrastingly, precipitation totals in the Upstate since Dec. 1 have ranged from 8 to 14 inches, roughly twice the amount of precipitation in about half the amount of time.

The committee considered several factors when downgrading counties that were previously designated in late November as either incipient or moderate drought, said committee member Ken Tuck, director of drinking water services with Spartanburg Water.

"Among those factors, precipitation, crop moisture index, streamflow, lake and reservoir levels, forest fire risk and short- and long-term forecast models provided overwhelming support of a return to normal conditions throughout the state," Tuck said.

"These decisions were not without appropriate discussion, particularly around agriculture and groundwater where full recovery from previous drought conditions may take a little more time. The Drought Response Committee continues to monitor a wide variety of drought indicators and seek observations from a diverse group of stakeholders to make well-informed decisions."

Priyanka More, S.C. Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) hydrologist, provided an update of the hydrologic conditions showing improved lake levels and streamflow conditions. Some streams across the state went from much below normal flows in late November to high flows by Jan. 10. The table below shows the lake level improvement since Nov. 29.

Although the streamflows and lake levels have improved in the past few weeks, a few groundwater wells continued to remain below normal conditions. In general, groundwater is a slow indicator and would have a lagged response to the recent rain. Also, it will take bit longer for some of the wells to recover from the dryness experienced during early fall months.

The S.C. Drought Response Committee will continue to monitor conditions and meet as needed.