MYRTLE BEACH S.C. (WBTW)– With the month of June now officially behind us, it is important to highlight rainfall totals in comparison to normal since drought conditions have worsened. The updated drought monitor was created on Tuesday (6/28) and subsequently was before most of the rain began. The new map now places every square mile of our viewing area in a drought, but hopefully, the rain over the last three days will show some relief on next week’s map.
————————————————-Drought Discussion————————————————-
The western part of Scotland and Marlboro counties are now labeled as “dry” which is a level 1/5 and the area of severe drought (level 3/5) has extended both to the south and the west and now encompasses cities such as Lumberton, Whiteville, and Boardman.
On the bright side, some cities received impressive rainfall totals over the past five days. Florence, Conway, and Sumter all recorded over 2.5″ of rain, not many other cities came close to that. Camden, Kingstree, Georgetown, Myrtle Beach, and Marion all received between 0.9″ and 1.2″. North Myrtle Beach, Lumberton, and Hartsville are currently the only cities to receive less than 0.5″ of rain in the past five days.
For the month of June, all cities were below normal in terms of rainfall totals. North Myrtle Beach was the closest to staying on track and reported 3.94″ of rain and the normal is only slightly higher at 4.07″. Lumberton reported 3.49″ and the normal is nearly five inches. Year to date Lumberton is 5.5 inches under normal rainfall totals which would make sense as to why drought conditions are the worst there. Florence was the city must significantly behind for the month of June, only observing 2.5″ and the normal is 4.6″.
———————————————–Forecast Discussion—————————————————
Expect scattered storms and isolated thunderstorms to continue throughout the afternoon. Most of the rain is expected to clear out between 5-6 p.m. which is good news for folks who hate driving in the rain. Rainfall totals through midnight are forecasted between 0.5″ and 1.0″. High temperatures for today will top out in the low-80s for the Grand Strand and low to mid-80s along the border belt and throughout the Pee Dee.
Mostly cloudy conditions will take over for the night with temperatures bottoming out between 70-74 degrees. The humidity is going to continue to dominate through the holiday weekend as dewpoints will be soaring in the low-70s, this is extremely oppressive humidity.
For Saturday and Sunday temperatures will be coasting in the mid-80s at the beaches and upper-80s to near 90s degrees inland. One thing to highlight is the humidity. With high dewpoints factored in it is likely that temperatures Saturday and Sunday for the beaches are actually going to feel as if they are in the low-90s, and similarly, inland communities will likely experience feel-like temperatures in the mid-upper 90s on Saturday and triple-digit heat on Sunday.
Partly cloudy conditions are going to dominate throughout the weekend and into Monday (the Fourth of July) the possibility for isolated showers and storms will be prevalent throughout the entirety of the weekend.
For Monday, temperatures will be heating up slightly upper-80s for the coast and low-90s inland with a heat index of approximately 94 and 100 degrees, respectively. This will be the trend for the remainder of the work week.