24 February 2024
Read MoreC o l u m b i a , S C
W e a t h e r F o r e c a s t O f f i c e NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
O
ur severe weather season typically begins in
late winter and early spring, lasting until July.
The majority of our severe weather warnings, on av-
erage, are issued between April, May, June, and July.
However, this was an extremely unusual year overall
for severe weather. The year started off with a bang,
with two severe weather events within the first 12
days of January. Thereafter, it became relatively quiet until March. And after that? We
had one of quietest Spring severe weather seasons on record. Between March 28 and
June 7, we went a record 70 consecutive days without issuing either a Tornado or Se-
vere Thunderstorm Warning. That we know of, this is the longest such streak in the
Spring in the history of our office.
by Pierce Larkin – Meteorologist
2023 An Unusual Year for
Severe Weather
Fall/Winter 2023 -24
Inside this issue:
Unusual Severe Weather
Year 1
Recap of Hurricane
Season 4
2023 Student Volunteers 6
Augusta Wet Year 8
In Memory — Doug
Anderson 10
F A M O U S L Y H O T
N A T I O N A L O C E A N I C A N D A T M O S P H E R I C A D M I N I S T R A T I O N
F O R E C A S T S
Total days since a Severe Thunderstorm Warning had
been issued. Source: Iowa Environmental Mesonet
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Unusual Year – Continued
We broke the streak on June 7, but the quiet streak would largely continue through
June and July, with both months seeing below normal numbers of warnings. But this
did not last. To top off this unusual year, the period of August 7 through September 7
will go down as the most active August & September severe weather periods in the his-
tory of our office. In this period, the office issued 50 convective warnings and received
213 reports of either hail or wind damage. This far and away exceeds any severe
weather period we have had in these months since at least 2005. And even when we
do have significant severe weather in those months, it is typically tied to tropical sys-
tems.
In addition to this, Columbia Metropolitan Airport (CAE) observed its highest measured
wind gust on record on August 15! Several microbursts occurred in a very favorable en-
vironment across the forecast area, with one falling directly over the airport. This
caused a wind gust of 76 knots (88 mph) to be recorded, which set a station record for
highest wind gust. There was an additional wind gust of 65 knots (75 mph) at Lake Wa-
teree underneath another strong microburst.
Local convective storm reports by month since 2005.
Source: Iowa Environmental Mesonet
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Unusual Year – Continued
All in all, it was a very odd year for severe weather. We quieted down in Oct -Dec to
close out the year, which is fairly typical for us.
Storm reports from the severe weather event on August
15th. Source: SPC
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Recap of the 2023 Hurricane Season
T
he 2023 Atlantic hur-
ricane season fea-
tured above normal tropical
cyclone activity despite a
developing El Nino, which
typically hinders develop-
ment in the basin. A signifi-
cant contributing factor to
the high activity was the
anomalously warm ocean
waters in the Main Devel-
opment Region leading up
to the season. Activity was
comparable to the 2021
season with 20 namable
storms (a subtropical storm
formed off New England in
January), 7 hurricanes, and
3 major (Category 3 -5)
hurricanes. The twenty
namable storms makes this
year tied with 1933 as the 4th most active season since 1851. As of December 1st,
the season has resulted in an estimated 3.09 billion dollars in damage but just 13 di-
rect (3 indirect) fatalities.
The most notable system of the season was Idalia which made landfall in the Big Bend
region of Florida as a strong Category 3 Major Hurricane on August 30th. Idalia was
also the most significant tropical cy-
clone to impact our forecast area
when it passed to our southeast
through the Charleston County
Warning Area (CWA) as a weakening
tropical storm. The main impact from
Idalia in the Midlands and CSRA was
from rain. A swath of heavy rainfall
fell over the Southeastern Midlands
with the heaviest amounts occurring
in the Holly Hill area in far Eastern
Orangeburg County. Idalia also pro-
duced an EF1 tornado in our CWA
near Turbeville in Clarendon County.
Idalia accounts for the majority of
the lost lives and property this sea-
son. In all, the major hurricane
caused an estimated 2.5 billion dol-
lars in damage and 7 direct (3 indi-
rect) fatalities.
by Steve LaVoie – Meteorologist
The National Hurricane Center ’s
2023 summary map.
The track of the EF1 tornado that
touched down in Clarendon County.
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Recap – Continued
Other systems of note in 2023 included Category 5 Hurricane Lee which brushed Ber-
muda as a weakening hurricane before making landfall in Nova Scotia as a post –
tropical cyclone. Hurricane Franklin impacted Hispaniola as a tropical storm before in-
tensifying into a Category 4 to the north of the island. One unusual feature of this hur-
ricane season was that a majority of the tropical cyclones remained east of 70 degrees
longitude. Much of the seasonal activity was focused over the Central Atlantic while
other parts of basin such as the Bahamas, Western Caribbean, Western Gulf of Mexico,
and the Bay of Campeche saw little to no activity. The other landfalling tropical cy-
clones in the United States were Tropical Storm Harold in Texas and Tropical Storm
Ophelia in North Carolina. The official bounds of hurricane season are June 1st and No-
vember 30th but as seen earlier this year, activity can occur outside of these bounds.
by Steve LaVoie – Meteorologist
Precipitation summary from Idalia ’s
remnants.
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2023 NWS Columbia Summer Students
E
very summer, college students majoring in atmospheric science or a related field
volunteer at NWS Columbia as a part of our Student Internship Program. The
program matches each student with a meteorologist mentor and a research project de-
signed to improve forecast techniques used in the office. Students learn about opera-
tional weather forecasting both in the forecast office and through field work. Many of
our summer interns have gone on to find careers within NOAA including at NWS Weath-
er Forecast Offices, River Forecast Cen-
ters and others.
The office hosted three student volun-
teers this summer: Ben Peidl a rising
senior in Meteorology at the University
of North Carolina at Charlotte, Jack Kai-
ser a senior in Meteorology at the Col-
lege of Charleston, and Zach Toleman
also a rising senior in Meteorology at
UNC Charlotte.
Each student spent time shadowing
forecasters as they performed the dif-
ferent responsibilities within the office.
With experience at the near term and
long term forecast desks as well as avi-
ation forecasting they were able to gain
an understanding of the daily duties of a
Weather Forecast Office (WFO). This
year ’s students had the chance to ac-
company a NWS Columbia storm -survey
team to survey damage from a severe
thunderstorm on June 26th, 2023.
Thunderstorm downburst winds caused
a large swath of damage along the
northern shores of Lake Murray, near
Chapin, SC. There were also other op-
portunities for field work during their
time with the office. Our students were
able to participate in trips to Coopera-
tive Observer Program (COOP) stations,
the KCAE WSR -88D radar, and the Au-
tomated Surface Observing Systems
(ASOS) at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport.
There were two exciting projects this year designed to help improve operational fore-
casting in central South Carolina and the CSRA. Ben completed a study on flood -prone
areas in downtown Columbia, SC using a new dataset from the Flooded Locations And
Simulated Hydrographs (FLASH) Project. FLASH is designed to improve the accuracy,
timing, and specificity of flash flood warnings in the US, thus saving lives and protect-
ing infrastructure. The goal of Ben ’s project is to determine critical FLASH thresholds
where flash flooding is observed in some of the most flood prone locations of Colum-
bia ’s urban environment. This is expected to improve lead time and decrease false
alarm rates for flash flood warnings in Columbia.
by Chris Rohrbach – Meteorologist
The CREST hydrologic model is used to produce fore-
casts of soil moisture, streamflow, and unit stream-
flow at 1 km/10 min resolution.
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2023 NWS Columbia Summer Students
Jack and Zach partnered on a Synoptic Climatology project designed to examine large –
scale weather patterns that lead to extreme heat and flooding in the region. By creat-
ing a database of extreme heat outbreaks in
the forecast area they were able to compare
synoptic weather patterns between events. Us-
ing the Daily Mean Composites tool from NO-
AA ’s Physical Sciences Laboratory they were
able to create composite plots of environmental
data to find large scale commonalities. By iden-
tifying patterns that bring the area extreme
heat we hope to identify these signatures earli-
er in the forecast process, allowing additional
time to message the danger of extreme heat.
All of our students presented their projects at a
local workshop held at the forecast office in Au-
gust (pictured right). Zach also made a unique,
five -part video series detailing his experience
at NWS Columbia this past summer. In his vid-
eos he covers the synoptic patterns project he
worked on, the office, and a look into what it ’s
like to work an overnight shift. The video se-
ries is designed for prospective student volun-
teers to see what it ’s like to volunteer in the summer internship program. Interested
students can watch the video series on YouTube which is also advertised on the nation-
al Student Opportunities in the NWS page.
Requirements
Must be a United States citizen
Must be enrolled full -time in an undergraduate or graduate program
Must be majoring or minoring in Meteorology, Atmospheric Sciences, or a related
field
Must pass a security screening to have access to the building and computers
Duties
Volunteer approximately 16 hours per week from approximately late May through
early August.
Gain valuable experience by shadowing forecasters in operations.
Work on a collaborative research project focusing on the local forecast area.
Participate in professional development and training opportunities.
If you are a full -time student, majoring or minoring in Meteorology, Atmospheric Sci-
ences, or a related field and would like to learn more about volunteer opportunities at
NWS Columbia please see the following website for more information. The site is updat-
ed in the late Winter on how to apply for the following summer ’s internships.
https://www.weather.gov/cae/StudentVolunteerOpportunitiesCAE.html
by Chris Rohrbach – Meteorologist
Left to right: Jack, Ben and Zach (left to right)
presenting their projects on their final da y
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Augusta Sees Third Wettest Year on
Record in 2023
2023 was generally an above normal year for precipitation, with all sites seeing sur-
pluses for rainfall. Even further, all sites outside of CUB saw rainfall totals at least 8”
above normal for the year! However, no one had a year like Augusta did. At the
Augusta airport, 62.72” of
rain fell for the year, which
is 18.63” above normal
(44.09”). This makes 2023
the third wettest year on
record for the site. This
owes to persistent rainfall
through much of the year,
including multiple events
that had daily totals of 2”+.
What makes this even more
unusual is the difference
between Augusta and the
other observing site in town,
Daniel Field. Daniel Field
only recorded 53.08” of
rainfall for the year, which is
above normal but is still less
than Augusta by nearly 10”.
A lot of this is due to the
differences in the convective
season — basically whether a thunderstorm passes over both airports or just one. They
are separated by about 10 miles, so this difference is reasonable especially on the
scale of thunderstorms. Regardless, it was a very wet year for those of you in the
Augusta area!
by Leonard Vaughan – Senior Service Hydrologist
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In Memory — Doug Anderson
by Leonard Vaughn
The NWS Columbia Office lost a
valued member of the office on
December 14th , 2023. Douglas
“Doug ” Anderson passed away
unexpectedly at the age of 61. He
was the office ’s Observing Program
Leader (OPL). He was much loved
by the staff, NWS Cooperative
Program Observers, HAM Radio
Community and anyone that he
came in to contact with throughout
his career. He had a warm spirit,
infectious smile and was a stranger
to no one.
Doug was born in Leadville,
Colorado in 1962 but spent most of
his childhood and teenage years
growing up in Oregon. In the early
1980s Doug enlisted in the Air
Force and served on active duty for
24 years. His military service
included deployments to Kuwait
during Operation Desert Storm,
twice to Korea for Army support,
Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska and
Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter. His
last duty position was as a
Detachment Chief and his military
decorations include the Meritorious
Service Medal. After retiring from
the Air Force, Doug worked as a
DOD technician at Shaw AFB to
assist service members with the transition to the weather hub concept of operations.
He later worked at the Columbia Metropolitan Airports Operations Group.
Doug was never one to take the easy road, his desire to join the NWS took him first to
the National Weather Service Office in Bethel, Alaska in 2013 as a Meteorological
Technician (HMT). He was later hired at the NWS Forecast Office in Columbia (CAE) in
2015 as an HMT. In 2020, Doug was promoted to the OPL position. Doug served as
WFO Columbia ’s NWSEO Steward from 2018 to 2023. Doug ran one of the best
Cooperative Observing Networks in the NWS. He worked hard for his o servers to
receive the recognition they deserved for all of their hard work and dedication. With
Doug ’s help, several observers were awarded some of the highest awards for the NWS
COOP Program. There were multiple Holm award and Jefferson (Highest Award)
recipients for the Midlands and Central Savannah River Area.
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In Memory — Doug Anderson
However, Doug was more than just anoth-
er person who loved his job. He was a lov-
ing husband, father and grandfather. He
was a member of Wise Drive Baptist
Church in Sumter, SC and former Chief
Operating Officer of the Sumter Y.M.C.A.
He was an avid HAM operator, volunteer
with the Audubon Society banding birds,
gem enthusiast, nature lover and history
buff. He loved spending time with his fami-
ly camping whenever he had time. He
loved searching the beaches of Oregon for
Agates with his daughters.
It was said in his obituary that “his kind-
ness towards people will never be forgot-
ten ”. This is really all that you need to
know about Doug. He never met a
stranger and greeting each person as if he
had known them his whole life. His gener-
osity was abundant and he would give the
shirt off his back for those in need. He is
missed by all of the CAE staff, but the life
he led and the friendship he shared will
never be forgotten.