![\"Arts](\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/app\/logos\/rising-waters.svg\")
<\/p>\nAlthough South Carolina got a smattering of rain April 30, it wasn\u2019t enough to make a dent in the state\u2019s historic dry spell.<\/p>\n
It also didn\u2019t alleviate concerns of the S.C. Drought Committee whose members voted unanimously to upgrade conditions in all four regions of the state from \u201cmoderate\u201d to \u201csevere.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, the modest rainfall plus increased humidity and lack of strong winds convinced the state\u2019s Forestry Commission to lift the burning ban for all counties in the state, starting at 7 a.m. May 1.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Post and Courier\u2019s Rising Waters Lab focuses on impacts of climate change and related policies and practices. It is supported by donations and grants to the nonprofit Public Service and Investigative Fund, whose contributors are subject to the same coverage we apply to everyone else. For more information and to make a donation, go to postandcourierfund.com.<\/a> \u201cThough we expect even more rain across more of the state in the next week, people who choose to burn outdoors should still exercise vigilance as the rain we have received has not changed the state\u2019s drought status,\u201d said commission Fire Chief Darryl Jones.<\/p>\n The state Drought Committee operates on a four-level scale of severity and it\u2019s methods differ slightly from the U.S. Drought Monitor, which is a national measurement with five levels.<\/p>\n Parts of Jasper, Beaufort and Colleton counties are now in an \u201cexceptional drought,\u201d according to the Drought Monitor, with the rest of the state experiencing extreme or severe drought conditions.<\/p>\n Current conditions<\/p>\n The rain that fell early April 30 was minimal. By 9 a.m., just .02 inches was recorded in Charleston, with parts of the Upstate receiving up to .81 inches.<\/p>\n \u201cNot enough, but certainly welcome for sure,\u201d Hope Mizzell, state climatologist, said at the Drought Committee meeting.<\/p>\n A little more fell in some places that afternoon.<\/p>\n It has been an historically warm and dry period for the state, with much of South Carolina often seeing above-normal temperatures so far this year.<\/p>\n The last time rainfall numbers were near normal in the state was August. The period from November 2025 through January 2026 saw the third-lowest statewide rainfall amounts in 131 years.<\/p>\n Mizzell said she would be shocked if this April wasn\u2019t at least the second driest on record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although South Carolina got a smattering of rain April 30, it wasn\u2019t enough to make a dent in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[15229,267912,59965,192,79],"class_list":["post-617642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-drought","tag-drought-committee","tag-drought-conditions","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
To sign up for our newsletter, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n