The Greenville News - Greenville, S.C.
Author: Patricia Newman
Date: Sep 29, 2005
Start Page: B.2
Section: Metro
Text Word Count: 528
Document Text
Area ahead in rainfall this year, but some fear upswing in wildfires early next year
By Patricia Newman
STAFF_WRITER
pnewman@greenvillenews.com
Although most of the Upstate has seen very little rain in September, forecasters say the unusually wet summer months have prevented the area from going into a drought.
The last time any measurable amounts of rain fell at Greenville/Spartanburg Airport was Aug. 30 when the area got moisture from Hurricane Katrina, said meteorologist Steve Burrus, of the National Weather Service.
Remnants of Hurricane Rita dropped a trace of rain at GSP Monday, said meteorologist Greg Schoor of the National Weather Service in Greer. He said a cold front moving through the area today is expected to bring isolated showers and thunderstorms with a 40-percent chance of rain.
Any new rainfall will be less than a tenth of an inch, he said.
Burrus said before the dry spell started, the Upstate had a 5-inch rain surplus for the year. With no rainfall in the last four weeks, the surplus has dwindled to less than 3 inches.
The dry conditions may be a "precursor to a serious winter-spring wildfire season," according to officials with the state Forestry Commission.
This month has been the driest September in South Carolina since 1985, the same year the state had a serious wildfire season, according to Ken Cabe, information officer with the commission. He said firefighters battled more than 10,000 wildfires and more than 95,000 acres of land burned that year.
But weeks of hot dry weather have been a blessing to some area businesses.
The weather is contributing to higher-than-normal attendance at some of Greenville County's recreation facilities, said Daniel Rodgerson, executive director of the Greenville County Recreation District.
"The dry weather and having it being so hot has made Discovery Water Park a huge success," he said. "With the combination of the lack of rain and the heat with the brand new facility, our expectations were literally doubled."
He said a lot of people are also going to the ice skating rink inside the Pavilion Recreation Complex in Taylors to cool off.
"We believe that above-average attendance is due to it being so hot and miserable outside that people just want an indoor cool experience."
An extremely wet summer caused interruptions in the 5.8-mile widening project of Interstate 385, but project manager Randy Green said "they haven't lost any time due to rain in the last month."
"The weather has been very favorable for the construction," he said.
Kevin Gass, project executive for Turner Construction hired to build three new high schools in Greenville County -- Carolina High, Travelers Rest and Wade Hampton, said the excessive rains of the first six months of this year was hard on the construction schedule.
"The last month and a half the dry weather have been a blessing for us," he said. "Basically we have been able to work seven days a week getting all the site work finalized for the parking lots and football fields."
If there is no measurable amounts of rainfall in South Carolina in a few weeks, the state drought response committee will meet to decide whether to declare an official drought.
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