Microclimates? (Columbia, Charleston, Greenville: to live in, versus, agriculture)

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Please forgive the overtly Virginian nomenclature I am about to use, as I may be ignorant of local terms.

Being that Columbia is at the fall line, is the climate in the central city more of a tidewater (e.g. completely subtropical continental maritime) type climate or is it more of a piedmont (e.g. upland modified subtropical continental) climate?

On that note, also, if one were to live in one of the communities along I-26 W, would there be noticeably less summer heat and humidity versus being in suburbs further south and east? (of course I do realize the trade off - more cold / ice / etc in winter).

Much obliged!

[ASC]

The "Fall Line" is a term that means that all of rivers "fall" from the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain. The tidewater areas are still at least 1.5 hours from Columbia. Except for Louisiana, and Virginia, tidewater areas don't extend that far inland. 10-15 miles at the most.

Columbia is a hot town in the summer. The rivers do not cool the city. There isn't really a microclimate. This is what would be more typical, the closer and denser the city is, the hotter it is. I.E. The more concentration of concrete and asphalt the hotter it is, whereas the country areas around places like Columbia and Charlotte would cool off quicker than the center of town.

As the general rule of thumb... the further inland you go, the less humidity and more variety of temperatures.

Charleston is going to have alot more humidity than Columbia, but the temperature range isn't as great because of the ocean. But Columbia is going to have more humidity than say Spartanburg because it is closer to the ocean, and the Conagree is just to the east.

Here is a typical winter temperature for select S.C. cities:

Charleston: 65 42
Columbia: 63 30
Spartanburg: 59 27

As you can see, Charleston is the warmest in the daytime, and at night as well, thanks to the ocean.

Now, here's a typical South Carolina Summer:

Charleston: 90 77
Columbia: 97 73
Spartanburg 95 70

Charleston remains coolest in the day, thanks to the Atlantic, but remains warm and sticky at night, thanks to the Atlantic.

Basically, Columbia could see temperatures range 30+ degrees in a day, whereas Charleston won't see that big of a difference because the Atlantic will keep the temperatures from wabbling back and forth that much.

[Intergalactic]

Piedmont
SC Map/Climate | Places of Value

[waccamatt]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Please forgive the overtly Virginian nomenclature I am about to use, as I may be ignorant of local terms.

Being that Columbia is at the fall line, is the climate in the central city more of a tidewater (e.g. completely subtropical continental maritime) type climate or is it more of a piedmont (e.g. upland modified subtropical continental) climate?

On that note, also, if one were to live in one of the communities along I-26 W, would there be noticeably less summer heat and humidity versus being in suburbs further south and east? (of course I do realize the trade off - more cold / ice / etc in winter).

Much obliged!

Basically all of South Carolina is hot and humid during the summer. The coast is the most humid (afternoons) and the upstate is second, followed by the Midlands. The average highs (from the National Weather Service) in Columbia in July average 92.1, in Greenville 88.8 and in Charleston 90.9.

Here is a link to the National Weather Service's humidity and temperature averages for everywhere in the country.

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/...ccd/relhum.txt

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/...ccd/nrmmax.txt

You will find very slightly cooler weather in the northwest suburbs compared to the southeast, but the difference is negligible.

[neonrider]

If it's not raining the Midstate SC can have a pretty dry climate with humidity around 20% to 30%. Especially the Sandhills.

[rubber_factory]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Please forgive the overtly Virginian nomenclature I am about to use, as I may be ignorant of local terms.

Being that Columbia is at the fall line, is the climate in the central city more of a tidewater (e.g. completely subtropical continental maritime) type climate or is it more of a piedmont (e.g. upland modified subtropical continental) climate?

The difference I always used was subtropical vs. continental. I'd say Columbia is subtropical. It is really, really hot in Columbia in the summertime.

Virginia Tidewater would just be SC's "coastal plain," at a minimum everything between I-95 and the Atlantic.

On that note, also, if one were to live in one of the communities along I-26 W, would there be noticeably less summer heat and humidity versus being in suburbs further south and east? (of course I do realize the trade off - more cold / ice / etc in winter).

Much obliged!

It's not that clear cut, but I think you're in the right direction.

South and East, the land is flatter and swampy, you'll have more local humidity. North and West, the land is more sand hills; I speculate that it would be less humidity, probably not "cooler" per se.

Keep in mind there are still sandhills to the east of Columbia, and to the south. The "terrain" button in Google Maps is helpful here.

North and west of Columbia is kind of a fast-growth area. South and east is slow-growth, more agriculture, more swamp, more rural. I've always been fond of a bump in the road area called "sandy run."