File:South Carolina Lowcountry Drenched (MODIS 2024-03-14).jpg

English: March 12, 2024 March 13, 2023

After a wet start to the year, a line of storms brought record-setting rains to parts of South Carolina in early March 2024. According to the National Weather Service, the city of Charleston received 3.63 inches of rain on March 9, far surpassing the previous one-day record rainfall of 1.43 inches which was set in 1948. Rainfall totals in other locations included: 4.32 inches in Mount Pleasant, 4.06 in Isle of Palms, 3.38 on Sullivan’s Island, and 2.86 on Folly Beach.

The heavy rains brought flooding to Charleston as well as across the Lowcountry. Charleston Fire Department’s Facebook page on March 9 stated they responded to 12 incidents involving sinking vehicles and relocated 13 people from vehicles or flood water, among other weather-related calls that day. Lake Marion’s water levels had risen from early-year wet weather prior to the March 9 storms, prompting the hydroelectric company to spill water from the Santee Dam beginning on March 7. The additional rains brought the Congaree, Wateree, and Santee rivers to minor flood stage.

On March 13, 2024, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a false-color image of flooding across South Carolina’s Lowcountry. A comparison image, acquired by Terra MODIS on March 13, 2023, when rainfall was at a more normal level, can be accessed by clicking on the dates below the images. This type of false color image makes it easy to distinguish water (blue) from vegetated land (green) and open land (brown).

On March 13, 2024, every river captured in the image had copious amounts of water visible. Three rivers are clearly in at least minor flood stage: the Congaree and Wateree, which meet just above Lake Marion and the Santee River on the lakes southeastern side. Lake Moultrie sits to the south of Lake Marion. Clicking on the March 13, 2023, date shows a more normal year, with no flooding.