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Another Cycle of Drought Continues for South Carolina

This 2016 file photo taken on the banks of Lake Hartwell shows the impacts of drought on South Carolina's natural resources.
Clemson University Relations
This 2016 file photo taken on the banks of Lake Hartwell shows the impacts of drought on South Carolina's natural resources.

Despite recent rain across the state the drought continues.  The U.S. Drought Monitor says that almost half of the state is in what it calls a "severe drought."

Leonard Vaughan of the National Weather Service in Columbia says with the exception of coastal counties the rest of the state continues to be very dry. 

Vaughan says the problem is not just this year’s dry summer and fall, but the repeated cycles of drought South Carolina has been experiencing.  Over the past twenty years drought in the state has been significant. 

  

Russ McKinney has 30 years of experience in radio news and public affairs. He is a former broadcast news reporter in Spartanburg, Columbia and Atlanta. He served as Press Secretary to former S.C. Governor Dick Riley for two terms, and for 20 years was the chief public affairs officer for the University of South Carolina.