TRANSCRIPT:
Hello this is Dr. Tom Mullikin with SCDNR for Into the Wild.
On a cloudy day in the South Carolina mountains, you can sometimes watch fog gather along the ridges and disappear into the trees. That moisture is part of what makes the northwestern corner of our state so different.
As moist air rises over higher ground, it cools, condenses, and falls as rain. South Carolina's highest elevations can receive roughly 70 to 80 inches of precipitation in an average year, more than most of the Midlands.
That water feeds seeps, mountain streams, waterfalls, and eventually the larger rivers below. A storm over the Blue Ridge does not stay on the mountain. It begins a journey through forests, farms, towns, and reservoirs. The next time rain settles over the escarpment, remember that a watershed is being filled one drop at a time.